Tag: time to write

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Write 2 Be Magazine is now out so please go check it out at http://write2bemagazine.com/. Also please go and join the magazine on twitter https://twitter.com/write2bemag, join the email listing for the magazine or submit a request for an author interview at Write2bemagazine@yahoo.com, and also like the Write 2 Be Magazine fan page https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine. Please help support my endeavor and my new journey and help me spread the word about Write 2 Be and its meaning.

Is Having a Deadline Really Such a Bad Idea?

February 26, 2013 jcladyluv

I don’t have a tight schedule to write on. I’m not an author who is on the New York Times Bestsellers list (not yet anyway) so I don’t have any major publishing houses breathing down my back for my next novel (they would be quite upset with me right now). I also don’t currently have any newspaper or magazine editors waiting for my next article and hounding me about when it will be done. That would sound like heaven to most writers, no stress and worry about being penalized for being late with an assignment.

However, what I have discovered about me over the last several years is that I am one of those writers (hopefully not the only one) who needs a deadline. I need that invisible ticking clock over my head ticking away the minutes that I am wasting on something that is not going to actually earn me any income as a writer. I need that editor or major publishing house breathing down my back and constantly checking in with me to see if I have finished that article yet, or that next novel that I would ordinarily be stuck on if not for the fact that I have a time limit.

I have an ebook that I was supposed to have written by now so that I can begin promoting and selling it. However, despite the fact that I have an outline to get me off to a good start I have yet to produce one single chapter of that ebook. Perhaps if I had some editor telling me that it needed to be done in a month I could sit down and just crank it out already.

I’ve always known that I worked a little better under pressure. It seems like the more intense the pressure the faster I work and the better the writing is. Even with school papers I have always waited until the final moment, even now as I am earning a Master’s degree I will wait until the night before the paper is due to do it. I wish I was that person who could start things a week or more ahead of time, giving myself ample time to get things done and produce good work but I don’t believe I am wired that way.

So since I don’t have that editor or that publishing house screaming at me through emails I have to be the one dangling that deadline in front of my face. I have to start setting dates for the production of my work (and actually stick to them instead of just moving the date further up) and either find a computer program (not sure where to even start with that one) to help me keep track of those deadlines or mark the calendar and hold firm to the date I set. I suppose until I have that editor or publishing house tapping their fingers at me as a signal to hurry up and finish my project, I have to hold myself accountable in other ways. Otherwise I might never make it to that New York Times Bestsellers list (and on Oprah’s book club list) and that is an outcome that I refuse to let happen.

How do all of you deal with deadlines? Are deadlines your friend or your enemy?

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

How Do I Get this Thing Off of Repeat?

February 20, 2013 jcladyluv

We sometimes tend to get into cycles that are not good for us to be in and they often seem to be a cycle that we subconsciously repeat. I have many cycles that I personally would like to never repeat again but today I started to notice a professional cycle beginning to repeat itself and it is one that has been on repeat for quite some time now and I am working my hardest to not hit the repeat button again.

I have this cycle with my writing (as I touched on briefly in yesterday’s post) where I get excited about my projects to the point where I can’t stop talking about it (and drive my friends crazy with these characters who are not real to them). Then I get stuck on how to miraculously work on all of my projects at precisely the same time (yes I tend to be drawn to the impossible). And when that doesn’t happen the way that I want to I just stop producing altogether.

I mean sure I am watching T.V. or a movie and calling it inspiration (which sometimes it does inspire), or I’m reading a book that I suddenly can’t seem to put down (which in and of itself is not a bad thing), or I’m staring at the blank computer screen willing the words to just somehow leap from my brain onto the screen without me having to lift a finger (too bad there’s no real technology for that—or is there). All of these are quite possibly valid and relaxing time wasters, but they are also great procrastination techniques as well.

I have a plan for this year, to focus mainly on moving my writing career forward and promoting myself and my brand and heading towards success. I promised myself that I would get away from the major distractions and really purposely direct my focus to what needs to get done to not only reach that level of success but to also remain on that level. I started to notice that I was doing it again. I was getting hung up on trying to work on all of my writing projects at one time and getting frustrated because it just isn’t possible to get an effective amount of work done trying to do it all at once, and lately I have found myself constructively procrastinating.

Constructive or not, procrastination is just that, procrastination. I have to stop repeating the cycle of trying to do too much at one time and instead, designate the appropriate amount of time to each project at different times and not getting discouraged if it’s not getting done as quickly as I would like it to get done. Truthfully, I would like my ideas to be able to write themselves because if that was possible I would have over a dozen novels by now, but good quality, thought provoking writing, takes time and can not be rushed. Expecting perfection in my writing is one cycle that I can’t wait to stop repeating itself, but it’s all a work in progress.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

If Only I Could Have It All…Time That Is

February 12, 2013 jcladyluv

I don’t think this is the first time I’ve mentioned this but I have extreme issues with time management. With me and my writing there isn’t a problem with having enough ideas, I have plenty of those (too many in fact). There isn’t necessarily a problem with drive and determination, I have tons of that. There is, however, a serious mismanagement of time. It isn’t always that I don’t have enough time either (although it certainly feels that way), but rather that I don’t think that I am doing the right things with my time.

I know what you’re thinking. If you know that then it should be easy to fix, right. Well you know what they say. Some things are just easier said then done. I get trapped by the normal time traps that I’m sure trap everyone from time to time; checking emails, checking facebook (both my personal page and the Write 2 Be fan page-seriously for networking purposes mostly), watching TV (especially the shows that inspire further creativity), and just the everyday mom stuff.

It’s not that I don’t get any work done, I do, but I haven’t gotten back to my novel in months and I miss it. I miss that side of my writing and it’s not as if I don’t want to finish my novel, I just can’t seem to find the time. At least it always feels that way. I know it should be a simple solution but rarely will the things that seem simple ever actually be simple. So I thought of a few things that I could possibly do to improve my time issues as it pertains to my writing.

1.) Cut out some of my TV time— Okay not necessarily just completely ignore all of the shows I love and can’t stand to miss. But perhaps I could block out a chunk of time for my writing that can not be interrupted by the television and just DVR those shows that I can’t miss (after all what else do I have DVR for). That way I can also have that set time where I’m relaxing and catching up on all of the TV that I missed while writing.

2.) Not check my emails every thirty minutes— Seriously, what am I really going to miss in thirty minutes. I just need to set three times in a day that I can check my emails. There probably won’t be a crucially urgent email in there that can’t wait to be read.

3.) Not try to make everything perfect—Nothing is perfect and you would think that I would have realized this already. A large part of what takes up the time that I do spend writing is stressing about whether everything that I produced is perfect or not. Nothing comes of trying to make things 100% perfect except for a lot of wasted time and missed writing assignments. Perfection is, after all, overrated.

4.) Map out a schedule—I know all of the projects that I need to work on, and I know all of the marketing that I need to do to further promote myself, now I just need to set certain time periods to work on certain projects. That way, if I set a specific timeline to work on a project then I know I have that allotted amount of time to work on that project and that project only. This way I can make absolute sure that something gets worked on. It’s more efficient then what I am doing now which is just working in whatever I can whenever I can.

Hopefully if I begin practicing some of these tips I will be able to finish my novel and move and perhaps even start the next one. Maybe some of these tips can also work for someone else out there who is struggling with actually producing the amount of work they know they should be getting out. After all, time doesn’t stand still and we can’t keep wasting it by not having a plan of how best to use it.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

Ready for the New Year!

December 31, 2012 jcladyluv

I wish I could explain my absence from the blog saying that I was in just such a writing frenzy that I couldn’t tear myself away from my novel, or my articles, or my work for various clients in order to blog. Unfortunately I can not say any of that. I had intended on getting a lot of work done last week but intentions do not necessarily mean action and I hate to say that I did not put action into those intentions.

I had time away from having to do homework for school and my daughter was even gone for a few days with her father but the time just disappeared into thin air. I did some reading and I did some planning in my head but as for them making them to the actual physical form of being on paper (or on the computer screen), it just didn’t happen. I’m not going to make excuses because there aren’t any.

If I waste time dwelling in what I didn’t do that was supposed to get done by now then nothing still gets done. I promised that in this coming year that I was going to direct my focus on the things that I can control in my life and not continue harping on what I couldn’t. I can’t go back in time and change things to be the way that I want them to be so I will live in the present and just do better.

I’ve already made my lists of the accomplishments that I WILL get done in 2013 and I am already in the mindset to accept that things must change and that all of my efforts will be directed towards making the changes that need to be made in order to get back on track. Hopefully all of you are geared up and ready for the New Year and have your plans of action ready to be put in motion. Happy New Year everyone and let’s make this the year it is meant to be!

I have the Write 2 Be Empowered… What is your Write 2 Be?

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

Write 2 Be Magazine will be debuting on January 15^th, 2013 so please go join the magazine on twitter before it debuts on https://twitter.com/write2bemag and join the email listing for the magazine at Write2bemagazine@yahoo.com. Also please feel free to go and friend me on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310 and like my Write 2 Be Magazine fan page. Please help support my endeavor and my new journey and help me spread the word about Write 2 Be and its meaning.

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 # 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 # 17: Breaking the Routine, Just For One Day

November 17, 2012 jcladyluv

Saturday’s are a hard day to keep up with your writing routine for NaNoWriMo. You have so many other things to do on these two little days of the weekend to make up for all that you don’t get done during the week when you’re working and being super-mom (or dad) and cramming in your writing of your novel. It’s not completely out of the ordinary for you to want to take a day away from NaNoWriMo.

Although I strongly suggest that you find a way to write every day of this month (even if it is only a paragraph), there is nothing worse then forcing something that just isn’t there. It isn’t good for your creativity, it isn’t good for story and your characters, and it isn’t good for your sanity.

If you absolutely need a break from your story and all things NaNoWriMo, it will not completely hurt anything to miss one day. After all, you can always make it up in the days to come. Either you can double your word count the next day or you can split up the words you missed and add them into the next few days.

If you are going to plan on missing one of your days I would actually suggest that it be on Thanksgiving because it’s going to be a hectic day and sometimes it pays to have one less thing to worry about doing on a 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 # 2: Let the Nay-Sayers in the Crowd Fuel Your Drive

November 2, 2012 jcladyluv

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 30^th 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”

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

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

NaNoWriMo Day # 1: Don’t Turn and Run, You Can Actually Do This!

November 1, 2012 jcladyluv

Okay so it’s Day 1 of National Novel Writing Month. Even though it’s only the first day you are already thinking “what in the world did I get myself into here?” You are re-thinking the whole idea and pondering what the point of it all is.

Thoughts of doubt are starting to seep in and you are beginning to realize just how many words 50,000 is and the time you will have to invest to get it done. For those of you who have never done this before you may be starting to realize just how hard it really is to write a novel.

Coming from someone who has had all of these thoughts racing through their head before, and all at once, from the times I have done NaNoWriMo before, I’m here to tell you DON’T LISTEN TO THOSE VOICES! Those are the voices that are trying to get you to give up before you even begin. I know it seems like it can’t be done and like there is no point to all of this but it just isn’t true. The point is that your novel is closer to being done then it was before you started.

No matter what you’re inner critic is telling you, you can’t listen. You Can Do This. Hang in there, it does get easier. Soon (maybe even tomorrow) you will start to fall in love with your story as well as your characters and the plot will be all you can think about. Don’t run away from your story now, it needs you to convey it to the rest of the world!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”