ROW80 Check-in #68 The Final Cleaning

Posted on July 28, 2013 by S.J. Maylee

The writing challenge that knows you have a life.

I received edits from my publisher. <~~ Do you know how long I’ve been wanting to type that very sentence. 😀 ~~ This past week I’ve gone through the comments and made little tweaks here and there. I did several full read throughs which I have not done on this MS since last December. The distance really helped.

Now that the must haves are taken care of, I can’t seem to let it go and hit send…again. I could sit with it for another week. It’s my baby. I grew so much as I wrote this story. It will never be perfect. I don’t need it to be perfect. Really. Really.

Still, it takes a lot of guts to show your writing to the world and although I’ve done it before, I’ve never done it quite like this. I’m hoping sometime over the next seven days, I’ll find that blend of clean satisfaction and groovy deliciousness I crave in my work. When I find it, I will hit send, again.

I found the perfect inspiration this week from SYTYCD. Amy and Fik-Shun performed a Tyce Diorio routine. Wow. This routine has that effortless perfection that sits right in the pocket.

The Goals – week-4 results

Spend at least 1-hour a day with my characters – done.
Daily progress in writing craft, word count, editing, and/or plotting – done. My week was full of edits. I made progress everyday. I also added an epilogue. My first goal in this list helped it all come together. Nice.
Workout a minimum of three times a week and round it out with plenty of water, sleep, and my calorie limit – done. I got workouts in everyday but one. I did go over my calorie limit a bit on a couple of days. I’m editing. It’s going to happen. lol.
Weekly Nia study (i.e. studying the song/movement structure) – kind of done. My three new routines arrived this week. I’ve viewed some of each, but have not danced any of them yet. I can’t wait. They look like so much fun. I did do a practice teaching session this week. 😀 WEEK 5 PRIORITY
Stay on top of my co-op preschool Treasurer responsibilities – done. Answered countless emails and phone calls and made several deposits.
Organize something in the house each week & clean something in the house every day – not done. WEEK 5 PRIORITY
Spend time in the garden – not done. WEEK 5 PRIORITY

What you might have missed here this week:

Spotlight His Passion, Her Temptation by Malia Mallory

Spotlight: Persuasion Skills by Laurel Cremant

Flash Fiction #46 One Last Time

ROW80 Check-in #67 A Silver Lining

Posted on July 21, 2013 by S.J. Maylee

The writing challenge that knows you have a life.

Last week I was over worked. This weeks seems to be a mixed bag of ups and downs… lots of words… too hot, too many distractions… Ugh.

Enough already.

By Saturday, I wanted to throw everything out the window. Okay, not everything. There’s no reason to harm the ereader. 🙂 I did need to step away from it all and I did.

I spent yesterday morning at a blueberry farm. It was beautiful and refreshing. By the time I got home, I was eager to sit down at the laptop and write.

Beautiful.

So, I’ll take this mixed bag. It might not have been my most productive week ever, but I made time for other things and I got some good words in too.

How did your week go? Are you finding your silver lining?

The Goals – week-3 results

Spend at least 1-hour a day with my characters – done.
Daily progress in writing craft, word count, editing, and/or plotting – done. I made just a tiny bit of time for craft study this week and I still haven’t reviewed my notes from summer camp. Grr. I did finish a scene in my WIP by adding 2k words. There’s just the last chapter to finish and then the 1st draft will be done. So close.
Workout a minimum of three times a week and round it out with plenty of water, sleep, and my calorie limit – done. I just did the minimum this week.
Weekly Nia study (i.e. studying the song/movement structure) – kind of done. I did order three routines and I can not wait to dance them. 😀 WEEK 4 PRIORITY
Stay on top of my co-op preschool Treasurer responsibilities – done. Answered countless emails, trained my new co-chair, and made several deposits.
Organize something in the house each week & clean something in the house every day – not done. WEEK 4 PRIORITY
Spend time in the garden – kind of done. It was too hot this week. That’s totally an excuse. It’s mid-July, of course it’s hot. I dead headed lots of plants and that’s about it. The lilies are blooming though, so pretty.

What you might have missed here this week:

What’s in a title? With Doris O’Conner

Mugs and Honey with Siobhan Muir

A Blog Takeover by Carlene Love author of Sin’s Flower

Flash Fiction #45 Risk and Reward

ROW80 Check-in #66 Deep Beautiful Breaths

Posted on July 14, 2013 by S.J. Maylee

The writing challenge that knows you have a life.

Some days I wish there were two of me, but I think I’ll faint if I try to do anything more. There are only 24-hours in a day and this week I’m happy for that, lol.

By midweek I was feeling pretty frustrated. My to-do list was growing and writing wasn’t going well. Since writing is my priority, it’s easy for me to push other tasks aside while I spend more time on writing. But if writing is going no where fast, maybe I’m doing it wrong.

By getting up and out of the chair to knock off other things on the list and then coming back refreshed will help me to accomplish more in the end. Staring at the screen gets me no where and makes me want to pull my hair out. As long as I come back and try again, I will make progress. Deep breath, I will finish this WIP.

Once again I’ve found inspiration from SYTYCD. This week I’ve selected the piece performed by Malece and Marko and choreographed by Sonya Tayeh. They remind me of all the beauty to be found in the simplest of things like breathing. It’s breathtaking. The dancing begins about 40-seconds in. Enjoy.

The Goals – week-2 results

Spend at least 1-hour a day with my characters – done.
Daily progress in writing craft, word count, editing, and/or plotting – done. I worked on my WIP from last summer again this week. I read through several chapters and then began writing one of the last two scenes needed. Writing was hard and frustrating this week. I have a strong sense of how I want this book to feel. It’s been with me for over a year. I’m struggling, but I’ll push through. I read more of Writing Love this week and I’m attending the MFRW Summer Camp this weekend. I’ll share some highlights from camp next week.
Workout a minimum of three times a week and round it out with plenty of water, sleep, and my calorie limit – done! Six workouts and all the other goals too. Nice!
Weekly Nia study (i.e. studying the song/movement structure) – not done. Although I did Nia twice this week, I didn’t make any progress on the teaching side. Through my teaching license for this year, I can order three more routines. I’m going to go ahead and order them. Maybe the new routines will lift my spirits and get me motivated to find the time for this goal. WEEK 3 PRIORITY
Stay on top of my co-op preschool Treasurer responsibilities – done. I only had to pick up the mail, answer a couple of emails, and return one phone call. Score!
Organize something in the house each week & clean something in the house every day – not done. WEEK 2 PRIORITY
Spend time in the garden – done. I cut back more rose bushes and the front bushes. I did a bunch of weeding and snacked on more raspberries. Yum. I’ve included a picture of my favorite Lavender rose, it blooms just outside my dinning room where I write, and two of my balloon flowers. It’s pretty obvious how they got their common name, lol.