Skip to content
TC - heart of the dragon logo

Tonya Cannariato

on Reading and Writing and All the Speculation In Between

  • Home
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
  • Books
    • Red Slaves Trilogy
      • Dust to Blood
      • Blood to Fire
      • Fire to Dragon
      • Hotel Paranormal: Dragon’s Pursuit
      • The Red Slaves Collection
    • Planet Seekers
      • Team Alpha
      • Team TaoRuti
      • Team Shifter
    • The Builders
    • Dementional
    • Shorter-Form Stories
      • A Trick of the Tail
      • Hallow’s Eve Triptych
      • Wytchfire
      • Angel Mine
  • Editor
  • Review Policy
  • podcast
  • Toggle search form

Trying Something New

Posted on January 6, 2014 By tmycann 7 Comments on Trying Something New

"You cannot solve a problem from the same consciousness that created it. You must learn to see the world anew." -Albert EinsteinClass and the new ROW80 round begin at the same time for me tonight: midnight. It’s been lovely not to have class. I actually wrote, revised (and revised and revised!), and edited a surprise story in the break. Clocking in at just over 10K words, the novelette is a new offering in the Katarr After the Fall universe, and my first attempt at playing by somebody else’s world-building rules.

It was surprisingly fun, and despite the number of changes I had to make to ensure my story was consistent with those rules, I would do it again. It was a useful exercise in changing perspective at a point in my Red Slaves story where I was feeling stuck.

Depending on how long it takes to get a cover, Trick of the Tail should be available within the next two weeks.

🙂

However, this once again shoves back my timetable for finishing the Red Slaves series. I’m beginning to wonder whether I have a block against writing to an outline (as broad and vague as that is), or just have trouble writing a story where I already know the end, … or maybe I just don’t want to write this story about Anne and Ivan and the rest of the crew. Who knows. But I’m tied to my editor’s calendar, too, so I’ll just have to power through.

And that encompasses the motto for my goals for this round–and the rest of the rounds this year while I’m finishing my MBA. POWER THROUGH. So by mid-March, when this round ends, I should have:

  1. Finished and released the final Red Slaves book. (That means I need to write another 45K words and get them properly edited and revised in the next six weeks.)
  2. Completed all assignments for class and turned them in on time.
  3. Figured out some kind of alternate exercise plan while we’re essentially house-bound for what has already been a harsh winter, and committed to it at least twice a week.
  4. Continued with at least weekly blog posts.
  5. Written 5K words for super-seekrit project #2, and written another 10K words for the release slated for July.

That puts me at 60K words of fiction over the course of the round–a measly 750 words per day. Given that I was able to rock over 2K words per day while class was on break, that doesn’t sound unreasonable; given my challenges with managing that many words per WEEK last round… these goals depend entirely on the paper-writing and reading expectations for my new class. It also depends on the impact of my first family vacation in more years than I want to reveal. 😉

So I’m beginning my round’s goal-setting with some open questions, but will be working hard to keep them on track regardless, as I’m determined to stay on track with at least 3 releases per year to keep my author career rolling. Check out how my fellow ROW80 challenge participants are setting their expectations. I’ll be back next week to report on my progress again.

Share this:

  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • More
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Pocket

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

indie, writing Tags:ROW80

Post navigation

Previous Post: The Road Less Traveled
Next Post: Cover Reveal: Trick of the Tail

Related Posts

Book Review: Reckless Rescue indie
Possible Impossibilities indie
Episode 3 editing
Author Interview: Carolyn Arnold author interview
Pretty Damn Good indie
Facing Choices indie

Comments (7) on “Trying Something New”

  1. tmycann says:
    January 13, 2014 at 11:10 pm

    Thanks, everyone, for the encouragement! 🙂

    Reply
  2. Pingback: ROW80 2014 – Let the Playing Begin! | shanjeniah
  3. shanjeniah says:
    January 7, 2014 at 8:51 pm

    Maybe the detour for the surprise project will yield you a harvest of words for the tricky WIP.

    I hope so.

    You’ve got well-defined goals, and good reasons behind them. You’ll know if you need to adapt, but it seems you’ve made good progress.

    I bought a jumprope today – I’m relearning how to skip rope now. It doesn’t need a lt of space, and it’s fun. Next? Maybe a hula hoop!

    Reply
  4. Denise D. Young says:
    January 6, 2014 at 1:42 pm

    Good luck meeting your ROW80 goals, Tonya–and good luck with your degree!

    Reply
  5. Lauralynn Elliott says:
    January 6, 2014 at 10:22 am

    Power through…I like that. I wish I had adopted that philosophy with my last WIP while it was kicking my behind.

    Reply
  6. Guilie says:
    January 6, 2014 at 9:33 am

    Hey, good for you! And, like Kathy above, I’m in the powering-through camp: no other way. Like Henry Miller said, “When you can’t create, you can work.” Sometimes–okay, most of the time–what it comes down to is parking yourself in the chair and Getting It Done. Kudos for your resilience, and much success in 2014!

    Reply
  7. Kathy says:
    January 6, 2014 at 3:17 am

    I’m with you on powering through; currently, I’m at a point in my book where I keep scribbling away and thinking “This is crap, this is crap, this doesn’t make sense,” but I’m powering through in the hopes that once I start editing I can make all the pieces fit together.

    Your Red Slaves series looks very interesting — the idea of mixing the Cold War politics and magic makes me perk up my ears. Good luck with that last book!

    Reply

Leave a Reply to shanjeniahCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Email from A Book A Day

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,697 other subscribers

New Release Announcement Email List

Subscribe by clicking here

Search A Book A Day

Story Writing Progress

Planet Seekers: Team Shifter
Phase:Writing
19.6%

Tonya Cannariato – Author

Tonya Cannariato – Author

Blogroll

  • A.K. Anderson
  • Dionne Lister
  • Erica Lucke Dean
  • Gayla Drummond
  • Jane Isaac
  • Jennifer James
  • Justin Bog
  • Kait Nolan
  • Katarr Kanticles Press
  • Liana Brooks
  • Millie Taiden
  • Rebecca Clare Smith
  • Sarah Cass
  • Shari Elder

Links

Round of Words in 80 days

Great book deals daily on booktastik.com

Independent Author Network

Picket Fence Blog listing

10 Book Reviews

Virtual Autograph

Get your e-book signed by Tonya Cannariato

Novel Publicity Tour Host

Book Blog Directories

Book Blogger Blog Hop
Book Blogger Directory
Top Books Sites

Copyright © 2025 Tonya Cannariato.

Powered by PressBook Masonry Dark

%d