#ROW80 - Round 2 Goals

I think I'm a day behind. Today is the official start day, but I think people started putting up the goals yesterday. Whatever. I'm here. (Great start to the round already. /sarcasm).

Seriously, where did March go? I dealt with a lot last round, and while this looks better, it doesn't promise to be hurdle-free. Then again, what randomly selected bunch of 80 days is ever going to be hurdle-free? Life issues are no excuse to not make goals. Simply tailor the goals to what you think you can swing. Thus, the beauty of ROW80.

Mine aren't going to be all that different from the usual. Here's the list:

• Lesson Learned - The foundation of all my goals... to keep learning. I believe strongly that no venture is truly "failed" so long as you learn from it. The number one focus on this writing adventure is to learn and improve.
• WIP Progress Reports - This goal fluctuates based on what point of my writing process I'm in. Currently it looks like we're in editing-ville. This means I'm going to shoot for two chapters per day for five days a week (10 chapters a week... yay math!). 
• Blogging - I want to continue to hit three posts per week here and three on my gaming blog. I will also commit to one post per month on my personal blog.

This is all standard fare, and what I typically will report on every Wednesday. Which brings me to the reporting goal. I'm a Wednesday to Wednesday kind of guy. That means you probably won't see updates from me on Sundays. Such is my journey.

I also do try to be social and supportive (a big part of this ROW group!). I don't set a tangible goal for this, because it simply varies too much week to week. Typically, what I've been doing is this. I stop by certain folks that I've developed a rapport with for sure each week. I may not always comment, but I lurk. Then, I will also click on the two people that checked-in immediately before and after me on the linky. This helps me to try and find new folks. Again, I may not always comment, but I'm certainly adding to traffic numbers (if you're watching), and I try to skim at the very least. I don't always have something to say, but when I do, rest assured I'll say it. It will probably be silly. My goal is to make you smile and feel encouraged.

Speaking of encouragement, I love the recent article from Lee Child over at The Big Thrill. I agree wholeheartedly with his attitudes on writing and sharing and such. A good read to kick off this round, me'thinks. In particularly, this:

Child closed by saying that our “takeaway” should be this:  “It’s a long game. It will look bad on plenty of days, but hang in there, keep showing up and see where you are in 10 years.”  Given his inspirational story of turning a potential life-shattering event into a chance to reinvent himself and live a writer’s dream, that’s advice worth following — for writers and everyone else.

Anyway, after some writerly discussion (such as the above), I like to end with word counts. Not that any of my goals are word count dependent, they just tend to be the litmus test for a lot of other challenges. My point in sharing them is as proof that this sort of mini-goal setting, one-size-fits-you challenge can also work. The words get written to the same tune (and maybe more) than other challenges. To end this post, I'll list my final counts from previous rounds:

• Round 1 2012 Total: 47,287
• Round 4 2011 Total: 61,097
• Round 3 2011 Total: 69,375
• ROW80 Words Written: 177,759 in 240 days, for a 740 words/day average.