Author: jcladyluv

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

NaNoWriMo Day # 27: When It’s All Said and Done, Don’t Forget the Reward

November 27, 2012 jcladyluv

Three more days. It will all be over in three more days, or will it? Truthfully, NaNoWriMo is an event that only gets you started and steered in the right direction.

In case you haven’t realized it just yet, writing is a lot of work, and it’s work that extends far beyond the actual writing of the novel (or book if it’s non-fiction). Writing, and being successful with your writing, involves not only a good quality of writing, but marketing and promotion (and I’ve learned you have to start this one early), the actual publishing of the book itself, and in today’s society social media networking.

These are the things that you now have to begin to think about as you are wrapping up your novel. But there are a few things that I think you should do for yourself after finishing up National Novel Writing Month before having to jump into all of the heavy and very serious thoughts of the business side of being a writer.

1) Celebrate your accomplishment. Tell your friends and family that you have finally finished and perhaps even do a happy dance if you can. You’ve accomplished something big and it is something to really shout for joy about.

2) Treat yourself. You’ve probably been depriving yourself of certain treats that you’ve wanted this month. You may have been depriving yourself of going out to your favorite restaurant or just going out with your friends. You’ve done what you set out to do and you should reward yourself accordingly. You deserve it!

3) Take a step back from your novel for a couple of days (or at least one if you really can’t stay away from your story any longer). Notice I did not say take a step back from writing altogether, just your novel that you have had etched in your brain every day for the past 30 days. Your mind needs a break and so do you. Maybe you could even catch up on some reading that you haven’t had a chance to do in the last 30 days. Just do something that doesn’t involve your novel for a couple of days. You’ll be better for having done it.

4) Take a day or two and just chill out and watch some T.V. (maybe those T.V. shows you DVR’d during your 30 day novel writing adventure) or watch some movies you have been dying to get to. Contrary to popular belief it is okay to take a small break (and by small I only mean a few days) from writing as long as you don’t plan on making the break more permanent.

No matter what your form of reward is, please don’t forget that you do deserve to reward yourself after accomplishing something so big.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

NaNoWriMo Day # 26: When the Idea Fairy Strikes!

November 26, 2012 jcladyluv

If any of you out there are anything like me, you get a heavy stream of new ideas just as you are entering the home stretch of a current project and need to stay focused solely on that project alone. If that is the case then just as you are finishing up your 50,000 words for your NaNoWriMo Novel in these last four days you will all of a sudden start to be hit with new wonderful ideas for the next novel.

Soon those ideas will invade your head space and you may find yourself unable to maintain your focus on the NaNoWriMo novel that you are currently finishing. This is going to be hard to do but you have to ignore those ideas for these next four (well probably three by the time most of you read this) days just until you have finished what you set out to do in the beginning of November.

Now of course I’m not saying to ignore 100% and not at least jot something about those ideas down quickly (operative word being quickly) but you can’t afford to go into long drawn out plans and outlines here. Not when you have another novel that you’ve already started to finish up.

I know how hard that is for us writers to do, just scribble some notes with no full detail about an idea without elaborating on it as badly as you want to (this would be why I have so many started and not finished novels) but your job for these last few days of NaNoWriMo is to stay focused on the task at hand. So remember that you are almost there, only three more days to go after this one, and you will have completed this goal.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

NaNoWriMo Day # 25: Have You Thought About What Comes Next?

November 25, 2012 jcladyluv

Now that you are almost finished with your NaNoWriMo Novel you have to force yourself to begin to think about what the next phase in this project will be. That’s right, you guessed it, the editing.

Well let me back up a bit, odds are that, unless you are writing a novella, you will not be entirely done with your whole novel by November 30^th because novels do tend to be more than 50,000 words long. Most novels are double that. So your first order of business (if you are not in fact writing a novella) is to actually finish up the rest of your novel. But once that is done it is on to the editing.

Of course there will be many phases of editing but this will be your first crack at what you have just written and the first opportunity to change up your story and go back in and add things that you might have forgotten before. This is where the business side of writing kicks in because you have to not only think about what makes your story the best it can be, but you have to think strategically as if you were a reader buying the book.

I know you still have four days left after today to only be consumed with NaNoWriMo but if you don’t start thinking about what comes next it will overwhelm you. It’s time to start thinking about what comes next when you are finished with your novel; the marketing, the target audience, all of that. You don’t want to find yourself finished, questioning what’s next, without a plan.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

NaNoWriMo Day # 24: Are We There Yet?

November 24, 2012 jcladyluv

The short and simple answer, No! I know that has to be the question in almost everyone’s mind right now as we approach the 5 day countdown (maybe that’s just me who does the countdown near the end).

Some of you are nearing burnout from the sleep you aren’t getting to finish this novel. Some of you are just delirious from all of the ideas that have just been streaming through your mind. Some of you might just be ready for this to be over because you are just fresh out of a direction for your novel to go in and the pressure of NaNoWriMo is not helping your creative flow. There are even some of you who, miracle of miracles, are already done (Congratulations if this is you!).

No matter what stage you are at in your NaNoWriMo novel, you are at the same point as everyone else, 5 days left. Even if you have reached your 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo, you most likely still aren’t finished with the first draft. I wish all of you luck in finishing your projects with these last few days approaching. I wish I can say that all of my efforts in NaNoWriMo have been what I wanted them to be but I’m still hanging in there. Let’s finish up strong everyone.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

NaNoWriMo Day # 23: Time to Get Back to Work

November 23, 2012 jcladyluv

Okay Thanksgiving is over. No more preparation. No more (hopefully) out of town guests to keep occupied. No more food to cook and leftover plates to fix. There’s nothing left (hopefully) to clean up anymore. Now it’s time to remind yourself of your commitment to your NaNoWriMo goals and get back in the chair and get back to your story and write.

Some of you might have taken some time off of writing the last couple of day and probably have to actually take some extra time to get back into the flow of your story. Others might have written the last couple of days but don’t feel that it was up to your usual standards that you set for yourself.

No matter what the excuse is that you want to give yourself right now; you took too many days away from the novel, it just doesn’t flow the way it used to, or even you think that you’ve fallen too far behind on your word count; you have to banish those excuses right out of your head.

The goal is to finish NaNoWriMo with a first draft but the most important part of that goal (even if you don’t get 50,000 words by November 30^th) is that you never stop trying. So get your butt back in that chair and write and don’t give up. Hang on in there. You’re almost at that finish line.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

NaNoWriMo Day 22 A Day for Giving Thanks—For Light-Hearted Humor

November 22, 2012 jcladyluv

It is Thanksgiving and a day of giving thanks. I probably would ordinarily have opted not to post anything today accept that one of the things that I promised to do this month was to post every single day of NaNoWriMo and so that is exactly what I am doing. Since I don’t have much to say today (due to the holiday) I wanted to share another video from youtube (this time it’s a bit more humorous) with you. Hope you enjoy and that you had a wonderful holiday.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

NaNoWriMo Day # 21: Did Anyone Know That There Is a NaNoWriMo Song?

November 21, 2012 jcladyluv

Okay so it’s pretty much Thanksgiving time and I don’t want to bog anyone down with lectures on maintaining your routine regardless of the holiday or with tips on how you can still get your writing done despite all of the Thanksgiving Day preparations that you must make. I thought a little light hearted humor was in need and so I went in search on Youtube and came across this video of a NaNoWriMo song that I had no idea existed. I thought that I would share it for any of you who also was in the dark about this song and for those who just wanted to be reminded of the song again. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

NaNoWriMo Day # 20: Have You Learned How to Balance and Weave?

November 20, 2012 jcladyluv

It’s hard to find balance when you are trying to juggle so many tasks at once. Writing a novel is not an easy task and when you take on the added pressure of participating in National Novel Writing Month and having to write every single day and write a specific amount of words just to meet one specific goal.

If you add to that the pressure of completing the other projects and tasks that you have to do that also concern your writing career such as keeping up with your blog, making that deadline for the novel or non-fiction book that you need to get to your editor, or the articles that you are being paid to write by a specific time, it can be extremely hard to find that balance to handle it all. Here are a few suggestions on how you can balance your Novel and your other writing projects and weave them into one another, if you can.

1) Separate your writing tasks and times over different days. For instance, choose to work on your novel for NaNoWriMo at one time period of the day (in the morning or in the evening) and work on one of your other writing assignments in the opposite time period of the day. If you have multiple tasks aside from your NaNoWriMo novel then split it up and do one task on one day and another on another day.

2) If your main writing tasks aside from doing your NaNoWriMo novel is doing your blog then weave the two tasks together. Blog about your NaNoWriMo experience. Blog about your novel and how the process of writing your novel is going. Blog about your characters and allow your readers to get to know them before your novel even gets published and comes out. This will allow your blog posts to come a little easier to you while under the pressure of writing your novel and still keep you on course with maintaining your blog.

3) Write your articles that have to be written about your experience of NaNoWriMo. Write articles about your process of writing your novel. Write the articles that you are submitting for payment about having to balance your novel with your other tasks of being a writer, a business person, and a parent. These articles will not only come easier because you are living that experience but they won’t take too much extra thought process and research (that it would take to do the health related article you would normally be writing right now) which would be time taken away from writing your novel.

4) If you honestly are not good at balancing the multiple writing tasks then focus on the novel and write notes regarding the other projects you need to work on in a notepad. This allows you to focus on that novel, get it done, and still not lose the ideas that you have for your other projects. That way when you are finished with NaNoWriMo and your novel you can immediately go implement the ideas and notes that you jotted down with your other projects.

I hope some of these suggestions help you keep that balance and get that novel done. There’s only ten more days so hang in there. You can do this!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

NaNoWriMo Day # 19: Keeping the End Goal In Your Sights

November 19, 2012 jcladyluv

Okay so this week is going to be a tough one to get through. Thanksgiving is Thursday and you have a ton of things to do. You can’t think about writing write now right? That is where you are wrong. Yes it will be difficult but anything that is worth you having is going to be hard to achieve without you putting in the added effort.

Whether this is your first, second, or tenth attempt at NaNoWriMo, you are a writer. This is your job, be it full time or part time, and you have to treat it as such. Writing is not like other jobs where you clock in and are held accountable by someone else. You are responsible for holding yourself accountable and maintaining your productivity in your writing efforts.

Now of course Thanksgiving is a holiday and you deserve a day off (if it won’t throw you off of your goal) but you have to find a way to make up for that day you will be missing. If it is you doing double the words the day before or the day after then that’s what you need to do. If it’s you splitting the missed words between the days surrounding Thanksgiving, then that is what you need to do.

If you are fortunate enough to be able to plant your butt in a chair on the morning of Thanksgiving Day then you should definitely get those words done. No matter how you decide to work your way around this Holiday, do what you know needs to be done to accomplish your goal that you set at the beginning of this month. You’ve come way too far to give up on the goal now.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”