Jr High All Over Again?: #ROW80

Here’s a status update I recently posted to my personal Facebook page, which received quite a lot of here-here’s:

I thought we left catty girl fights back in junior high. Now this week, I learned about Ann Romney (does she work? doesn’t she?) and Ashley Judd (no, not puffy pace!). I hereby announce that I don’t care whether you’re a working mom, a SAHM, a size 2, a size 16, a Democrat, a Republican, a hunter, a vegetarian, a cover model, or a puffer-fish. A woman’s role can be challenging, and hats off to you if you’re doing it well.
For that matter, a man’s role can be challenging. Life is challenging. As I age and grow, I learn more and more the importance of being a cheerleader to those around me. Life’s too short to judge others on the small stuff.
In the writing world, it looks like this: Work full-time, work part-time, or stay at home with your kids or your beloved hamsters. Take three years to write your first novel or churn out four books in a year. Write mystery, romance, or young adult dystopian horror sci-fi fantasy. Publish traditionally, small press, or independently. Those things aren’t the most important. Traits like character, compassion, and courage count. (And the ability to use alliteration when it seems appropriate.) That’s what makes you a worthwhile human being.
*steps off soap box*
Speaking of cheerleading, that’s one of the best things about ROW80! I love knowing that my ROW80 group is cheering me on. Specifically, I want to thank the #row80 and #teamsprinty writers for some great word sprints this week. Here’s how my week looked:

• Log 5,000 words per week on young adult novel, SHARING HUNTER. This should result in a completed first draft. I wrote 4,966 words on SHARING HUNTER (oh so close). However, I did have a spark of a notion for a short story and wrote 758 words on it. That brings my writing total to 5,724. Still, I would rather have gotten my 5k in with the YA novel.
• If first draft is finished, edit once through SHARING HUNTER.
• Work on pitch and synopsis for DFW Writers’ Conference (taking place May 20-22). Not yet.
• If I get all of that done, edit through THE YEAR OF FIRSTS, my middle grade novel which is in second draft form and has been gathering dust for a few months. Hopefully, I will be able to take a fresh perspective of what I wrote there and turn it into a beautiful book.
• Read one writing craft book: Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. I made no progress on reading this craft book this week. Something about this one seems daunting — its size? its title? its labyrinth on the front? I need to suck it up and start reading.
• Read through March/April issue of The Writer’s Digest. Reading articles here and there.
• Take course from Tiffany Inman Lawson on 77 Secrets to Writing YA Fiction that Sells from the Margie Lawson Writers Academy. Happening in May!
• Read 10 books keeping to my At-Least-3 Reading Challenge for 2012. Reading THE KILLER INSIDE ME by Jim Thompson. This is one of those not-my-usual-genre books — a crime suspense novel recommended by Catie Rhodes. It’s from the point of view of the murderer, so yeah . . . creepy.
• Post ROW80 updates on Sundays. (Yes, I know that we are supposed to report twice weekly, but I have found that to be difficult. Moreover, that ends up giving me three posts from Wednesday-Friday, which is a bit much for my readers, I think. So I’m sticking to Sundays. Hope that’s okay with the Powers That Be.) I like this once a week schedule.
• Exercise three times a week — length of time to be determined. I went to Zumba exactly once this week. The next time I could have gone, I had a dentist appointment instead. Want to know what I think of going to the dentist? Dental Discomfort. Room for improvement here!

So how has your week shaped up? And if you want to cheer on others, be sure to check out my fellow ROWers HERE.