Much Ado About ROW80

After a few years of trying the NaNoWriMo challenge and winning at failing (making the word count easily, but never actually writing a “novel”–more on this later), I was looking for something that would help me deal with the real issues I had with writing and finishing my assorted unfinished stories that have begun cluttering my computers as well as my house.  A brief sojourn to Chuck Wendig’s humorously brutal blog TerribleMinds and his 25 Things posts (there are many and all are a hoot and a kick in the pants at the same time; this one dealt with NaNoWriMo) clued me into a possible place to work out writing and life.

A Round of Words in 80 Days, or ROW80 as most of the people involved with the challenge call it, advertises itself as “the writing challenge that knows you have a life”.  Exactly what I needed.  Not to say that my own lack of self-discipline hasn’t been having a certain effect on my writing (and lack thereof) but the truth is, I’ve not yet found a way, even after my son is nearing his sixth birthday and my marriage is nearing its ten-year anniversary and the majority of remodeling has been done on the house….  well, the only way I’ve found to write is those treasured times when the world just “disappears” for a time and I can spend several hours in the blissful escapism of my fictional worlds away from anything that seems “distracting.

As you might guess, this just doesn’t work.  It’s stressful because it’s so unrealistic.  I don’t want to deny my family my time anymore than I want to deny myself my writing.  But I often feel like it’s an affair with one or the other, cheating one love out of my attention and devotion for the sake of another and the reverse as well.  (Cue Mary MacGregor — Torn Between Two Lovers)

So, on January 2nd, I will be trying to bring my passions together and build a life that is more honest in the admission that I can’t just do one or the other.  I know, I’ve tried and I always go back to the one left behind.  Here I will be posting any Row80 Check-Ins and if I write any shorter pieces, I’ll be posting  links to the separate pieces I’ve managed to accomplish during the next 80 days of  The Writerly Life ™.

Update:

Since I’ve decided to go for more than one Round of Words, I have archived all of the posts for ROWnd 1 and will likewise be doing the same for all future Rounds I participate in.  Feel free to look them over and giggle.  😉

• 2012 ROWnd 1 posts
• 2012 ROWnd 2 posts