Final ROW80 round 1 check-in

This week's progress

1. I added to "Zombie," one of the five short stories I was trying to finish this round.
2. I put the finishing touches on "Unborn," which means I managed to finish one of five stories. I'm trying to make myself feel better about falling so far short of my goal by reminding myself that: a) I only had two stories started when this round began, but now I have five, and one of them is finished; and b) I try to do too much.
3. I finished writing and editing my next article for VoiceCatcher. It's about memoir writer, teacher, and traveler Robin Schauffler, whose piece "High Priest" was published in the Fall 2012 issue. The article should be up on the VoiceCatcher website on Monday, April 15th.
4. I wrote this blog post about the potential to get actionable data from rubrics for my friend/former co-worker Kim Leonard's actionable data blog.
5. I wrote a speculative fiction poem for the World's End series on Josh Hewitt's blog. Feeling very happy with how it turned out...though I reserve the right to change my mind and hate it later. When the poem goes up, I'll link to it from this blog.
6. As part of my ongoing efforts to get more involved in the local lit scene, I went to two community writing events this week, Art Spark (co-hosted this month by The Attic Institute) and the VoiceCatcher kick-off reading at the Multnomah County Library.
7. I started putting together an application for The Attic Institute's Hawthorne Fellows program, next session starting April 1, and then realized that would be trying to do too much. Also I'm broke.
8. I made some progress on my pseudonym's current WIP (more on this in the next section, under "I try to do too much").
9. Today I wrote a poem called "On Crying"--which I may end up putting up on my World Citizen blog--and parts of two other poems. I've been in a funk today. Being in a funk makes me want to write poetry.

Things I've (re)learned about myself/my writing process

1. I try to do too much. What I have neglected to mention until now is that, in addition to all the things I've already confessed to working on--the VoiceCatcher articles, the blog posts, the speculative fiction poem, the five short speculative fiction stories, getting more involved in the local lit scene, setting up public readings--and doing editing work for clients and following up with prospective clients and making new connections, I've also written two short stories under my pseudonym and am trying to write my/her second novel. I have often wished over the last few months that there were more than one of me, but sadly I have thought through the whole cloning thing and it wouldn't work. Someday I might write a story that explains why. If I get the time.
2. I'm extremely impatient, and this might not work well for my Muse. Honestly, if I didn't have deadlines, I think I might be working on three novels, eight or ten short stories, a book of creative non-fiction pieces and countless poems all at the same time, but nothing would be finished for years and years. My Muse has some strange form of ADD that gives her a short attention span in the short-term, but in the long-term she likes to marinate on things for a very long time. Deadlines are good because it's someone else telling me that I have stop working on something by a certain date. I really miss school sometimes.
3. Different environments help me with different types of writing. Noisy coffee shops are good for blog posts. Sitting at home with a piece of classical music on repeat is good for editing. Drafting new fiction requires the silent, distraction-free environment of my bedroom or the living room with the shades drawn so I can't see what's going on outside.
4. I'm much better at producing work for other people than I am at producing work for myself. Even if I set myself a deadline, it's hard for me to get it done unless someone else is waiting on it or counting on it. This is why I think a writing group might be a good idea for me (see below).
5. I need a freakin' editor. And I still can't afford one. So very sad.

Goals for Round 2

1. Be a sponsor! =*D I mentioned this a couple weeks ago. Very excited.
2. Write my chapter of the chain story I mentioned in this post.
3. Do three public readings. Two are already scheduled. Third one will probably be an open mic.
4. Continue to try to get more involved in the local writing community: attend more readings, go down and check out The Attic Institute, participate in a writing group.
5. Continue to write monthly articles for VoiceCatcher.
6. Focus on my pseudonym's novel.
7. Try to stop trying to do too much.