writing | Jennette Marie Powell

by Jennette, January 6, 2014

I used to think New Year’s Eve was a silly thing to celebrate. Mostly, it was Amateur Night for drunks (still is). But as I got older, and got more about setting goals and including a time component to them, I realized there’s something to that changing of the calendar.

It’s a chance to hit reset, to start over, begin anew with new, or revised goals.

Not resolutions – I don’t do those, as they always seem doomed to failure and fizzle out by mid-February (or March at the latest). But the turning of the calendar gives us a reminder to press pause, evaluate the last calendar, see where we went and what we did–or didn’t do–and then see what we could do this year.

At first glance, it doesn’t seem like I did much with my writing last year. I do formatting, cover design, and print book interior layout for my publisher, Mythical Press. One of my big goals last year was to do this for an anthology that included a Saturn Society short story, as well as works by five of my local writing friends.

Initially, I was supposed to get the materials by May. Due to editorial snafus and who knows what else, I didn’t end up getting the last of the submissions until the end of November. I had the e-book cover already designed and could have busted my butt to get the rest done last month, except I was already committed to other things, like my relative’s e-commerce site (which did get completed, though they’re still tweaking the product descriptions, etc.). Also, it was the holidays, which is hard enough to keep up with…

So that did not get done. I also wanted to get one other novel written, which also did not happen.

But when I look at what did happen, it’s not too bad:

Hangar 18: Legacy was finished and published
I outlined and wrote 75,000 words on a new Saturn Society novel (my original plan was for something else, which would be finished at this length, but SS novels are long)
I won NaNoWriMo with the above (the other 25, 000 words were written before and after November)
Took two online workshops
Designed cover for the anthology

In addition, I did several things that weren’t on my list:

Wrote “Time’s Tempest: The Storm” for the anthology (wasn’t originally on my list, because I wasn’t sure I’d put something in that anthology). “Time’s Tempest” is a Saturn Society story featuring different main characters, though it does tie into novel #3. This is going to eventually be a serial novel, in 7-8 parts, each of which I think will be about 20,000 words – a long short story/short novella.
Took an additional workshop
Developed new website for Mythical Press
Designed six book covers for writing friends
Cover designed for the work-in-progress SS novel
Wrote 10,000 words on a follow-up “Time’s Tempest” novella

Sometimes we really need to press pause to see how much we really did accomplish.

So what’s up for 2014? ROW80 does a nice job of breaking it down into quarters, so we’ll start there.

Format, design print cover and interior of anthology for Mythical Press
Finish first draft of “Time’s Tempest #2” (about 10,000 more words)
Research for Time’s Tempest #3
10,000 words on SS novel #3
Finish first draft of Time’s Tempest #3

I’m all for keeping it simple. For this week, that breaks down to:

Format anthology for Smashwords upload
2500 words on TT or SS#3
Fitness 3-4x

What about you–do you like the figurative hitting reset that comes with a new calendar year? What are your big goals for the year, whether or not you participate in ROW80? 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, November 24, 2013

Sometimes, you get stuck on a project. You’ve tried powering through, you’ve tried researching possible solutions, you’ve tried banging your head on the keyboard (or whatever), and you get to a point where the only thing left to do is walk away.

And this can be the best thing to do. I don’t mean permanently, but just take a break and go do something else. Later, I’ll usually come back to the first project with an a-ha solution to whatever was blocking me!

This is something I’ve internalized years ago at the day job (I am a web developer), and it works for other things, too–graphic design projects, sewing, even restoring a car (my husband’s current hobby project). This week, I was reminded that it’s great for the writing, too.

The “something else” we walk away to doesn’t even need to be something entirely different–it can be a different project of the same type. A different web development project, a different part of the garment I’m constructing, a different part of the car in restoration–or a different story.

I didn’t think I could work on two stories at once, but I tried it yesterday, and my wordcount added up fabulously fast!

It might be because the project I switched to is related to the primary project–a short story in the same world, and almost functions as a subplot, so while it was different, it wasn’t too different.

So I met the writing portion of my ROW80 goals by doing something seemingly counterproductive–by walking away.

Here’s how the rest went:

12,000 words on WIP: split between 2 WIPs, but I’m calling this one Done!
Review video lessons for Promotions workshop first three weeks and take notes: partial–got through 2-1/2 weeks.
Refine layout of Shopping Cart page for family member’s web site: Partial–worked on it, but it’s not quite finished.
Fitness 4 times, no matter how short: Done!

Here’s what’s up for this week:

Finish out NaNoWriMo by writing 11,000 words on either story or both
Review remaining lessons for Promotions workshop
Finish Shopping Cart and Checkout pages for website
Fitness 4 times, even if short
Survive Thanksgiving–yes, it’s that time! And yes, I’m hosting, but this won’t be difficult, as my family is small and others contribute.

What about you–have you had to “walk away” from a project lately? Did you come back to it with renewed vigor and ideas? If you’re doing NaNoWriMo, are you on track to hit 50,000 words by Saturday? If you’re in the U.S., what are your plans for Thanksgiving? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

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!

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, 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!

by Jennette, July 28, 2013

What do these seemingly disparate things have in common? I learned something about each this week! Let’s start with the book. Normally, I’d feature this on WANA Wednesday, but I only have one book, and I’m lazy, so…

thepromisedonehighres A couple of weeks ago, real-life writing friends C.D. Hersh released their debut urban fantasy, The Promised One. In the wrong hands, the Turning Stone ring is a powerful weapon for evil. So, when homicide detective Alexi Jordan discovers her uncle has been murdered and his magic ring stolen, she is forced to use her shape-shifting powers to catch the killer. By doing so, she risks the two most important things in her life–her badge and the man she loves.

Rhys Temple always knew that his cop partner, and would-be-girlfriend, Alexi Jordan had a few secrets. He considers that part of her charm. But when she changes into a man, he doesn’t find that as charming. He’ll keep her secret to keep her safe, but he’s not certain he can keep up a relationship–professional or personal.

I am reading The Promised One now, and really enjoying it! What’s especially cool is that it isn’t your typical creature-shapeshifter–in this book, people shift into other people. Very cool, with so many opportunities for things to get interesting! More info on their blog at http://cdhersh.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/book-release-birthday/

So, one thing I learned this week is that it’s still possible to put a new twist on something that’s been done and done and done – in this case, the shapeshifter romance. Other things I learned are:

Another thing I learned is that changing the spark plugs on a ’99 Firebird is a major pain! They are almost impossible to get to. I know this, because my husband was attempting to do this on my old car, that our daughter now drives, and needed my smaller hands to help. We did it, but it wasn’t easy–he even ended up drilling a hole through the wheel well to get an extension socket wrench through to get to the most difficult one!

Third, I learned that six people can be invited to witness an execution in Ohio. Three by the condemned, and three by the victim’s family. Maybe this is obvious to folks who watch a lot of news–I found it in the process of doing research for my work-in-progress.

And finally, I’m finding that I don’t need to outline exhaustively to start writing–in fact, this is one excuse I use to procrastinate. I knew this before, but this awesome blog post by Dean Wesley Smith reminded me. If you’re a writer and you haven’t read it, go there. Really. This is the best blog post I’ve read all year! So I didn’t write up the 25 scene cards I’d noted in last week’s ROW80 goals–just made a few more notes, and started writing instead. Nothing major, just 250 words, but hey, it’s a start! Here are the rest of the details:

Do the Character Pre-plan Exercise for my antagonist – Done!
Work on outline–create 25 cards – not done, but still counting this as a win. See above.

I also started back in on fitness, now that I can walk on the treadmill for more than five minutes without having to stop to cough. Got four workouts in last week! I also picked up some more research materials at the library. I have a bunch of stuff going on this weekend which will require a good bit of prep time, so going easy on the goals this week. So here’s the plan:

Skim/read the smaller of the two research books
1500 words on new ms
4 workouts

What about you–what new things have you learned this week? Read any good books lately? If you’re doing ROW80, or just working toward some goals, how are you doing? Let us know in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, May 5, 2013

I’m coming up on making another one of my major goals for ROW80, and it’s time to ask myself a basic question that I think is important to ask every now and then: What have I learned?

The first draft of my short story is done. The story itself isn’t; it still needs revision, but close enough. So what have I learned?

I don’t need to outline a short story. I did last summer when I wrote “Time’s Holiday.” Not only did the outlining seem to take forever, but the story took much longer to write than it should have. So this time, I got an idea and started writing. I worried that the ending wouldn’t come to me and that I’d wind up with a hundred pages of drivel with none in sight. (I have tried to write a novel without an outline, and that’s exactly what happened – only I had six hundred pages of drivel with no ending in sight. I did have fun, though.) But this time, the process worked, and the story’s ending came to me right before I needed it.
1500 words/week (or 300/day, five days a week), won’t get anything done very quickly, but it will keep things moving forward. I can up this pace – the 2500/week is not unreasonable, and from NaNoWriMo, I know I can do 12,000 words/week. Need to keep working on this after I get the story revisions taken care of.
It doesn’t take long to write 300 or 500 words. Even without an outline, I can get 300 words out in 10-20 minutes.
We don’t need big chunks of time to write – a bunch of little ones will get the job done – see above.
It’s helpful to do some basic research and make some basic decisions up front. I’ve decided to change the setting of my story, so I don’t have to deal with getting the main character from one place to another (which would mess with other things). But the new setting requires research, and that’s going to be the bulk of my revisions. Getting this right up front would have been helpful, and greatly reduced the time needed in revision, but oh well. OTOH, I know better than to do more than minimal research up front. That may work for some people, but for me, it ends up being an excuse to procrastinate getting started writing. I prefer to do most of it after the first draft is written, so I have specific things I can look up.

So a lot of learning, and overall, a good week. Here are the details:

Design flyer for relative’s small business – Done!
Writing: finish short story – Done!
Fitness: 5 workouts – partial – got four in

This week, I’m going to keep it simple. I have some boring business stuff on my Weekly Status Report to do, but don’t really want to list that here. I also have stuff going on this coming weekend. So we’ll just stick with:

Writing: complete research for short story & and do initial read-through
Fitness: 5 workouts

What about you? Whether or not you’re doing ROW80, or whether or not you write, how are you doing with your spring goals? What have they taught you lately? I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, April 28, 2013

Two out of three isn’t bad, although this is yet another week where I totally could have accomplished all three goals if I would have just kicked myself into gear on the writing and gotten it done. I did give it priority over the brochure design, but instead of working on that project when I didn’t feel like writing, I just goofed off more.

The good news is I got my 2500 words in, and I did finally kick myself into high gear, by using an old friend: the timer.

My friend, the timer

I’ve also been following Dean Wesley Smith’s progress as he chronicles ghost-writing a novel in ten days. Writers, this is very worth checking out, to see how a seasoned pro does it! He takes plenty of breaks, and does lots of other stuff too – but when he writes, he sits in the chair, gets the words down, and doesn’t slack. This evening, I had another 800 words to reach my weekly goal of a measly 2500 words (Mr. Smith writes over 7k/day), so I told myself, if he writes 1000 words in an hour, I should at least be able to get these 800 words in about the same amount of time (I’ve also timed myself before, so I know I can). I also remembered what Flylady says: “You can do anything for fifteen minutes.” Well, I made it a little easier and set the timer for ten minutes. (I use the Windows 7 Widget, in case anyone’s curious.)

When it went off, my first thought was that I’d set it for one minute instead. But then I looked at what I’d written, and I’d gotten over 200 words down! So yes, I did get those last 800 down in less than an hour.

Here’s the quick rundown of this week’s progress:

Design flyer for relative’s small business – started, but not much done
Writing: 2,500 words – Done!
Fitness: 4 workouts – Done! Actually, I went one better and did five. Back to my old routine!

So this week, the goals remain pretty much the same, except that the story will be done in less than 2500 words.

Design flyer for relative’s small business
Writing: finish short story
Fitness: 5 workouts

What about you – do you have trouble with procrastination sometimes? What do you do to get over it? Please share – I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, March 11, 2013

I’m baaaaaaaccckkkk! Well, okay, for the three or four of you who noticed I haven’t posted anything but Sunday ROW80 updates for the past two weeks.

Stress–it’s not pretty

I needed a blog break. I haven’t taken one in over a year, other than when I was in France. And let me tell you, it was great. I learned a lot–like how we need to ask ourselves the right questions in order to find the answers we need. For me, that was “Am I having fun?” My commenters had some great suggestions too, like “Is it worth it?” and “Why am I doing this?” and “Where can I find some inspiration?”

I was also reminded that when we’re feeling stressed, it’s because we feel we don’t have choices. But the fact is, when we look at our to-do list, we have more choices than we think. Psychologist-author Kassandra Lamb outlined this fantastically in her post “Whaddya Mean, Good Things are Still Stressful?” Absolutely worth the read! Go check it out, I’ll wait.

Back? OK. One of those things I had on my “have to” list was blogging. I know consistency is important to build up a readership and build up my store of content here, but it was getting so that I felt half of my weekend was being taken up by 1) writing the blogs, after 2) procrastinating writing the blogs and 3) researching for the blogs, especially the My Town Monday blogs. Don’t get me wrong, I love sharing things about my hometown that are cool, because that’s so not the image most people have about Dayton, but writing those blogs can be a lot of work. And it was starting to not be fun any more.

Same went for things like getting on Facebook and Twitter, and even outlining my next book! Yet the more I procrastinated, the guiltier I felt… yet the more all I wanted to do was sit at my computer and play more time management games. And then felt guiltier about that. I notice most of the blogs I follow don’t religiously post on the exact same topics, the exact same two or three days every week, and I don’t think any worse of these writers for it. So why do I expect this of myself?

So I took some time off all of the above, and I realized no one had a problem with it… except me. I was my own worst boss.

My boss at the day job does not act like this. He’s probably the most easy-going guy I have ever worked for. He gives me something to do, then leaves me alone to do it. When I present my work, he lets me know in a very matter-of-fact, non-judgmental way, what’s good, and what needs to be changed. As long as the work gets done, he really doesn’t care how I spend every minute of the day. He doesn’t care when I get to the office, or when I leave, as long as I put in the time I charge to my time sheet required by the company and our client. He doesn’t care if I spend time reading up on some technology that will help me to better do my job, as long as the work gets done. As far as scheduling goes, it’s up to me to set my schedule, and if it turns out something needs to change, I can change it. Everyone should have it so good! The only tricky part is that he has so much going on, he’s hard to track down when I need some direction or have a question, but I’ll take that with the good.

I decided it’s time my writing boss is like this. So here is a message for the outgoing one, because no one can say “You’re Fired!” like the WWE’s Vince McMahon:

And oh – as you might have guessed, my posting might not be as regular from here out – or it might! It depends on what else I have going on, and if I have something to say! I will definitely continue doing My Town Monday posts, because I enjoy them, just not as regularly. Same goes for WANA Wednesday! I do have some fun new releases to share this week, so see you in a couple of days!

What about you? Are you too hard on yourself, whether you’re a writer or not? Do you have a tyrant of a boss who needs to be fired? Feel free to show him or her this video! And please share – I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, February 24, 2013

This has been a tough week for me, writing-wise. I’ve been beating on this story that I’ve been sure was the next thing I wanted to write, for over a month now, and it just won’t gel. I put in all of fifteen minutes on it last week, going through the motions of doing a couple exercises in Holly Lisle’s Create a Plot Clinic. Even that was difficult. I just don’t want to do it, and it’s time I admitted that.

Trouble is, I’m not sure why I don’t want to work on this story. Maybe I was never excited enough about it to begin with. Or maybe there’s a problem in the story itself, that I haven’t chosen the right main character, I’m too focused on theme (a first for me), or some other story problem I haven’t yet figured out. But I was encouraged and gratified to find the following post on women’s fiction author Anna DeStefano’s blog today:

Today, Sunday, is a blog about the very hard work of resting. As exhausting as it is to put on a show the rest of the week, a Sunday of rest can be just as challenging.

Top priorities (for writers and readers and livers of life of all variations) include discovering core truths for our resting selves such as the following:

If you were the only one in your life, what would spend your Sunday doing?

If you could do only one thing today, and there were days left to do anything else, what things would disappear off your to-do list forever?

If you couldn’t speak or spend time with another person today, what one thing would bring you the most joy and satisfaction?

If you had all the money or resources or whatever else you needed to make whatever your dream for this day of rest come true, what dream would you leave all the rest behind to achieve?

If you were free of all other expectations, if there were no consequences on your horizon tomorrow, what would you want most to have achieved by the end of this Sunday?

No matter how big or how small or how taxing your own private, personal, inner dream for this day might be, pursue it. That’s the work that the best rests are made of. It’ s a start at least, telling yourself you can have what feeds you most, no matter the nurturing everyone else in your life needs. We have to feed the inner beast every now and then, so she’s ready to take on all those outward needs I eliminated in the list above, because they’re about everyone else and not the us resting days should be about protecting.

via The Soul of the Matter: Sunday, Sunday…Rest with me, won’t you? « Anna DeStefano’s Blog.

I think this is what I need to do. Thank you, Anna, for giving me permission to step back, regroup, and relax.

As for ROW80, I still managed to make some progress:

Two plot exercises for my next book – made a half-assed attempt at one, but not much.
Fitness activity 5x – got 4 activities in
Send out press release for Time’s Enemy – Done!
Assignment for writing workshop, week 2 – Done!
Re-dye the lace for prom dress, and cut one of the four fabrics in it – Done!

This week, I’m going to step back, reevaluate, and relax. I’m also dealing with switching my migraine medications, which might make it tough to do much physical activity. I’ll still look to do my workouts, but if I’m not feeling well, I’ll give myself a break. So here are the plans:

Assignment for writing workshop, week 3 (having fun with this, so no problems there)
Cut the rest of the fabric for the prom dress
BONUS – activity and/or any progress on the new book, decisions made, etc.

What about you – do you ever need to just step back, regroup, and take it easy? What did you think of Anna DeStefano’s suggestions? If you’re participating in ROW80, how’s it going?

Life and Love in Four Dimensions

Tag Archives: writing

My Town Monday Fun Fact

ROW80 Goals Update

Productivity Tip

Fun My Town Monday Fact