ROW80 check-in #14

Posted on April 15, 2012 by S.J. Maylee

Last week I identified a problem: my focus. This week I poked and prodded my focus and it’s getting better. However, it has become obvious that my focus will remain a nagging trigger ready to throw me off track, IF I let it. Kristen Lamb’s post this week, Stress Less, Write More, came at a perfect time for me.

There are items on my list that give me more problems than others. So, here is my new approach. Problem items will be given a priority of early in the day or early in the week. The approach is certainly worth a try. Who knows how my day or week could open up if I get the hard stuff out of the way FIRST.

The Goals – week-2 results

Spend at least 1-hour a day with my characters- done
Write 2,000 words each week– done! 2,054
Spend time editing at least 2-times each week– I didn’t edit at all this week! Total bummer because that means I’m falling behind in my workshop assignments. WK 3 PRIORITY
Finish reading current craft book and start another– made no progress again, WK 3 PRIORITY
Participate in Before You Hit Send Self-Editing Workshop in April– the workshop is 1/2 over. I’ve already learned quite a bit and I am looking forward to the topics up next. I have been studying each lesson, but I have a backlog of assignments to finish.
Turn 2nd-draft chapters to my writer friend for her critique– not going to make progress here if I don’t spend time editing.
Workout a minimum of 200-minutes a week and round it out with plenty of water, sleep and my calorie limit– I got all but one again this week. Daily water intake has been spot on, hopefully it will flush away some bad restaurant choices, but I did get plenty of sleep this week and I nailed my workout minutes, 200!
Study one of the Nia 52-moves each week (the 52-moves is like the ballet bar for Nia lovers): Sink and Pivot Table Wipe. Start in “A” stance. Make a quarter turn to the right, bending at the knees and sinking slightly. Pick up your left foot, pivot your left thigh as you place the ball of your left foot on the ground. At the same time, use your left hand to wipe off an imaginary table, moving your hand from back to front. Keep your shoulders and the unused arm relaxed. Alternate sides. Benefits: keeps the feet, ankles, knees, and hip joints agile and the upper body mobile.
Finish the Sanjana bars and start the Opal bars (i.e. studying the song/movement structure)– I made no progress again this week WK 3 PRIORITY
Listen to the Nia sound track for the Sanjana routine each week and add Opal when I get to their bars– done
Plan out and start participating in the last of my needed continuing education credits for PMP certification– no progress and I’m ok with that…as long as I start participating by the end of the round.

More progress, but still room for improvement. I’m stressing a little and I’m searching for my groove. Specifically I want the week to not feel so hard, but I have a plan for that. I’ll let you know next week what happens.

Not sure about the following, but I am curious about how future technology will help ease our stress

Links of the week #14

Posted on April 14, 2012 by S.J. Maylee

All kinds of good stuff this week and a fantastic book trailer

Writer’s Life

This post hit home for me, it’s from the Round of Words in 80-days blog: The Number One Way To Reach Your Goals: Write! by Belle DiMonte

Big thanks to fellow ROW80er Barbara McDowell who provided great links in her check-in this week Ali Luke over at Aliventures posted in January of last year: 7 Habits of Serious Writers, Ali has a great site and I’m having tons of fun there.

Gabrielle Bisset had Ginger Simpson Guest Post this week: Write with Purpose

Kristen Lamb hit the nail on the head this week with her post Stress Less, Write More

Backstory

Roni Loren gives us some tips: How To Dish Out Backstory In Digestible Bites #atozchallenge

Janice Hardy at The Other Side of the Story provided additional tips for dialog: Your Words Are Dead to Me: Infodumps Through Dialog

Characters

Leia Shaw was at Nights of Passion this week with a list of characteristics your leading lady will need to, well, please all the picky bitches. The post made me giggle, but it’s some serious stuff. Pleasing Picky Bitches by Leia Shaw

Carrie Ann Ryan was over at Louisa Bacio’s this week Getting into the Mind of My Characters with Carrie Ann Ryan

Descriptions

Two of my favs came together this week. Janice Hardy was at Writers In The Storm!! 5 Ways to Bring Your Descriptions to Life by Janice Hardy

Plotting

Holy smokes Janice hit out of the park twice this week. This time on her site, The Other Side of the Story: Clarifying Thoughts: Revising Your Outlines to Make the Writing Easier

Social Media

Jenny Hansen is here to help again with Triberr. Her post this week has links to all her past posts on Triberr and this week she covers the most recent changes: If You Can’t Find Anything in the New #Triberr, You’re In the Right Post! #AtoZchallenge

Giggles

Karen Rought over at the Midnight Novalist wrote a post this past Monday that made me giggle: Word Wisdom: Phrases I’ve Misinterpreted

Here at my blog you might have missed Spotlight: Demonically Tempted by Stacey Kennedy you can also click here to go to Stacey’s site, once there you’ll find a Teaser (Chapter 1!) and the Buy links. I’m leaving you with Stacey’s trailer b/c it rocks and not many trailers do. This trailer is totally worth a watch.

Flash Fiction #3

Posted on April 13, 2012 by S.J. Maylee

Welcome back to Flash Fiction Friday. Thanks for stopping by and please follow the link to get to the other FFF posts. Flasher Fiction Friday. Don’t forget to let me know what you think of my 100. Isn’t she fantastic!

Her latest assignment made for a typical Friday, except the man behind the camera. Eric was her crush and until now he’d never been her photographer. She stared into his lens trying to keep her mind from his body. Warmth pooled in her center causing her hips to flex. Embarrassment flared heating her face.

“Keep that thought going, Rach.” He lowered the camera and stalked toward her. His hand griped her thigh and crept to her hip. She rose, exposing herself and met his dark eyes.

“Eric—“

He grabbed her nape, lowered his lips, and claimed all of her.

Six Sentence Sunday #13

Posted on April 8, 2012 by S.J. Maylee

Happy Six Sunday, thanks for visiting and commenting!! I’m continuing this week with another 6 from my Novella WIP. Lydia has gotten excited enough to lean forward and point something out to Jake. Lydia is working hard & Jake well, you’ll see…

“Right here, Jake, we need to add a screen print right here so they don’t get confused.”

She was beautiful in her convictions, but it was the slope of her neck to her shoulder that captured his attention. It would not take much effort to hold her to the spot and lick the junction into his greedy mouth.

“Do you agree, Jake?”

Was she begging him? “Lunch,” he choked.

Something tells me lunch isn’t going to cool this guy off. Thank you so much for stopping by today!! I’d like to know what you really think of my 6. I need the advice, I’m a newbie and have much to learn. Don’t forget to check out the other Six Sunday authors. Lots of good stuff at Six Sunday. Try to find a new favorite today. happy hunting!

ROW80 check-in #13

Posted on April 8, 2012 by S.J. Maylee

Another week has said bye, bye. My time management skills are improving, but there are still areas for improvement. A zillion things need to get done everyday and on top we heap on the goals. Is it all a recipe for trouble and stress? Nope, recipe to keep adjusting until we figure it out. If my goals have any hope of completion, I’m going to need to train like an athlete. No, I’m not talking physical fitness. I’m talking about keeping my eye on the ball. Distraction is an evil word and there are many we battle with daily.

In the last few weeks I’ve been taking different approaches to my time management. I seem to be having some success with a certain theory: get a little done all day long. I do a little here…stop…do a littler over there…stop… I think this is working for me, because when I start a new task I’m staying focused. As soon as my focus lapses I get sucked into things that I should not get sucked into. There are not enough hours in a day, but there are 24, and I want to make sure I’m using them wisely.

My problem: it’s easy to get off track, but here is where the training comes in and I will try, try, try again. I’m hoping my goals will get easier over the course of this round. It will be interesting to see how my training goes. How did I do this week? Let’s take a look see

The Goals & week-1 results

Spend at least 1-hour a day with my characters- done, easy peasy and effective this week, since I got some needed plotting accomplished
Write 2,000 words each week– done! 2,015 🙂
Spend time editing at least 2-times each week– I actually worked on edits 4-days this week
Finish reading current craft book and start another– made no progress here, but see the next line
Participate in Before You Hit Send Self-Editing Workshop in April– the workshop started this week and so far I’m lovin it!!
Turn 2nd-draft chapters to my writer friend for her critique– I did get some editing done this week, but there is much more to do before the 2nd draft is ready. I’m hoping to have a several chapters to her by the end of this round.
Workout a minimum of 200-minutes a week and round it out with plenty of water, sleep and my calorie limit- I got all but one this week. Daily water intake has been spot on, which always helps with the calorie limit and I did get plenty of sleep this week. Unfortunately I fell short on the workout minutes, only getting 160.
Study one of the Nia 52-moves each week (the 52-moves is like the ballet bar for Nia lovers): Stepping back onto the ball of your foot: start in Open Stance and keep your head, chest, and pelvis upright. Step directly onto the ball of one foot and keep the heel high. Practice walking around the room, stop, step back onto the ball of your foot. Benefits: improves mobility and stability in the foot and ankle, which helps you move with precision and sensitivity
Finish the Sanjana bars and start the Opal bars (i.e. studying the song/movement structure)– I made no progress this week 😦
Listen to the Nia sound track for the Sanjana routine each week and add Opal when I get to their bars– done
Plan out and start participating in the last of my needed continuing education credits for PMP certification– no progress

Progress, but lots of room for improvement. This week I’m going to concentrate on recognizing my lack of focus and attempt to be preemptive and save some time in the process. I am off and running, which is a good place to start, and did you see I made my word goal!!

I’m going to be gone all day visiting family, but I will be checking up on the other ROW80ers this evening and tomorrow.

Happy Sunday and happy week everyone.

Links of the week #13

Posted on April 7, 2012 by S.J. Maylee

I don’t know how they all do it, but man I loved the posts this week…

Craft Books

I’m starting with the big guns, Jennifer Crusie put together a list of writing craft books: The Argh Writing Craft Reading List

Plotting & Prose

Kara Lennox, a.k.a. Karen Leabo joined Writers In The Storm and her first post is fantastic! Plot Fixer – Part I: Your Premise Isn’t Compelling

Katie Ganshert was at Rachelle Gardner’s this week and provided the 2-3 punch, seriously good stuff: Balancing Story and Prose

May 14th! So exciting, that’s when…well check out the post from The Bookshelf Muse: Official Deets About The Emotion Thesaurus

Blurbs

Sharla Rae, was also at Writers in the Storm this week: Gotcha Blurbs: Easy and Fun To Write

Social Media

Molly Greene has an updated one of her popular posts: How To Succeed On Twitter

Writer Business

Do you have the patient’s to be a writer? I’ve read a lot on the web about the coming and goings of would be writers. Not all of us have what it takes or the patience to do the training it takes. Here’s hoping I’m still around next year and I just might, because even the title of this next post didn’t scare me away 🙂 Thanks Rachelle Gardner for the reality check: Writers and Taxes

Place Descriptions

Lydia Sharp over at The Sharp Angle provided good food for thought: Finding Excitement Potential in a Potentially Boring Setting

Characters

Becca Puglisi of The Bookshelf Muse was over at write to done and gave us: Beyond the Cliché: How to Create Characters that Fascinate

Editing

Janice Hardy hit it right out of the park with this one Seems So: Are Your Characters Making Misleading Assumptions?

Backing-up

What’s your back-up plan? Is it a wish and a prayer? Do you email your most import files to yourself? Do you have a flash drive? Do you use a service? I’ve used all theses including drop boxes free service, it’s only 2 GB, but it’s free. I don’t know about you, but all of my writing stuff is not yet 2 GB. If you refer folks they’ll give you even more free space…here’s my referral code if you’d like to give it a try: http://db.tt/EiAxz9qS and if you do, don’t forget to share the love and send out your referral code. Help a friend day: do you know someone who’s plan is a wish and a prayer?

Thank you Susan Hanniford Crowley, I like this check list and I’m going to create my own: What A Writer Needs, Part 9 – Encouragement

Hope you all are having a fine weekend and maybe a little chocolate. Tomorrow I’m looking forward to the deviled eggs, yummy 🙂

Flash Fiction #2

Posted on April 6, 2012 by S.J. Maylee

Welcome to my Second Flash Fiction Friday. Thanks for stopping by and please follow the link to get to the other FFF posts. Flasher Fiction Friday. Don’t forget to let me know what you think of my second 100.

“You’ll look good in whatever you decide to wear, Angie.” His roommate was gorgeous, but it was her heart that healed his soul and made him fall in love with her. Too bad he could never tell her.

“That’s easy for you to say, Jack. I mean would you look at you?”

She stood there half dressed with concern evident in her dazzling eyes. “What?”

“When are you going to start dating? James and Liz left us over a year ago. At least I’m trying to move on, I think you should too.”

“Angie, I’m fine right where I am.”

ROW80 -Round 2 2012- The Goals

Posted on April 2, 2012 by S.J. Maylee

What’s Row80? A round of words in 80 days is the writing challenge that knows you have a life.

This is my 2nd round of 80-days and this time I’m digging in with both feet and a few other parts too. I actually have other goals in my life besides writing. What did you say, really, you do too? There is no reason to dissect my goals, especially with the ROW80 theme. Besides some shiny new writing goals, I will also be sharing my healthy journey and Nia training goals.

2011 was my year of active change. Not only did I start writing my first serious WIP (the others will go unmentioned), but I started and stayed on a healthy journey and I fell in love with Nia. On April 4th I opened my Simply Sidney blog and a few short months later was introduced to Nia by a fellow blogger. On October 23 I started this blog. Right now SJMaylee is my writing home base, but some day, who knows when, I will be mentioning my published books. In November I took The Nia White Belt Training and ever since I have been studying and trying to learn a routine. And there is that Project Management certification that requires me to do continuing education. Lots of stuff going on for sure, but 2012 is a continuation of forward movement.

On a personal front I’m working on my writing chops, my WIP, my health and Nia. On a family front, I’m raising two active little ones, taking care of my husband of 12 years, our home and that evil day job, which can thankfully be done at home. My goals for round 2 will be based on my personal goals, but I will be keeping my family in mind. No crazy bouncing stretches for me, smooth yoga is the way.

We have a life and that life nourishes our soul and comes out in our writing. Ah…..feels good.

What does my soul want? It wants to finish a book!

My only goal last round was to spend an hour a day with my characters. Living with my characters keeps them close and talking to me=happy place. Last round I also flirted with a word count goal. No more flirting, it’s time to get serious, but what should the number be? I was handling 2,000 words a week pretty well WHEN I managed my time (ended the round with almost 11,000 words). Some day soon I want my weekly number to be 5,000. I need a challenge right now, not a set-up for failure.

The Goals

Spend at least 1-hour a day with my characters
Write 2,000 words each week or 22,000 for the round
Spend time editing at least 2 times each week
Finish reading current craft book and start another
Participate in Before You Hit Send Self-Editing Workshop in April
Turn 2nd draft chapters to my writer friend for her critique
Workout a minimum of 200-minutes a week and round it out with plenty of water, sleep and my calorie limit
Study one of the Nia 52-moves each week
Finish the Sanjana bars and start the Opal bars (i.e. studying the song/movement structure)
Listen to the Nia sound track for the Sanjana routine each week and add Opal when I get to their bars
Plan out and start participating in the last of my needed continuing education credits for PMP certification

That’s one long list, especially compared to my list for the 1st round. Well I wanted to get serious. Wonder how drama filled my updates will be? I’m a pretty reasonable person so I hope to get the drama limited or interesting at least 🙂

Six Sentence Sunday #12

Posted on April 1, 2012 by S.J. Maylee

Happy Six Sunday, thanks for visiting AND commenting!! I’m continuing this week with 6 from my Novella WIP. Jake and Lydia are in the room where they will be working on a new project. Lydia has been working desperately to quiet her internal fantasies & Jake has been trying to remember to keep his hands off Lydia. The two seem to be doing a bang up job of crossing their signals, lets see if they do any better this week…

“Let’s start by creating a list of policies we need and then we’ll start writing. I want to get a couple started before we order lunch,” he grumbled.

“Lunch, well I…,” she attempted to explain her lunch was in the frig down the hall, but stopped short when their eyes locked.

“Forget your lunch plans; you’re not leaving my side until we’re done here.”

The demand made her heart leap in her chest and heat pool in her core. She wondered what excited her more, time with Jake or the threat shining in his dark eyes.

Hmm, is Jake turning on his dominate side unknowingly and does he realize she likes it? Thank you so much for stopping by today!! I’d like to know what you really think of my 6. I need the advice, I’m a newbie and have much to learn. Don’t forget to check out the other Six Sunday authors. Lots of good stuff at Six Sunday. Try to find a new favorite today. happy hunting!

Links of the week #12

Posted on March 31, 2012 by S.J. Maylee

Hope you are having a happy weekend. Below are lots of good tidbits, don’t miss the video at the bottom. Enjoy!

Writer Business/Life

Rachelle Gardner started a series of posts this week: How to Make a Living as a Writer, Part One, Part Two & Making a Living as a Writer: Challenges

Shelley Munro gives a gold mind of good stuff in her post this week: Tools for Writers. She includes links to posts on her journey, a post on dealing with the mean pirates, a post on some cool free tools from Google, and a link to Roni Loren’s fantastic post in which she provides books for your writer woes…Plus she provides information for joining a yahoo loop that provides free classes- Marketing for Romance Writers

David Gaughran provided this cool bit: Selling Ebooks Direct: How To Set Up A Simple E-Bookstore

Kait Nolan shared her playlist in this post: Daughter of the Hunt Playlist

Promotion

Toni Kelly is back this week with Promotion: Stage 3

Character Development

Sharla Rae was at Jenny Hansen’s site this week for Keep Your Characters True To Themselves

Point of View

Are you over complicating your story? From The Other Side of the Story Lost in the Crowd: Working With Multiple Point of View Characters

Backstory

Also from The Other Side of the Story: Baby Got Backstory: Dealing With Backstory in Your Novel

The above link pairs really well with this link from The Sharp Angle: Good Flashback vs Bad Flashback

Social Media