Blog | Jennette Marie Powell

by Jennette, October 13, 2013

It’s been said many times (including by me) that we don’t find time to write (or do whatever it is that we want to do), we make time. But how can we make time when so often, our days are so full?

One way is to eliminate activities that don’t contribute to the things that are important to us, and when faced with a particular activity, ask whether–and how much–it does contribute. I might ask myself, does this enhance a relationship? Am I learning something? Is it getting my novel written, or giving me a new/more practiced skill I can use in my day job? If not, I think of how I can eliminate that task, or at least reduce the amount of time I spend there. You can guess where housework falls on that continuum. 😀 Same with much of what’s on TV, or playing level after level of computer games. But taking a break to play Candy Crush for five minutes can be some much-needed downtime. So if you’re trying to eke out a few more minutes here and there for something that’s important to you, see where you can eliminate time spent on something that’s not!

My Town Monday Fun Fact

Wright Flyer III Even though I’m posting this on Sunday, many people don’t read until Monday, so I figured why not keep up the My Town Monday Fun Fact? Here’s this week’s: Many people think that the only mobile National Historic Landmark is the San Francisco Cable Cars. Not true! There are others, and one of those is right here in Dayton. It’s the Wright Flyer III, the world’s first practical airplane. Built by Wilbur and Orville Wright in 1905, it’s the first Flyer that could turn, make circles, and fly in the more variable winds we have here in Ohio. And even though it’s a National Historic Landmark, and part of the National Park System, you can see it today: it’s housed at Dayton’s Carillon Historical Park, which is operated by Dayton History, and unaffected by the government shutdown.

ROW80 Goals Update

My goals for this past week were:

Finish sketching out/outlining first quarter of WIP – Done!
Keep up with lessons and homework for Promotions workshop – Done!
Refine layout of product listing page and individual product page for web site – Partial
Fitness 4 times – No

I am going to keep those same goals this week, and try to outline/sketch out the second quarter of the WIP.

What about you – do you sometimes struggle to find–I mean, make–time for the things that are important to you? Which activities would you like to eliminate? Did you know the Wright Flyer III is a mobile National Historic Landmark? How are you doing on your goals, whatever they may be? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

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.

by Jennette, October 7, 2013

It’s time to ROW again! And that means it’s time for new writing goals. But first, it occurred to me that a lot of people might not know what ROW80 is, and I write this assuming everyone does know. ROW80 stands for “A Round of Words in 80 Days” and is “the writing challenge that knows you have a life.” What this means, is that unlike other well-known writing challenges like National Novel Writing Month for example, ROW80 is not a one-size-fits-all goal. It’s whatever goal(s) the participant wants to set. The goals don’t need to be words written–they can be revision, planning, promotion… anything! Some participants throw other life goals in as well, like fitness, home organizing, or spending time with family. It’s also perfectly acceptable–encouraged, even–to change our goals as needed. Every Sunday and Wednesday, we post links at the ROW80 Blog and go to each others’ blogs to offer encouragement and support. But even this is flexible–many participants check in only once a week (I just do Sundays), and others only when they have something to report. So if you’re a writer and would like to get in on a great goals group that’s flexible enough to work for your goals, why not check it out?

ROW80 participants have different ways of defining and measuring goals, too. Most will define a set of goals for the whole 80 day Round and just measure progress toward those, but some of us break it down further. I do week-by-week goals. Here are mine for the overall Round:

I want to have my Work-in-Progress completely outlined by the end of October, preferably sooner.
I’m going to do NaNoWriMo, and I want to get 50,000 more words written on my WIP by the end of November.
I’m also taking an online workshop on Promotions that goes for six weeks, and I plan to keep up with that and all the associated homework.
I’m going easy in December, because I usually don’t get much done then, but I’d like to get an additional 10,000 words on the WIP.
In non-writing goals, I’m adding a product catalog to my family member’s website, so I want to get that done, too.
I also want to keep up with fitness activity each week.

My goals for this week:

Finish sketching out/outlining first quarter of WIP
Keep up with lessons and homework for Promotions workshop, which begins tomorrow
Refine layout of product listing page and individual product page for web site
Fitness 4 times

Productivity Tip

Something I found that helped immensely in my book planning was timed writing. This will be obvious to some, and it’s something I’ve done before, but I’d forgotten how effective it was. Simply set a timer for as little as five minutes (I’m doing ten minutes) and just write notes. It doesn’t matter what it is, just write. This frees us up from perfectionism and worrying about getting it “just right.” When the timer goes off, stop. Congratulate yourself for getting it done, then go do something else. If you feel like it, do another session later, but no beating yourself up if you don’t! Do sessions of the amount of time you picked for at least a week before increasing the time–and then, increase only by five minutes per week. This has pulled out some great stuff for the scenes I’m sketching out, and I now have a much more interesting beginning planned for my WIP.

Fun My Town Monday Fact

Dayton has its own Walk of Fame! It’s located on the near West Side, right in front of the restored Wright Bros. Cycle Shop, which is part of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Park. There are over a hundred people recognized there–inventors (of course!), authors, artists, entertainers, business people, educators, musicians, athletes, and others who contributed to society. There’s a great Flickr gallery of it here.

What about you? If you’re participating in ROW80, what are your goals this Round? If you’re not, (even if you’re not a writer), do you have any goals you’re working toward? Have you ever tried the timer for writing, or anything else? (I’ve found it’s great for housework, too.) Have you ever visited a Walk of Fame? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, September 30, 2013

You probably have one in your home, and think nothing of it. I know I don’t, and being a short person, I probably use them more than most people! This ordinary, everyday object I’m talking about is the folding stepladder.

Original patent application

Similar devices existed before Dayton carpenter John H. Balsley developed his folding stepladder in January, 1862, but his had a couple of new twists. One of these was his use of flat boards for the ladder slats, as opposed to rounded pieces, hence the “step” in stepladder. His other innovation was hinging the ladder at the top, making it easy to fold and store.

He applied for a renewal patent in 1865, and patented an improved version in 1870, although I wasn’t able to determine what was different about the latter, as I couldn’t find any pictures of that model specifically. Over the next fifteen years, Mr. Balsley went on to develop and patent an adjustable table leg, a tobacco drying machine, and a paper bag machine. His inventions made him a wealthy businessman, and he sold his stepladder company in 1882 to go into real estate investment.

Newspaper ad from 1861 via Dayton Metro Library

This is one example of those “huh, that’s cool” things I run across while doing research. I don’t see using it in my books, but you never know, and it’s fun anyway.

So there’s your little bit of My Town Monday. A shout-out to Karen McFarland for letting me know that people besides my family read and enjoyed these posts – thanks, Karen! Knowing that, I’ll probably bring one in to my regular ROW80 update once a month or so.

As for my goals and writing progress, I got a good bit of outlining done this week, and that will continue. ROW80 resumes on October 7, so if you’re a writer and want some camaraderie and motivation, why not check it out and join us?

Have you encountered any fun facts lately? In either case, what have you been up to this week? Please share – I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, September 22, 2013

While I wasn’t paying attention, Round 3 of ROW80 ended. I had a busy week at work last week, so was behind on my blog reading–that’s my excuse, anyway! How did I do? I didn’t hit all my goals, but overall, not bad!

My overall goals for the Round were to: 1) publish the anthology in which my short story, “Time’s Tempest” will appear, and 2) Planning/outlining for Book 3 of the Saturn Society Series, and get 20,000 words down on that.

As I noted in my first post for Round 3, “The main catch is that I need stuff from other people for the anthology, and any goal that’s dependent on others carries an inherent risk.” As it turns out, that’s exactly what happened: I didn’t receive the materials from the coordinator, so the anthology has still not happened. I hope it still will, but at this point, it’s hard to tell when.

But on a more positive note, I did get my words in – over 21,000! I did some outlining and planning, too, just not enough of it, which shows in my results from last week.

Those goals were to write 4,000 more words and get four workouts in. The workouts just didn’t happen, and I only got 2,000 words in. The latter, I can attribute to one thing: I need to do more planning.

Some people can write by the seat of their pants–they start with an idea, and just write from there, hence the name “panters.” Those people amaze me. I’m an outliner. I need to plan. While I learned earlier this year that it actually is possible to write a short story without planning–in fact, it’s better not to–I just can’t do it for a novel. For this one, I tried a more skeletal form of planning, but even that has, at this point, failed me.

In other words, I’m stuck, and having tried this before, I know the reason is lack of planning. It isn’t lack of ideas–I have pages and pages of those. I just haven’t figured out how and in what order they fit together.

I should know better–I’m a software developer in my day job, and nowhere is it more true that Failure to Plan = Plan to Fail. I wouldn’t exactly say I failed to plan this time out, I just didn’t do enough of it, in an effort to cut corners and get writing sooner. And I also wouldn’t say I’ve failed in the writing either–I just need to step back from it and figure out what I’m doing. So that’s how I plan to spend my writing time this week.

Since ROW80 Round 4 doesn’t start back up until October 7th, I will probably take the next week off of blogging, and return with my Round 4 goals on Sunday, October 6th.

What about you–whether you write or not, have you ever found yourself in a situation where you needed to do more planning? If you participated in ROW80 this Round, how did you do? Please share – I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, September 15, 2013

Has this ever happened to you: you’re talking about something to someone, or writing about something; then a few days later, you notice several other people talking or writing about the same thing – people who probably didn’t hear/read what you said/wrote?

Or if you’re a writer or know someone who is, this has probably happened to them: you/they had a great idea, maybe even started to write about it, then a book came out about the same thing. Or you/they submitted it to an agent or publisher, only to be rejected because the agent/publisher recently took on a book with the same premise?

Of course, there are no new ideas, and in fiction, it’s the execution, the voice, the twist we put on it with our own unique worldview that matters. But weirdly enough, the first scenario happened to me just last week, after I blogged about needing to prioritize my husband’s business over my own goals temporarily.

I also mentioned that I had another, heretofore unwritten goal of getting out more, and being more present “in real life” by giving priority to friends and making new ones.

On Monday, it seemed like the universe was sending me a message that yes, I was indeed on the right track by moving in this direction:

Fellow WANA writer Marcy Kennedy posted a fantastic blog about how we sometimes put off living life in the real world because we’re so focused on our other goals.
Then I read another great blog by another WANA friend Debra Kristi, who wrote about the challenges of balancing the need to develop a writer’s platform with her “in real life” fitness goals (I can sooo relate!).
And later that day, children’s author Nathan Bransford posted a blog how writing is a solitary profession, but it doesn’t need to be, if we make the effort to get out and form meaningful relationships with others.

Seems like there was another one, but I didn’t note it. But it really struck me how there really must be some sort of collective unconsciousness, when many of us think on the same lines without having discussed it prior. Kinda weird, huh?

Which brings me around to my ROW80 goals. I still had work to do for my husband’s business, but cutting my own goals down helped. I also skipped Thursday night trivia, as I knew I’d be spending time with writing friends at my RWA chapter meeting on Saturday. Here’s how it went:

Writing: 4000 words – Done!
Fitness: 4x – Done!

I’m going to stick with those same goals this week, but add in a stretch goal of an extra 1,000 words on the book.

How about you – have you noticed any freaky examples of synchronicity lately? Or have a past one to share? Whether or not you’re a writer, and whether or not you’re participating in ROW80, how are you doing on whatever goals you may be working toward? Please comment below – I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, September 8, 2013

…that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking with it! And really, it’s the truth.

One of those other priorities is my husband’s job. He’s self-employed, and most of what he does is take care of the two apartment buildings we own. DH has always either been self-employed, or worked for small businesses, so has never had a 401k or anything like that. Those apartments are his retirement fund – and what’s currently paying for our daughter’s education. We were paying a real estate agent to do the basic property management for us, but recently decided we’d be better off doing this ourselves. So even though DH’s business has been established for several years, I’ve had to take on a bunch of start-up tasks – things we didn’t need when we had another company doing property management. This includes things like designing and ordering FOR RENT signs and business cards, setting up new forms, designing and placing ads, purchasing a domain name and setting up a quickie one-page website. None of this is difficult for me, as I’m a professional graphic designer, but it all takes time. And since we currently have several vacancies in one of our buildings, it needed to be done ASAP.

Then I spent a good bit of time with friends this week. Sure, I could have blown off some of those friends, but the thing is, I have some other goals that aren’t part of my stated ROW80 goals. One of those is to be more present in real life, and to make friends a priority. That doesn’t mean I’ll drop my writing any time someone wants to go out for a beer, but I do make plans with friends now (which I’d gotten out of the habit of doing), and when I do, I keep them. When someone asks me to do something social, I don’t just default to “no” (something I had gotten into the habit of doing) especially if that someone is my husband.

Yesterday, I could have finished up my ROW80 goals. Could have gotten in one more workout, done some decluttering, written that last 1500 words to hit my goal of 4,000, and maybe even tackled some estate planning. Instead, I went to Cincinnati to see longtime (as opposed to “old” :D) friend Jim Winter and shoot the breeze with him about writing. Great fun, and I made two new friends!

After I got home, DH and I went to the Italian Festival with three friends I’ve been joining for trivia once a week. This is something I’d normally shun, as I’m not fond of crowds, but the food was good, as was the company, and I managed to tolerate the rest.

Which brings me back to my ROW80 goals. I’m not going to worry about the decluttering or the estate planning book this week, as I need to do more work for the apartment business. The other two goals will remain the same:

Writing: 4000 words
Fitness: 4x

What about you – have you had other priorities sneak in on your ROW80 or other goals lately? Know anyone in the Dayton area who might want a clean, well-maintained, one-bedroom apartment? Whether or not you’re doing ROW80, how have you been progressing toward whatever goals you might have? Please share – I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, September 1, 2013

Hangar 18: Legacy The other day, I had a really funny dream. I dreamed that the FBI kept calling me, stopping by my house, wanting to know how I found out about the aliens stashed away at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and what more did I know. Being in a dream, I was a bit slow on the uptake, but I finally figured out that they were referring to my book Hangar 18: Legacy.

“It’s fiction!” I told them. “I don’t know about any aliens on the base. I made this stuff up!” I had to be very insistent about the fact that, while I’m a software developer like the heroine in the book, the projects I work on are nowhere near as interesting as those she deals with, and even if there were aliens on the base, I’d never know. It took several more pestering phone calls, but the FBI people finally got the message. Later, they sent me cookies to apologize for bothering me. 😀 I woke up smiling.

My ROW80 goals are a sort-of smile, sort of not, as they were rather hit-and-miss. Actually, they were mostly miss, as the only one I hit was the writing, and that wasn’t until about one AM this morning. I count it as yesterday, and therefore being made, because I didn’t go to bed until after I hit the wordcount goal. Here’s the nitty-gritty:

4000 words on new ms – Yes!
4 workouts – partial – got three in.
One chapter in estate planning book – no
Spend 15 minutes decluttering – no

The novel’s now over 12,000 words, so I’m making good progress toward my overall ROW goal of 20k on the book. I’m going to keep the weekly goals the same for this week. I already got 300 words written today, so that’s a good start. I might just jump in on the estate planning book and the decluttering tomorrow, since it’s a holiday. We’ll see how that goes – plans have a tendency to change. My daughter decided to come home for the long weekend (I think mostly for the AC, LOL, which her dorm doesn’t have). I’ve enjoyed (and spent a lot of time) talking to her, catching up, and vicariously reliving the college experience. That has impacted my goals a little, but is well worth it.

What about you – I know a lot of authors get story ideas from dreams, but have you ever dreamed about a book you’ve already written (or read, if you’re not a writer)? Whether or not you’re doing ROW80, how are you doing on whatever goals you might have had this week? Please share – I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, August 25, 2013

Confession time: I have not been very motivated this week to do much of anything. I did have a good week at the day job – I had a software release, which went well, addressed a couple of bugs quickly (which weren’t noticeable until it went into real-world use). I also had a good writing week – motivation’s not been bad there, either. But otherwise, just not happenin’.

Let’s hear it for new beginnings!

We took our daughter to college on Wednesday. Since she’s an only child, this is a big life change for my husband and me. Oh, she’ll be back for six weeks over winter break, and probably will come home for summer too – and since her boyfriend is a few months younger than her and still in high school, I suspect she’ll be back for a weekend before long, if for nothing else than to see him and do laundry. 🙂

Still, the house feels very empty. When I got home from work, I would usually go and talk to my daughter for 15-20 minutes right after I walked in the door. Now I go into her computer room and talk to the turtle (I did this before, too, but after talking to her first :)). It’s definitely weird.

Child Leaving Home is about halfway down on the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale, with a life-change value of 29. I can think of a lot of factors that would make this more or less stressful. It would be less of a change for those who still have other children at home. More stressful if one knew the child was going into a potentially more dangerous situation – traveling abroad, especially to a dangerous area, beginning military service (and my thanks to those who do!), or – yikes! – going to prison. The thing to note about the Life Changes scale is that both good and bad events can be stressful and throw us a curve ball.

I have it pretty good – this is what’s supposed to happen, I know my daughter will do well at school and is no doubt making plenty of new friends, and will enjoy herself. DH and I are focusing on our own interests, and on spending more time with our friends, both old and new. It will just take time for me to get settled into this “new normal.”

Here’s how my new normal has gone so far:

3000 words on new ms – Yes!
4 workouts – Partial. Got two times in on the treadmill, and probably made a dozen trips up and down three flights of stairs moving DD in to her dorm. Does that count?
One chapter in estate planning book – No
Spend 15 minutes decluttering something, anything! – Partial – I ended up going through some stuff in DD’ s computer room so I could sit on the couch next to the turtle tank, but I don’t think it was 15 minutes’ worth

I don’t have a lot of extras going on this week, and I really need to get going on those last two items, so the list will stay the same this week, except I’m going to bump the writing up:

4000 words on new ms
4 workouts
One chapter in estate planning book
Spend 15 minutes decluttering

What about you – have you had any life changes recently? I hope they were good ones! Whether good or bad, recent or otherwise, how did they affect your progress toward your goals, if any? Please share – I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, August 18, 2013

Lately, I’ve been reminded of an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that probably first aired 25 years ago, but I’ve never forgotten. In this episode (can’t remember what it’s called), an alien race gave the crew of the Enterprise a gift of a virtual reality game. The game consisted of a headset, which created a heads-up display of sorts for the wearer, of a field of balls that the player mentally directed toward a funnel. Over and over. That’s all there was to it, sort of like the falling blocks in Tetris. Absurdly simple, yet the game caught on like crazy, and before long, nearly every person aboard the Enterprise was sporting one of the game headsets.

Taking over the world is so much easier than The Brain ever thought!

Only this “gift” turned out to be more of a Trojan horse. In actuality, as the players grew more addicted, they could be controlled through the game. It was a plot to enslave the entire population of the Enterprise through a bloodless coup. All that saved the ship was the fact that a few weren’t into the game, one of whom was Captain Piccard.

Ever since I first saw that episode, it’s fascinated me – could such a thing happen in reality? I think the answer is yes – and it’s closer than we think. For example, talk at the lunch table has taken a shift in recent weeks. After everyone’s done eating, talk no longer stays focused on the usual topics of sex, having babies, healthy (or not-so-healthy) eating, working out, or Young Diva’s fitness modeling competition. Instead, everyone whips out their cell phones and conversation dwindles to something like this:

“What level are you on?”

“I’m stuck on Level 65. You?”

“I’m on Level 189.”

“I can’t get anyone to give me more lives.”

“You need to disconnect from Facebook, so you can play quests.”

“Yeah, but you can only do one of those a day.”

“I change the date on my tablet, then I change it back.”

“UGH! This stupid chocolate is taking over the whole field!”

…and so on.

Looks so innocent, doesn’t it?

If you’ve been sucked in, you know I’m talking about Candy Crush Saga! It even makes women (and men) hate chocolate, as in Candy Crush, chocolate is an obstacle. Probably the most popular casual game going right now, you can play it on Facebook, or on Android and Apple mobile devices. It could certainly take over the world, IMO. Out of the six Lunch Divas (one of whom is actually a Diva-dude), only Manager Diva hasn’t yet been sucked in. Fortunately, there is a saving grace, and she doesn’t need to play Captain Piccard: once you get past a dozen or so levels, they get difficult enough that it’s hard to finish one without dying several times. And there are only three ways to get more lives:

Pay (not sure how much, as I don’t do this)
Bug your friends on Facebook (I don’t do this, either)
Wait (anywhere from a few minutes to a half hour or more per life)

I choose #3, so this keeps me from wasting my writing time blowing up candy. That’s a good thing, as I did well on my ROW80 goals this week:

2000 words on new ms – Yes! Got 2500!
4 workouts – Yes!

This week, my daughter leaves for college. So it’s time to raise the bar a bit, and add a couple things I’ve been neglecting:

3000 words on new ms
4 workouts
One chapter in estate planning book
Spend 15 minutes decluttering something, anything!

What about you – do you play Candy Crush? If not, have you noticed odd silences among your friends and coworkers who are even more attached than before to their phones and tablets? Have you seen that episode of Star Trek TNG I’m talking about? Do you think Candy Crush could take over the world? Any tips on beating Level 65? 😀 And whether or not you’ve managed to avoid it so far, how are you doing on any goals you might have, ROW80 or otherwise? Please share – I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, August 11, 2013

Get your mind out of the gutter! I don’t mean that! I’m talking about a nonfiction book I read last week.

18minutes 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done
by Peter Bregman was the Kindle Daily Deal one day for $1.99. Finding focus and dealing with distractions are both challenges for me, so I figured what the heck?

There are some pretty good ideas in this book, some of which I’ll put to use right away, others I’ve already been doing. The 18 minutes in the title refers to spending five minutes at the beginning of the day planning what you’re going to do (I already do this), and five minutes at the end of the day going over what you did and are going to do the next day (I do this, too). The other eight minutes are a new concept to me, however. The idea is, once an hour, pause for a minute and take stock of your day. Are you being the person you want to be? Are you focusing on areas that you want to? I’m assuming he only has allowed for eight of these pauses because this book is mostly focused on business (although it does touch on personal life and relationships, too). But I found it an interesting concept.

Another concept I found interesting was that, while most time management books tend to focus on getting all the stuff on your to-do list done, this one instead tells us that we try to do too much – more than anyone can reasonably do in a day – and that we should instead choose five or so areas in our life we want to focus on, and build our to-do lists around those to the extent we can (while acknowledging that there are going to be things we simply have to do). And get rid of the rest. This is also something I’ve been trying to work on this past year, although I hadn’t thought about it this clearly. It’s why I always put off marketing and promo activities – I simply hate them, and don’t want to do it. The time I accidentally wiped out my to-do list was almost a relief, because I remembered the really important stuff, but most of the marketing stuff simply went away. And I decided I was OK with that, even if it meant I sell fewer books. Because I also decided that I’d rather have fun with my writing than let it become focused on sales, and something I dread.

ROW80 is something that can be whatever we want, and for me it’s fun! So here’s how I did this week:

Skim/read three chapters in research book – Nope.
1500 words on new ms – Yes!
4 workouts – Yes!

I am just going to shelve the research for now, since it’s not turning out to be very interesting, it’s for a different story than the one I’m working on right now, and I want to focus on that. So I’m raising the bar on wordcount this week, but I again have things going on several evenings, so not too much:

2000 words on new ms
4 workouts

What about you? Found any tips for managing the to-do list lately? Whether or not you did, and whether or not you’re doing ROW80, how did your week go? Please share – I’d love to hear from you!