Back on the #ROW80 bandwagon!

I’m a little peeved by a comment left on my last post which said I would basically never achieve anything because I procrastinate too much. They may have a point about the procrastination but I’m miffed at the implication I’ll never get anywhere at all. Anyway, I’m not sure rejoining A Round of Words in 80 Days will help me with the procrastination, but I like the community feel you get and I could use some written writing goals anyway. If you’re not sure what ROW80 is, click here – all is explained. Feel free to join as well – the more, the merrier!

So, here are my goals:

There’s only a month left of the current round, so I’d like to complete the first draft of my current novel in that time. I have daily word count goals of 1k for weekdays and 3k for weekend days, but basically I want the first draft DONE by 21st June (end date of this round). Which is, incidentally, Midsummer’s Eve. Which is totally irrelevant, but hey.

I also want to make my site more relevant to fantasy fans so I’m going to start diversifying my posts. I will still write personal blogs (this is the only blog I have, so it’s going to have personal stuff on it at some point) but there will also be posts on mythological creatures and fairy tale characters, guest posts, interviews and some fiction. I’m really looking forward to this, actually. So the goal is to get two fantasy-related posts up per week.

I didn’t write at all on Monday (great start, eh?) but I did write yesterday. And yesterday’s scene (which I’m currently partway through) is the midpoint. Twice already I thought I hit the midpoint. That’s right. Not once, but twice. Needless to say, I hadn’t. But I have now.

I’m afraid I can’t tell you how many words I wrote yesterday because they’re in my notebook – I was writing at my parents’ kitchen table – and I haven’t transcribed the awesome yet. It was one of those scenes which I was stalled on before getting some input from a couple of author friends (one of whom was being mildly sarcastic, I think, but was still helpful) which totally got the juices flowing again.

In other news, my dad asked me what this book was about. “Is it something I’ll understand?” he said. Good move, Daddy. And yes, it is. I told him the plot and he really liked it. I might even let him read it when it’s done.

My exploration of mythological creatures will continue on a day when I’ve had more than five hours’ sleep. I wanted to write about vampires today, but my brain is simply not functioning at a high enough level.

If you’re groaning at my choice, just think about it for a minute. Dracula came out in 1897. Twilight came out in 2005. Like it or not, we have long been fascinated by the vampire and that fascination continues.