RoW80: Final Check-In!

“Whenever he smiled like that, which was often, Locke imagined that each scar was the mark of a different man who hated Jaxson, and he imagined how he would one day leave a mark of his own.”

It’s a little difficult to believe that we’re already on the last day of this year’s first Round of Words in 80 Days, but here we are, all the same! I’ll admit that it was a bit of an off RoWnd for me. My goals went through a big shift with the introduction of a contest that I wanted to dedicate my time to, but I wound up unable to do so. This left me with not nearly enough work done on one project, though I’m happy that another project really took flight. It’ll be interesting taking a few days to access my goals for Round 2, which begins April 2nd! Let’s see how I’m finishing out this RoWnd, though!

Serpent in a Cage: My precious baby of a novel continues to progress along swimmingly. I’m particularly pleased that the character introduced in the current chapter, Jaxson, seems to be the one singing now, which is wonderful, because I’ve never felt I was doing him justice in the other versions of this book. He’s really coming to his own as a character, finally, and I’m incredibly excited. I think the pace is moving well, the action is falling into place easily and naturally, and there’s really hardly any complaints, even if there are a few parts that’ll definitely need smoothing in editing. I suspect the progress on this one will continue to…continue. Ha! Page count: 54/79.

Bowlful of Bunnies: I managed to do a tiny bit of editing on some of the stories, now that I’m at a point where I need to decide what goes in, what doesn’t, and to brush it all up and throw it all together for beta readers in about a month or so. Other than that, though, the collection has mostly been sitting there, waiting patiently for all my attention to be funneled into it. Today, I will be spending some more time on it and getting started on getting it all gussied up for printing.

Teen Fantasy Anthology Contest: To be honest, I had all but set aside Morgan Dragonwillow’s contest, knowing that I had a few good stories in the running but unable to really pull anything else together. But Morgan is awesome and is actually opened this last day of the contest up to any last-minute submissions. That means that all those stories I started but couldn’t finish in time? I can try to sneak them in today after all! I was stoked when I heard that I might have a chance to breathe some life into those other stories and get them in, so I’m dedicating today to trying to get that one last story (or two!) in under the wire, with the exception of three hours in the afternoon when I clean the apartment and listen to the Dave Ramsey Show because I’m a nerd.

I’ve already typed up the bulk of my favorite unfinished story, though I’m fairly certain it’s going to go well over the limit in word count. That’s okay, though, because I love it and it’s going to be a great addition to BoB if it’s too long, and I’ve got a handful of other unfinished works to try to submit. No. Not try. A great Muppet once informed me that there is no try. There is only do. And do not. So I will submit one more story to this contest, by DiraSkyria’s Bleeding Tit! Here we are, at the finish line; might as well go out with oomph!

The 100 Books Project: Another task for the day is to finish the book I almost finished yesterday. It’s a young adult book, but the fact that I nearly blew through it in one day gives me confidence that I can really catch up on those numbers I’m lacking for the year. So today will be a good day, for short stories and for books! Books read: 10/100.

Other Novels: I picked a little bit at the other novels I’m working on, too; the book in the same series that SiaC is going particularly well, which is probably due to the fact that I’m so pumped about SiaC and it’s dealing with a lot of the same characters and themes. Which one is going to stand out in the next round to be my next main focus? Only time will tell!

On other notes, I know that this round has been a little iffy for me as far as blogging goes. I haven’t been posting nearly as consistently in March as I should be, and I hope to change that in April. I got, admittedly, lazy, and instead of making me sit my butt down in my chair and write, I got too easily distracted with other things. Today changes that. Today, I will sit my butt down. Today, I will work. And every other morning I have like this, too, I will write. I’ve been thinking an awful lot these past few days about how happy I am when I write and how much I want this to be what I do and how much I want to accomplish this year. The year is ticking by with amazing speed, and I don’t have the results I wanted to show for it. So it begins here. It will happen. But only if I do it.

How did you finish out the RoWnd? Are you excited for the next one to start, or grateful for the break to recharge, reconnect, and get ready? Be sure to check out all the other RoWers here, and, most importantly, happy writing!