L.S. Engler

RoW80 Update: Getting Back on Track.

L.S. Engler

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Some of you may have noticed yesterday that I’ve been M.I.A. due to a broken computer and anxiously awaiting a new one. That new computer has (finally!) arrived, so now we’ve back in business, and it’s time to really reconnect with my RoW80 goals, especially as we’re heading on toward the finish line of this round (hard to believe it’s already the last month!).

You know you’re off your track when you have to take a moment to even really recall what your goals were. It’s incredible how much we come to depend on certain tools to get out jobs done. Anyhoo….

Goal One: Serpent in a Cage. It’s kind of hard to type something when you don’t have anything to type with. Needless to say, I haven’t been able to transcribe much of SiaC this last week, but the good thing is that I was making good progress before. The full draft will easily be finished by the end of this round.

Goal Two: Short Stories. During the Dark Period, I did receive another rejections for “Red and White,” so I’m going to focus on editing that up again and finding a different fit. I was working on a ghostly love story, too, but, like so many of my short stories, there’s no end in sight and I think it’s attempting to turn into a novel instead. We’ll have to see how it goes.

Goal Three: Heartless. Now, for all intents and purposes, since I’m working on writing Heartless right now and I always write longhand, this goal shouldn’t have suffered. I should have kept with my page-a-day goal and forged on ahead. But I didn’t. When one cog in the machine goes out, the other cogs don’t work nearly as well. My focus was shot all last week, though I did get a little scribbling in here and there. Just not as much as I would have liked. So, there we have it. Time to get back on board and get my focus back on what I should be doing. Thankfully, I’m eager to be back in my routine, even if the hardware is just a little bit different.

By Sunday’s post, I should have this all back and ready and moving along again. The nice thing about having clear goals is that, if you do get knocked off the tracks, it’s pretty easy to get right back on again! If you get the chance, check out my fellow RoWers here.

Happy writing!

8 responses to “RoW80 Update: Getting Back on Track.”

  1. Harliqueen Avatar
    Harliqueen

    It’s hard to keep on track when something goes wrong (like a computer breaking), it’s easy to get out of routine but harder to jump back into one 😀 Good luck with it!

    Reply
    1. L.S. Engler Avatar
      L.S. Engler

      Thanks! So far, so good, even with the boyfriend as a distraction. I really missed my routine, so falling in was pretty easy. It’s mostly adjusting to the new device.

      Reply
  2. Tammy J Rizzo Avatar
    Tammy J Rizzo

    I’ve been much where you are. My computer died this round, too, and I had to wait for it to be fixed. Other things had knocked me off track, as well, but I am *FINALLY* feeling back on course again! Congratulations to you for also making it back! Coming back is hard, and it only gets harder the longer you’re off (like me – months before I could write again on my WIPs). I’m glad you got your computer replaced so quickly. 😀

    So you write out in longhand first, do you? That’s fantastic! I used to think best in fine point blue ink on college ruled paper, before I got a computer. I had the hardest time reading what I wrote, though, because I scribbled so fast to keep up with my thinking. Now, though, I type much faster than I write, so I can get the words out before they explode my head, and I almost never write things out longhand anymore. It’s a dying part of my craft. Maybe I should try to resuscitate it ….

    Reply
    1. L.S. Engler Avatar
      L.S. Engler

      I don’t know what it is, but I just CANNOT ~create~ on a computer. Typing and editing, no problem, but I feel a disconnect with the story if I’m typing it out rather than writing long hand. It might just be purely psychological, but I really feel that, when you’re writing the words, you are, almost literally, CREATING them. You are in the process of pushing that pen and forming that word, like a painter creates a tree by pushing a brush. It’s a little odd, perhaps, but it just feels right to me.

      I am killing SOOOO many trees, lol.

      Reply
  3. Cindy Avatar
    Cindy

    I haven’t experienced a busted computer, but I do know what it feels like to be off and trying to get back into a schedule.

    I think it’s awesome that you write out in long hand first. That is something I wish I could do. I mean, I do sometimes write out ideas and I journal in long hand, but to write a story, or novel that way. You are awesome!

    Hang in there, it sounds like you have a handle on the situation though. To quote Dory, (from “Finding Nemo”, and because I always like to quote movies. They have a lot of good advise wedged in there somewhere) “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming!” You’ll get there! 🙂

    Reply
    1. L.S. Engler Avatar
      L.S. Engler

      This is my second one destroyed by a beverage in the past three years. I put the two of them together; I now have a Laptop Graveyard in my desk.

      Haha, and, conversely, I sometimes wish I could write by typing. It would just be so much more efficient!

      And I love the use of the Dory quote. I’m the type of person who always has to be swimming, though I tend to relate it more to a shark, lol.

      Reply
  4. Fallon Avatar
    Fallon

    When one aspect of my routine gets thrown off, the rest of it seems to suffer as well. So, I can certainly understand that. Glad to hear you’re getting back on track though. Good luck with the rest of this week.

    Reply
    1. L.S. Engler Avatar
      L.S. Engler

      Thanks, Fallon! Sometimes, it feels like I’ll never quite get it back to how it was, but it does always have a way of getting back in order.

      Reply

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