“Are you blind when you’re born? Can you see in the dark? Can you look at a king? Would you sit on his throne? Can you say of your bite that it’s worse than your bark? Are you cock of the walk when you’re walking alone? Because Jellicles are and Jellicles do.”~ Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats from CATS
I was actually going to slow the B-Day doings down until the next hoorah of Valentine’s Day (historically when I end my partying), but realized I have to take it full speed through Super Bowl weekend. Then I read Jillian Dodd’s delightful highlight of some key players to watch on Sunday and cranked on the music once again. I have to get mentally focused so I can assist Giants player Aaron Ross. Don’t know who he is? Jillian’s got a pic. 🙂
I’m also continuing the happy feelings from singing and dancing while seeing HAIR this weekend by rocking back to an old standby, CATS. Each time I’ve seen it, I marvel at how detailed and on point the actors have gotten the mannerisms and attitude of felines. They commit to daily habits, by instinct scurry away or swing (claws out) when spooked and stop and do what they need to do in the moment. Watching a cat walking then stop center floor to clean their stomach is a beautiful thing. I think I want to go over here, well, gonna lick that spot first, ooo now I’m going to go lay on my human’s stuff. Dedication, determination and self-care. I’m carrying that focus into the rest of my round.
Writing/Craft
- 1,500 words of new fiction a week either on novel WIP or short stories. I got 250 words done Tuesday. I felt stuck so I just made myself write a little about my story’s killer and her self-perception. I’m struggling a bit with her because she is not who the story is about. We need her and the whys of her actions to get to the focus on the people she’s targeting. Eck. It will flesh out at some point. Please let it flesh out at some point. I have WIP time scheduled for Friday and Saturday.
- Read at least one chapter a week of a craft book. Aiming to do again Saturday morning. If I miss again this week, I’ll need to rethink the timing scheduled.
- Read at least one chapter of a novel each week. Done Tuesday at the gym.
Social Media
- Blog three times a week. Two done so far, including this update and a guest post I did on Samantha Warren’s blog.
- Read, comment and share at least 10 blogs a week. Done for sharing and reading. About half done for commenting.
- Check Twitter and Facebook at least once daily. Done every day so far.
Healthy Happy Living
- Exercise at least 30 minutes a day, three times a week. 1/3 done. I’ll be doing a little cardio and an hour of strength training tonight, modified Zumba again on Friday and a yoga meditation workshop on Saturday.
- Finish my poncho project via crocheting one hour a week. I’m going to see if I can get this in while watching Criminal Minds tonight. Once I get going on a round, I can watch TV and let my fingers go by instinct.
- Enjoy watching one movie a week without multitasking. Planned for Saturday.
How are you doing so far this week? Anything you are planning to tweak? Check out the updates of others via the blog hop.
Barbara McDowell 
Good luck with the poncho project tonight! I’m still not comfortable going by instinct (I always skip stitches), so I’m definitely jealous of your skills. 😀
Congrats on all you’ve accomplished, and I hope you get your wip where you want it this week!
Keep Writing!
Dawn
Thanks, Dawn. Well, I’m telling myself that this plan of crocheting while multitasking will work. Heh. It does on afghans where there is tons of repetition until you get to a corner. So, in theory it should work for this. Most of the time, I’ve worked on the poncho only or had the TV going, but as background for audio while mostly looking at my work.
I love playing with my characters. They keep evolving from their original appearance, which is why I’m not doing any rewrites until the whole story is done. I sit there all day getting inside their heads. Now I can practically see some of my characters standing around… I wrote one scene which I’ll be cutting, but I have my characters half of a conversation with a psychologist. It ended up giving me a bit of direction to get through the next part of the story.
You have a good point on holding off on rewrites, Audrey. While I do feel like I will need to retool my intro chapter prior to finishing the first draft (I feel the trajectory is a little skewed), I need to just let the characters wander.
Doing well still, keep it up. Hope it fleshes out for you 😛
Thanks, Shah!
Exercise. . . yeah, I really have to make more of an effort in that department. Although, I still maintain daily chores should count (small hobby farm) because hay and water aren’t light. LOL I’m giggling over this one >>Enjoy watching one movie a week without multitasking<<. I need someone to show me where the multitasking switch is so I can turn it off.
Heh heh. I’ll give you some credit for the farm work. That is like shoveling snow where you can get a short burst of cardio in. As for the movies, I learned to do this by initially watching them while sitting in the dark. Forced me to just sit still and watch.
Girl you are rocking the row this week. Sorry to hear about getting stuck. I’m stuck as well with trying to figure out how/where I want the story to go. Something just doesn’t “feel” right so I keep brainstorming knowing that something will let loose and guide me. I did have a breakthrough on the character development front so I’m hoping that will help. Stick with it, it’ll come…it’ll flesh out!! 🙂
Your other goals sound well on point Barbara – here’s to a rocking mid-week and weekend! Woot woot!
I think I’m stuck a little because I started running into the writing. I’ve always been a pantser, so I worked on the outline, but got antsy that I was planning, planning, planning and not writing. Taking a few hours to carve back through the outline and flesh out the parts that feel murky should fix it.
Good luck with your brainstorming, Natalie! And thanks for the ROW80 love.
I am doing great this week–my wordcount is right where it ought to be, and I’m trucking right along. 🙂 So good to hear that you are finding inspiration to keep you going!
Keep ROWing! 🙂
Thanks for the support, Heather, and yeah for your wordcount so far this week! 🙂
I’m a #row80 newbie, and am loving all the support here.
I didn’t realize that people used #row80 for other goals
beyond writing.
Hmmm… Something to think about for my Sunday check in!
Sounds like you are making great progress!
Nice to meet you!
~Tui
Nice to meet you as well! Oh yes, Tui. Writing is the main goal and the others are a support blanket around it.
You are marvelous and I just love you. I wish we lived closer so I could party with you all year long!
Squee!!! That would be too much fun, Tameri! We’d gab, laugh and dance. You are fab yourself lady. 🙂
Oh I can tell we think alike! I never missed Soul Train as a girl – so sorry to hear about the death of the creator! And CATS is my favorite musical for the same reason you stated! I watch with awe how the actors become what they portray. It inspires me as a writer because I want my readers to become my main characters and experience the story from inside their skin. Good luck on your goals and enjoy your extended celebration!
I’m with you, Marji! When I go to YouTube and watch old performance clips of Soul Train, I’m like “oh yeah, I remember seeing that.” And I agree with you on CATS and other musicals (when done right) being inspiring for writers. There are some great transferable techniques to how they pull in the viewer. Thanks for the goals support!
Sounds like you’re making great progress on your ROW 80 goals! Impressed with how much you’re multitasking on the moment. Keep on truckin’, and hope you enjoy the Super Bowl.
Thanks, Annalise! The multiple goals is helping me keep a balance. If I were to only list one focus, an all or nothing fairy attack could swoop in and make me overachieve the goal (to the detriment of everything else) or fail the goal because of a temporary life hiccup.
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