ROW80, My Goals, My Plan, My List

Driving home from work the other day, I saw a bumper sticker that read:

A goal without a plan is just a wish.

Wow. Um, you mean all those goals of losing 10 pounds and writing more were just wishes? No wonder they didn't come true. Except, when I actually had a set plan of writing so many pages a day, or running a mile three days a week.

Plans are good, lists are good -- I love lists, I can write lists all day -- love checking off items from the list, love seeing what's left on the list. So, here's my goals, my plan, my list:

Goals:
Finish First Draft of GODDESS IN THE MECHANICA
by writing150 pages by September 19th

Write 14 posts for Those Kennedy Women
(convince co-bloggers to do the same) complete by August 1st
Blog grand re-opening by September 1st

Plan:
Write 2 pages a day, every day
by planning out the scene before I write it


Meet with Mom and Sister 2nd or 3rd week in July
Brainstorm ideas for blog posts.
Write 3 posts a week in July


List:
Research late 1800s in Minnesota
Research/invent cool Steampunkish gadgetry
Research Alchemy
Research Nordic, Greek and Irish Mythology
Read craft books


Read lifestyle books
Visit other lifestyle blogs
Take pictures of every house/craft/garden project I undertake


Unrelated to writing goals:
Re-stain porch railing, base around screens and stairs
Paint exterior trim
Paint exterior house


 Phew. Here's to plans and lists and I'm reallyreally happy to back in the saddle again! Can't wait to see how everyone else is doing!

VIVA LE RESISTANCE! Er, PERSISTENCE! Yeah, that's right..

So a group of us are starting a Fast Draft session starting... Now! Jenny Hansen started the ball rolling and I am 100% committed to this thing. Just as soon as I can fight through all this underhanded sneaky resistance. I am home sick, like, can't talk sick, tired, sore throat, coughing sick. I could have been lounging all morning writing, but I noticed the dog had dropped clumps-o-hair, so I vacuumed.

Then I realized dirty baseball uniforms

needed to be washed...along with towels and unmentionables etc., etc., etc.

Now, I'm exhausted, and I can hear "resistance" chuckling. Chuckling I tell you. So, I thought I'd write about the damn thing and hopefully exorcise it: Out evil editor and saboteur and maker of doing dreaded housework, when I could totally get away with doing none! BE GONE! No really.

Steven Pressfield wrote a book to save us all, called: The War of Art

I know, in your brain, you're going, no she's wrong, it's called The Art of War, and was written like a bajillion years ago. Yes, but Steven Pressfield has made a lovely play on words with his title and a valid point:

Sometimes producing art feels like war.

Only in that you have to battle yourself and your well-meaning -- or not so much so -- loved ones.

So, if you've never done Candace Havens' Fast Draft or even heard about it. Check it out. Plus, read The War of Art, it will change something inside of you -- but the trick is to keep the change.

I think I've tucked-in resistance for a nap, and I'm off to write.

How does resistance rear its bulbous head in your life, and can you beat it into submission? Tell me how you do it.

MY "GIRLS IN THE BASEMENT" *

* I first heard this term from Jennifer Cruise, a long time ago, but here's a cool video current video link


So this has to do with my personal "girls" in the basement, the subconscious trio of story idea mongers -- I can see them and I want to share them with you:

None of which are what I see in my mind, but they come close

The top pic is clearly the bad-ass, I am not a bad-ass, yet, sometimes I wish I were, also, my writing NEEDS a bad-ass, to get things done, no matter the cost. Also someone to blow things up. She likes it when things blow-up.

The second pic is the thinker, she too helps in getting things done, she views the carnage of things gone horribly wrong...and figures out how to move the story forward in between "things getting worse-er."

The third is my dreamer, listening to her own voices and taking leaps of faith and coming up with implausible plots in story-land. Preferably without explosions.

When I stay out of their way, cool type things happen, the story moves forward, things explode, surprises are revealed, characters pop up -- the Master of Swords? Who the hell is this and what does she do? She?... See what I mean?

My foible is refusing to give up total control. I over-think to the point of Not Writing Anything.

Nothing.

If I could get out of my own way and let the girls rule for even a tiny bit, I think I could get so much more written.

I took Candace Havens Fast Draft workshop a few years ago... I have never, ever, everer, written so much in so little time as then. Why didn't I continue to use it? It scared me. No control, I mean things, words, sentences, plot twists came out of my fingertips (certainly not my brain) from nowhere. It was scary.

Which is why I need to try doing it that way again. Just let the girls drive.

What stops you from getting things done? And who are your girls?

GLORIOUS WRETCHEDNESS

It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys... It had a black canal in it, and a river that ran purple with ill-smelling dye, and vast piles of buildings full of windows where there was a rattling and a trembling all day long, and where the pistons of steam-engine worked monotonously up and down like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness.


                                                                                           CHARLES DICKENS  Hard Times, 1854


You can see it, hear it, smell it -- if this doesn't inspire, what would?

While my steampunk expedition is not full of squalor and stink, I may have to re-think this and add more of have-nots. Showing the great differences of wealth. I just don't know if I have the expertise for this...of course, I'll never have it iffen I don't try.

My heroine is a "found girl," young girls who are either abandoned or orphaned -- foundlings -- left to their own devises. People can bring them home, and put them to work. Yet it is a way to ensure a roof and some food on a daily basis.

I don't go into it, her fortune changes soon after the opening, but maybe it needs to be shown...hmmm. Or, maybe I could incorporate found girls into her new home.

See? I told you that Dickens was inspiring!

What, who inspires you?

ROW80 CHECK-IN... IT'S ABOUT TIME, SHEESH!

Things have been interesting. Not with writing, gosh, no. Just everything else. Of course, that's why it hasn't been interesting with writing. But, I grow tired of excuses and whining. My own, that is -- anyone else, I'm right there for you. What I have been doing is looking -- with new eyes -- at things I've written. I know, past tense. Yet I feel, is this avoidance? Hell yeah. But, is it lesser avoidance to, at least, read and consider past writings, or, not do anything at all? Perhaps this is just another excuse...I don't care, it's what's getting me to sleep at night. So, I've decided to re-think a couple of my pieces. I re-read a few things and these things did not suck...shocking! Not sure, yet, what to do with these, but, they've got me thinking. So, this next week, my plan is to figure out what my plan is. YIKES! Not measurable...at all. Except in my own mind. So, where's your mond at?

WHY PAINTING IS LIKE WRITING, PLUS ROW80

It sounds like the start of a bad joke:
Why is painting a room like writing a book?
I don't know, why is painting a room like writing a book?

 I hope you weren't waiting for a punch line -- I'm fresh out of punch lines, too tired from painting.

Okay, okay.

WRITING A BOOK      

What should I write?
Idea!
PREPARE
Research/Brainstorm
GATHER THE RIGHT TOOLS
Notebook, notecards, sticky notes, whiteboard, pens, computer
WRITE
Halfway through your idea changes
Suddenly in a tight corner -- how do you write out of this?
Move things around
Want it done so badly, it's all you do in your spare time
First pass -- done!
Needs fixing
Re-write
Think you're done, until someone else looks at it!
Fix the misses
Done! Still, it never matches what you first envisioned

PAINTING A BIG ROOM


What should I paint?
Chose colors
PREPARE
Tape baseboards, remove wall plates
GATHER THE RIGHT TOOLS
Paint, brushes, tape, rollers, ladder, screwdriver, hammer, cloth, newspaper
PAINT
Halfway through, you realize you have to paint the room 2 different colors
Suddenly in a tight corner -- how do you paint behind the weight machine?
Move things around
Want it done so badly, it's all you do in your spare time
First coat, in certain lights it looks done
Needs second coat
Think you're done until your husband comes in w/ the mega light
Fix the mixes
Done! Hey, it looks better than what you thought it would.

So, here's what I learned. It does eventually get done. If you have the right tools, it's a hell of a lot easier. If you prepare, it goes so much faster (sure it's a pain, but worth it in the long run). It feels damn goodly to be done.

So, yesterday, I loaded Pages on to my iPad -- it's easier to bring to work than the laptop -- I can bring it anywhere. That's part of the right tools. I'm concentrating on the re-write right now. that's part of needs fixing. Plus, the whole thing just made me excited.

That's it -- sort of a check-in.
How are you doing?

HELLO STRANGER...A ROW80 CHECK-IN

Confession: I have missed 3 (three!) check-ins. Yikes!

Mea Culpas are abounding. Of course, it's not because I didn't want to check-in, I just...didn't. Almost worse. Every time I thought I might have time, I'd already be 2 or 3 days late, thus, thinking I'd catch-up the next time.

You can see how well my plan worked. NOT ONE BIT. Hmmm.
I feel as if we (I) need a recap:

When last we left our intrepid (or, rather, procrastinating) heroine, she was bemoaning the fact that she had no time. She has yet to find the time, nor is she done with painting the basement.

She is certain that any day now things will fall into place and she'll be back on schedule.

Not the greatest check-in, I grant you, still, a check-in, none-the-less.
I'm still working on things, editing here and there and writing some new words...here and there. Nothing remotely spectacular or even mediocre.

So, Monday will be my sponsor post. Ha! I promise to be better with the check-ins.

What's your promise this next week?