Tag: Word count

Challenges Can Push Us to a Place of Growth

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So as most of you guys know, I am a creature of habit (not all of the habits are good and healthy, but I digress) and I don’t particularly welcome change. Oddly enough I am also the same person who welcomes a challenge (within reason of course—I don’t do these popular social media ones)) and likes to see how far I can be pushed. Being a part of the AuthorTube community on YouTube (and if you haven’t checked out my channel, feel free to do so after reading this) there are a lot of challenges and ways they make sure to get their fellow writers motivated to be more productive. It’s almost impossible to not demand productivity of yourself when you are a part of a writing community that is just so extremely productive and they keep finding vastly different ways to produce.

So a new challenge has come up in the AuthorTube community by an AuthorTuber named Kate Cavanaugh called the MilWordy challenge and the goal is to write a million words over the next year, starting September 1, 2020. This includes all words, both fiction and non-fiction (or creative non-fiction), as well as blog posts and newsletters, poetry, and editing. So as daunting as this sounds, I have actually decided to dive right into this and I’m going to be honest and say that I don’t think that I will actually get to a million words, however, for me that is not the point. Largely what I have found within this community is accountability and ways to hold myself to a certain standard that even I myself am not sure that I can achieve.

The whole point is to try. I mean if I achieve even half of this goal then that is more than likely far more words than I would’ve gotten had I not done the challenge. But also, what if I actually complete this goal? How many projects would I have finished then? How many books will be set to be published? How many new projects that I was supposed to have started by now could I not only start but actually get started on and maybe even complete? I want to push myself and this is a good way to do that.

Challenges are good for that. They make us, at the very least, attempt the things that we have programmed ourselves to think are impossible. Challenges make us raise our own standards and stop expecting the bare minimum of what we have to offer this world. Challenges, both the ones that are thrown at us and the one’s in which we impose on ourselves, are what help us to grow as people.

What or who has challenged you on your journey? Have you resisted that challenge or did you allow yourself to lean in? I hope that any of you writers out there that read this perhaps click on the link in this post to Kate’s video and check out the details of the challenge or if not make your own challenge to see just how much you can achieve if you push yourself to. Let’s see how far we can get if we just pushed a little past what we expected of ourselves! Until next time… #BeBold #BeCourageous #BeMotivated  

 

Jimmetta Carpenter 

Writer/Editor 

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

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NaNoWriMo Day 15: I’m Halfway There!

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I was supposed to have some kind of reward or treat planned for this moment.  The moment when I have made it past 25,000 words of my novel and am halfway to the finish line of NaNoWriMo.  Sadly, I did not get my chocolate reward that I had originally planned on (but I’ll get it tomorrow) but I suppose the reward in itself is actually hitting the word count button and seeing that number go over 25,000.  What’s funny is that I don’t feel like I’m halfway there, I feel like I still have a long ways to go.  I feel like there is still so much more of the story to tell before I make it to the end.  Truthfully I probably won’t be finished with the novel even when NaNoWriMo is over.  I think that Mackenzie is only just beginning in this novel and that there might in fact be a series in store for her.  I’m having so much fun telling her story and she is opening up a lot.  She is going to have a lot of things to deal with and it is going to be way too much for just one book.  I hope that all of you are at the halfway point too, or at least almost there.  I gotta go find me some chocolate now!  Until tomorrow…How do you plan on rewarding your halfway mark? 

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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NaNoWriMo Day 1: Early Awakening

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

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

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

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

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress