Tag: Write 2 Be blog

NaNoWriMoPost Day 14

November 14, 2019November 14, 2019 jcladyluv

We’re almost halfway there!!! So I hope everyone is having a productive NaNoWriMo experience. I know that it gets daunting to try and write so many words in what seems like such a short time but the important thing that I have found that doing NaNoWriMo helps with is creating the habitual routine of sitting down in your chair (or floor or couch, wherever you choose to write) and writing every single day.

This is especially helpful for those of us who had found ourselves in a rut or blocked or even just lacking in sheer motivation. It gets us back in the mood to really produce good content again and for me it has reenergized me and gotten me excited, not just about writing the current story that I am working on for NaNoWriMo but it has me excited for creating period, in terms of writing my blog posts, or in terms of thinking of ideas on how to best structure the podcast I will be starting in January of 2020. It even has me thinking (perhaps foolishly) that I might actually want to give writing for television a shot and go for it because I’ve always wanted to write two specific things, novels and television shows, but I’ve just always talked myself out of trying to write for TV because I had convinced myself I wasn’t really good enough to do that (which is crazy given the fact that I can predict an entire show and how it’s going to go in the first two minutes of the show most of the time lol).

Now I won’t be long because I have a story to get back to and hopefully you do too. I just stopped in to check in on you and to let you know that there are going to be videos to help get you through the rest of NaNoWriMo and hopefully to help keep you motivated past that point over on my online magazine, Write 2 Be Magazine, so when you get some time go check out the specific writing videos to help you in your writing journey! I’ll check back again near the end of the stretch and of course my normal blog posts will appear weekly. Until next time… #BeConsistent #BeMotivated

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

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

I Choose Faith Over Worry

November 13, 2019 jcladyluv

For as long as I can remember I have always been a worrier. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment in time or the day in which I went from a child without a care in the world to one who, even if I didn’t know the word to describe the feeling at the time, filled up on the inside with the worry that I innately carried with me into my adulthood. It could’ve been something I had seen or witnessed and buried in my subconscious so I can not now remember, or it could be one of the many times that I had worried if I was going to get hit by my mother simply for existing that day. Whatever moment it was that turned me into a person who would carry worry into my everyday habits, the habitual nature had been developed long before I knew how the power of Faith truly worked.

I recently read an article written by a friend that revisited the popular children’s Sunday school song In His Hands. The song tells us that God has the whole world in his hand, meaning every last one of us can rest in the palm of his hands. Every battle we face, every test that we fail, every victory that we win, all rest in his hands. Now as a child I did not understand the true meaning and power behind the words in that song but having lived a little and experienced a lot I get more than ever the meaning behind those words.

I have certainly been tested this last year and the funny thing to me is that even in this extremely difficult time that I am having I have never had more Faith in God and his power than I do right at this very moment. I say it’s funny because as I pointed out earlier, I am a worrier by nature and have been since I was a child so I literally worry about nearly everything. Now I’m not saying that my nature of worry has completely gone away because I’m still human, but my faith is unwavering and ever strengthening.

No matter what we face in this world, whatever figurative rocks are being thrown at you, worrying about it is not going to change the outcome. Even if we fall flat on our faces, we are still falling into the loving hands of God’s protection. We are still going to be nurtured by his unconditional love and he will still see us through whatever the battle is that we are being tested by. Not only will he see us through it but he will make us stronger for having fought that battle.

Sometimes I know that it would be nice to be able to see what the outcome is going to be, maybe get a little hint that everything will be okay, but as someone very wise recently told me, it’s not for me to see. God’s got me and that is essentially all that I really need to know. So when you feel antsy and you start to feel that worry creep up inside of you and you start to get impatient with the not knowing where things are headed, just keep in mind that God’s got you and no matter what you’re in HIS hands. Until next time… #BeinFaith #BeEmpowred

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

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

NaNoWriMo Day 5—The Beauty of Writing Sprints

November 5, 2019 jcladyluv

So I discovered something important for my future writing success in these first few days of NaNo! Writing sprints are super effective. I know that writing sprints are nothing new but I was resistant to trying them because that hadn’t been the way I had ever written before and I just thought why can’t I just sit down and write non-stop until the words are done for the day. I mean most days I’ve never had an issue getting words down but I can tend to get stalled a bit at times and then frustration sets in. So I thought that this NaNoWriMo I would give writing sprints a try.

I have been watching a lot of writing videos lately and live streams so I just thought why not. So that’s what I’ve been doing differently this NaNoWriMo and I have been very pleasantly surprised at just how helpful doing these sprints are. They keep me focused, they keep me on track, and they have boosted my creativity. So if you’re looking for something new to try to liven up your writing sessions and maybe your old way of doing your sessions is leaving you stalled a bit, try doing writing sprints. Now you can do them in whatever increments work for you. Some do ten minutes, some do fifteen or even thirty, but I have found that twenty minute sprints seem to work for me. So hopefully you are doing well in your writing so far and you will give writing sprints a try but for now I must go back to write! I’ll include a list of a few AuthorTubers that have some live stream writing sessions with writing sprints so you can give them a try as well.

Until next time… #BeEncouraged #BeInspired

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

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

Battle Tested… Still a Work In Progress

November 4, 2019 jcladyluv

I was talking to someone the other night about the battles that we face and how sometimes I feel like I just want to throw in the towel, throw my hands up, and say to hell with everything. Now of course logically, I’m not going to do that because, shit, I’ve got goals and no matter how much I want to give up sometimes I have not ever been, nor will I ever be a quitter. When I get knocked down I may sulk a little bit, and I may even wallow slightly longer than is acceptable, but I do eventually get back up and prepare myself once again for the next battle. Now in the conversation that I was having the other day we were talking about the saying that says God gives the toughest battles to his strongest soldiers and we both reveled in the realization that God must have some really big things in store for us because we have been going through some tough battles lately.

This year has been a nightmare and I have been struggling. I’m in such a financial free fall right now and I am trying to maintain a positive outlook but it is hard. I came dangerously close to eviction the other day and while I have lined up a couple of clients for the next few weeks it’s still not going to be enough to stabilize things just yet and I am sinking. I was supposed to have some books out by now but my self-publishing efforts, as you might imagine given my current financial state, have kind of fallen to the back burner because I have to focus on keeping a roof over me and my daughter’s head. I do have a few things lined up so there is some comfort in that but it’s not enough to stabilize things just yet.

Okay I started going off course there for a moment. The point of this post was to highlight something I got when I watched a sermon from Bishop TD Jakes about fighting your Goliath’s (battles), and that is that no matter what the battle is that you might be facing right now, you should not allow it to discourage you. Your battle was not given to you to discourage you. It was given to you to empower you. Your battle was given to you to reveal who you really are, who you truly are and all of the power that you have inside of you, and all of the purpose that you have been given.

If you are feeling low at the moment, if your battle is getting too hard for you to fight, know that even if you are down you are not out. God is with you. God has already given you the strength to handle whatever it is that comes your way. You only need to believe in yourself and in the power that God has given you within. Until next time… #BeEmpowered #BeVictorious

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

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

NaNoWriMo Day 2

November 2, 2019October 31, 2019 jcladyluv

Just for those of you who might be wondering what the point of doing this month long writing event because you somehow think that it can’t possibly result in a published book, you are wrong! Just to give you a little boost of encouragement here is a list I came across, of at least 10 books that were written or at least started during NaNoWriMo that have been published. Some of these books have even made it to the New York Time’s Best Seller’s list. There are many more out there and perhaps I’ll do another list in the middle of the month but this is just to give you a little incentive. Now go write something because your book could be next on this list!

1) Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

2) The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

3) The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

4) Don’t Let Me Go by J.H. Trimble

5) Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

6) Persistence of Memory by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

7) Take the Reins by Jessica Burkhart

8) Losing Faith by Denise Jaden

9) The Hungry Season by T. Greenwood

10) Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

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

https://www.facebook.com/confessionsoftheunpleasantlyplump

https://www.nanowrimo.org/

NaNoWriMo is HERE!!!!

November 1, 2019October 31, 2019 jcladyluv

It’s the first day of NaNoWriMo!!!! Yay!!!! Okay perhaps I’m a little overly excited but today I am getting started on a brand new book, the second in my mystery series (the first one is being edited in December). I have been working on the outline for months now, and finalizing it during the course of Preptober. I actually have done tons of research for this book (I may have to do some more research throughout but hey) and it centers around solving a cold case (not a real cold case though). I can not promise to post every day of NaNoWriMo, although that is the goal, but I will post as often as possible with tips, video clips to some Author Tubers with really good writing advice. Also, while I wasn’t able to pull everything together for this year’s NaNoWriMo but for next year I will be creating NaNoWriMo Prep materials and of course materials to also get you through the actual month of the event but more about that in the beginning of next year. Well that’s it for day 1. I’ve got the link for you below for the National Novel Writing Month website so that you can go over and sign up.

Happy Writing everyone!!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

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

https://www.facebook.com/confessionsoftheunpleasantlyplump

To Plan or Not to Plan?

October 3, 2019 jcladyluv

So you’ve got your story idea together right? You’ve started building your characters and molding and shaping their personalities? Now it’s time to decide whether you are a pantser or a planner when it comes to writing your novel. What’s a pantser, you ask? Well that’s when you are fortunate enough to be able to just sit down at the blank screen of your laptop and begin writing with no plot or course of action laid out before you. If you are one of those writers let me please just give you a virtual round of applause because I have tried writing that way before and the amount of time I had to use up to go back and forth to see if I had this detail or that detail just right, or to check the timeline and make sure that I hadn’t made some huge error and it just did not work for me.

I, like a lot of writers, am a planner and I try as much as I can to plan out every detail that I can. In terms of writing my novel I have realized that I have to have an outline. I typically do a short brief outline with just some of the major points of the story and where the plot twists are and the dramatic parts and the whodunit aspects of the story. After I get a general outline together then I take my character sketches and I begin the more detailed, chapter by chapter, plot twist by plot twist, part of outlining.

Now I think there’s a misconception that when people outline they follow the outline to the tee and I have heard a lot of people say that’s what they don’t like about outlining but the outline is just a general road map for you to follow but the story almost never follows the outline down to the letter. In fact I almost never stick directly to the outline but having that outline does help me stay more on track then I would if I were just writing without a blueprint.

Where the outlining process can get a little broad and diverse is in the method in which you choose to outline. I for one like just getting a legal notepad and writing my outline by hand (this and the character sketches are the only things I write by hand). The other methods of outlining that people typically use are creating a storyboard with a bulletin board or you can storyboard in a digital format now with Pintrest or whatever digital format works for you to create a visual idea of your story. Some people choose to do a graphing (or mind mapping) method. There are also programs that will help you outline in a particular digital format such as Scrivener.

Now you don’t have to outline in order to compose a good story for NaNoWriMo. Outlining doesn’t necessarily make your story any worse or better. Like I said in my last post, it’s just a matter of finding and doing what works well for you. I hope that some of this information helps you and the next post I will be giving you a few YouTue channels that I think you should check out that will help you in your Preptober adventures. Until next time… #HappyOutlining

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

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

https://www.facebook.com/confessionsoftheunpleasantlyplump

Growth In Progress

March 18, 2019 jcladyluv

Growth in Progress post

I do so enjoy those moments when you take a look at a scenario and how you responded to it (or in some cases, didn’t respond) and realize just how much growth has taken place within yourself. I had one of those moments earlier today. I’ve written about it here before and most people who know me know that my mother and I do not have the best of relationships. It’s one of the many things that is disheartening for me because I had always wished for one of those mother/daughter relationships that I see so many of my friends have with their moms and a few years ago after trying and trying to no avail, in the process of rediscovering myself and learning to love myself the way that God loves me, I have come to terms with the fact that I won’t ever get that from my mother because she’s simply not equipped emotionally to give me that kind of relationship.

My mother has never thought much of me, and in her eyes I was never really going to amount to anything and it used to hurt me a lot more than I would’ve liked for it to. My mother was abusive to both me and my sister but my sister was still the child who could do no wrong while I was the one that could do no right, at least in her eyes, and I was the sensitive one so while my sister was the type of person that certain things rolled off her back, I literally cried over every hurtful statement my mother made about me. Even as an adult, it hurt.

However today, in trying to have a conversation with her where more hurtful things were said by her, I realized that I don’t really care what she thinks about me anymore. I mean do I wish she thought more of her own daughter, sure, but she’s going to think whatever she thinks and there is nothing that’s going to change her mind and I’ve finally gotten to a point where I realized that how she sees me or doesn’t see me for that matter, is her problem and not mine. I look in the mirror and I see the wonderful child of God who he gave so much purpose to and who, even though I’m not exactly where I would like to be at this stage in my life, is pursuing her dreams and her purpose with passion and determination and I’m not letting anything, or anyone get in my head anymore about what they think I can or can not accomplish in this life.

When I had that revelation earlier I smiled from the inside out because I felt emotionally freer than I had ever felt. I had gotten to a place I had been longing to get to and I had been working on my personal and spiritual growth and I hadn’t even realized that I had reached a major milestone in that particular journey. There’s something to be said for not caring what people think of you and not that it wouldn’t be nice to be given compliments or to have your talents acknowledged, but to not need the validation of their approval. Sometimes you are going to be the only one who sees the path for what it is and where it’s leading, and it may not even be so much that you know where you’re going to end up, just that you are trusting in God for his direction in getting there.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

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

https://www.facebook.com/confessionsoftheunpleasantlyplump

Is There Any More Space In the Writer’s Room?

March 11, 2019 jcladyluv

writers room post 1

Caution: This post is more of a rant than anything prolific! I keep seeing all of these new but not so new shows streaming on Netflix or Hulu or whatever other streaming devices there are these days and I’ve noticed a theme. There are a lot of “reboots” or “remakes” of wonderful old shows or shows that are not quite a remake but just close enough to resemble an old show and it got me to thinking about originality in the television world. Has the well for creative and inventive writers run so dry lately that the executives at these television networks can’t come up with any original concepts?

I know that it shouldn’t bother me nearly as much as it actually does but I think that the reason for that is because I have so many ideas, new ideas for plays, movies, and even television shows that are burning a figurative hole in my journals (or my brain for the ideas that haven’t quite made it onto paper just yet) and yet they make it nearly impossible for anyone who didn’t start out in the television/film industry when they were twenty something to actually have their ideas seen or heard. I’m not saying that they should make it simple and yes I suppose people have gone the route of starting their own web series on YouTube or some other internet portal but there’s a legitimacy in having a television network executive look at your idea and getting as excited about it as you do and taking that idea and transforming it for the whole world to see. If most people are honest with themselves, it’s the validation that they really want.

It’s not that I don’t love the old shows that they are taking and remaking into something for this newer generation to enjoy but it just seems like emptying a well that didn’t need to be tapped into. If they need new ideas there are plenty of us writers out here who I’m sure would love to help them out in their writers’ rooms, or maybe that’s just me. It shouldn’t be as hard as they make it to get new ideas heard and to see new ideas on the screen instead of so many blasts from the past of the old concepts just with new faces.

There is talent out here and new wells with newer and more original ideas if they would just be willing to not cut the rungs of the ladder so short for the rest of us who missed the twenty something boat. Sometimes older, more seasoned writers can provide a broader perspective with a bit of wisdom added for effect. Writing rooms shouldn’t just be for those straight out of college or who have already been in the business for decades. There should be space for the writers in their thirties or even in their forties who had to live a little bit of life first before getting to go after their writing dreams because talent doesn’t just expire with age.

This is not a post condemning twenty something’s or the younger generation of writers who have been steadfastly working their way up for the last decade because I commend you and I truly wish I had been able to have that luxury. This is just me shedding a light that there are those of us who are not straight out of college or who haven’t been in the television/film industry forever who still can write and who can add something to this television world that isn’t just a remake of a show that already was.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

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

https://www.facebook.com/confessionsoftheunpleasantlyplump