Tag Archives: ROW80

ROW80: Getting Better

by Jennette,

My list doesn’t look much more green than it did last week, and yet I feel like I accomplished a lot more. At least a couple of the items are orange, meaning partly done, rather than red (meaning not done). Most importantly, my short story is out with four beta readers, two of whom have read my books, and two of whom haven’t.

However, I did end up doing something I’ve been meaning to put on this list, but keep putting off: I designed a real home page for my website! I like it a lot better than just using my latest blog posts. And, I incorporated my new author photos I had taken last month!

Here are the rest of the details:

  • Read Lesson 12 of How to Think Sideways – No
  • Short story – complete revisions – first pass and second – Done!
  • Request beta reads for short story – Done! Got four takers, and sent the story to them, too.
  • Get It Together exercise 9 & 10 – No
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – Got two and two.
  • Format a friend’s book for print if she gets me what I need – She hasn’t sent me the front & back matter yet, but we nailed her logo/colophon design.

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

  • Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways – done through Lesson 10.
  • Complete Saturn Society short story – out with beta readers
  • Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive) – waiting until I get other projects done
  • Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – completed sections 3 – 8.
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
  • BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy – Needs revision based on beta reads – waiting until I get other projects done
  • BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series
And here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:
  • Read Lesson 12 of How to Think Sideways
  • Short story – collect/write front and back matter for standalone release, start working on cover
  • Get It Together exercise 9 & 10
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
  • Format a friend’s book for print if she gets me what I need

How are you doing, whether or not you’re doing ROW80? How do you recover when something changes your plans?

ROW80: Close, but…

by Jennette,

The week started out well. I got a bit done on my short story revision each evening, saving the last–and longest–scene for Saturday. I also put off some of the other tasks until Saturday.

Of course, plans change. I’d planned to spend the afternoon with my mom, but forgot to take that into consideration when setting the week’s goals. And then we ended up spending the evening with friends, which I hadn’t planned for, sooooo…..

Anyway. Here’s what I did this week:

  • Read Lesson 12 of How to Think Sideways – no
  • Short story – revisions, first pass – almost! But not quite. Edit: finished around 12:30 this AM
  • Request beta reads for short story – partial – requested one.
  • Get It Together exercise 9 & 10 – no
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – ugh. No on this one, too. Just two intervals.
  • Format a friend’s book for print if she gets me what I need – didn’t get the back cover text so this goes over to next week.
  • Critique a chapter for another writing friend – Done!
  • Prepare another friend’s business cards for printer – Done!

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

  • Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways – done through Lesson 10.
  • Complete Saturn Society short story – revision almost complete
  • Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive) – waiting until I get other projects done
  • Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – completed sections 3 – 8.
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
  • BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy – Needs revision based on beta reads – waiting until I get other projects done
  • BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series
And here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:
  • Read Lesson 12 of How to Think Sideways (Lesson 11 is how to prepare a submission for traditional publishers – been there, done that, and I’m done with that, so I’m skipping it)
  • Short story – complete revisions – first pass and second
  • Request beta reads for short story
  • Get It Together exercise 9 & 10
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
  • Format a friend’s book for print if she gets me what I need

How are you doing, whether or not you’re doing ROW80? How do you recover when something changes your plans?

Edit: I wrote this at about 10:30 PM last night. After my husband went to bed, I wasn’t sleepy, so I stayed up and completed my revision pass! So even if it was after midnight, I’m going to go back and mark that one as done!

ROW80: Catch-up Day

by Jennette,

When I was a kid, I didn’t like Sundays very much, because they were boring. Even in college, at least starting out, I wasn’t crazy about weekends because I wasn’t a partier. My attitude on this changed by the time I graduated, and once I entered the work world and got a social life, I’m all for weekends.

For those of us with a traditional 8-5, Monday-Friday paycheck job, weekends are when we catch up on stuff around the house, spend time with family, and maybe once in a while, get to spend time with friends or do something fun just for us.

And once in a great while, we get a little gift of pure blessing: a day when we don’t have to go anywhere or do anything other than what’s on our own agenda.

I hardly ever get those days. But yesterday, I did, and I totally cranked on my ROW80 goals! Here’s what I did this week:

  • Work through Lesson 10 of How to Think Sideways – Done. There wasn’t much to do beyond reading, in relation to my current WIP
  • Print out short story and do initial read-through for revisions – Done!
  • Get It Together exercise 7 & 8 – Done!
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – Done!
  • Format a friend’s book for print – Done, as much as I can until she decides on what trim size she wants and gets me back cover copy, etc.

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

  • Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways – done through Lesson 10.
  • Complete Saturn Society short story – revision started!
  • Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive) – waiting until I get other projects done
  • Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – completed sections 3 – 8.
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
  • BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy – Needs revision based on beta reads – waiting until I get other projects done
  • BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series
And here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:
  • Read Lesson 12 of How to Think Sideways (Lesson 11 is how to prepare a submission for traditional publishers – been there, done that, and I’m done with that, so I’m skipping it)
  • Short story – revisions, first pass
  • Request beta reads for short story
  • Get It Together exercise 9 & 10
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
  • Format a friend’s book for print if she gets me what I need
  • Critique a chapter for another writing friend
  • Prepare another friend’s business cards for printer

How are you doing, whether or not you’re doing ROW80? Have you had a catch-up day lately? Are you someone who likes a day where you don’t have to go anywhere or do you get antsy staying home all day?

ROW80: I’m Back!

by Jennette,

I ‘m back from my much-needed, thankfully-brief break.

Between a quick trip to Chicago and courting burnout, I did not accomplish very much, writing-wise, the last couple of weeks. My to-do list was overflowing and overwhelming, and even if I’d decided to ditch the to-do list, it still would have been lingering mentally. So taking a little time off from posting goals seemed the better option.

And it paid off. After venting a little bit, I ended up getting quite a bit done these past couple of weeks:

  • Finished first draft of short story
  • Got three interval workouts and two short workouts in last week, two intervals and two shorter workouts this past week
  • Picked up my new author photos from my photographer – very happy! I’ve begun updating my online profiles with the new headshot. Some of you may have seen it.
  • Finished web design/copywriting side job and uploaded to client’s web host
  • Finished several projects promised to friends – a book cover design, a business card design, and started on print formatting for another friend. These are all things I’m doing in exchange for editing, beta reads, etc.

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

  • Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways – haven’t made much progress on this lately – need to pick back up.
  • Complete Saturn Society short story for holiday anthology – first draft done!
  • Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive) – waiting until I get other projects done
  • Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – haven’t made much progress on this either – will get back into it this week.
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
  • BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy (Got it back from last beta reader – t’s going to need a lot of edits.)
  • BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series
And here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:
  • Work through Lesson 10 of How to Think Sideways
  • Print out short story and do initial read-through for revisions
  • Get It Together exercise 7 & 8
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
  • Format a friend’s book for print (this is a beta reader – she’s helped me; this is how I’ll return the favor)

How are you doing, whether or not you’re doing ROW80?

ROW80: Need a Break

by Jennette,

I blogged on Thursday how fragmented my time has become, and the more fragmented, the less I get done. As you might infer from that, the motivation’s still lacking, but this week, it’s not for lack of trying. It seemed whenever I planned to spend an evening buckling down and getting some of my goals knocked out, something would come along to derail that. One night it was an unplanned dinner out (I was hungry, so no problem there, but it took longer than eating in would have). Another night, a friend dropped by. This isn’t one who doesn’t “get” the need to do the writing, but someone I hadn’t seen a probably a good couple of years, so it was worthwhile to spend an enjoyable evening with her. I just didn’t get any progress made elsewhere.

I did get my author photos taken last week, and that seemed to go well. Looking forward to meeting with my photographer to see what he’s come up with!

  • Two more scenes on short story – got about half of one scene done.
  • Lesson 10 on How to Think Sideways – Nope
  • Complete Get It Together Chapter 7 & 8 exercises – Nope
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – Got two interval workouts done, that’s it
  • Finish web design/copywriting side job and upload to client’s web host- Nope

I really don’t like that list with no green on it, but that’s how it goes. Time to take a step back.

One of my commenters on my “Fragmented” post mentioned that illness is life’s way of making us slow down. So that’s what I’m going to do this week, along with some other plans that would make it difficult to get much done. So I’m mostly taking the week off. Any progress on any of it will be a bonus!

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

  • Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways Working on Lesson 10 now.
  • Complete Saturn Society short story for holiday anthology – working on it!
  • Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive) – waiting until I get web design project done and short story written
  • Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – Chapter 3 – 6 done
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
  • BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy (It’s going to need a lot of edits, but not major story stuff. Whew!)
  • BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series

What are your plans for the rest of summer, whether or not you’re doing ROW80? Ever feel like you need to take a break? What do you do, especially if the break cuts into your goals progress?

ROW80: Powering Through

by Jennette,

Motivation was low this week – I’m not sure why. I had other, little things that piled up – and I was motivated to do none of it. I did manage to force myself to do my writing, which was exciting because I haven’t written any significant amount of new material in almost three years.

I know part of what made that hard to do was fear. But I pushed through and made myself get something down, even though it’s probably not that good. Thank goodness for revisions! Here are the details:

  • Two scenes on short story -Done!
  • Lesson 9 on How to Think Sideways – Done!
  • Complete Get It Together Chapter 5 – 8 exercises – Got 5 & 6 done.
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – Done
  • Track exercise & consumption 5 days – No. Going to rethink this one.
  • BONUS: Web design/copywriting side job – the client got back to me Tuesday or Wednesday, and I got part of his changes made. So not bad.

Not as much as I wanted, but it’s something.

On another note relating to one of my overall goals, one of my beta readers for Hangar 18 wasn’t working out, so I asked someone else – a coworker who is also retire USAF. He gave the book a quick read and got me a bunch of feedback the NEXT DAY! And it was good info – wow, did I miss a lot of details! He even offered to give it a more through read, to which I said, sure! Have I said lately how my coworkers are awesome?

So Hangar 18 is at least moving forward again. I am also getting new author photos taken later today, and I’m a little nervous. Here’s what else is on deck for this week:

  • Two more scenes on short story
  • Lesson 10 on How to Think Sideways
  • Complete Get It Together Chapter 7 & 8 exercises
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
  • Finish web design/copywriting side job and upload to client’s web host
  • BONUS: Additional writing on short story

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

  • Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways Working on Lesson 10 now.
  • Complete Saturn Society short story for holiday anthology – working on it!
  • Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive) – waiting until I get web design project done and short story written
  • Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – Chapter 3 – 6 done
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
  • BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy (It’s going to need a lot of edits, but not major story stuff. Whew!)
  • BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series

What are your plans for the rest of summer, whether or not you’re doing ROW80? Got any suggestions for motivation, when you’re having trouble meeting your goals?

ROW80: Success, continued – mostly

by Jennette,

I pulled one of my old tricks this week, and forgot that I had an all-afternoon writing workshop on Saturday. With an hour drive time each way, that took up most of my day. Normally, I spend a lot of Saturdays finishing up my goals. But in spite of that lack of planning on my part, I didn’t do too badly!

  • Complete web design/copywriting side job I took on last month – Done! (at about 11pm last night 🙂 )
  • Come up with 5 plot cards for short story – Yes! It all coalesced on Thursday evening, and I got my plotting done! Now the hard part comes. 🙂 
  • Complete Get It Together Chapter 5 – 7 exercises – I got most of 5 and 6 done. Better than none!
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – Done!
  • Track exercise & consumption 5 days – Nope. I just can’t get back into this habit, and I need to, because tracking it helps me not snack as much.

But overall, I’m happy with my progress. So here’s what’s on deck for this week:

  • Two scenes on short story – I’m very rusty on writing new material, so this could be a stretch. Ideally, I could get the whole thing written, but I don’t want to count on it. Getting started will also take care of Lesson 9 on How to Think Sideways.
  • Complete Get It Together Chapter 5 – 8 exercises – Adding one more to keep with my two chapters/week schedule.
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
  • Track exercise & consumption 5 days
  • BONUS: Web design/copywriting side job – it’s waiting for the client’s review right now. If he gets back to me on time, I’d like to get the changes made and get it hosted. But that’s dependent on him.
  • BONUS: Additional writing on short story

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

  • Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways Waiting to jump back into this when I get started writing the short story.
  • Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive) – waiting until I get web design project done
  • Complete Saturn Society short story for holiday anthology – working on it!
  • Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – Chapter 3 – 4 done, 5 & 6 started
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
  • Work back into tracking exercise and consumption – ongoing
  • BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy (if I get it back from the beta readers sometime this month, and depending on edits needed)
  • BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series

What are your plans for the rest of summer, whether or not you’re doing ROW80? If you’re doing this or some other kind of goal-setting, what’s your strategy to get back on track if you’re having trouble meeting all your goals?

ROW80: Start Small for Success

by Jennette,

I took it easy this week, goal-wise, as I didn’t have much success in the final weeks of the last ROWnd. That seems to have worked, as I met all of my goals this week, and even accelerated on a couple!

Here’s what I did:

  • Research online for short story – Done!
  • Come up with synopsis sentence for short story – Done!
  • Review How to Think Sideways exercises for ideas to work in to short story – Done! I even got some plot ideas written down.
  • Complete Get It Together Chapter 3 & 4 exercises (the authors suggest doing 1 & 2 last) – Done! I also did most of Chapter 5.
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – Done!

And here’s what I’m planning for this week:

  • Complete web design/copywriting side job I took on last month
  • Come up with 5 plot cards for short story
  • Complete Get It Together Chapter 5 – 7 exercises
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
  • Track exercise & consumption 5 days
  • BONUS: Format Time’s Two for Smashwords

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

  • Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways Waiting to jump back into this when I get started writing the short story.
  • Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive)
  • Complete Saturn Society short story for holiday anthology I’m hoping to participate in – have summary sentence written
  • Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – Chapter 3 – 4 done
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
  • Work back into tracking exercise and consumption – ongoing
  • BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy (if I get it back from the beta readers sometime this month, and depending on edits needed)
  • BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series

What are your plans for the rest of summer, whether or not you’re doing ROW80? If you’re doing this or some other kind of goal-setting, what’s your strategy to get back on track if you’re having trouble meeting all your goals?

ROW80: Worst-Case Planning

by Jennette,

I didn’t even manage to make a final post for the final check-in last round; I’ll use “being in France with only occasional Internet” for my excuse reason. At any rate, trip preparations, my mind being elsewhere, and last-minute things I had to do around the house prevented me from making much progress, so my report would have been pretty much the same as the one prior.

But it’s a new round, time for new goals, and a fresh start! I’m having trouble getting back into the swing of things, even though I was only gone a week and a half, so I’m going to start out easy. In the last round, I also learned (again) that I need to limit my goals to things that are 100% in my control. My two beta readers still have Hangar 18, and I don’t want to rush them, so I’ll make that goal conditional.


I’m also adding something new, and not writing-related; I guess you could call it worst case planning. My parents are 70 and pushing-70, and my husband’s been after me for years to find out where they keep their personal papers, powers of attorney, health care wishes, etc. in the event that something happens to them and someone needs to make decisions. It’s not a pleasant topic and one that no one wants to discuss, so I keep meaning to do it if something leads in to it, but that time’s never come.

Then it occurred to me that my husband and I need to have this stuff collected together in case something happens to us. Thing is, it’s even more certain than taxes, will happen to everyone eventually, and no one knows when. So I found a book that looked like a good guide to organizing all this info and walks you through doing a little bit at a time. Baby steps! So completing those exercises will be my goal this quarter, and if I like it, I’ll suggest it to my parents when I hand my information to them.

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

  • Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways
  • Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive)
  • Complete Saturn Society short story for holiday anthology I’m hoping to participate in – kind of scary because I haven’t written short fiction since freshman year of college, and that wasn’t very good
  • Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week
  • Work back into tracking exercise and consumption
  • BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy (if I get it back from the beta readers sometime this month, and depending on edits needed)
  • BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series

And here’s what I’ll do this week to work toward them:

  • Research online for short story
  • Come up with synopsis sentence for short story
  • Review How to Think Sideways exercises for ideas to work in to short story
  • Complete Get It Together Chapter 3 & 4 exercises (the authors suggest doing 1 & 2 last)
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts

What are your plans for the rest of summer, whether or not you’re doing ROW80? Have you collected together “life plans” and info for your family?

ROW80: Sometimes, there really isn’t enough time

by Jennette,

I kept my load light again this week, knowing it would be a busy one with two web design project to do outside of my day job. But Wednesday, I still wasn’t where I wanted to be, so I re-evaluated how I was spending my time. Surely there was something in there, somewhere I was spending too much time taking “breaks” to play Solitaire, etc.

But there wasn’t. That night I accounted for every 15 minutes, and only one 15-minute segment was spent on a game break. Otherwise, every bit of it was spent plotting my next book, exercising, reading/answering email/blogs/social media, or working on web design (two hours there).

Sometimes there really isn’t any extra time, and we have to admit that we can’t do it all without sacrificing sleep (not a good idea, health-wise or productivity/quality-wise, for me). Here’s how the week went:

  • Work halfway through Lesson 8 of How to Think Sideways – almost! But not quite.
  • Initial design for the builder’s website – started, but not enough to show him. Hopefully tonight!
  • Publish and host the massage therapists’ website – Done! And she loves it!
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – Done!
  • Work back into tracking exercise and consumption – minimum four days this week – uh… no. Maybe next ROW80.

Here are the overall goals:

  • Release Time’s Fugitive, in both ebook and print – Done!
  • Complete Holly Lisle’s How to Write a Series workshop – Done!
  • How to Think Sideways workshop – complete through Lesson 8 – on track!
  • Get Times Two (Time’s Enemy/Time’s Fugitive box set) ready for release as an ebook – not going to happen, but since I’m delaying the release, that’s OK.

Next check-in will be my last for this ROW, as I don’t do Wednesday check-ins. So here’s this week’s plan:

  • Finish Lesson 8 of How to Think Sideways
  • Initial design for the builder’s website
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts

How are you doing in this round of ROW80 – are you on track for your overall goals?