Ever have that feeling where you haven’t done something for a long time… it’s something you know how to do, yet when you get back to it, it’s downright scary?

That’s sort of how my writing went this week. I accomplished my fixes and release of Time’s Fugitive, no problem. I did Michele’s cover design (she loved it – yay!). And when I could put off my writing workshop no longer, I dug back into How to Write a Series.

It went slowly at first, because it was making me think things through on my series that I frankly, had no idea of. I had to do some brainstorming. Something I haven’t done much of for my writing in the past couple of years.

Then I got to the last task in Lesson Two, Part Three, and it stopped me cold.

That task was: “Write scene one of the first book.”

I froze. I procrastinated. I played Spider Solitaire. I farted around on Facebook and Twitter. I read several blogs. I downloaded WriteWay Pro, because I’ve been wanting to try it, and it made sense to try it with a new book. I read through some of the documentation, and set up my book.

My husband left for the AMVETS hall, and I dropped my daughter off at a friend’s house. Then I could delay no longer.

I had to do something I haven’t done in over two years: write new material.

By the time I got a few paragraphs down in my shiny new software, my husband had returned from the AMVETS hall, and turned on the TV. So I put on my headphones and kept going. I will admit, it wasn’t all a real scene – much of it is written in “blocking it out” form, a technique I learned years ago from Liz Bemis, and more recently read about on Rachael Aaron’s blog. I stopped for a few minutes to watch a car chase on Hawaii-five-o (hey, it was a Camaro!), but an hour later, I had my scene sketched out.

Here’s how my week’s progress went:

• Make fixes and re-upload Time’s Fugitive – Done!
• Finish book cover I’m designing for historical romance author Michele Stegman – Done! Check it out, above…
• Complete Lesson 2 of How to Write a Series – partly
• Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – uhhh, not so good; I wasn’t feeling well a couple days this week.
• Track exercise and consumption – also done about halfway.
• Bonus: Cover for Hangar 18: Legacy

Now I’m looking forward into doing more digging with How to Write a Series.

Here are my plans for this week:

• Complete print layout and print cover design for Time’s Fugitive
• Complete Lesson 2 of How to Write a Series
• Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
• Track exercise and consumption
• Bonus: Upload Time’s Fugitive print book to Lightning Source
• Bonus: How to Write a Series, Lesson 3
• Bonus: Cover for Hangar 18: Legacy

Overall goal progress:

• Release Time’s Fugitive, in both ebook and print – Ebook done. Print interior started.
• Complete Holly Lisle’s How to Write a Series workshop – in progress.
• Bonus: Any planning/outlining of new book, beyond workshop exercises – on hold until other goals accomplished
• Release Hangar 18: Legacy – OR – release Times Two (Time’s Enemy/Time’s Fugitive box set) as an ebook – on hold until other goals accomplished
• Bonus: Both of the above – on hold until other goals accomplished

How about you – have you ever stopped doing something for an extended period of time – then found it scary to start back into it? I’d love to hear from you! What kind of goals are you setting for this round of ROW80 – or if you’re not a writer, or not doing the ROW, for this spring?