ROW80 2014, Round 3, Week 4

"A Round of Words in 80 Days is the writing challenge that knows you have a life."

This was my last week in Paris. Tomorrow (I'm writing this on Saturday night) I'll be on trains all day traveling to Vienna, where I'll be taking a month-long intensive German course (part of my lifelong goal to learn to speak seven languages fluently before I die). As I mentioned in my goals post for this round, I'm taking it a month at a time, so with the shift in location comes a shift in my ROW80 goals. Today's post includes a final check-in on my July goals and an update to my August goals as appropriate.

July - Paris

• Get out & about for at least 2 hrs/day. This was mostly accomplished during my month in Paris. At the very least I got out for an hour a day for a coffee. Fact is, I had a lot of work this month, and that, coupled with a strong desire to sleep lots, made it difficult to get out as much as I'd planned. That said, I did explore this neighborhood quite a lot, braved the crowds to see the Bastille Day fireworks, went to Sacre Coeur, saw the Arc de Triomphe (again) and the Champs-Élysées (again), visited a Paris Plage (man-made beach along a canal), and hung out with the locals at my favorite cafe-bar. Not bad.
• Improve my French. Yes! This happened! =*D Although my French is not by any means good, I'm more fluent than I was when I got here, and talking with my cafe-bar peeps helped a lot. Come to think of it, if I'd spent that time exploring Paris instead of hanging out at the cafe-bar, my French would not be as good, so maybe it worked out for the best.
• Finish first draft of pseudonym's WIP2. Um, no. Good thing nobody's waiting on me to have this done! Gonna have to pick this up next month.
• Two blog posts per week - 1 here, 1 on my travel blog. Yes! In fact I exceeded the goal most weeks.

Which brings us to the next set of goals, for August - Vienna:

• Send pseudonym's WIP2 to beta readers. Finish first draft of pseudonym's WIP2. I will devote at least 1 hr/day to it Mon.-Thurs. and at least 2 hrs/day Fri.-Sun.
• Learn some German. Strategies: the intensive course, of course (12 hrs/wk); at least 1 Duolingo German lesson per day; and practice what I learn as much as possible, e.g. in cafes, with my Airbnb hostess, etc.
• Get out & about on weekends (Friday-Sunday) for at least a couple hours a day. I'll write in the mornings and walk in the afternoons. Or maybe walk in the mornings and write in the afternoons? Either way, writing and walking around are my priorities during my three-day weekends in Vienna.
• Write at for a minimum of 1 hr/day. Participate in/keep up with the DIY MFA Conquer the Craft challenge. You know how some people impulse-buy shoes, books, sailboats, etc.? Well it seems that I impulse-join writing challenges. This one is a 29-day challenge with a prompt emailed out to participants every day, and we're supposed to commit at least 30 mins/day to addressing the prompt. I stumbled on this a couple days ago and thought, Why not? Sigh. Well, I'm hoping I can combine the prompts with working on the WIP2. We shall see.
• Continue publishing two blog posts per week. At least one here and one on the travel blog. That's the plan.

What are your writing goals over the next week or month?

This is a blog hop! Check out other ROW80 participants' updates here.