ROW80

ROW80: Shuffling Along, but A-MAZEballs

by Jennette,

This has been another less-than-stellar week, goal-wise, in which I’m not unlike a zombie.

But mostly, it’s felt like shuffling cards. Last week, my attempt to bring my burgeoning to-do list under control involved simply culling a bunch of stuff, sort of like pulling the twos through eights out of a standard deck of cards before playing Euchre.

I put the deck away each night, and each night, it seemed that gremlins were intent on finding those extraneous cards and shoving them back into the deck. So each day, the deck grew until it was back to being a standard 52-card deck.

No royal flush here!

The other thing I tried doing was shuffling. But shuffling doesn’t remove any cards. Likewise, moving a task that didn’t get done on Monday to Tuesday only increases the Tuesday list. The only solution I can see is to give up the to-do list for lent cut down the list even more, to the bare essentials. I even had a little reprieve last week, when I found my daughter had a band concert I’d forgotten about (i.e., not looked far ahead enough on the calendar). I rescheduled the meeting with the accountant, so I didn’t need to have the taxes done until this week. I was hoping to get them done anyway, but that didn’t happen. So now they’re definitely on the “bare essentials” list.

Last week’s results:

  1. Review Time’s Fugitive beta reader feedback (yes, it came back from the third beta)
  2. Collect remaining tax stuff for accountant
  3. Complete interview questions for guest blog
  4. Read nonfiction book for research
  5. Pick one task from marketing list, and implement it
  6. Three interval workouts plus two short workouts (Did two interval workouts and two short workouts)
  7. Track food intake every day (wow, I ate out too much last week!)

The good news is, that this beta read confirmed for me that I’ve found my Ideal Reader (as described by Stephen King in On Writing). This is the person who totally gets my work and loves it, but is also critical enough to see where I’ve screwed up something, left out something that needs to be put in, or left in something that isn’t needed. And she’s a good enough friend and writer to point all of this stuff out (or, when there isn’t much, to note that fact too, so I wouldn’t think she just fell asleep reading the long passage with no comments). And she didn’t have many comments, something I attribute to having put this book through the Holly Lisle “How to Revise Your Novel” wringer. And she said Time’s Fugitive is “EPIC” (yes, in all caps!) and “totally aMAZEballs!” And that she hated me because she stayed up until 5 AM reading, which is what we all want to be hated for. 😀

The other good thing is that I went through her comments and the other two beta readers’ (they are wonderful, too!) and made most of the changes they suggested, or at least considered them. I have just a couple more to address, then Time’s Fugitive is off to my awesome copy editor.

This week’s plans:

  1. Finish Time’s Fugitive beta reader changes and send to copy editor
  2. Format Hangar 18: Legacy for Kindle and send to beta readers
  3. Collect remaining tax stuff for accountant
  4. Read nonfiction book for research (it’s due back at the library this week)
  5. Three interval workouts plus two short workouts
  6. Track food intake every day (keeping this one on the list, because I’m still going back and entering this stuff the following day, which means I’m probably forgetting a few things)

How did you do this week? Do you find yourself still putting too much on your list to accomplish without burning out? Or have you mastered the shuffle that keeps the unneeded cards out? Or are you shuffling like a zombie? And for the authors here, on the good side of things, have you found your Ideal Reader?

ROW80: Giving up The To-Do List for Lent

by Jennette,

No, not me. I’m not even Catholic. It’s my friend Jim Winter who’s giving something unusual up for Lent: his To-Do list.

Just the thought strikes terror into me. Without my To-Do list, I’d forget half the appointments I make – and I don’t have that many. I’d forget how much I’d planned to write – that evening, or that week. I’d forget to do the business paperwork, until my husband demanded it get done now (which doesn’t work very well). But Jim’s blog post made me think about how lately, I’ve again fallen into the tendency to overload my to-do list. Jim made the radical-sounding choice he did because he ended up serving his to-do list, rather than it serving him. It was removing flexibility from his evenings, to the point where he felt he couldn’t even go for a walk – because he’d planned other things instead. It’s easy to fall into the same trap by overloading the list, which is why I think I didn’t get anything on mine done last week, except the writing (which didn’t even take that long).

Last week’s results:

  1. Review Hangar 18: Legacy for beta reader edits and research details
  2. Collect tax stuff for accountant
  3. Complete interview questions for guest blog
  4. Read nonfiction book for research
  5. Make list of review sites to submit to
  6. Pick one task off of marketing list developed last week, and implement it
  7. Three interval workouts plus two short workouts
  8. Track food intake every day (I’ve been doing this for a while, but really slacked off last week, so it needs to be on this list)

So I made a half-ass attempt at some of these items: I started collecting the tax stuff. I have a deadline on that, as I’m meeting with the accountant this week. I did all three interval workouts, but only one short workout, and only tracked my food a couple days, probably because I know it’s not good (darn Girl Scout cookies!).

So something has to give, but it’s not the to-do list – at least, not the whole thing. Instead, I’m going to limit it: no more than two tasks, besides my workout and writing. I think the reason so little else got done was because it was just too overwhelming. We’ll see how that goes!

Here’s the plan:

  • Review Time’s Fugitive beta reader feedback (hopefully I’ll get it back from the third beta)
  • Collect tax stuff for accountant
  • Complete interview questions for guest blog
  • Read nonfiction book for research
  • Pick one task from marketing list, and implement it
  • Three interval workouts plus two short workouts
  • Track food intake every day

How did you do this week? What do you think of my friend Jim’s radical plan?

ROW80: Slacker

by Jennette,

 

I’ve been a slacker this week. My green items makes it look like I did a lot, but the main thing – the writing! – I Didn’t. Even. Touch. My husband has even been out of town, so I should have had plenty of time!

So what happened?

Not gonna lie; I’ve been spending too much time playing Farm Frenzy Pizza Party. The other thing is that time is like closet space or hard drive capacity. Whatever stuff (things to do) you have, will expand to fill it.

Thirdly, I didn’t do a good job allocating my tasks for each day. Some days, I simply put too much, so tasks got shoved off to the next day, which made that one even more overloaded. So next week, I’m making a more concerted effort to do better in this area. Planning out our work ahead of time can help in other areas, too; I’m convinced it’s one way I’ve managed to stick to my workout schedule. I use Jonathan Roche’s No Excuses Workout, and every Sunday he sends out an email reminding us to schedule in our workouts.

Last week’s results:

  1. Critique a chapter for a writing friend
  2. Book review
  3. Additional work requested for side job website
  4. Break down marketing task list into Yeses, Nos, and Maybes
  5. Brainstorm some articles I can write for my newsletter
  6. Review my last draft of my next book and get it ready for beta readers
  7. Three interval workouts plus two short workouts

The next book is shorter than my Saturn Society novels, thank goodness. And the edits hopefully won’t be too bad, since it’s already been through the How to Revise Your Novel wringer. This time, I’m going over the comments from my first beta reader (also my copy editor), plus adding in a few more research details I’ve learned about since writing this story. The book is 263 pages, so if I split them evenly across eight work sessions, that comes out to be 33 pages a session. For me, a “work session” is roughly an hour, maybe two. My goal is to do one four weeknights (there’s always one night where I just have too much going on), two on Saturday, and two on Sunday. Actually, two on Sunday may be a little ambitious, as lately, it seems my blog posts have taken me nearly all day to write. They don’t really, but feel that way, the way I procrastinate and take too much time researching (then playing some Farm Frenzy). But I’m going to shoot for it anyway. It should be doable, because most pages don’t have any marks, and the research details affect only limited portions of the story. I also have Monday off of work, so that will help.

Here’s the plan:

  1. Review Hangar 18: Legacy for beta reader edits and research details
  2. Collect tax stuff for accountant
  3. Complete interview questions for guest blog
  4. Read nonfiction book for research
  5. Make list of review sites to submit to
  6. Pick one task off of marketing list developed last week, and implement it
  7. Three interval workouts plus two short workouts
  8. Track food intake every day (I’ve been doing this for a while, but really slacked off last week, so it needs to be on this list)

How did you do this week? Do you divvy up your work over the week? Got any other tips for getting it all done?

New ROW80 seal design by “The Daring Novelist,” Camille LaGuire

ROW80: Moving Right Along

by Jennette,

Not much to report this week. Had a good one as far as goals went, with most accomplished. The booksigning at Barnes & Noble was fun, if not very profitable (we’re having a very cold weekend here in Ohio, and attendance was not high. Even the big-name authors didn’t draw many readers).

Last week’s results:

  1. Design and print bookplates, stand-up placard, and excerpt brochures to hand out at book signing, plus signup sheet for reader newsletter
  1. Collect and write front/back matter for Time’s Fugitive – Author’s Note, Acknowledgements, etc.
  2. Investigate starting reader newsletter
  3. Write product description and determine tags for Time’s Fugitive; put together Book Info cheat sheet
  4. Review one marketing book (I have four to either read or re-read)
  5. Read last Golden Heart entry (#5 out of 5)
  6. Three interval workouts plus two short workouts
  7. Write one book review
  8. Bonus: any additional blogs

I only got in two interval workouts plus one short. I’d planned to do the last short workout today, but ended up being gone all day. Not a good excuse, just a reason. And I wasn’t feeling well earlier this week, hence why it and the interval workout didn’t get done then. But the Golden Heart judging is done, and my scores turned in to RWA – yay! I also got all of my front and back matter collected for my upcoming release, so that’s a big plus too.

For this week:

  1. Critique a chapter for a writing friend
  2. Book review
  3. Additional work requested for side job website
  4. Break down marketing task list into Yeses, Nos, and Maybes
  5. Brainstorm some articles I can write for my newsletter
  6. Review my last draft of my next book and get it ready for beta readers
  7. Three interval workouts plus two short workouts

How did you do this week? If you’re consistently not meeting all your goals, maybe you need to cut yourself some slack. Take an easy week, and jump back in next week. Or it may be that the goals you’re choosing just aren’t reasonable, given the other demands on your time. What do you think?

ROW80:Just Right

by Jennette,

Sometimes you just need to take it easy and give yourself a break. I gave myself an easier list this week, and it shows: I got everything done!

After completing that brutal revision, I needed that easy week. This coming week may be easy or not-so-much. The list looks long, but most of the items aren’t difficult or time-consuming – it’s a lot of little stuff.  I’m participating in my first book signing at a local Barnes & Noble, and want to have a few things to give away or encourage readers to go download my Nook book. As always, I’d like to collect some more blogs so I’m not always spending my Sundays writing them, but that never seems to happen. Maybe this week!

Last week’s results:

  1. Launch plan and list marketing tasks for Time’s Fugitive
  2. Read one Golden Heart entry (#4 out of 5)
  3. Three interval workouts plus two short workouts
  4. Finish reading and review the ARC I got last week
  5. Finish web design side job I took on to pay off my publishing company start up costs
  6. Rework Time’s Fugitive cover – I’m not 100% satisfied with it – YES! It’s in my sidebar now.
  7. Bonus: Stockpile some blogs, so that I’m not writing them at the last minute
For this week:
  1. Design and print bookplates, stand-up placard, and excerpt brochures to hand out at book signing, plus signup sheet for reader newsletter
  2. Collect and write front/back matter for Time’s Fugitive – Author’s Note, Acknowledgements, etc.
  3. Investigate starting reader newsletter
  4. Write product description and determine tags for Time’s Fugitive; put together Book Info cheat sheet
  5. Review one marketing book (I have four to either read or re-read)
  6. Read last Golden Heart entry (#5 out of 5)
  7. Three interval workouts plus two short workouts
  8. Write one book review
  9. Bonus: any additional blogs

How did you do this week? If you’re consistently not meeting all your goals, maybe you need to cut yourself some slack. Take an easy week, and jump back in next week. Or it may be that the goals you’re choosing just aren’t reasonable, given the other demands on your time. What do you think?

ROW80:Too Much

by Jennette,

Once again, I took on too much last week. I hadn’t done a test mile on how long it took me to type in second draft revisions, which are quite different than first draft revisions. As one might expect, they’re much less extensive, but not so much that I could go through a 140,000-word book in one day – which deluded me had thought I could do. Instead, I got halfway through it in one day – not bad, but it threw off what would have otherwise been an easy week. Live and learn! The good news is that it DID get done. And really, I got more done today than I expected. So I’m pleased. I came close to getting the web site done, but the form was tricky, the layout wasn’t working as it should have, and I finally had to walk away (and read the Golden Heart entry, so I got to mark that one green).

Here’s how the rest of the week went:

  1. Type in changes resulting from read-aloud of Time’s Fugitive and send to beta readers (finally!)
  2. Read one Golden Heart entry (#3 out of 5)
  3. Three interval workouts plus two short workouts
  4. Write and post review on Amazon & B&N of book I offered to blurb
  5. Finish web design side job
  6. Guest blog post (in addition to my own blogs)
  7. Go over two chapters for critique partner
  8. Cover design tweak promised to friend
  9. Tweak & validate epub file of Time’s Enemy and upload it to Lightning Source for distribution
  10. Launch plan and list of marketing tasks for Time’s Fugitive
  11. Bonus: do anything that’s on the launch plan list
  12. Bonus: dog walk or other activity in addition to #3

More green than red – we like that!

This week, I’ll focus on what I didn’t get to last week.

  1. Launch plan and list marketing tasks for Time’s Fugitive
  2. Read one Golden Heart entry (#4 out of 5)
  3. Three interval workouts plus two short workouts
  4. Finish reading and review the ARC I got last week
  5. Finish web design side job I took on to pay off my publishing company start up costs
  6. Rework Time’s Fugitive cover – I’m not 100% satisfied with it
  7. Bonus: Stockpile some blogs, so that I’m not writing them at the last minute

How did you do this week? Do you find yourself consistently taking on more than you can do, even when you know you do that?

ROW80 Update: Eat Lunch In

by Jennette,

One thing that’s helped me achieve my fitness goals on the intake side is that I stopped going out to lunch. It helped a lot that my coworker who was the main instigator of lunch out, also wanted to lose a few pounds and stopped, well, instigating.

Also, I can leave early = more writing time. I don’t usually eat at my desk, as part of the purpose of having a lunch break is for workers to get away from the work for a short time, and hopefully come back a little energized. But instead of going out, I usually go to the kitchenette area and eat with coworkers. Side benefit? I eat with some really cool people, and two of them are now my readers!

Granted, this is not a very useful tip for those who work at home (including stay-home parents) but for us paycheck peeps, it’s a great way to save a half hour or more. And every half hour counts, right?

ROW80 goals this week:

  1. Finish read-aloud of Time’s Fugitive (about 10 hours)
  2. Read one Golden Heart entry
  3. Three interval workouts plus two short workouts
  4. Write and post review on Amazon & B&N of a friend’s book I just finished re-reading
  5. Bonus: type-in changes from read-aloud and send Time’s Fugitive to beta readers
  6. Bonus: dog walk or other activity in addition to #3

I did not get to either of the bonus items, but didn’t really expect to; hence why they’re bonuses.

I got in all three interval workouts, but missed one of the short ones due to the fact that I was gone all day one day, and wasn’t feeling well a couple of other days. But the writing got done!

This week, I’m going to spend getting caught up on related stuff. Here’s what’s on tap:

  1. Type in changes resulting from read-aloud of Time’s Fugitive and send to beta readers (finally!)
  2. Read one Golden Heart entry (#3 out of 5)
  3. Three interval workouts plus two short workouts
  4. Write and post review on Amazon & B&N of book I offered to blurb
  5. Finish web design side job I took on to pay off my publishing company start up costs
  6. Guest blog post I offered to do for my friend Michele Stegman (in addition to my own blogs)
  7. Go over two chapters for critique partner
  8. Cover design tweak promised to friend
  9. Tweak & validate epub file of Time’s Enemy and upload it to Lightning Source for distribution
  10. Go over stuff I learned with the release of Time’s Enemy plus stuff I’ve gathered from email lists, blogs, etc. and put together a launch plan for Time’s Fugitive
  11. Bonus: do anything that’s on the launch plan list
  12. Bonus: dog walk or other activity in addition to #3

It looks like a lot, but it’s mostly little stuff. How about you? Got any time saving tips for lunch, whether you’re a paycheck peep or a stay-homer?

Out to Lunch sign via Microsoft Office Images

ROW80: Test Mile Success

by Jennette,

Last week’s test mile really helped. I learned that it took me about a half-hour to read ten pages out loud (these pages are 1.5 spacing, set in Times New Roman). This should have netted me about 160 pages if I read a total of eight hours. My RWA chapter meeting was cancelled yesterday, so I was able to get a couple more hours in. Here’s how the week’s goals went:

  1. Do a “test mile” read-aloud of Time’s Fugitive
  2. Eight hours of read-aloud of Time’s Fugitive, hopefully at least 1/4 of the book
  3. Two blog posts plus a ROW80 update on Sunday
  4. Comment on at least 5 blogs this week
  5. Minimum of 3 status updates or shares on Facebook
  6. Tweet at least once a day
  7. Read one Golden Heart entry
  8. Three interval workouts plus two short workouts (bonus: dog walk or some other activity on one of the other two days)
  9. Declutter my desk top (the real one, not the computer desktop)
  10. Bonus: write one book review on Amazon & B&N
I didn’t get any contest entries read, but I only have four more, and they’re not due until March, so I have some wiggle room. I’m doing better on the social networking than I thought; I far exceeded the tweets, Facebook shares, and blog comments. As for decluttering my desk, I’m not going to worry about that for now, as it turns out, the clutter is stuff I’m actively working on (i.e., the Golden Heart entries). What isn’t, is mostly my husband’s. I can collect that into piles and throw away the obvious trash, but otherwise he needs to go through it. And it’s all on the printer cabinet, not in my face, so it’s not a big distraction. I was happy to get to a bonus and get a review up on Amazon and B&N last week.
I’ve also done well on my physical activity. Knowing I get to read when I get on my treadmill is a world of help – it’s the reason I’ve finally found something I can stick with.
The best news was the test mile and reading results – my goal was to read at least a quarter of the book; I read half (which was what I was hoping for). I’m not going to post social media goals this time, I think I’m doing OK there. So here goes for this week:
  1. Finish read-aloud of Time’s Fugitive (about 10 hours)
  2. Read one Golden Heart entry
  3. Three interval workouts plus two short workouts
  4. Write and post review on Amazon & B&N of a friend’s book I just finished re-reading
  5. Bonus: type-in changes from read-aloud and send Time’s Fugitive to beta readers
  6. Bonus: dog walk or other activity in addition to #3

Have you done a test mile with a long-term goal or physical activity? How did you do? Were you surprised?

Thanks to Fabio Bueno for the idea of color-coding our goal accomplishments!

ROW80: Something that Helped

by Jennette,

One week into ROW80 2012, Round 1, and I’m already learning!

Last week, Kait Nolan posted about the concept of a test mile on the ROW80 blog, and how it can apply to goal setting. Toward the end of the last round, I’d gotten my revision down to the type-in stage, which is when all the changes are marked in the printed manuscript, and all I have left to do is type in the changes. Sounds easy, right?

A typical revision page

The timing of the “test mile” blog was funny, because I’d just figured out the week before how much I could do on a type-in in one hour: ten pages. That doesn’t sound like much, until you see that while many of those pages look like the one on the left, a fair number of them look like the one on the right.

There are all too many that look like this

But what was really great, was I found something else that helped: Breaking a task down into manageable chunks, AND planning the work for each day. I read this on someone else’s blog to plan the work for each day, and sadly, I don’t remember where (if you know, please comment so I can link to them!). From my time management studies earlier this year, I know that I have about an hour to spend each evening on actual writing tasks (writing and revision, as opposed to promo, commenting on blogs and responding to comments on my blog, social media networking, cover art, reading for contests, etc.) I also estimated that I should be able to spend 3-5 hours on Saturday, since I didn’t have much else going on besides putting away the Christmas stuff (done – yay!).

So I broke out five segments of approximately 10 pages each (1-3 scenes), and paperclipped them. That left only 20 pages for my Saturday work. Perfect! I could have fit in more, so left that extra time for reading for a contest, writing this blog a day early, and maybe doing a test mile for my next task: reading my book aloud. This is an important part of my revision process; it’s where I make sure everything reads smoothly, the characters’ thoughts and dialogue are appropriate for who they are and their situation, typos, and making sure I stay true to my writing voice. After that it’ll go to the beta readers.

One thing I see a lot of other ROW80 participants doing that I haven’t is to add in other goals, especially ones relating to social media and blogging,  fitness, and decluttering. So I’ll jump in there, too, and maybe share a bit more about what’s worked for me on those fronts in future updates.

So for this week, my goals are:

  1. Do a “test mile” read-aloud of Time’s Fugitive
  2. Eight hours of read-aloud of Time’s Fugitive, hopefully at least 1/4 of the book
  3. Two blog posts plus a ROW80 update on Sunday
  4. Comment on at least 5 blogs this week
  5. Minimum of 3 status updates or shares on Facebook
  6. Tweet at least once a day
  7. Read one Golden Heart entry
  8. Three interval workouts plus two short workouts (bonus: dog walk or some other activity on one of the other two days)
  9. Declutter my desk top (the real one, not the computer desktop)
  10. Bonus: write one book review on Amazon & B&N

Whether or not you’re a writer, did you set goals this week, and if so, how did you do?

Goals in Brief

by Jennette,

So it’s New Year’s Day, and time to jump back into ROW80: “The Writing Challenge that Knows You have a Life.” I’d planned to get this post up yesterday. See how well that went – pretty much like my whole revision of Time’s Fugitive has gone. So it’s 10:45 on Sunday night, I’m yawning, so we’ll just make this fast.

Last ROW80 I learned to be more realistic in estimating how long things really take (then forgot it again) and in how much I could realistically do in a given amount of time. Even this past week, which I took off of work, I did not get as much done as I hoped. As much as I might want to get my revision done, like, tomorrow, it’s just not happening. So it’s carrying over to the 2012, Round 1.

My primary goal is to release Time’s Fugitive. Secondary to that, I’d like to have a marketing plan for this release. Here are the main steps I need to take to meet these goals:

  • Finish revision of Time’s Fugitive
  • Send to beta readers
  • Make changes based on beta reads
  • Send to editor
  • Prepare front matter, back matter, product description, and everything else needed before release
  • Format book
  • Develop marketing plan (preferably before release, but probably after)
  • Release Time’s Fugitive

 

If you’re participating in ROW80, good luck! Whether or not you are, or even whether or not you’re a writer, you probably have goals – what’s your major one?