Tag: reality

Who Says Writing is Not a Job?

jcladyluv

“Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.”
~Gloria Steinem 

After finishing up my walk/run on the treadmill in the gym this morning I began talking to two fellow gym members and we were watching The Wendy Williams Show (no one bothers to turn the T.V. channel after the news goes off) and this morning the Braxton family were the guests today.  Now despite saying that I would never watch that mess during the first season (because I hate most reality TV shows), I accidentally ended up watching it one night and I was immediately hooked and have been watching ever since.  There’s so much about the Braxton family that I learned in watching their show and it is extremely entertaining to say the least.  

Needless to say, one of the sisters, Towanda, is separated from her husband and she talked about that today on The Wendy Williams Show and that one of the main reasons that they are separated is because he doesn’t have a job.  Now because I watch the show I know that her husband is a writer, albeit a struggling writer, but a writer nonetheless.  He just self-published his first book and already has himself lined up for several media and book events so he is soon about to take off.  However, because the fruits of his labor have not been seen yet, he is still seen as the man with no job.  

I take great issue with this because that implies that writing is not a job.  This sparked some mild debate with my two gym buddies because initially they felt as if I was attacking them.  After making it clear that I was not directly referring to them, I expressed how I am constantly hearing that about writers.  It’s as if you say you’re a writer and people then say oh, but what is your job.  That is my job.  I AM A WRITER!  It takes time, discipline, determination, persistence, and sheer willpower to put in the work to write a book and then do everything else that it takes to get that book published and then make it successful.  Writing is no small feat and I am getting really tired of people who dismiss it as simply a hobby or something that someone with an actual job does on the side.  

Now don’t get me wrong, there are people with skilled jobs or even other major career paths who do in fact write on the side and I am not trying to take anything away from them.  But you do have those people who are not better suited for a regular, skilled, 9 to 5, type of job because it would simply just take away from doing what it is that they were truly meant to do.  I am one of those people.  I have had regular jobs and I have once thought about taking up a particular skilled job that I could make a career out of but I just simply am not built that way.  I was born to be a writer and while I do not currently have what other people would consider a job, I feel that everyday that I sit down to my computer and write on my blog, or write an article for some online publication, or send out my queries to national magazines for my articles, or send out queries to agents for representation, or work on my novels, or edit someone else’s novel, that I am doing my JOB.  

I don’t make as much (right now) that I would like to be making and I do struggle at times without having that steady stream of bi-weekly income to come into my household but I don’t regret not going out there and seeking typical employment.  I do what I love and I am home for my daughter when she gets home from school to help her with homework and for whatever else her needs are.  I feel like people who just choose to write for a living with no additional methods of income get a really bad wrap.  Out of work Actors don’t get told that they are no longer considered Actors because they are not currently making a steady stream of income, no they are still Actors, so what is so different about being a writer?  I don’t knock anyone that does go to work in the morning and comes home and parents their children and then if they want to write, sit and write at night.  I think that it is admirable and very tough to do, but everyone is not built that way.  I know that I was never good at it and frankly it made me quite miserable and at times unbearable to deal with.  

I suppose that I am writing to all of those writers out there who might at times be feeling guilty about making the choice to either quit their regular jobs or just not seek another one altogether to focus on their writing.  If you feel that writing is your purpose and what you were meant to do, if you feel that you are truly doing God’s work, then go for it.  You will struggle, you will get frustrated, you will be looked at funny, you will get rejected, but in the end, when your goal is accomplished and you get to where you always envisioned yourself being, then it will all be worth it.  Until tomorrow…Be brave enough to do what’s in your heart and commit yourself to following through. 

 

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

No Shortcuts

jcladyluv

We all seek something meaningful out of life.  We have a sense of purpose that is sometimes beyond all rationality.  And when it seems like it will take forever for us to reach that destination that we are striving to get to, we all sometimes wish that we could just wake up one day and be there, right where we feel we need to be in life.  Unfortunately life does not work that way.  Or maybe it’s fortunate for us that it doesn’t.  

I was watching my soap opera today (Young and the Restless) and something was said on there that really struck a chord with me.  What good is reaching your destination without having the experience of getting there?  What good is it, it means nothing, and you learn nothing?  I never thought of it like that.  

If I were to just wake up one day and have it all handed to me, everything that I want in this life, without having the struggle of actually getting to those proud and joyful moments, then would it mean as much?  Without all of the blood, sweat, and tears put into making my dreams come true, would they mean as much and would I work just as hard to hold onto them?  I can say that I would but I don’t know that.  

Sometimes it is the struggle of the journey that makes the end result worth every bit of hardship that you went through.  Sometimes there are no shortcuts in life, and I am discovering (though it took me a while to realize) that taking the long way to your destination can sometimes be the best thing you could ever do to satisfy your purpose.  Until tomorrow…Don’t always go looking for the shorter way around things.

 

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

A Wish to be a More Avid Reader

jcladyluv

“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the most.  Read! You’ll absorb it.  Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out.  If it’s not, throw it out the window.”
~William Faulkner 

A writer is supposed to also be a really good reader as well and I have to admit that, while I used to be, I am not the best at reading.  Not since I have thrown myself more into writing and concentrating on perfecting my writing skills and techniques.  I make an honest effort every year to try and do better at maintaining my reading pace.  When I make my list of books to read I try to put a little bit of everything on the list from romantic novels and mysteries, to some writing instruction books as well as motivational books.  I typically find myself only completing about half of my enormous list that I actually think I can read in a year.  

I suppose I would like to think that I could still read at the same pace that I used to read (like ten years ago).  But in reality I know that as I get more and more into writing my novels and other writing projects, I most likely won’t be able to read at that same rate but that never stops me from trying.  This year I am really going to attempt to make a manageable list that I will hopefully complete.  However instead of packing it with an eclectic mix of genres as I normally would I am going to be reading all mysteries next year.  For the last few books on this year’s list I’ve chosen the mystery books and I am really getting into the mystery genre.  I really like Sue Grafton and J.D. Robb novels right now.  

Also since my novel is a mystery and I am beginning a series, then it seems that I like to write mysteries as well.  So if any of you have any mysteries that you would like to suggest for my 2012 reading list I sure would like to hear them.  I have a few of my own already to put on there but I still would like to hear what books you would recommend.  Well I have a list to go finish.  Until tomorrow…What’s on your reading list?

 

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 24: The Season for Preparation Begins

jcladyluv

Today reminds me that we are getting closer to a new year, with new plans, new goals, and new projects that we will be working on.  I have to take a look at my goals that I had for this year and look at just how many I didn’t get accomplished and see which ones I think I might actually be able to achieve next year and which one’s are just out of my reach (at least for next year).  I really should start a short term and long term goal list and then I might feel a little more accomplished come this time next year.  I don’t know if I have told you guys but I am an extremely overly ambitious person, sometimes to my own detriment.  Usually as Christmas approaches I sit down and begin making a list of my goals, the projects I want to get done, and the books I want to read for the next year.  While my friends who do this same thing have short, attainable lists, my lists look like the goals of about two or three people put together.  My challenge when I make my list this year is to make my lists something that I can feasibly accomplish.  My list has to be something that meets my ambitions, but does not exceed my own reality.  It needs to be a list that when I go back and look at it at the end of the year I’m not going to feel like I am an absolute failure because I didn’t even get half of a ridiculously long list done.  So as Thanksgiving moves out and the Christmas season officially begins, so does the preparations for the year to come.  Until next time…What are your goals for next year going to look like? 

 

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

Visualize That You Are Already There

jcladyluv

“See things as you would have them be instead of as they are.”

~Robert Collier 

There are people who say that you become what you believe.  So it’s simple, right?  If you visualize something you want in your life, then you will eventually achieve it.  However, it is difficult for a lot of people to believe in things that have yet to be seen; to believe that what you visualize could actually be tangible.  

We are told to step out on faith.  We believe that through God all things are possible and we stay true to that (for the most part), but we can’t see God either.  So just as we blindly trust in God to always be there for us and guide us in the right direction why are we not so trusting in our own instincts and our own belief in ourselves?  Why is it that we can’t trust that what we envision for our lives is not what we can actually have? 

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Jim Carey said that before he made it big he would drive around and he would visualize what he wanted for his life and he would envision that he actually had those things but that they were just temporarily out of his reach at that moment.  That’s an ingenious way to look at things because in reality, nothing that any of us wants for ourselves is impossible.  What takes the possibility out of succeeding in our goals is the lack of determination and persistence at going after them because as Jim Carey also noted in his interview, visualizing does nothing if there is no work done to obtain that vision.  

When you think about what you want your level of success to be and what you can achieve, you should not set those standards according to what others may be thinking your level should be.  Your calling in life has nothing to do with anyone else but what you see yourself doing and what you see yourself achieving.  Visualizing your goals and not just the possibilities but the realities can allow you to see that they are right within your grasp, if only you would just reach out your hands and grab a hold of them.  

So the next time you start hearing yourself say you wish you could just achieve this or that and you find yourself feeling as if there are nothing but what ifs hanging over your head, just stop and visualize that you are already wherever it is that you want to be and that you already have the things that you wish to have.  It’s a lot better then thinking that it will never happen.  Until next time…Grab onto the image of success that’s right in front of you instead of the possibility of failure!

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

The Stigma Behind Creating Greatness

jcladyluv

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.”

~ Marianne Williamson 

I was listening to a clip the other day of a speech that author of Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert gave discussing the need to nurture creativity and to dismiss the automatic assumption that all writers, or creative types in general, are tortured souls.  I hadn’t realized until I watched this clip just how much I had always bought into that myth in the past and in some ways had fueled my creative ability behind it.  

Now it’s not that I would be any less of a writer if I didn’t have a terrible childhood where I grew up with no father and a very angry and all around abusive mother.  In my case I think that my bad childhood was indeed the fuel behind my early beginnings as a writer.  But I think that sometimes I got it into my head that if I wasn’t going through hard times and struggling to find my footing then I wasn’t a true writer.  However, I’ve realized that in the most recent years, when it comes to my writing, pain and suffering actually stifles my creativity rather than enhances it.  I feel more of a fluid movement of words when I am optimistic about things and when things seem to be going in the right direction.  

It’s always been projected that writers, artists’, and creative like minded people have this angst and anguish, this pain that lies behind their genius.  So does that mean that these creative people can not produce greatness without their individual tragedies?  You hear of great writers and poets like Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, Virginia Woolfe, Edgar Allan Poe, and so many others who have had such tragic lives and their own demons to deal with and they dealt with them through their art.  However, if they were truly meant to be artists’ would it have mattered if their lives were happy and filled with never-ending promise?  

You write something today that’s a fictional story of tragedy and suffering and undoubtedly one of the first questions that someone will ask you is “Is this a true story.”  It’s as if our minds can not possibly come up with a story that is brilliant and filled with drama and tragic events that is not our own actual reality.  They do after all call it fiction for a reason.  

My daughter has a great talent brewing for writing and my best friend’s son is a movie director in the making who also has a great love for writing and they are not tortured souls.  They don’t have some tragic incident that has happened to them to suddenly make them begin to use writing as their source for directing the pain.  Why can’t there be writer’s who have come from a happy childhood and have experienced wonderful experiences throughout their whole lives?  

Why can’t writer’s, or any creative individual for that matter, not have that label of alcoholic, or drug addict, or suicidal that can be placed on them at any point in their career?  Why must writers, past, present, or future, be afraid of being doomed simply because they are doing what they feel they were put on this earth to do?  I would like to think that our future generations of artists don’t have to have that cloud of darkness hanging over their head simply because they wanted to explore their creativity.  Are we really only as great as our greatest tragedies or could it be possible that our tragedies are what strengthen the talent that is to be our greatness?  Until next time…don’t ever allow yourself to feel doomed for doing what God put you hear to do!  

 

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

No More Negative Nancy’s

jcladyluv

“Dwelling on the negative simply contributes to its power.”

~Shirley MacLaine 

In life you tend to get back what you give out.  At least that is what most people will say about how a person should perceive things.  I was watching the news this morning and they have these motivational minutes where the guy will give a tip for success for the day.  Today’s tip, in so many words, was that in order to have and attract success in your life that you have to wipe out the negativity surrounding you and get rid of those thoughts of what you can’t do and what you don’t have and just focus on what you can do and what you do have.  

This ties into getting back what you give out because I suppose if all you hear is people around you telling you that you can’t do something, or that what you want to happen for yourself can’t happen, you start to believe it then you are putting out that negative energy.  In turn all you are going to get back is negative results.  This struck a nerve with me because it seems that the more positive I try to be about my circumstances, and about my dreams and what I want out of life, the more I get negative backlash from other people, one of whom happens to be my mother, who I should get the most support from.  

When people say that you have to cut out the negativity from your life in order to really make your way towards success you never want that to include family.  I am sadly realizing, or should I say accepting, that my mother is one of those people.  When I make the mistake of sharing my ambitions with her she never fails to tell me that she thinks my dreams are impossible and that I am not living in reality.  But if I only focus on what isn’t going right and what I have not managed to accomplish just yet then I would never move forward and enjoy all that I do have and the things that I have managed to achieve.  

It’s true that lately everything has not fallen in line the way that I wanted them to, especially within this last year.  However, no matter what, I will always keep pushing through and propelling myself towards accomplishing what it is I want.  A person’s dreams are not just going to magically come true overnight but complaining about the bumps along the road is not going to change things one way or the other, so why waste that time that could be better spent.  

There is always going to be that one person around you that will make sure to run down the list of the things that you can’t get done and rub in your face what you don’t have.  But instead of listening to them you have to ask yourself why it is that they feel the need to tear you down and what is it that they don’t have that they are trying so hard to take away from you.  Until the next time…try to enjoy the things that you have accomplished and keep building on those accomplishments!  

 

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

No Matter How Hard It Gets

jcladyluv

“No one will ever see me quit, because I simply won’t. If I start something, I will finish it and do it well.”
~Steve Belmarsh 

I was thinking the other day about whether or not all of this time I have been trying to pursue my dreams of writing full time, owning my own publishing company, and magazine, I have just been kidding myself into thinking that I can really do this.  Maybe I’ve just been kidding myself that I am good enough to do this.  I mean I know I can write and that isn’t the problem.  It’s all of the other stuff that goes along with forging a successful writing career and becoming a successful entrepreneur, like being techno-savvy, and most importantly being able to put the money into it.  I think that I may have been kidding myself to think that sheer talent was all that it would take to turn my dreams into reality and that money was secondary because as much as I would like to think that money is not necessary when you have the talent and the drive, that is far from the truth.  

In the midst of this negative line of thinking that I try not to let get to me I was reminded of a song the other day from the movie The Five Heartbeats called “We Haven’t Finished Yet”.  In the first line of the song it talks about the fact that there are some people who run at the first sight of stormy weather and some people hold on and work it out.  I had to stop and think, “I’m not a quitter”, I don’t run just because something doesn’t work out the way I want it to, that just isn’t me at all.  The song made me think about how sometimes we just have to deal with things the way they are at the present moment and not get so caught up in the way that we wish that things could be.  True, things are not going the way I had hoped they would, but that just means I’m going to have to find other avenues to take towards making my dreams a reality.    

There are always going to be more days that I just want to throw my hands up and say forget it and just give up but I feel like if I give up now I’ll be missing out on my blessing that may be just around the corner.  The devil has really been working on my spirit and making me have all kinds of doubts about myself and my dreams and what contribution I can make to this world.  It’s funny how he seems to know just what buttons to push to make you start to go down the wrong path.  It’s even funnier just how strong you have to be to get back on the right one.  When I get to thinking that I can’t do this and I should just give up I’m going to remember the Five Heartbeats movie and think about that song and that “No matter how hard it gets” I’m not finished yet.  

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://spokenlikeaqueen.wordpress.com/

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

Writing in the Reality of the Moment

jcladyluv

“Reality isn’t the way you wish things to be, nor the way they appear to be, but the way they actually are.”

~Robert J. Ringer

I am a writer of many things.  Fiction of all types, poetry, articles that motivate and uplift, and articles that are meant to inform.  No one who writes, unless they particularly write nothing but children’s fairytales, is going to always produce things that are considered motivating and uplifting.  Some things that people write are just real.  It comes from a place of reality and living in the present moment and in the knowledge of knowing that, as much as we would like it to be true, every moment of people’s lives is not going to always be happy and uplifting and completely void of negative obstacles.  That’s just not the reality of things.  

So when someone tells me that an article that I wrote to be informative and educate people, who may or may not know certain aspects of a health related disease, is stemming from a place of darkness and negativity it makes me want to literally curse them out and throw something, preferably at them.  This particular person would like me to write of nothing but motivating and uplifting things and speak of absolutely nothing that might be negative.  That’s not real for me.  

For one I don’t consider the article that I wrote, “The Rise of Lung Cancer in Non-smoking women”, to be dark and negative.  It simply is meant to inform people on things they may not even know concerning the disease.  I was informed just by researching the subject.  Secondly, I don’t feel like I have to be placed in this box as a writer of only writing and producing motivational articles.  I like to write a little bit of everything but most importantly I like to keep whatever I write (except for fiction) very real. 

The funny thing to me is that someone making that type of comment to me appeared and came off as completely negative.  As if they were someone just trying to get me riled up and trying to plant seeds of doubt or self consciousness in my mind.  It’s almost as if they somehow thought that this would make me just all of a sudden change my style of writing and the things that I put out there for the world to see.  

Truthfully it did make me angry but it didn’t deter me from writing my way and on my terms.  I write from the heart, whatever way I happen to feel, whatever information I want to convey or educate people with.  While I do love when people like what it is that I have written, I write for me first and for the world second.  Now maybe that’s wrong in some people’s eyes but if I wrote to try and please everyone else then I may possibly be the one who is not pleased with what I am writing and then I am no longer writing for the sheer love of writing.  

My words to the world of writers today is to always stay true to who you are in your writing.  Everyone is not going to like what you have to say but the important thing is that you say it, however you want to say it.  Write for the moment you are living in and from the place you are coming from.  Don’t ever let anyone else dictate what your voice as a writer should be. 

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