ROW80 2014, Round 3, Week 5

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

I've been in Vienna for a week now. The 15+ hours of travel on Sunday and then starting my German course on Monday kind of took it out of me, but I've been slowly adjusting to the new environment...and to the fact that it's even harder to get things done here because I don't speak the language. But somehow I'm hobbling along and even managing to get some writing done!

August - Vienna:

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.

ROW80 2014 Round 1 Goals

The first round in 2014 of A Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80) starts tomorrow! Hooray! 

Some of you may know that I've been participating in ROW80 for a solid year now, and I honestly think that I wouldn't have accomplished as much as I have if I hadn't been participating. There's something important about not only setting goals but also checking back in with myself on a regular - in this case, weekly - basis to acknowledge what I've accomplished. Or just remind myself I had stuff I meant to do.

As I've read my fellow ROW80 participants' check-ins over the last year, my ideas about what goals to include have expanded beyond projects related to my identity as a writer. This round I've added health and reading goals. Other goals have carried over from previous rounds.

ROW80 2014 Round 1 Goals

So you want to be a writer

Somewhere once I read that some famous writer said something like, "If you want to be a writer, then write." It is that easy, but it's also not that easy. I mean, if it were really that easy, then we would all be writers already, right?

Some people think the way to become a writer is by studying how other people have done it and learning all the "rules" to "good" writing. You can spend years reading books on how to write. Others think you have to have a degree in creative writing in order to call yourself a writer.

And these people who say that a "real" writer writes because s/he is compelled to and can't not write...I kind of want to punch these people in the face (not that I would ever). 'Cause I have it in me and it really wants to come out, and also it's a terrifying thing to try to articulate and organize the mental chaos and watch it come out on paper (or in a text box) and witness how different it looks outside the head as compared to inside.