RoW80 Check-In: October 30th.

“You can’t keep a serpent in a cage for long; eventually, it just slithers right through the bars.”

This last week part of October has been an odd span of time for me; I feel a little like I’ve been riding a strange productivity roller coaster. I went through a funk for a little bit there (where everyone was awesomely supportive and agreed that maybe it was just time for a break), and then I had another surge of excitement and activity (and, again, everyone was great in encouraging me through my goals), and then these past few days have been another downward drop. I’m feeling, though, sitting here with some coffee and writing this, that I’m on another pull upwards. I certainly hope so; I’ll need it with a week ahead of me without a single day off (yikes!) and the start of NaNo. It’s a brand new month in a few months; I think the stress of the end of the month and the new boss at work has just been messing me up a little bit, and I’m hoping I can get into the swing of things again, too!

I want to also thank everyone for their great encouraging comments, especially all of you who were all, “Holy canolli, that’s a lot of goals!” Even when I have Fail Weekends like this one, you guys still allow me to feel accomplished. Thank you all so much for the encouragement! You may be write; they’re crazy high goals, but, like many of you said, shoot for the stars! I like ’em, and even when I don’t go full out on them, I still get a lot accomplished.

Before I get to the breakdown for my Round of Words in 80 Days breakdown, I’d like to take a moment to thank Jennifer M. Eaton aboard as a subscriber! I should have welcomed you three days ago, but I’ve been in that funk, so I’ll do so now. I look forward to getting my butt back in gear so I can check out some of your stuff, too, Jennifer!

And now, my breakdown:

Serpent in a Cage: Time and general fail aside, I haven’t made much progress on this piece right now because I’m at a part of the book that I absolutely love for its darkness, but absolutely hate writing because I feel like a terrible person doing all of this to my main character! The only thing that gets me through it is the knowledge that, by the end of it, at least one of the bad guys will get their comeuppance, and then I have my whole NaNo project to explore the other one getting his! Chapter: Eight. Page Count: 108.

750 Words: I’m out of the October challenge. Sadface! And it’s funny, because I remember thinking to myself, “Who winds up failing a challenge like this in the last few days?” and I turned out to be one of those people! It was Friday; we were having handful of people over for a Halloween/Housewarming shindig and the place still looked like chaos from the move, so I dedicated my day to fixing it up and just didn’t have the drive to write anything. At least I got my 30 day badge this time! It’s back to square one, but a new challenge starts in a few days, and this time I’m shooting for 100. I seem to drop out as soon as I get the next badge, so maybe that’s just how I have to work.

Novel in 6 Months: I’ve also been putzing around on this one and not exactly getting my 500 words every day on it, but I’ve gotten at least a few words every day. Things are still picking up, but my direction for the story is a little screwy. I realized last night, though, as I caught up with the show with my roommate, that American Horror Story on FX is the perfect thing to get my creativity going for this novel. There are still parts of the show I’m a little meh on, but they’re doing so many other things so well that I can’t help but feel charged and want to create something just as creepy and just as engrossing. So now that I’ve caught up and know we’ve got a few episodes OnDemand, expect lots more to come from this novel (which I also realize is in desperate need of a title). Page count: 34. Word count: 22,270/80,000. Still ahead of the word count!

NaNoWriMo: I haven’t had any time for outlining or jotting or even much thinking about my NaNo project, which means when it gets here, I’ll probably be shooting blind and pantsing for a bit, but there’s nothing wrong with that! I’m just mostly excited to explore Tenenshe’ean and Auferrix’s relationship more, as well as bring out the characters that had to be all but shoved out of Serpent in a Cage‘s rewrite. I think they’ll really get a chance to shine in this book, so I’m excited to get started. Two more days!

0 to 70 in 69 Days: I’m been slacking so much on this one that I’m making a vow right here and now: I will finish “Just Right” and have it posted by next Sunday’s check in. OR ELSE.

The 100 Books Project: It took me a little longer than expected, but I finished another one, and the review will be up tomorrow! And I’ve picked out some shorter quick reads to boost the number a little and get me on track for meeting at least 78 by the end of the year. But as we stand now: Books read: 48/100.

Here’s to hoping that work today will go swiftly and smoothly and not kill me dead for seeing how everyone else is doing later! Or my roommate might rope me into a distraction; that’s entirely possible, too! Here’s to a coming new month and hopefully a nice long ride up the productivity roller coaster before the next downward turn. Happy Halloween, and I hope you all are doing fabulously on your goals!