ROW80

September 20 Final Check-in Summer Growth

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

First, thank you all who wished my brother well, with good thoughts and prayers.  We heard that none of the 15 samples they took were malignant, which is a huge relief for all of us. I am again grateful for the kindness and caring of this community.

So how have I done on my goals this Round? Like many of you, I had a bit of a mixed bag this summer.  I did achieve some habits and managed to spend more time living with my characters and plot, with a subchannel playing over scenes in my head. I managed to have a clearer separation of time spent doing for others and for myself.

I have some plans over break, but I don’t want to weigh myself down too much.  I think I need some time to let things continue to simmer.

Did I accomplish everything?  Not by a long shot, but I have a clearer, calmer path.  There is no reason on earth I should believe in myself more than I did at the beginning of this Round, but I do.  

I hope everyone has a wonderful, restful break before coming back with new goals for Round 4 on October 1st. See how everyone finished up the Round here.

Interested in joining the ROW80, or just wondering what the heck I’m on about? Read about it here.

Writing:

  • I will write at least one half-hour a day. Updated to one hour a day. If one counts thinking, planning, plotting, yes, I met this goal.

  • I will continue to refine my main author blog, which may involve combining the Lapidary Prose blog with Elizabeth Anne Mitchell. Many good thoughts and plans here, and even some plans for themes.

Community:

  • As I’ve returned to being a sponsor, I will visit all my 8’s twice a week. Actually, I ended up doing well on this goal. Unfortunately, it meant I didn’t always visit and comment on folks I wanted to continue to follow.  I need to think about this as well.

  • I will catch up with Facebook, Twitter, and my other sites for no more than an hour daily. I met this goal; I didn’t connect as well as I would have liked, so that is something to consider in the future.

  • I will reply to all comments on my blogs. Often I was a day or two behind, but I met this goal.

Exercise:

  • Walk at least 1,000 steps a day, preferably 2,000, tracked by a pedometer. Updated to 5,000, preferably 7,000. While I was far from making this goal a habit, I kept plugging.

  • Use the stairs going upstairs; if I want to, I can cheat going downstairs. Definitely a habit.  I don’t even think about it anymore.

Personal:

  • I have let many dear friends fall off my radar these past few months.  I will stay in contact with the group daily, if only briefly, and weekly individually. Again, something in work on in the future.  I was so-so about this goal.

  • I will stay in better touch with my daughters on Facebook or by phone.  My sons are back home, so my only trouble connecting with them is that they have vampire schedules. Same as above. I managed to connect pretty often with the sons, but need to work on better communication with my daughters.


Published by Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

I am the youngest of four children, raised in the old-fashioned Irish-American way. I suspect my mother encouraged me to write from an early age to keep me out of her hair, although she may have regretted the decision when my teachers began to call about the controversial stories I was writing. Thus I began my career of butting heads with the good sisters at my Catholic elementary school, and ended it by leaving high school for college with no diploma. I wear my high-school dropout badge rebelliously and proudly. In college, I became fascinated with the Middle Ages, which was described as a “starry night” by one of my professors. So began a trek through languages and legends that informs my narrative non-fiction and historical fiction, as well as my blogs. I love feedback and enjoy discussing ideas. I have an accountability blog for the Round of Words in Eighty Days entitled Leavekeeping; I write a blog on literary history, intellectual history, and the history of words entitled Lapidary Prose. I'm on Twitter and Facebook; my email is lapidaryprose@gmail.com.

13 thoughts on “September 20 Final Check-in Summer Growth”

    1. Thanks, Jennette. I’m definitely a half-full glass kind of person, so I’ll take what I got and be happy. I feel like the changes are setting in, so that makes me even happier. I hope you have a restful break; see you next Round!

  2. Neat idea to have a separate blog for ROW80 updates. This is still new to me as I jumped in part way. Congratulations on achieving so many of your goals. I especially liked that statement that you found a “calmer, clearer path.” May it continue to be so!

  3. Elizabeth I am delighted to hear the news about your brother and that you’re on a clearer, calmer path. This round you’ve achieved a great deal just by getting a handle on that one. Calm is a lot harder to lay claim to than word count or blog visits.

    Take really good care of yourself.

    1. Thank you, Cate. All of us were extremely happy to hear the news about the biopsy, as you can imagine. I totally agree with you that calm has been a difficult target, and I’m glad to have finally gotten there. Thanks for stopping by; I hope you are enjoying your break!

  4. Great news about your brother. And about your goals/objectives. I had a lot this round, some got more focus than others, some pretty well ignored. But – I did get a lot more accomplished thanks to ROW80. Will need to rebalance yet again. Writing comes and goes, so should be more of a habit everyday – will need that for NaNoWriMo. Current university course finishes, next one not until end of November – Intro to Astronomy.
    http://www.ravesnview.ca

    1. Ah, Mike, so you are one of the NaNoers–I’ll be cheering from the sidelines, as usual.

      Thank you for the congratulations about my brother–it is a weight lifted from his shoulders, certainly. As for the goals, well, they do take tinkering, and as many have said, it is only in hindsight that one sees how much one did get done.I’m trying to get the daily habit of writing formed. I’m not there yet, but better than I have been.

      My younger son took Astronomy his freshman year and loved it–have fun with that!

  6. I think despite life getting in the way, ROW80 does niggle away at the back of ou minds enough to push us on, some rounds and some goals more than others, but the progress is there. Good going Elizabeth. X

  7. Thanks for visiting my blog this morning….great encouraging words! Enjoy your process with the subchannel playing over scenes in your head. Great visualization!

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