Sometimes, you’re more prepared than you think you are, and ROW80

The giveaway has ended. Thanks for your interest!

More than once, my high-school age daughter has been stressing over a test, and I’ve told her about the time I thought I was totally unprepared for a final in college.

I was a freshman, and studying for a Political Science exam. It was late at night, I was drinking a wine cooler (because my roommate had thoughtfully obtained it for me, having a fake ID), and I was tired. I finished the wine cooler, realized I wasn’t retaining anything I was reading, and finally said heck with it, I’m going to bed.

When I went to take the exam the following morning, it wasn’t that hard.

When my grades arrived in the mail the following week, I had an A.

I gave a presentation on formatting ebooks to my RWA chapter yesterday. I didn’t put the slideshow together until the night before. Now I know some of you reading this are thinking, so? Well, that’s not my usual M.O. I do not wait until the last minute any more. For me, that way lies madness. But this past week, I’ve had a cold that’s been kicking my butt, and it’s been all I could do to go to work and finish my writing workshop exercises. So I completed the presentation Friday night, but I didn’t feel it was that good. I kept thinking I needed to add some material about print books, but I just couldn’t muster up the energy to do it.

On Saturday, I gave the presentation, and it went very well! I think I talked more than I coughed. Several people there coughed almost as much as I did, so the group was very understanding. My chapter mates asked some excellent questions, and the  presentation took just the right amount of time. No need to fill in with the print stuff.

Sometimes our subconscious knows we’re prepared, even when we think we’re not.

In the case of ROW80, however, I didn’t need my subconscious to tell me how I fared. I know I missed one of my goals, but that’s OK. Here’s how it went:

  1. Finish assignment for online writing workshop – Done!
  2. Finish hand-sewing for prom dress in steps 1-8 – No.
  3. List ten more things that could happen in the new book – Done!
  4. Finish presentation plans and handouts for RWA chapter presentation, and PRESENT it on Saturday – Done!

Well, three out of four isn’t bad, especially being not 100% health-wise. The bad news there is, the ladies in my RWA chapter who’ve had what sounds like the same thing, say it took three weeks to really shake. So I’m going to not worry about workouts for now. I also need to really get working on the dress.

  1. Review first half of writing workshop
  2. Finish hand-sewing for prom dress, and work through step 16
  3. Write another 1000 words on one story started in workshop

Getting that presentation out of the way is a big relief, but more importantly, giving it was FUN! What about you – What about you? Whether or not you’re doing the ROW, how are your plans going?  And more importantly, are you having FUN with them?

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

 

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