Tag: Motivation

NaNoWriMo Day # 13: Is the Excitement of NaNoWriMo Starting to Taper Off?

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Hopefully you haven’t gotten to that point in your NaNoWriMo experience where the excitement of doing a first draft in 30 days has weaned and the everyday responsibilities of life have once again consumed you.  But if you have reached that point (although that doesn’t usually happen until after you’ve passed the middle of the month) and you are starting to get blocked or starting to procrastinate, perhaps you just need a little motivation to get you going again.

If you’re a music lover (and you can actually write to music—I usually would just end up singing instead of writing) then maybe you could start thinking of music to inspire you to write.  Perhaps you should give your book a soundtrack as if it were going to become a movie (who knows, maybe it will be) and think of the songs that would fit your book and its characters.  The music that might be playing in the background of a dramatic scene could push your story forward even further.

If you are more of a television person maybe watching a little T.V. can get those creative juices flowing again.  If you are writing a drama, perhaps watch a drama show, or if you’re writing something a little more comedic, then watch comedy.  Perhaps watching the style that you are currently writing in can give you ideas for scenes, or dialogue, or an interesting plot twist you can throw into your book.

You might even think about watching an inspiring movie that could give you more ideas for your book.  Perhaps watching a movie that resembles what you want your book to look like on film (not a carbon copy of course but a generalized idea) can give you more of an inspiration to finish what you started this month.  Movies are usually what gets my creative juices going again and gives me an overwhelming amount of new ideas (too many new ideas—usually before I’ve finished working on the old ones) and has me rushing back to my computer (or to my notebook).

If none of those things inspires you to keep writing then do something that does inspire you or do something that can help take the pressure off of you to finish the novel.  There’s nothing wrong with going out for a couple of hours, having some fun with friends or family, and releasing that tension or anxiety you are feeling about getting your novel done.  That may be just what you need to get back into the swing of things.  No matter what you find to inspire you to keep writing, just keep writing!

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.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: Let the Nay-Sayers in the Crowd Fuel Your Drive

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So this may be the day where you have one of your so-called friends (you’ll understand why I say so-called in just a second) call you up just as you’re sitting down to write and say “so you were serious about doing that?  What do you really expect to get out of this?”  This is when you shoot them a look through the phone (as if they can actually see you) and say “of course I’m serious, I take my writing very seriously and what I expect to get out of this is a first draft of a book that will one day be on someone’s best-seller’s list” (sorry I’m projecting my response) and you ask them as politely as possible why they would say something so negative to you.

This is the friend that either has no ambition themselves and doesn’t understand a thing about setting goals and sticking to them, or they are simply jealous that they don’t have the same drive that you do for something that they wish they could be doing.  Either way, it’s not the support you really need during the month of November as you complete your first draft.  OR IS IT?

We all know that it is wonderful to have the positive people around you, supporting you, rooting for your success every step of the way.  But what we may take for granted is how it is just as important to have those people who don’t believe in you and who are rooting for you to fail as a motivation as well.  That in now way means that you convince yourself to listen to those nay-sayers because they are wrong for not believing in you and they are wrong to doubt you (and when you do hit the New York Times Best-Seller’s list they will really be kicking themselves) but let their discouragement be your motivation.

Let it be the fuel for you to get up early in the morning (or whatever your designated time to write is) and write those words everyday.  Let it drive you, if nothing else, to prove them wrong.  And when November 30th gets here you will have the satisfaction of knowing that not only do you have a new novel in the works to edit but that you can also be satisfied that you never gave up like your non-supporters all thought you would.  Keep going and forget what anyone else has to say!

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

What’s Your Motivation When the Odds Are Stacked Against You?

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I read a blog post the other day that asked the question ‘Is having something to prove a good enough reason to do something?’  When I read the post the blogger discussed how perhaps we should not use someone telling us that we can’t achieve something or someone’s negativity altogether to influence or motivate whether or not we in fact decide to go after what it is that we want.  She stated that people pleasing was something not to get caught up in.  Initially I felt that she might have a point to that statement and that people’s sheer passion for doing something should be enough to ‘just do it’ and that it shouldn’t take someone else telling us no or rejecting our passion for us to go at it full force.  

But then I realized something.  Isn’t that the nature of how dreams are realized, and how businesses are built, and how people are made to be successful?  I mean of course you dream something and naturally you want to achieve that dream no matter what and when you start a business you hopefully are starting that business because it is something that you’ve always wanted to do.  But if you listen to a lot of successful people talk about how they got there and how they accomplished their dreams and started their businesses, a lot of it had something to do with what someone told them they would never be able to do.  

Think of how many singers and film stars were told no, and how many times they were told no, and how many people even told them that they were crazy to think they would ever really make it.  Now think about how that just fired them up to going after that dream with even more force and more drive.  Think about Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey and Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates and how many people told them they would never make it and that they would never see their dreams become a reality and how those words must have fueled the fire that was already lit underneath them.  

I remember hearing an interview once about an entrepreneur going after their dream and starting their own company (can’t quite remember who at this exact moment) and when they were asked what made them go after their goal when all of the odds were stacked against them, their response was simply ‘someone told me I couldn’t have it’.  It’s amazing what someone telling you NO will do for your drive and ambition to prove them wrong and get what you want in spite of all the odds stacked against you.  I hate to be told NO but if I really think about it, when I do get to where I want to be in life, those No’s will be what made me so fiercely determined to prove everyone who said I couldn’t do it wrong.  

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

I Don’t Like Looking At the Empty Calendar Squares

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I don’t like it when I feel a touch of envy.  Not a bad envy (although I’m not really sure there is a good kind of envy) but the kind of envy that motivates you into actually doing something.  Now you might be wondering, if it motivates me to get going again, then why wouldn’t I like it? 

It can never be a bad thing to get re-motivated to do something that you know you should already be doing.  That’s just it right there.  I don’t like it because it’s something that I already know in the back of my mind, that I should be doing as it is and that I shouldn’t have to watch or read about other people doing it to get moving in that direction.  

I was reading some other bloggers posts as I was doing some research for a project, and I kept reading about other writers having such busy schedules.  Talk about going to conferences, and doing book signings, and interviews, and things of that nature; the things that I feel like I should be out there doing too.  

It’s not as if I wouldn’t like to have a full calendar and to have to tell people that I have this book signing to do, or that conference to speak at, or this interview to give.  In fact every year when I buy those desk calendars or day planners I can see in my mind the pages, one after the other, full of appointments and deadlines that just can’t be missed.  And yet year after year those pages have gone blank, left unfilled, and more time passes.  

I guess the only thing left to really figure out is when I am going to get around to filling those pages up.  I suppose I would have to finish filling up the pages of the rest of my novel that is still undone, or finish one of the other projects that I am working on.  It’s not easy to have those blank squares on the calendar taunting me with missed opportunities.  

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

Oh the Obstacles We Duck and Dodge While Investing In Our Future

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“If you make the investment up front, the return will come back later.”

~Bishop T.D. Jakes 

As writers we go through many obstacles, if we’re lucky, before ever really hitting our stride in our career (and I say our, because I am speaking my future successes into existence even though it is not quite a reality yet).  We go through tons of rejection, writer’s block, having doubters and negativity with anyone who doesn’t see the vision, and often times we are our own and biggest obstacle that stands in the way.  

I was just talking to Ms. L. earlier and saying that I really wish that my journey to this success that I know I am destined for could be going a lot smoother and with a few less obstacles to stumble over.  But then I quickly took that back because I remembered something I heard while listening to Bishop T.D. Jakes talk about living your life on purpose.  He talked about making investments in your future, in your purpose, and how sometimes our mistakes and our struggles are our investments.  

They are what make our successes all the more worthwhile.  He said that sometimes “what you think is working against you is actually working for you” and that “it is the digression that causes the progression”.  I suppose that is what is meant when people say what doesn’t kill you will only make you stronger (although it never feels like that when you’re going through whatever it is you’re going through).  Our struggles are in many ways our fuel and motivation to keep going and to keep dodging those obstacles as they come.  

Bishop T.D. Jakes also said that when it comes to making investments into your future “you can never reap of a dividend where you don’t make an investment—you sow first and reap later; you can’t sow and reap at the same time.”  I suppose that I have to be a little more patient as I make my investments and have a little bit more faith that everything will work out the way that it should.  

I can’t honestly say that all of the obstacles along my journey have not had their purpose.  It may not have felt like it at that particular point in time, but looking back on them now, they all, in so many ways, served their purpose.  I think that all of the struggles that we go through are simply just preparation for when our success comes to fruition.  Then we’ll be able to say to anyone who has something to throw at us to bring it on because there won’t be anything that they have to hit us with that we can’t handle.  

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

Smiling Through the Not Knowing of It All

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“Nobody trips over mountains.  It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble.  Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain.” 

~Author Unknown 

You ever have those days where you sit and think about all of the things that are just not going the way that you expected them to.  Where you are not where you thought you would be and you’re tired of trying so damn hard because it all seems like it just might be for nothing.  

Today wasn’t a bad day for me necessarily but I had a conversation with someone who was talking about how much they doubted themselves at what they’re purpose was at one point in time and how they finally decided to move out of their own way and get hustling even if no one else believed in them.  

It’s the way I used to be and the way I would love to be again but I just had that slight feeling of ‘what’s the point’ after having that conversation.  I believe in me but to this very minute I still feel like I’m the only one that seems to believe that I am good enough at what I do to ever make a decent living at it.  Ordinarily there is nothing wrong with being the only one who believes that you’re good at what you do, for a while that is.  

The only thing is that with being a writer, there has to be someone else that believes you’re good enough eventually if you ever want to make a living at it.  I don’t just mean the one person here and the one person there that comes around so sporadically that you can’t really call that a decent living, I mean the steady stream of people that are willing to take a chance on the belief that you have in yourself.  

Well when I have one of those days, where I just want to throw in the towel on it all and simply give up I try to listen to music that motivates me and gets me back in the right frame of mind again.  One of the best songs for me to listen to when I feel like giving up is Kirk Franklin’s ‘Smile’ because the lyrics of the course are just what I need to hear.  

I Smile. Even though I hurt see I smile

I know God is working so I smile

Even though I’ve been here for a while, I smile.

Smile.  It’s so hard to look up when you’ve been down.

Sure would hate to see you give up now.

You look so much better when you smile, so smile. 

How can you not smile after hearing such lyrics?  How can you want to give up after hearing those lyrics?  How could you not feel motivated to do what God put in motion for you to be doing?  After hearing that song everything seems to be put back in focus again.  My purpose seems to be back front and center, where it should have always been.  

The fact is that I would not just be letting myself down if I was to toss my dreams aside, but more importantly I would be letting God down as well.  I just have to remember that just because I am down right now, just because I am not where I want to be right now, doesn’t mean that God isn’t still working on me and my life.  I guess I keep forgetting that I am not the only one who believes in me and my gifts, because God believed in me first.

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

What Do You Say On the Days You Don’t Know What To Say?

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I made a promise to myself that I would really focus on writing a blog post on a very regular basis.  At first it was everyday but then I realized that I wanted my weekends to be about reading, or doing research, or marketing myself in some way.  I still have work to do on the marketing part of that equation.  

However, I won’t pretend like it is not a struggle to produce words that will be thought provoking and inspirational (hopefully you guys do consider them inspirational) on a consistent basis.  Some days I really just don’t know what to say.  Some days I go through the whole day and I don’t hear anything that inspires me or gives me an insight into what to write for you guys.  

I tend to feel really inadequate as a writer on those days when I don’t know what to say.  People have this misconception that writers know exactly the right things to say and sometimes we just don’t.  Sometimes our minds are focused on whatever project we are working on and that is what consumes us.  Today is one of those days for me.  

I have thoughts of finishing my novel going through my head and where to go next with it.  I have thoughts of the next novel project that can either be a Young Adult novel or an Adult fiction novel but I haven’t quite decided which way to take it just yet.  I have a non-fiction book that I am trying to figure out what direction I want to go with it because it is a book that will be about my weight loss journey which is more about becoming a healthier and happier version of myself but it will also incorporate details of my childhood so it might actually border on something close to a memoir.  

That is what has been on my mind all day and thus I couldn’t really come up with anything to say today.  So I hope that you will understand my lack of inspiration in my blog post today but I did keep my promise I made to myself to continue posting on a daily basis.  Maybe tomorrow I will know exactly what words to say. 

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

Banishing the Age Old Excuse

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“Dreams are renewable.  No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born.”

~Dale E. Turner 

This morning as I was watching the news they started talking about baseball (which is my least favorite sport, next to golf) and I started to go into my usual mode whenever I heard baseball mentioned, ignore mode.  But this time something caught my attention, enough to actually make me sit and listen.  

They were discussing the oldest major league pitcher to have ever played baseball.  Jamie Moyer is a 49 year old pitcher who is now playing with the Colorado Rockies after suffering an elbow injury in 2010 that caused him to lose an entire season of playtime.  The injury required him to have reconstructive surgery (Tommy John Surgery) with an estimated recovery time of at least a year.  

The word throughout the sports world was that his career was most likely over because this was not his first injury.  However, Jamie Moyer had other things in mind then letting go of his career, although his career has already surpassed many of the people he came into the league with and he was now playing with men of the next generation of baseball.  

All he wanted was the chance to prove to all of the people who said he was too old or that he didn’t throw hard enough anymore that he could in fact do this once again.  They gave him his chance and he proved them wrong and now he could potentially be making history as the oldest major league baseball pitcher to ever win a game.  

It got me to thinking about all of the times that I doubted continuing my efforts as a writer because I was starting to feel as though maybe I was getting too old to be starting out in this career.  I mean in my mind I should’ve already done so many great things within my career by now and I have, instead, been stuck going around in circles.  Watching that story on the news this morning taught me something.  The age factor is only in my mind, not anyone else’s.  

Jamie Moyer commented that “as long as you have an opportunity you can succeed, but you have to be willing to put the time and the effort into it.”  Essentially as long as the opportunities keep presenting themselves to me, I don’t have a reason (or rather an excuse) to not go after them.  

People often tell me that I waste a lot of time watching TV and watching the news, but I never listen to that because I know what I get out of it.  I get inspiration and I get motivated.  I hear other people’s stories and experiences and I receive the wisdom and lessons that they try to impart to those that are watching and listening.  

Today, just in those five minutes that I watched that news piece I saw someone who wouldn’t let people tell him he was too old to continue on with his dream.  I saw someone who didn’t use his age as an excuse to just give up.  I heard something that motivated me to give up my last excuse for not going after every single opportunity that comes my way, especially the ones that are a pathway to my dreams.  

I will only be too old when I can’t write anymore and my fingers can’t translate the words from my mind onto paper (or computer screen).  As long as I have ideas in my head and the ability to convey them, I will never be too old.  Hell even in my senior years (I mean really old-80’s old), I can still dictate my thoughts into a tape recorder and (if the arthritis has really set in) have someone else type up my work.  Age really is just a number, not a dream killer! 

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

A Moment to Pray

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I am still not feeling much like writing (or doing much of anything else) lately.  I thought that I might be coming out of my funk this morning when I woke up but somewhere throughout the course of the day that same mood crept back in.  I’m not going to lie, I gave into it today.  But I really am trying here to pull myself out of whatever this feeling is that suddenly came over me.  So in an effort to try and re-motivate myself I have been trying to read uplifting and motivating things and I came upon a book that I was given a few years ago called ‘Dear God, It’s Me and It’s Urgent: Prayers for every season of a woman’s life’ by Marion Stroud.  I look through it from time to time and some days it helps.  Tonight I was looking through it and came across this one prayer that I just wanted to share a part of.  

Thank you, Lord, that you provide this belt of truth.

Please help me to discern the half truths and the lies hurled at me by the enemy.

And when they scream for entry at the doorway of my mind,

Help me to refuse, both to receive them or believe them.

Thank you for the breastplate that protects my heart and my emotions.

Keeping me from being wounded by the jibes of others,

Or being bound by the fear of the reactions of those

Whose good opinion is so important to me.

Banish compromise please Lord,

Enabling me to do what’s right-consistently.

And as I wear these running shoes of the readiness to share your love,

Keep me from being sidetracked, Lord,

or from avoiding the stony paths.

Help me to be ready to go wherever you may send me,

and prepared to set out at a moment’s notice.     

The prayer goes on for another page or so but I just wanted to share the part that struck me the most.  There was also a scripture in the book that accompanied the prayer. 

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

– Ephesians 6:10-11, NIV 

I just wanted to share this with all of you and I hope that these words help someone else beside me today.

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

At A Loss for Words

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“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.”

~Robert Louis Stevenson 

Tonight I am at a loss for words.  I have had certain inspirations come to me and I have notes written down but they haven’t completely formulated into complete posts for me yet.  But I promised that I would write and post no matter what so even though the words won’t come tonight (not completely anyway) I still had to put myself out there in some way, shape, or form.  

So while I promise that tomorrow the words will be much more profound, and much more inspiring and hopefully motivational, tonight these are all the words that I have to offer.  It may not be much but it’s something and it’s the effort that counts.  Until tomorrow…I hope your words come easy for you but know that if they don’t just put in the effort anyway and something beautiful will come. 

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