Tag: time to write

7 Ways for You to Get Ready for National Novel Writing Month

jcladyluv

So as I stated in my last post I will not be doing NaNoWriMo this year, at least not in the traditional sense, but I thought for all of you out there who are planning on participating in the crazy notion of attempting to complete a novel in 30 days that I would make a few suggestions on getting ready for the month of November.  Obviously the first thing that anyone getting into the novel writing spirit needs to do is to sign up by registering on the National Novel Writing Month website at http://www.nanowrimo.org/.  That’s the easy part.  Other things to better prepare for this month are:

1.)    Brainstorm a clear idea for your novel:  Hopefully you already know what you want to write about but if not that is the first thing that you need to figure out.

2.)    Know the most important details of your novel upfront:  You may or may not be a person that likes to outline.  If you are an outliner, this is what your next move needs to be.  Outline the major points of your novel so that you know where your story is going to start, and where you think it might end up.  If you are more of a detailed person then you will want to detail ALL of the major and somewhat minor parts of the novel in this outline.  If you are not a person who likes to outline, at the very least you will want to know that major plot points in your story.

3.)    Get to know your characters:  Some might consider this to be a part of outlining but I see it as being totally separate but just as complex as creating an outline.  You have to know who your characters because if you don’t know who your characters are your soon to be readers won’t know who they are either.

4.)    Research now rather than later:  Do as much research for your novel that you can do before starting your novel.  Once you get started writing, you are not going to have the time to really go back and do extensive research so get most of your research out of the way now.

5.)    Begin mapping out a workable plan:  Come up with a schedule that works for you to write during the month of November.  If you are a morning person then you will want to make time available so that you can write in the mornings and get your best work done.  Whatever time of day works better for you, you are going to want to maximize to produce your best work.  This is also when you will want to let the people around you know that you may not have as much time as you normally do because you will be busy…Writing.

6.)    When November 1st comes around, be prepared to start writing and be prepared to be very busy for those thirty days.

7.)    One final thing:  If you should happen to get stuck or have a bad day and are not able to write, don’t be too hard on yourself.  Putting extra pressure on yourself to write only makes it harder for you to produce good solid work.

I hope that these tips were somehow helpful to anyone who is getting ready to embark on their 30 day journey into novel-land.  I know that following these steps helped me last year when I participated and all of the years prior to that.  I will be cheering all of you NaNo-er’s on from the sidelines but don’t think I won’t be getting some writing done on my part.  I just have to focus on the business end of things right now, as well as putting my Write 2 Be Magazine together for its launch in January 2013.  I wish all of you well in November!

 

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

No NaNo For Me This Year

jcladyluv

Normally around this time of year I would be preparing for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) by getting my outline together and doing the research necessary.  However, I am not participating in NaNoWriMo this year and really I am a bit saddened by it.  I feel in some ways, because I have done it every year since I have heard about it, that I am letting myself down by not doing it but I just don’t think that I can commit to it this year as I do every other year.  I don’t have my outline completed for the novel I want to do and I haven’t even begun the research and on top of that, I am not quite finished with the novel I started last year during NaNoWriMo.

So to make myself feel a little better about not being able to fully commit to NaNo this year I have decided that I will use the time during NaNoWriMo to focus more on a novel that I have completed (a couple of years ago) and pitching it to agents and also pitching article ideas around to various magazines and newspapers and also working on my Write 2 Be magazine that is set to launch in January of 2013.  I guess it would also be a good idea if I finish up the novel from last year’s NaNoWriMo.

With all of that I think that I will be pretty busy during the month of November even without having a new novel to focus on.  If you too are a person who traditionally participates in NaNoWriMo and will also not be able to this year, don’t dwell on what it is you can’t do.  Instead come up with another plan of something else within your writing that needs to get done that you can place your focus on.  I plan on still making the best out of this NaNoWriMo doing a lot of things with my writing that I have been putting off and just can’t put off any more.

 

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

The Crutches That Keep Us From Healing

jcladyluv

I broke my foot when I was 19 years old.  I was attending MorganStateUniversity and it was during the winter when it had snowed and iced and as I was on my way to a class I slipped and fell and could not get up.  I had to be taken to the hospital and once examined, I had my foot put in a cast and given crutches and told to use them everyday for the appropriate healing time or else my foot would not be able to heal itself properly.  

For anyone who knows me, I am a hardheaded person who typically likes to formulate my own method of how things will wok better for me and needless to say I didn’t really use the crutches.  I tried to use them but they never felt like they actually gave me the support that they were supposed to give and they became more of a hindrance than actually helping me.  It would not be until years later that I realized that using those crutches properly as instructed would have saved me a lot of physical pain down the road.  

To this day I have problems with my foot (especially when it rains) and I know that with any body part that gets broken you are going to have problems but I think because my foot didn’t heal properly, it gave me extra problems.  We all have our own personal crutches in life.  There are ones that we are supposed to use that we don’t, there are the one’s that we use when we don’t need them, and then there are the ones that we use far longer than necessary and then on top of it we don’t use them effectively enough so that when we no longer have the crutches we are ill prepared for the journey without them.  

I have had a crutch for the last several years and it was one that was supposed to only be used to get me in a better position for what it is I really need to be doing.  That crutch was supposed to allow me time to get myself ready for when I no longer had them anymore.  I had been relying on that crutch for so long that not only had I not realized that I should have removed them a long time ago, but now because I didn’t use that crutch properly as they were supposed to be used, I am ill prepared for the journey without them.  The crutch that was supposed to end up helping me has now become the thing that has hindered me the most and without it I feel as if my world is literally crashing in on me.  

A week ago, I had so much school work with this Master’s program that seemed to be getting the better of me, and I was frustrated because not only did I not have the time to write (due to massive amounts of school work) but I also do not have the time to market and promote myself or query to bring the money in as a writer that I need to make.  A week ago I also had a crutch that I knew would be there, until it wasn’t anymore.  

So here I sit, with the crutches pulled out from under me abruptly, with no notice, and amazingly I am sitting here doing the research and working on querying, and thinking of the next project as well as how to complete the novel I am still working on so I can query that, and surprise of all surprises I can am still managing to get my homework done.  I seemed to have suddenly made the time that I needed to have all along.  

Now I’m not going to say that I am glad that the crutches were pulled out from underneath me without fair warning because I am not in a good place right now and at this moment I am not seeing how it is going to get any better as quickly as I need it to.  I can say that without those crutches, I have suddenly jumped into action.  I am getting things done even as I am typing this blog post that I thought I wasn’t able to make the time for.  

I can see now that those crutches were not helping me like I thought after all.   They were giving me an excuse not to take immediate action.  They were feeding the fear that I already had about whether or not I can make this work.  I thought that they were giving me a way to prepare when really they were keeping me from taking that giant leap of faith that I always thought I was taking.  

Most crutches do help us heal from whatever it is that is broken.  However, at some point we have to remember to remove those crutches when they are no longer needed because then all they are really doing is getting in the way.  I took too long to remove mine, don’t wait until it’s too late to remove yours.  

 

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

Gearing Up For Another Writing Marathon

jcladyluv

So a few posts ago I wrote about doing Camp NaNoWriMo this August so that I can not only finish my novel that I started in last November’s NaNoWriMo but also so that I can get my writing groove back.  Although you might think that I wouldn’t have to do the same necessary steps to prepare for this that I did in November because at least this time I am not starting from scratch, that is far from the truth.  

Even though I don’t have to come up with an outline and create character sketches I still have to get a handle on my time management.  Not only am I just getting my bearings within my Master’s in Psychology program and but I am really trying to work on some freelance work and trying to pitch certain magazines and increase the success of my business, throw a novel in the mix along with the everyday fulltime job of being a mom.  Not to mention, I have just thought of another business idea that has some real true potential to make me and my family some money and could launch a lot of things for me, and I have to start putting in the research for that quickly.  

I already know what my issue is that I have to work on during this coming month of August, time management.  I suppose this will mean a lot less TV and telephone (accept for my very necessary conversations with Ms. L. that tend to turn into brainstorming sessions) and a lot more late nights—and by late nights I mean one’s that are productive late nights and not me catching up on my TV.  Thank goodness for my DVR.  Well I have a lot of organizing of my time to go figure out and I hope that some of you out there click on the link in the post for CampNaNoWriMo and join in on the writing challenge with me.  Tomorrow begins the rest of my novel.  Yay!

 

 

 

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

Scheduling Quality Writing Time

jcladyluv

“You don’t find time to write. You make time. It’s my job.”

~Nora Roberts 

I was sitting at my desk today thinking about my projects that I am supposed to be working on.  I was trying to figure out the best way to be productive in getting them done.   I realized that it is actually going to have to come down to me making an actual schedule for me to work off of because at this point that is the only viable way that I think I am actually going to get any of my projects underway and completed.  

I started remembering back to when I first began really writing.  It started off with poetry when I was in elementary school and for the better part of my high school years.  But towards the end of high school is when I first discovered that I was incredibly long-winded (thus not really good at the art of the short story) and decided that I was going to tackle writing novels.  I didn’t need a schedule then.  

I would just write for hours and hours on end.  The words just wouldn’t stop flowing.  It seemed like at that point of my life I had all the time in the world to write and there was no need to make a schedule just to find the time to pen (or type in some cases) the different stories I wanted to write.  

I suppose I was naïve to think that it would always be like that.  Where my drive and passion to write would just magically create this time to still write for hours at a time without ever noticing how fast the time has flown by.  

I guess I am apprehensive about having to schedule my writing time because I’m afraid that that would somehow mean that I wouldn’t be seen as the natural writer that I feel I am.  But I know that I’ve read many articles where even some of the greatest writers (in which I aspire to reach their level of productivity) have well thought out comprehensive schedules to amass all of that productivity.  

It’s odd that I am a person who loves making lists and schedules for everything but when it comes down to my writing I just want it to be as natural as it can be.  However, the natural go with the flow method doesn’t seem to be working out as well as I would like.  Although if I can become as productive in putting out novel after novel like Joyce Carol Oates, James Patterson, or Sue Grafton, then I suppose having to schedule my writing would have been well worth the change.         

 

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 Writer Must Show Up- Every Day- Even When the Muse Isn’t There

jcladyluv

“You can’t say, I won’t write today because that excuse will extend into several days, then several months, then… you are not a writer anymore, just someone who dreams about being a writer.”

~Dorothy C. Fontana 

I didn’t write yesterday but it wasn’t because I didn’t want to.  I just didn’t have anything to say, well nothing that I felt was worthy of being read by you guys.  But today I am reminded that I must still write even when I don’t feel like it.  

I suppose if I had some deadline to reach (for an actual publisher or editor) I would be more inclined to write even when the mood doesn’t strike.  However, the only way I can get to that stage of writing with a deadline for a publisher or agent in mind, or writing an article for an editor on deadline, is if I act as if I have a deadline now.  I think I need to start making my own deadlines for certain things that I need to get accomplished and actually sticking to those deadlines as if my life depended on it (mostly because it does).  

Even if there is no publisher or agent waiting for my finished work right at this very moment, I am confident (most days) that there will be.  I need to make sure that when it counts I won’t find or create an excuse not to put my butt in the chair and write.  

It’s different when you write as a hobby because then you really can wait until the mood strikes you to write.  You can do other things that you are really motivated to do and when the story hits you a certain way, then you can go write it all down.  

On the other hand, a writer, a person who this is not a hobby for but rather something that they are driven to do and are meant to do, something that they can’t live their life without doing, can’t have that luxury.  We can’t just wait for that muse (which, let’s face it, doesn’t stick around 24/7) to hit us and we can’t not write until that muse strikes.  

This is our livelihood (at least it’s what we would like our livelihood to be) and to be successful at it we can’t just not show up to the desk to write.  We have to plant our butts in that chair at the desk or the dining room table, or wherever you write at, and get writing.  

Even if it sounds like garbage at first, it could very well be an unpolished jewel, waiting to be polished later on when your muse can begin to make it shine.  So for all of you out there who woke up today not feeling like you want to write, write anyway!  

 

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

There Can Be No Victory Without Having Something to Defeat

jcladyluv

“Victory is sweetest when you’ve known defeat.”

~Malcolm S. Forbes 

This morning I read Ms. L.’s latest blog post and it got me thinking about how we tend to only want to talk about positive things and spare others from the bad (or at least from so much of the bad).  I myself sometimes feel as if when I post I tend to zero in on the problems and that the positive spin that I try to put on certain struggles I deal with and doubts and fears that I have are just not positive enough.  

In reading Ms. L.’s post it dawned on me that we all love when we hear the feel-good stories but I’m not sure that we realize that the reason we love them so much is because of the struggle that they come from.  We like to hear about the things that people overcome and how hard people have to fight to get where it is that they want to be in life and we applaud the victory on the other side of their struggles.  It gives us a sense of hope for our own situations.  

We can’t always put a positive spin on things that happen in our lives.  Sometimes we just have to tell it like it is and hope that others can take something positive away from whatever it is that we are going through.  There are always lessons to be learned from the experiences that we go through and sometimes the silver lining just doesn’t show up until after the storm clouds are gone. 

However, we still have to fight our way through the storm clouds, and not only that, we have to share our fight.  We have to use our struggles to equip others with the necessary tools that they may not even realize they already have so they can weather the storms too.  There are silver linings to everything, but Ms. L. is right when she points out that those silver linings don’t really mean much without the clouds that you had to go through to get there.     

 

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

Time Is Ticking Away From Me

jcladyluv

“If you have time to whine and complain about something then you have the time to do something about it.”

~Anthony J. D’Angelo 

In my battle to become more productive in my writing I am struggling with the fact that I can’t cram more time to write in a single 24 hour day.  I’m just not as young (in either actual age or spirit) as I used to be and I can’t even find a way to force myself to stay up all night like I used to.  

I still go to bed relatively late (around 1 am) but even staying up that late doesn’t prove to make me more productive.  When I was younger I would be up from the time I woke up early in the morning until almost the same hour the next morning, working on only one or two hours of sleep (if that).  And when I was up, I don’t just mean awake and conscious, I mean alert, on the move, and with non-stop energy.  

Now, even though I go to bed late it is no longer because I am able to bounce around with energy beyond my control and channel it into sitting in front of the computer to work on my novel (not that I don’t try).  This is what I am battling to try and change.  I am trying to be able to get more work done in the day so that I have some work to show for the time that is flying by faster than I can blink my eyes.  

I would like to know whatever energy pill that all the famous, over-producing novelist’, and screenplay writers are taking and how I can get my hands on them.  I suppose I just have to discover the key to actually getting the sleep I need and still getting a sufficient (and by sufficient I mean way more than the average person can get done in one day) amount of work accomplished in a normal 24 hour period.  If anyone out there has figured it out please give me a hint to the magic solution. 

 

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

Building a Better Relationship with Your Writer Self

jcladyluv

On my post the other day I wrote about my “marriage” to writing and my wanting to improve my relationship.  Well I wanted to share with all of you, some of the different ways that any writer can improve their relationship to their writing and become more harmonious and at ease with their craft.  I hope that some of these tips help you the way they are helping me. 

1)      Read, read, read!  Don’t forget that you have to still be a good reader too.  A writer can not be so caught up with trying to write their great work of art that they forget to read others great works of art as well.

2)      Keep a separate notebook that is just for the ideas that come to your mind sporadically.  You have to be ready to capture those thoughts at a moment’s notice because if you wait too long you can lose them (trust me I know).

3)      For all of those techno-savvy people out there who have completely given up the (seemingly) dying art of paper and pen, put down the ipad from time to time and remind yourself what it feels like to put pen to paper.  There is nothing like writing longhand to get your thoughts flowing so don’t lose sight of that.

4)      If you are a planner (like me) and you know that planning things out works better for you then don’t give into the advice that some writers will give you about writing without a plan.  That does not work for everyone and if you know that having a list of what projects you need to work on will help you get it done quicker, then make that list.  If you know that outlining will help you write that novel better and quicker then write that outline.  Good advice is only good if it actually works for you and not against you.

5)      Sign up for a writing course or a writing networking event or conference.  It gives you the opportunity to talk to and get to know other writers who may be struggling with some of the same things you are, or writers that you can help as well.  It will also give you a chance to make contacts that you will be thankful you have in the future.

 

I hope that something on the list above helps someone else out there other than me.  Of course what is important for every writer out there to do to have a good relationship with their writer selves is to actually write.  I hope you are all crafting some wonderful stories this weekend!

 

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

My Up and Down Marriage to Writing

jcladyluv

“Marriage is a book of which the first chapter is written in poetry and the remaining chapters in prose.” 

~Beverley Nichols

Ms. L. and I always joke about writing and our laptops being our husbands.  It seems like more of a reality as time goes on and as I pour more of myself into it.  If I were truly married to my writing, then I think that our marriage might be in trouble and standing on very shaky ground right now.  Marriage of any kind needs love constantly poured into it, attention consistently given to it, passion infused all through it, and it needs to be nurtured through all of its years of commitment and union.  

As I think about my writing in those terms, I realize that I haven’t been a good wife to it lately.  At times I have neglected my writing and have been completely lazy when it comes to my talent.  I haven’t spent enough time with my craft and I have let way too many other personal dilemmas stand in the way of me taking my writing career to the next level (or stage of our relationship).  I haven’t nurtured my gift for expressing myself through my words as I know that I can and at times I have appeared to have completely given up on the relationship altogether.  But I haven’t given up.  

My writing may be the only constant relationship I have had since I developed a love for it at the age of ten.  It has been by my side and it has never abandoned me (at least not for extremely large amounts of time), nor has it judged me.  It has allowed me to use it as my vessel to the rest of the world and lately I have taken advantage that it will always be around for me.  I have not showed it just how much I truly treasure it and how passionate I still feel about it and I am sorry for that.          

I know that if I don’t stop neglecting my writing and my purpose altogether, then it will soon leave me.  It gives me warnings every time I come down with writer’s block but I’m sure that it feels that it hasn’t gotten through to me.  I know that there are times when it just weeps at the fact that I appear to have abandoned it for the fear (the invisible third party in our relationship) that I will never do it justice.  Well writing, I want you to know that you have gotten through to me.  I am ready to recommit myself to you from this day forward.  

I am turning my back on the fear that has interfered with us and plagued us for quite some time now.  I have finally realized that if I don’t give you the love and time that you need, you can’t give me the fulfillment that I need in return.  I know that I have to nurture you and take time to enhance our relationship so that it only gets better and more purposeful as the years go on.  

I plan to spend as many seconds and minutes of the day with you that I can on a daily basis no matter how impossible it may seem to make it happen.  I thank you for hanging in there and giving me continuous chances to get our relationship back on the right track.  From now until forever I will make sure to honor you and be true to you so that we can prosper in this life together.  

I love Writing and I’m just thankful that Writing still loves me right back. 

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