RoW80 Update: Break? What is this Break that you speak of?

L.S. Engler

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Aug 20

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2–3 minutes

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Although it hasn’t been a perfectly smooth start back into my new goals, I am proud to say that Sunday was the first day in ages I managed to crush all my daily goals on HabitRPG. Man, that feels good! And it also gives me confidence for a successful and productive second half of this round of RoW80. Let’s have a close look at how I’ve been doing since Sunday, shall we?

Goal One: Submit a Story Every Day. I haven’t been hitting this every day, which I never really expected too much, but I did get the story into Horror Novel Review‘s Horror: Told in 100 Words contest I wanted to write submitted, so there was that. My notebooks with all my submission information have been scattered about due to the moving, but I’m tracking them down so I can get back to tracking what to submit, where to submit it, and all those other details I like to keep a hold on. I’m always on the look-out for new openings or contests, so if you’ve got something, send it my way, I’d love to have a look!

Goal Two: Marketing for Soulless and World Unknown Review. This goal has been interesting, because I’m realizing that I really, really suck at marketing and reaching out and promoting things. I did a guest post over at Lauralynn Elliott‘s, which was pretty cool because I’ve never done that before (that I can recall). I’m doing doing a casualAMA on reddit, though I’m nervous about the potential blow to my ego if no one cares. If anyone does, though, it could be really successful. Meanwhile, I’ll be looking around for advertising opportunities, hopefully on the cheap, and I’m still eager to do interviews or guest posts for anyone else if you’d be interested.

Goal Three: Madeline. I haven’t exactly been busting out a chapter a day, but I’ve been forging ahead pretty steadily, with at least a page under my belt. I should probably make that the goal, it’s much more manageable, though it doesn’t seem like enough. I’m sure I’ll settle into it after a few more attempts to get out a chapter a day. I’m really loving it so far, and I’m interested to see where it goes.

In addition to my goals and moving, I’ve also been blazing through Fallon Brown‘s manuscript for a beta read, and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying that. I’ve been squeezing in a bit more reading again, too, which is always really nice. Either way, I’m trying to forge straight on through to the next great thing. How about you? Have you had the chance to check in on any other RoWers here?

Happy writing!

8 responses to “RoW80 Update: Break? What is this Break that you speak of?”

Lauralynn Elliott

August 20, 2014 at 1:40 pm

I’m really loving HabitRPG. I’m in a party, and we do quests where we have to beat the monster by doing all our dailies and checking off to-dos. If we miss a daily, the whole party gets hit. By doing our stuff, we hit the monster. (Right now it’s a ghost stag, LOL.)

You know, I never submit short stories anywhere. I wonder if I ought to try that….

Good luck with the continuation of your writing. But, you know, it IS okay to take a break.

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1. L.S. Engler
  
  August 20, 2014 at 1:51 pm
  
  I haven’t dabbled in the questing yet; it seems strangely intimidating to me, I don’t know. Maybe one of these days!
  
  And I tried to take a break, and this is what happened. Go figure. 🙂
  
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Denise D. Young

August 20, 2014 at 2:15 pm

Your goal of submitting a short story every day is ambitious. Good luck! And congrats on the release of Soulless. It’s exciting to see a story I beta read out there in the world.

I know that when I finally have a book to market, it’s going to be a challenge for me marketing-wise. Marketing and self-promotion don’t come easily to me, but they’re a necessary part of the business. I look forward to reading about your adventures. Maybe I can learn a thing or two. 😉

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1. L.S. Engler
  
  August 20, 2014 at 2:50 pm
  
  Now that I’m beta-reading, I can only imagine it’s gotta be a cool feeling, like, “I helped this come into being!” Which is weird, because, as an author, I should feel that way, too, but it’s…different. You helped someone realize a dream, and that’s an incredible feeling.
  
  So far, the IAmA on reddit has been really cool and a lot of fun; that’s my favorite marketing I’ve done so far. People seem legitimately interested, even if it’s only a few people. I actually paid for an ad, too, but that doesn’t come out until September. It’ll be interesting to see if it garners any response.
  
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Mishka Jenkins

August 21, 2014 at 7:06 am

I’d say sounds like things are really progressing, even if slower than you liked 🙂

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Fallon

August 21, 2014 at 7:14 am

I’ve found that I really suck at self-promotion. It’s something I need to work on more. Great job on submitting a story and making progress.

And I’m so glad you’re enjoying it.

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Eden

August 21, 2014 at 9:33 am

Self promotion terrifies me. You have my complete awe, even if you think you’re doing “so-so” at it. Doing a casualAMA sounds neat…. I wish I’d thought of that. I hope it keeps going well for you.

Keep trucking along, even slow progress is progress.

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shanjeniah

August 23, 2014 at 6:22 pm

You can come guest post for me any Monday you’d like! Just drop me a line, and talk about whatever you like – I strive for an upbeat vibe, but I’m guessing that wouldn’t be a problem for you. Maybe you could even talk about why self-promotion makes you balky …it seems to be true of a lot of us, and it would be an interesting topic to explore.

You seem to be moving forward steadily, if not as swiftly as you’d hoped. As for me, I will be adding a September goal of revising and polishing three short stories to submit to the Review – I’ve been dragging my feet on them all year, and now you’ve given me the impetus to get on with it! Since my many novel and novella projects are all a long way from world-ready, submitting shorter things in the meantime is a very good idea. =)

I love beta-reading. There is a special joy to helping someone else fulfill a dream! And – well, great stories before other folks see them – SCORE!!!!!! =D

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