Cruising through the Holidays

Planning ahead makes all the difference! That’s what I say when people ask me if I’m stressed this holiday season. No, I don’t have all my shopping done, but I feel good about where I am with it – and everything else.

I decorated two weeks ago. The main reason that’s done is because I kept it simple: Christmas tree, mantel decorations, nativity scene. My family doesn’t care about elaborate decorations, as long as we have the basics!

As far as keeping up with writing goes, I managed that by setting smaller goals. This is an area where I’m not always successful–I’m hopeful that means I’ve learned from those times I wasn’t!

Here’s what I accomplished this week:

  • Hangar 18 – write up front and back matter
  • Hangar 18 – create full cover for paperback
  • Physical activity 5x this week – partial – got it in 4x

I’ve already met my ROW80 goals for the overall quarter. In addition to Hangar 18: Legacy, which is now with my editor, I’d like to release Times Two, the ebook-only boxed set of my Saturn Society novels. Since they are all already written and edited, and I already have a cover design, that leaves formatting. It would be great to get this out before Christmas. The ROW is over on Thursday, and check-in day is on Wednesday, so before then, I’d like to accomplish:

  • Times Two – assemble boxed set and format for Smashwords
  • Physical activity 5x this week (2-3x by Thursday)

If you’re participating in ROW80, how are you doing so far? Are you ready for the ROW to be over–and are you ready for the holidays??

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.

Just Say No… to Stress, and ROW80

Last year around this time, I put up a post on ways I’ve found to deal with all the extra stuff we have to do around the holidays, that can add greatly to our stress level if we aren’t careful. One of those was evaluating which holiday events we really need to attend… and which we can gracefully decline.

My primary decision-making process for this is quite simple: just ask yourself these questions:

  • If I don’t go, will someone be disappointed or hurt?
  • Are there people there I care about, who won’t understand why I can’t make it?
  • If I don’t go, will it adversely impact me (for example, career or business issues)?
  • Are these people who don’t live nearby, and whom I don’t see at other times of the year?
  • Do I really want to go? (<- This one is the most important!)
I had to make one of those decisions yesterday… then woke up not feeling well, so that pretty much made the decision for me. I felt well enough to sit at my computer and play games, and the party I had to skip was one where my friends understood.

I also got some work done, including my ROW80 goals for the week! Here are the details:

  • Hangar 18 – finish type-in – Done!
  • Hangar 18 – get answers for new/remaining few research questions, and send to editor – Done!
  • Hangar 18 – put together book info sheet – Done!
  • Physical activity 5x this week – Done! (Good thing I did it Monday – Friday!)

I’ve already met my ROW80 goals for the overall quarter. But I’m not going to take the next week and a half off. There’s still much to be done, although with the holidays coming and all the extra to-do that entails, I am going for small goals. So for this week, I’d like to:

  • Hangar 18 – write up front and back matter
  • Hangar 18 – create full cover (for paperback – ebook/front cover already done)
  • Physical activity 5x this week

If you’re participating in ROW80, how are you doing so far? Do you have any tips on beating holiday stress? If so, please share – I’m always looking for more!

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.

I won! Or did I?

Wednesday night, I hit a milestone: at last, the word count meter in the status bar of WriteWayPro registered 50,123. I was done with my NaNoWriMo novel!

I actually finished the novel a few days earlier, on Sunday night… with a word count of only a little over 46,000. Not enough. But I’d left a bunch of plot holes and dropped subplot threads, which I’d normally tackle in revision. Instead of moving to another project, I decided to tie some of those up, and that got me to 50,123 on Wednesday night.

I was elated! I exported my document to Word, fearing my word count would change, and it did – to 50,006. But that’s still over 50,000, right?

I entered my new wordcount into the NaNoWriMo website, and the “I’m ready to validate my novel” link appeared. I pasted my whole dang book in…

And no winner bar appeared. Instead, the wordcount I’d entered now read 49,926. What???!!

So I went back and added that author’s note, just a short one. Re-exported, and re-entered. This time, I made it over 50,000 words and got my Winner! graphics.

Here’s the details on my ROW80 goals for this past week:

  • Finish NaNoWriMo novel – Done!
  • If NaNo novel is less than 50k, write author’s note and/or nonfiction project to add up to 50k – Done!
  • Physical activity 5x this week – partial – I got it in 4x
  • Hangar 18 – review and markup Chapters 13 & 14 – Done!

Here are my overall goals for this round:

  • Format and release OVRWA holiday story anthology – Done and now available!
  • Revise Hangar 18 – revisions/markup done, corrections typed in through Chapter 10 (of 14)
  • Keep up with my exercise, five times a week – ongoing
  • Win NaNoWriMo -Done!
So that means I’ve already met my revised ROW80 goals, how about that??
But I’m not going to take the next two and a half weeks off. There’s still much to be done, although with the holidays coming and all the extra to-do that entails, I am going for small goals. So for this week, I’d like to:
  • Hangar 18 – finish type-in
  • Hangar 18 – get answers for new/remaining few research questions, and send to editor
  • Hangar 18 – put together book info sheet (blurbs of varying lengths, and other details needed for publishing)
  • Physical activity 5x this week

If you’re participating in ROW80, how are you doing so far? If you’re doing NaNoWriMo, how did you do? And either way, have you ever finished a big task, only to find out that you weren’t finished after all?

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.

When the Other Half’s Away…

…the writer will play! Or will she??

Not if it’s November, and she’s participating in NaNoWriMo!

Well, okay, maybe a little.

Oh, you want an explanation? Okay. It’s that time of the year that really helps a writer out. No, really.

It’s hunting season (the other helpful time being “football season”). How so? Well, to be specific, this week is gun season for deer in Ohio, which means my more-sociable half is away at deer hunting camp with lots of guys, lots of guns, and lots of beer (for after the guns are put away!). This means there’s lots of quiet in my house. I don’t think the TV has even been on in the past two days. The one in the room where my computer is hasn’t been on since he left the other day.

It’s been weird. And good for the word count – I finished my NaNoWriMo novel on Sunday night.

And as noted in Sunday’s post, fell short of the 50,000 words required to win NaNoWriMo – my book clocked in at only 46,000.

I was going to write an author’s note (wow, that would have to be a long one!) or do some work for a nonfiction technical piece. Then I came to another realization: There were holes in my book. Lots of ’em – maybe as many of them as there was beer at that deer camp earlier this week. But mostly, I had a fraying book – tons of dropped threads, subplots that were introduced but never tied up. This is something I often do (doesn’t every writer? No?) and then go back and catch these suckers in revision.

But usually, I need to cut words. This time, I need to add, so why not add something I’d add anyway, now?

So that’s what I’ve been doing. My NaNo novel is right on schedule for a win tonight or tomorrow, currently sitting at 48,442 words.

I’ll leave the rest of the ROW80 recap for Sunday.

Oh, and my DH is due home today, but he called yesterday with good news: he got one! Looks like there will be some good eating in our house this winter (he’s also a very good cook)!

If you’re participating in ROW80, how are you doing so far? If you’re doing NaNoWriMo, are you on track to win, have you already won, or have you already conceded that you’ll not hit that 50k (which I don’t necessarily consider “losing”)?

I haven’t spotted any new releases from my writer friends the past couple of weeks, so no WANA Wednesday book news this week. I think many of my writing buddies are doing the same thing I am – writing! If you know of any, give me a heads up in the comments, please?

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.

ROW80: Running out of Story

My NaNoWriMo book has come along quite a ways this week… in fact, I expect to finish it today or tomorrow.

And I don’t expect to hit 50,000 words until Wednesday or Thursday.

In other words, I’m running out of story. And I’m a bit shocked – if anything, my work usually runs long, just ask anyone who’s read Time’s Enemy or especially Time’s Fugitive. Even my short story, “Time’s Holiday,” clocked in at over 7,000 in its first draft, and the Home for the Holidays anthology required it to be 5,000 or under. It turned out I had some repetitious stuff, and stuff that wasn’t absolutely vital to the story that I could cut, and I whittled it down to size while making it a much better book.

The NaNo novel is already lean – there’s almost no description in it. That’s something I usually have to layer in during revision, but it’s even more scant in this book than usual. Then again, I’m just now getting to the big boss battle, and I do write long, so this may take up the words after all.

If I don’t, I have a plan. I can add an author’s note, and see how much that adds. If it’s not enough, I can start in on a little nonfiction project I’ve been meaning to write for a while – an instruction manual, of sorts, for my web design clients.

Here’s the details on my progress for this past week:

  • 12,000 words on NaNoWriMo novel, to a total of 43,000 words or more – Done!
  • Physical activity 5x this week – partial – got 4x in – not bad for having a holiday!
  • Hangar 18 – review and markup Chapters 11-12 – Done!

Here are my overall goals for this round:

  • Format and release OVRWA holiday story anthology – Done and now available!
  • Revise Hangar 18 – revisions/markup done through Chapter 12  (of 14)
  • Keep up with my exercise, five times a week – ongoing
  • Win NaNoWriMo – on track with 43,063 words so far!
For this week, I’d like to:
  • Finish NaNoWriMo novel
  • If NaNo novel is less than 50k, write author’s note and/or nonfiction project to add up to 50k
  • Physical activity 5x this week
  • Hangar 18 – review and markup Chapters 13 & 14

If you’re participating in ROW80, how are you doing so far? If you’re doing NaNoWriMo, are you on track to win, have you already won, or have you already conceded that you’ll not hit that 50k (which I don’t necessarily consider “losing”)?

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.

ROW80: NaNoWriMo, Day 18

My lack of planning is making my NaNoWriMo book a challenge. As a recap, I set my daily writing goals a little differently than the standard 1,667 words/day – instead, I write 1,500 words four weeknights, and 3,000 words on both Saturday and Sunday to meet my overall goal. But I didn’t get my 3k in yesterday until 10:30 PM – and I didn’t do much of anything else all day.

I have to outline, and I did outline this book, too. However, many of my scenes were just a few words of what would happen. And I’m finding that that’s not always enough. I need to know what’s the conflict, and who or  what the antagonist is in any given scene, and many of my notes did not have this. I also got hung up on details, and spent a lot of time thinking how something specific would happen, which is something we need to ditch in order to meet the high word count goals of NaNoWriMo. I did manage to get it together just in time, so my progress is still on track, although I did not get as much done on  my revisions for Hangar 18 as I’d have liked, and I had some other things to do yesterday that now will have to be done today. Things like laundry, keeping in touch with family and friends, and some graphic design work I’m doing for my brother, who’s in the process of starting a business. Good thing I have my blogs mostly set up! Oh, and I’m hosting Thanksgiving for my family. I’m taking the day before and the day after off of work – I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to get some extra time in there, and keep my wordcount on track.

Here’s my progress for this past week:

  • 12,000 words on NaNoWriMo novel, to a total of 30,000 words or more – Done!
  • Physical activity 5x this week – partial – Done!
  • Hangar 18 – review and markup Chapters 10-11 – Partial – I got Chapter 10 marked up.

Here are my overall goals for this round:

  • Format and release OVRWA holiday story anthology – Done and now available!
  • Revise Hangar 18 – revisions/markup done through Chapter 10
  • Keep up with my exercise, five times a week – ongoing
  • Win NaNoWriMo – on track with 31,178 words so far!
For this week, I’d like to:
  • 12,000 more words on NaNoWriMo novel, bringing its total up to 43,000
  • Physical activity 5x this week
  • Hangar 18 – review and markup Chapters 11 & 12

If you’re participating in ROW80, how are you doing so far? If you’re in the U.S., what are your plans for Thanksgiving, and do they affect your goal setting this week, especially if you’re doing NaNoWriMo?

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.

ROW80: NaNoWriMo, Day 11

Flags on Normandy Beach, France

Before my ROW80 update, I’d like to first observe that it’s Veterans’ Day in the United States, and take this time to thank those who have served (and are serving) in our armed forces. It’s because of their willingness to put their lives on the line for our country and what we stand for, that we have the freedoms we so easily take for granted today.

 * * * * * * * * * * * * *

As for ROW80, my solution for dealing with the to-do list worked wonderfully. In case you missed it, details here. Stupidly simple! (Uhhh… and stupid too, but nevermind).

NaNoWriMo progress is on track, and I remembered a few other, non-ROW80 things on my list that needed to be done, and they got done. As far as my other ROW80 goals, weeeelllllll… I’m going to cite poor planning as my excuse for not getting to my revisions on Hangar 18. I had an RWA chapter meeting and workshop all afternoon today, and guests for dinner afterward – which is when I would have done this. However, the workshop was fantastic and sooooo worth it. That’s one thing I love about writing – there’s always something new to learn. And my husband and I had a fun evening with our friends.

Here’s my progress for this past week:

  • 12,000 words on NaNoWriMo novel, to a total of 18,000 words or more – Done!
  • Physical activity 5x this week – partial – got in 3x.
  • Hangar 18 – review and markup Chapters 10-11 – No.

Here are my overall goals for this round:

  • Format and release OVRWA holiday story anthology – Done and soon to be released!
  • Revise Hangar 18 – revisions/markup moving along nicely
  • Keep up with my exercise, five times a week – ongoing
  • Win NaNoWriMo – on track with 18,175 words so far!
For this week, I’d like to:
  • 12,000 more words on NaNoWriMo novel, bringing its total up to 18,000
  • Physical activity 5x this week
  • Hangar 18 – review and markup Chapters 10 & 11

If you’re participating in ROW80, how are you doing so far? Are you doing NaNoWriMo? If so, look me up and let’s be writing buddies! And either way, how are you doing with whatever goals you may have made?

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.

ROW80: Four Days In

What do you do when there’s something on your to-do list that just won’t go away?

One solution, of course, is to ditch the to-do list. I tried that once, but every time I do, the darn thing keeps coming back.

In all seriousness, there’s no way I’d remember to do all the things I need and want to do without it. So the list stays. But that thing that keeps hanging on… in this case, it’s working through the exercises in Get It Together, an estate planning workbook. Not the most exciting stuff, so naturally, it gets shoved to the back of the priority line.

Sometimes, that’s what we have to do. When I started this round of ROW80, I’d thought I might do NaNoWriMo, but hadn’t committed to actually doing it. Well, now that I have, writing New Book takes precedence.

I will complete Get It Together… just not this month. Probably not this ROW80.

Fortunately, everything else went better. Here’s my progress for this past week:

  • 6,000 words on NaNoWriMo novel – Done! I even went to a local write-in, got 2,000 words written, and had a great time!
  • Review Home for the Holidays print proof, correct again if needed; otherwise OK it and make available for sale! – Done! Second proof came out right, so I OK’ed it, and it’s now available! More details coming Wednesday.
  • Physical activity 5x this week – Done! It helps that I am reading an awesome book on the treadmill this week.
  • Hangar 18 – review and markup Chapters 7-9 – Done, thanks to this section needing minimal revision.
  • Get it Together exercises 13 & 14 – No – see above.

Here are my overall goals for this round:

  • Format and release OVRWA holiday story anthology – Done and soon to be released!
  • Revise Hangar 18 – revisions/markup moving along nicely
  • Keep up with my exercise, five times a week – ongoing
  • Finish the Get It Together exercises – completed sections 3 – 12 – postponed until the next ROWnd
  • NEW: Win NaNoWriMo – on track with 6,300 words so far!
For this week, I’d like to:
  • 12,000 more words on NaNoWriMo novel, bringing its total up to 18,000
  • Physical activity 5x this week
  • Hangar 18 – review and markup Chapters 10 & 11

If you’re participating in ROW80, how are you doing so far? Are you doing NaNoWriMo? If so, look me up and let’s be writing buddies! And either way, how are you doing with whatever goals you may have made?

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.

ROW80: Jumping into NaNoWriMo

I’ve decided…. I’m going to go for it this November. I’m going to do NaNoWriMo. I signed up last week, after being inspired by some of my ROW80 peeps, and I committed to it today by telling my daughter, her friend, and one of my best friends from college and her partner. It was at that point that I realized that not everyone knows what NaNoWriMo, even spelled out: National Novel Writing Month, is.

Basically, it’s a month of craziness: you commit to writing a 50,000 word novel in one month. If you write 50, 000 words, you “win,” even if your novel isn’t complete at that length.

That sounds like a lot, yet there are plenty of professional, full-time writers who regularly produce at this level or more. I did it once before, in 2009. And yes, I “won.” I never did finish that book, but I still plan to.

The rules of NaNoWriMo require that you start a new book in November – picking up one that’s already started doesn’t count, although a lot of people do just that. I’m doing NaNo because other than “Time’s Holiday,” I haven’t written any new material since I did NaNoWriMo. I need that extra kick in the seat.

I don’t know if I’ll publish the book I’m writing for NaNo – I want to get back into writing for fun, and it’s a big departure from what I usually write, so who knows how it’ll turn out. FUN is where it’s at this month. It’ll definitely be harder to “win” this time around, as I have a regular blog and other writing activities to do, including my revision on Hangar 18, that I don’t want to put off further.

Fortunately, we can do ROW80 and NaNoWriMo at the same time. So here’s my ROW80 progress for this past week:

  • Finish Home for the Holidays print book, and if proof received, correct if needed; otherwise OK it and make available for sale – the proof had some minor issues, so I reworked those, uploaded the corrections, and ordered another proof. Done!
  • Physical activity 5x this week – No. I had a bit of a cold earlier this week, and although it was a mild one (thank goodness!), I took it easy on the physical stuff this week. I’m better now, so I’m hoping to jump back in this week!
  • Hangar 18 – review and markup Chapters 4-6 – Done!
  • Get it Together exercises 13 & 14 – No
  • I got some more outlining done on my NaNoWriMo project.

Here are my overall goals for this round:

  • Format and release OVRWA holiday story anthology – Done and soon to be released!
  • Revise Hangar 18 – revisions/markup started
  • Keep up with my exercise, five times a week – ongoing
  • Finish the Get It Together exercises – completed sections 3 – 12
For this week, I’d like to:
  • 6,000 words on NaNoWriMo novel
  • Review Home for the Holidays print proof, correct again if needed; otherwise OK it and make available for sale!
  • Physical activity 5x this week
  • Hangar 18 – review and markup Chapters 7-9
  • Get it Together exercises 13 & 14

If you’re participating in ROW80, how are you doing so far? Are you doing NaNoWriMo? If so, look me up and let’s be writing buddies! And either way, how are you doing with whatever goals you may have made?

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.

ROW80: One Big Goal Down

Three to go! It took awhile, and I ended up learning some new software, but that ended up being fun, and I got the holiday anthology formatted for both e-book and print, and the print proof on its way to me already. For my first two books, Word worked out just fine provided I proofed the whole book to make sure it wasn’t hyphenating words in stupid places (which it does). But this anthology was my first time using CreateSpace, which flagged a couple of graphics that Word had reduced quality of for file size – to a lower resolution than it should have. Therefore, I switched to Adobe InDesign, professional page layout software that my day job employer thoughtfully provided along with the web design components I regularly use. I’ve been mostly out of the graphic design field for fifteen years now, so I’d never used it. However, the overall functionality was much the same as what I used to use way back then, so it was more a matter of learning the specific commands of how to do a particular thing, like set up page headers that could be different for each story. And wow, did it do a much better job than Word!

Here’s my week’s progress in detail:

  • Format and upload Home for the Holidays anthology if all materials are received –  Done!
  • Physical activity 5x this week – Done!
  • Hangar 18 – review and markup Chapters 1-3 – Done!
  • Get it Together exercises 13 & 14 – No
  • I got some more outlining done on my “just for me” project.

Here are my overall goals for this round:

  • Format and release OVRWA holiday story anthology – Done and soon to be released!
  • Revise Hangar 18 – revisions/markup started
  • Keep up with my exercise, five times a week. – ongoing
  • Finish the Get It Together exercises (description of that here) – completed sections 3 – 12
For this week, I’d like to:
  • Finish Home for the Holidays print book, and if proof received, correct if needed; otherwise OK it and make available for sale!
  • Physical activity 5x this week
  • Hangar 18 – review and markup Chapters 4-6
  • Get it Together exercises 13 & 14

If you’re participating in ROW80, how are you doing so far? If not, how are you doing with whatever goals you may have made?

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.