Posted April 11th, 2011 under Craft, ROW80, Writing
ROW80 Check-In: 4/10/11
One week of ROW80 down and I’m still standing! 
nbsp;As part of the challenge, I have to check in twice a week and give updates on my progress. I’ve decided to tweet one update and blog the other, so (as usual) I post twice a week. Here’s my plan for the remainder of this challenge:br /br /bWednesdays: /bROW80 check-in postbr /bFridays:/b YA Cafe postbr /bSundays: /bROW80 check-in via a href=”http://twitter.com/#!/Ghenet”Twitter/abr /br /To keep things interesting, when I do my ROW80 posts I’m going to either share something I’ve learned about writing or something that helped me reach my goal that week. I’m borrowing this idea from a href=”http://www.karen-strong.com/”Karen Strong/a who came up with her own writing challenge (Operation 50/50: 50 scenes in 50 days) and gives great updates!br /br /Since I didn’t post an update this past Wednesday, I’m doing it now and will start my new schedule on Wednesday.br /br /bu4/10/11 Check-In/u/bbr /br /As a reminder, my goal is to finish my WIP by writing an average of 675 words a day (4,725 total words a week). This week, I wrote every day except Thursday and Friday but I still managed to make my goal by writing extra words on the other days. I’m at 4,731 words for the week and 20,685 words in my WIP!br /br /I pushed myself harder this week than I have since being in my MFA program, and it’s paying off. There were a few moments this week when I was tired and wanted to stop writing, but I didn’t let myself until my daily goal was met. I’m feeling very proud of myself and hope I can keep this momentum going.br /br /buWhat I Learned This Week:/u/bbr /br /bu/u/bI mentioned last week that my new favorite writing tool is Pomodoro and it’s helping my productivity. It’s really amazing! You can read all about it a href=”http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/”here/a. In a nutshell, it’s a time management tool that helps you focus by giving you 25-minute sessions to get a task done. You can use those 25-minutes to do whatever you want (in my case, write my book) and after each session is over, you take a short break before starting a new session.br /br /divdivdiv class=”separator” style=”clear: both; text-align: center;”a href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7ltIEeaRHDw/TaJcAF5PbsI/AAAAAAAABwk/3bEXtn_t0t0/s1600/technique_pomodoro.jpg” imageanchor=”1″ style=”margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;”img border=”0″ height=”220″ src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7ltIEeaRHDw/TaJcAF5PbsI/AAAAAAAABwk/3bEXtn_t0t0/s320/technique_pomodoro.jpg” width=”320″ //a/divbr /I used it for the first time this week and it kept me from distracting myself with Twitter or Google Reader during my writing sessions. Because I’m wrote in these smaller intervals, it was easier to stay focused. If I felt stuck halfway through a session, I’d tell myself “I only have 10 minutes to go” and would forge through the rest of the session. It made such a difference.br /br /I highly recommend Pomodoro. You can use your own kitchen timer, but I recommend downloading the app (from a href=”http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pomodoro/id417574133?mt=12amp;ls=1″here/a) onto your computer so a voice tells you when to start and end. Thanks a href=”http://www.jodikendall.com/”Jodi/a for telling me about it!br /ispan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-style: normal;”br /bHappy Writing!br /span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-weight: normal;”ispan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-style: normal;”br /ip.s. A huge welcome to a/i/spanll of my new followers!! I’m so glad you’re here! I hope you all have entered my a href=”http://ghenetwrites.blogspot.com/2011/04/100-followers-giveaway.html”100 follower giveaway/a.nbsp;If not, you have a couple of hours left. I’ll announce the winner of the $25 Amazon gift card on Wednesday. Good luck!/i/span/b/span/i/div/div
Congrats on meeting your ROW80 goal for the week! Keep it up.
14+k is awesome progress! Keep up the good work.
2Congratulations on reaching your goals! We have such similar goals so I#39;m always glad when you reach them. Keep up the good work
3Awesome ROW80 progress!!! I finally hit my stride again too. br /br /I love to hear about tips like Pomodoro. It reminded me of quot;Write or Diequot; – google it to find out more! It#39;s FUN!!!br /br /Also, if you do the passing-on-award thing, I have an award for you over at my blog. Thanks for being a regular commenter since I quot;metquot; you!
4Great work on you writing. You hit your word goal for the week, so that#39;s awesome. I#39;m going to check out the Pomodoro app. It sounds interesting. Good luck this week.
5Congrats! I don#39;t use that tool but my goal when writing the first draft is 5K words a week or more if I get on a streak. I love hearing how other writers are moving along!
6I like the new blog schedule and it sounds like ROW80 is really working out for you so far, congrats on your progress!br /- Sophia.
7Great progress this week!br /br /I#39;m going to try out Pomodoro, thanks for the recommendation.
8Great job! I can#39;t wait to hear more about your progress
Totally need Pomodoro…thanks for the tip!
9Thanks guys!
10woo! get it girl!br /br /…now i#39;m going over to try and follow you on twitter. i just got an account amp; have no idea how it works, haha
11Congrats on reaching your goal!
12Congrats on reaching your goal! Not much longer.
13Awesome! And thanks for the Pomodoro info. I think I may just download that…
14I have a feeling you#39;re going to do really AWESOME with this challenge.
br /br /I love Pomodoro too. First heard about it at the FL SCWBI conference this past January.br /br /Best of luck to you.
15Congrats on the progress you#39;ve made on your WIP! And the Pomodoro technique is interesting. Thanks for telling us about it, I#39;m going to check it out!
16Seriously, your support means so much! THANK YOU!br /br /Enjoy Pomodoro!
17Hey, congrats!
br /br /Your time management technique sounds like mine (though mine is very informal!). Writing in shorts burst throughout the day keeps me productive. br /br /Great blog (love the design! br /br /D
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