{"id":1230,"date":"2018-04-10T07:00:54","date_gmt":"2018-04-10T12:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/?p=1230"},"modified":"2018-04-10T07:00:54","modified_gmt":"2018-04-10T12:00:54","slug":"the-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/the-list\/","title":{"rendered":"The List"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Color

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Narrate an audio book.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Travel to a foreign country on book tour.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Receive unsolicited fan art.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 5th grade Owen has already accomplished something I aspire to do in my career. He created something that positively impacted another human. He helped me achieve one of my life-long goals by sending me my first, completely unsolicited, piece of fan art.\u00a0 Owen created something based on his personal experience of an author coming to talk to his class, he sent it out in the world, and from there his art did its own post-Owen thing.<\/p>\n

Unsolicited fan art is on my list of benchmarks for achieving \u201creal\u201d writer status. I keep the list, which is much longer than three things, in the front of my journal. 99% of the items are writing related. (At this moment, the only one that\u2019s not writing related is: do one-hundred consecutive push-ups\u2014clearly I was out of my head when I added that one. But it\u2019s on the list, so I do pushups in between writing sessions to train for the day I\u2019ll get to one-hundred.)<\/p>\n

Why do I have a list? Because writing something down is the first step to making anything become real\u2014be it a fantasy world I\u2019m creating for a novel or a reality I want to manifest in our current earth time-line.<\/p>\n

The Weird Research Institute<\/a> tests make me think the list is hardwired into me. Back in 2010 I scored high on the foresight test. The test consisted of looking at a random image and listing all of the things I thought it looked like. Look at a pile of string and it turns into: a face or a volcano or a labyrinth or infinite other things. I\u2019ve always liked that game.<\/p>\n

Somehow seeing the imaginary in reality indicates I\u2019m a goal-oriented person.<\/p>\n

The tester people told me I had a: \u201cNatural inclination for setting long-term, challenging goals.\u00a0 You see possibilities, lots and lots of possibilities. In life, many things conspire to derail plans, to stop you in your tracks as you head for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

My list is a visual reminder to set me back on track.<\/p>\n

The tester people also said I needed to set my goals high\u2014like Elon Musk going to Mars high. If things were too easy, too attainable, I would get bored and lose my sense of purpose. The items on the list are the stars I want to stop off at on my flight to Mars.<\/p>\n

All this very-insightful information came with a warning.\u00a0 Once I achieve what I\u2019ve worked so hard for there\u2019s great potential for a colossal crash of epic-Challenger-sized proportion.\u00a0 (a\/k\/a Sub-level XXI)<\/a> Because I\u2019m hardwired to work toward something, once it\u2019s done I freak out\u2014I\u2019ve lost my purpose.<\/p>\n

The list helps the inevitable crash feel more bearable. The list means I\u2019m not out of goals. It means there is still something left to work for.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019m continually surprised by is things on the list get crossed off sooner than I anticipated.\u00a0 I never thought I would get fan art until after The Color Eater<\/em> was published. I never thought I\u2019d be a writer until I was in my sixties and retired from a corporate job. So many things on the list come at me from odd angles, out of nowhere and in a way I never could have expected. And that\u2019s the fun of it.<\/p>\n

Owen didn\u2019t know any of this when he sent me the picture. He probably still doesn\u2019t know it. At eleven-years-old I\u2019m pretty sure he doesn\u2019t follow me on Twitter, and I\u2019m certain he doesn\u2019t *subscribe to my newsletter. But, I hope, if he has a list, he gets as much satisfaction out of crossing things off it as I do.<\/p>\n

*Every other Tuesday I send out a newsletter with stories like this, fiction excerpts, and updates on publishing projects. Only a handful of newsletters end up on the blog. Newsletter recipients also have the option of volunteering for my ARC reader team. Make sure you don’t miss anything by signing up at https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/subscribe\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Narrate an audio book. \u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Travel to a foreign country on book tour. \u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Receive unsolicited fan art. In 5th grade Owen has already accomplished something I aspire to do in my career. He created something that positively impacted another human. He helped me achieve one of my life-long goals by sending me my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[48,180,25,51,79,81,118,16],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe List - Jessica Conoley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The first Color Eater fan art is in. Turns out it's more than just a piece of art, it's a check off the life-long achievement list for Kansas City Writer, Jessica Conoley.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The List - Jessica Conoley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The first Color Eater fan art is in. Turns out it's more than just a piece of art, it's a check off the life-long achievement list for Kansas City Writer, Jessica Conoley.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/the-list\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jessica Conoley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-10T12:00:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jessica Conoley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jessica Conoley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/the-list\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/the-list\/\",\"name\":\"The List - Jessica Conoley\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-10T12:00:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-04-10T12:00:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/#\/schema\/person\/1887901898e0e40cf065694fce98a123\"},\"description\":\"The first Color Eater fan art is in. Turns out it's more than just a piece of art, it's a check off the life-long achievement list for Kansas City Writer, Jessica Conoley.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/the-list\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/\",\"name\":\"Jessica Conoley\",\"description\":\"Author, Editor, Speaker, & Authorpreneurship Coach\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/#\/schema\/person\/1887901898e0e40cf065694fce98a123\",\"name\":\"Jessica Conoley\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f9ebda8e64796965b574590696572fa?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f9ebda8e64796965b574590696572fa?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jessica Conoley\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/jessicac34.sg-host.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/author\/lelshllcgmail-com\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The List - Jessica Conoley","description":"The first Color Eater fan art is in. Turns out it's more than just a piece of art, it's a check off the life-long achievement list for Kansas City Writer, Jessica Conoley.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The List - Jessica Conoley","og_description":"The first Color Eater fan art is in. Turns out it's more than just a piece of art, it's a check off the life-long achievement list for Kansas City Writer, Jessica Conoley.","og_url":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/the-list\/","og_site_name":"Jessica Conoley","article_published_time":"2018-04-10T12:00:54+00:00","author":"Jessica Conoley","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jessica Conoley","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/the-list\/","url":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/the-list\/","name":"The List - Jessica Conoley","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-04-10T12:00:54+00:00","dateModified":"2018-04-10T12:00:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/#\/schema\/person\/1887901898e0e40cf065694fce98a123"},"description":"The first Color Eater fan art is in. Turns out it's more than just a piece of art, it's a check off the life-long achievement list for Kansas City Writer, Jessica Conoley.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/the-list\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/#website","url":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/","name":"Jessica Conoley","description":"Author, Editor, Speaker, & Authorpreneurship Coach","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/#\/schema\/person\/1887901898e0e40cf065694fce98a123","name":"Jessica Conoley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f9ebda8e64796965b574590696572fa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f9ebda8e64796965b574590696572fa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jessica Conoley"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/jessicac34.sg-host.com"],"url":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/author\/lelshllcgmail-com\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}