NaNoWriMo Day 4: An In Between Day

I love NaNoWriMo!  Okay so I might not like getting up an hour earlier than normal but I suppose the reward of a finished novel at the end of thirty days helps make up for the lost sleep.  There are some days where the characters are just speaking to you and you can’t even type or write fast enough to get everything it is that they’re trying to say.  And there are the days when you feel like your characters are trying to tell you something but you don’t really know what it is so clearly you can’t convey their message.  

Now granted today is not one of those days, it’s also not one where I can’t keep up with my characters train of thought but it is a good day in terms of writing.  It was a day where things flowed adequately enough and I feel the story is moving along.  I did however, start brainstorming ideas (along with my best friend and fellow NaNo-er) about how this could possibly have the potential to turn into a series but we will see how the story manages to unfold itself.  I’m already getting signals pulling me in different directions then when I originally planned my outline.  

Writing can be difficult, but it is so well worth every bit of blood (the red pen my best friend, the editor, uses to edit my work with), sweat (no I don’t really sweat over my story either), and tears (yes sometimes I really do cry with my characters), and did I forget agony.  A writer takes his or her characters with her, wherever they go and that can be difficult because they tend to pop up and start talking to you out of the blue and then you look crazy because you actually answer them (or is that just me).  

The writing process is already a task that is challenging and sometimes frustrating.  But to try and write a whole novel in 30 days or at the very least have the framework of that novel put together is incredibly hard.  I feel like I can’t afford to have an off day or a day where I fall behind in my word count because there is so much of this story that I feel needs to be told and I don’t want to leave anything out.  

It’s a lot of pressure to write a novel, then to write it in 30 days, and then to have it actually be good.  But I try not to think about what happens once I finish this thing because then I would have to think about my best friend and the RED ink from her trusty red pen that she likes to mark up people’s manuscripts with.  Well I’m gearing up for a weekend full of…you guessed it, more writing.  I hope that you all will be writing as well.  And I hope that you guys will clue me in on some of your stories.  Just a little teaser maybe!  Until next time…Don’t stop writing yet!

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

NaNoWriMo Day 3: My Character is Really Talking to Me

Okay so this morning Mackenzie is taking this opportunity to take the bull by the horns and seize the moment to really prove herself to her editor.  She’s starting to act more like a police detective than just an Investigative reporter.  She’s conducting interviews and canvassing neighborhoods and even flirting with the lead homicide detective on the case to gain as much information out of him as she can get.  She’s even convinced him to let her look at the autopsy report and crime scene photos, of which she made copies of for her own use.  

But Mackenzie is having a hard time keeping her personal issues surrounding this case from affecting her.  She got the story because she dated the Ex-congressman and her editor thought it might be easier for her to get the personal details no other reporter could probably get.  But now her career rests on a man who she had never wanted to see again.  Now she has to relive those moments with him that she was trying to forget for all these years.  Working on this story could have damaging psychological effects that she is not prepared to deal with yet.  

Okay Mackenzie is having another one of her episodes again so I have to go deal with her for a little while.  I might have more to tell you guys tomorrow.  Happy writing everyone!                                                                                     

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

NaNoWriMo Day 2: Sharing Time

So 2 days in a row I managed to wake up early to write.  If I keep this up I won’t have any excuses when NaNoWriMo is over as to why I can’t do this all the time.  I must admit that this morning I actually did contemplate hitting the snooze button but I resisted that urge and got up and headed straight for my computer.  Mackenzie was ready for me to get back to telling her story.  Before I start clueing you in about all of the personal details about Mackenzie I’ll share with you a condensed version of the synopsis.  

Mackenzie Brown wants to break into Investigative reporting for the BaltimoreTimes but can’t get her editor to give her the break that she needs to prove what an asset she can be.  But when her former college boyfriend, Ex-congressman Andrew Litney is brutally murdered behind the alley of a strip club the opportunity to prove her worth presents itself.  But that opportunity comes with immeasurable consequences as it stirs up things from her past that she has tried her best to keep buried.  As she digs further and further into the Ex-congressman’s past indiscretions in an effort to discover the person that murdered him, she not only finds everything hitting closer to home then she ever thought it would, but she also uncovers things about herself that might have never been brought to light.  Can Mackenzie keep her personal baggage from interfering with the story that could give her journalism career the boost that it desperately needs? 

Okay that’s all I can give up right now.  Don’t want to tell you everything all at once.  I guess you guys are just going to stay tuned in to find out what personal secrets Mackenzie might be keeping hidden, or more importantly, what secrets about her past that are being kept hidden from her.  Until next time…Keep writing and don’t stop! 

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

NaNoWriMo Day 1: Early Awakening

So I set out to wake up at 5 this morning and begin writing for the first day of National Novel Writing Month and to accomplish my word count for the day in the little time before I whisked my daughter off to school and headed to the gym for my morning workout.  I had suspected that I might not be able to get up that early because I am in no way, shape, or form, a morning person.  I typically tend to set three different times for my alarm to go off in the morning because I make plans on hitting the snooze button.  In fact I have two other alarm clocks aside from the one with three different times set and those other two are also set at two different times.  See I try to get the maximum amount of sleep possible in the morning because I tend to go to bed so late.  

However, I am very proud to say that I did in fact not hit the snooze button this morning and I got out of my bed, headed straight for the computer (well there might have been a pit stop to the bathroom first) and pulled out my book with my outline and character sketches and notes and began writing.  Not only did I reach the 1,667 words that is estimated for each day of November, but I wrote 1,709 (not really that much more) words.  I wrote for about an hour and a half and then when I was finished I charted my time and then I was off to get my daughter ready and off to school.  I had a great, awesome, workout at the gym and have had a pretty good day so far (the day is still young).  

I think that my writing is sharper and flows better when I work in the morning and it makes my day start off well knowing that I have gotten in a good bit of work done first thing in the morning.  It’s quiet in the morning and my mind is very clear (although somewhat sleepy).  Now I don’t mean to make it sound like I am not going to try to get more words done today but I want to at least make sure that the amount I definitely need to reach is met.  I just hope that I can continue getting up at5amand that I can continue working smoothly to get this novel done, but done well.  

Well I guess I better save my words for tomorrow’s morning writing session and the next blog post.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll tell you a little bit about my character Mackenzie Brown and the murder mystery she’s getting herself all wrapped up in.  Until tomorrow…What are your characters up to lately?

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

It’s National Novel Writing Month Time!

Regrettably I did not write any blog posts last week but it was for a good reason.  I was making sure that I had everything prepared for National Novel Writing Month, which starts tomorrow, and I was mapping out my plan on how to go about achieving my maximum word count per day so that I can reach that goal of 50,000 words by the end of the month.  This will be the third year (I think) that I have done this and although many might think that it should be easier the more often that I do it, it most certainly is not.  Especially since this year my story is a little different for me.  I am stepping out of my typical comfort zone and writing a story that is not in the genre that I have experience in writing (which is typical mainstream fiction) but one that I would like to definitely gain some experience in (mystery, suspense, with a little romance for good measure).  This year this will be a little more challenging for me, but then again I always like to be challenged.  So I thought to maintain my blog during November instead of completely abandoning it, that I would blog about my NaNoWriMo experience as I go along.  I hope that you will follow along in my journey this year and perhaps even go sign up this year and take the plunge yourself.  Well I better go make sure that I have all last minute details of my characters ironed out before tomorrow.  Until next time…Start planning, you have a novel to write too! 

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

Passionate Writer

“A strong passion for anything will ensure success, for the desire of the end will point out the means.”
~William Hazlitt 

Very seldom do I ever wish that I could go back in time to when I was younger, perhaps in high school, and just live in that moment for while.  Perhaps I would enjoy and take stock in the moments when I wrote simply because it was all I could do to get my feelings out, or when writing was not so much of a job or chore and more of a past time that I didn’t have to actually think about anything past the point of writing the actual story.  

Now don’t get me wrong, I still absolutely love to write and I could never imagine anything else that I should be doing in this life or the next other than writing.  But before there was the business aspect of writing (the hardest part of being a writer), and the marketing and publicity aspect, and the managing sales figures and making sure you are actually making money off of your passion, there was simply just the passion of it all.  

I remember rushing to get home to just get the words of my characters out on paper (because back then I wrote long-hand), and I remember the feeling of accomplishment when the story was finished and when someone else told me that my words meant something to them.  I didn’t worry so much back then about how to get my words published and how to market and how to make actual profits off of my work.  I just knew that writing was my life’s dream and that was how I wanted to make my living.  I knew that I wanted to make the best seller’s lists and write movies and write for magazines and television shows and that I wanted my living to be made from what I loved to do more than anything in the world.  

Now I am making schedule’s to try and fit what I love into the rest of my life and reading and teaching myself about things pertaining to marketing and publicity, which are things I really don’t care about, but I have to know these things to make what I love to do work for me.  I would just love to get to that point again where all I have to think about is the sheer enjoyment of writing my words down on paper and telling the story of my characters; back to the moment when I first fell in love with writing to begin with.  

However, in reality, I want my words to be seen by the world and that part of my dream takes work and hard labor.  But it is definitely a labor of love and one that I am willing to make many sacrifices for.  So what are you most passionate about and are you willing to put in the hard labor to make it happen?  Until next time…be blessed and make your labor of love count! 

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

Idea Overload

So every now and then I get the dreaded writer’s block where I can’t think of a single thing to write and I get more and more frustrated which just makes me more blocked.  People tend to think that that’s the worst thing that can happen to a writer and for some it may be.  However, for me the worst thing is when I have so many ideas rattling around in my head that I can not focus on just one of them at a time.  Even when I try to section off projects and work on one at a certain designated time, and another at a different time, then three more ideas pop into my head that I can’t stop thinking about.  

Now I know some might say that having an array of ideas to choose from is not a bad thing but that all depends on who you are as a writer.  I suppose if I was good at jotting down some notes or recording notes for one project and then setting it aside until I am finished my current project then it would be okay.  Unfortunately, I am not one of those writers who could set aside any one idea.  I have a list of projects that I am supposed to be working on right now but I find myself constantly adding to that list, which causes me to procrastinate trying to figure out how to cram all 20 something ideas into a realistic time frame.  

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not as if I would rather have writer’s block instead because that wouldn’t be any fun either.  I just wish all of these characters would stop popping up into my subconscious out of nowhere, pushing the already developing characters that I am currently interacting with aside and fighting for my attention.  Well I guess I’m done rambling for now, I’ve got to go deal with the characters that need to be heard.  

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://jayceedurant.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://freemynd.wordpress.com/

http://spokenlikeaqueen.blogspot.com/ 

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

www.authorsden.com/jimmettacarpenter