Man, this week has kind of been a mess for me. I’ve been all over the place, staying up way too late, sleeping in too late, too, and doing a really poor job of keeping all my goals in check and my work finished. It happens. I was having a pretty awesome streak for a while, so that eventual bad week is pretty much inevitable. Tomorrow, though, I’m planning on taking some steps to move forward on something I’ve needed to do for a while (new glasses and contact lenses!), so here’s to hoping it will kick me back into the productive mode once more. I’m thinking having the entire next weekend off is going to help, too, especially with celebrating the boyfriend’s birthday on the 19th, with a Game Day, since his two favorite teams (the Bears and the Dolphins) are battling it out that Sunday.
Anyway, we’re not here to listen to me whine about my not-so-great weekend. We’re here to check-in for RoW80, even if my first check-in for this round is not exactly stellar. I didn’t so much start hitting the ground running, rather hitting the ground and crashing and burning. There’s plenty of Round still left to force things back into shape. Let’s have a looksie:
Goal One: Finish Madeline. In able to “make” my usual length by the end of the month, I figured I should have to write at least six pages a day from the beginning of the round until October 31st, but I’ve been having difficulty getting those six pages. I’ve still been making progress, at least a page a day, sometimes two, but I’m struggling to meet that six page mark. I’m still going to strive to do it, though, because, guess what? Six pages a day is what I need to get NaNo done in time, so I’ve got to get my endurance up.
Goal Two: Short Stories. Last week, I submitted “Lady of the Masks” (which has the quickest turn-over rate of any of my stories thus far, gaining two rejections in about seven days, lol) to Black Treacle, and this week, I’ll be finishing another edit on “A Song for the Underworld” before finding somewhere else to send that one. I’ve also been working on a story about a gravedigger that I rather like, making all my stories slightly spooky and morbid to match the month.
Goal Three: Reading. Seeds of Time by Kay Kenyon has hit that spot where the end is really, really close but it seems you can never get there, and I’ve been blasting through The Alchemist’s Daughter by Katharine McMahon pretty consistently. I’m almost finished with Mommy, May I? by A.K. Alexander, and should finish that by the end of the week, for sure. I’m also pretty close to the end of Angela Misri’s Jewel of the Thames, so maybe I’ll even get that one finished up this week, too.
Okay, so, maybe once broken down, the goals haven’t been so bad. It’s mostly just been that first goal that’s been giving me trouble, and, despite not hitting the initial mark, I’m still making progress. I think that’s why these check-ins are so great. It helps us to look at what we’ve done and give it some perspective during times when we’re so scattered, we can’t see the bigger picture.
How’s everyone else doing? Did your Round 4 start with a bang or more of a stutter? Have you checked out everyone else here yet?
Happy writing!
L.S. Engler 
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