Tag: Write 2 Be blog

I Don’t Like Looking At the Empty Calendar Squares

jcladyluv

I don’t like it when I feel a touch of envy.  Not a bad envy (although I’m not really sure there is a good kind of envy) but the kind of envy that motivates you into actually doing something.  Now you might be wondering, if it motivates me to get going again, then why wouldn’t I like it? 

It can never be a bad thing to get re-motivated to do something that you know you should already be doing.  That’s just it right there.  I don’t like it because it’s something that I already know in the back of my mind, that I should be doing as it is and that I shouldn’t have to watch or read about other people doing it to get moving in that direction.  

I was reading some other bloggers posts as I was doing some research for a project, and I kept reading about other writers having such busy schedules.  Talk about going to conferences, and doing book signings, and interviews, and things of that nature; the things that I feel like I should be out there doing too.  

It’s not as if I wouldn’t like to have a full calendar and to have to tell people that I have this book signing to do, or that conference to speak at, or this interview to give.  In fact every year when I buy those desk calendars or day planners I can see in my mind the pages, one after the other, full of appointments and deadlines that just can’t be missed.  And yet year after year those pages have gone blank, left unfilled, and more time passes.  

I guess the only thing left to really figure out is when I am going to get around to filling those pages up.  I suppose I would have to finish filling up the pages of the rest of my novel that is still undone, or finish one of the other projects that I am working on.  It’s not easy to have those blank squares on the calendar taunting me with missed opportunities.  

 

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

From One Struggling Writer to the Rest Who Think They Are Struggling Alone

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Sometime last week (it may have been the week before that) Ms. L sent me a link to a blog post titled Don’t Break the Chain by a wonderful blogger named Catherine Ryan Howard who I am now following (and you all should be too).  Ms. L knows I have been struggling with finding the time to write and work on all things related to my writing business so she thought that this would be helpful.  Well as usual, Ms. L always knows just what I need to read (and hear) to get me jump started again.  Of course it helped to know that this post also helped Ms. L as well because I knew that I was not alone in my struggles to be productive in my writing efforts.  

Well the blog post talked about many things in regards to one being more productive but more importantly it gave the idea of marking off days on a calendar with a red X for every day that you have accomplished your daily writing goals, whether it be actually writing or working on the business side of your writing career, and of course after so many days of seeing a chain of red X’s you get into the mode of not wanting to break that chain and having to see those X’s stare you in the face everyday becomes an incentive to actually get things done. 

Well there is a website that helps with that, for those of us who don’t want to go out and buy a huge wall calendar to mark down the days.  The website (once you register) will allow you to mark each day with a red square for every day that you have achieved your daily goals and you can even create other chains for you business efforts or whatever other goals you want to set.  I signed up (almost immediately) and have found it to be extremely helpful.  

I have actually been getting things done because I simply just don’t want to break the chains that I have created for myself.  Who knew something so simple as marking off days on a calendar could be so helpful in keeping me focused and making me produce more work.  I hope that any of you out there who is struggling with this very same issue clicks on the links to the websites and gets started on their road to becoming more productive.   

 

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

Is the Fighter Still in There Somewhere?

jcladyluv

I was sitting here wondering what to write about tonight?  Honestly right now all I feel is a sense of loss.  No, no one in my family or close to me died but in some ways I am wondering if the best part of me did.  I was just asking my best friend Ms. L. last night whether or not she remembered the times when she would call me and I would rush her off the phone telling her that ‘I have to call you back because I’m writing and I have to get this out’.  She said that she remembered that very well.  I asked her where did that person go and she simply responded, ‘she’ll be back’.  

For as long as I could remember I have wanted to be a writer and have books upon books out on shelves and change the world with my words.  But that wasn’t all that I had hoped for.  I wanted to be immersed in creativity from singing and acting and even dancing.  More importantly I wanted to be a symbol for why the arts and creativity is so necessary in this world.  

I don’t know whether I just got so bogged down by the many people that were in my life telling me that I couldn’t do what I always felt I was meant to do.  I don’t know if I just got tired of being rejected and not having the resources I needed to make my dreams a reality.  I don’t know if there’s just some part of me that just got tired of fighting for those dreams.  

As I sit here, still mentally thinking up ideas for my next story, I am still unable to finish the novel that I have been working on since the end of last year.  While I know there are tons of query letters that I need to send out to agents for the second novel I have already done (which is with my editor), I can’t seem to craft the perfect one to send out.  Although I have dozens of ideas for articles to write and even articles that I’ve already written that I need to write query letters for, I still find myself scared that the query letters won’t be perfect enough to get accepted.  

So what happened to the fighter that I had in me ready to do whatever it took?  What happened to the person who was prepared to stay up however long it took to get the work done?  What happened to that person who, when she didn’t have what she needed, made up the resources where there weren’t any, just to fulfill her purpose?  I know that she’s still in there somewhere.  I just don’t know where the fight in me went.  

What I do know is that the passion is still there.  The desire is still there.  I still wake up with stories in my head and new ideas for the stories I have yet to finish.  I still mentally am working on my vision for my media and publishing company.  I am still dreaming up ideas for the creativity camp that I want to create for kids so that they understand just how important the arts are to have in their lives.  I know that my dreams haven’t changed and they haven’t faded away.  I just need to dig that fighter in me back out. 

 

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

So You Think You’re Special

jcladyluv

There was a recent uproar when a high school English teacher, David McCullough Jr., gave a graduation commencement speech at Wellesley High School in Massachusetts telling the graduating seniors that they were not special.  There have been many negative comments stating that a commencement speech is supposed to be uplifting and motivating for those high school seniors, sending them off into the world full of hope and optimism.  I can see where they are coming from because when I was in high school I might have felt a little let down by being told that I wasn’t special.  But the fact is that it’s the truth. 

Mr. McCullough is only doing what a lot of us parents won’t dare to do for their child as they go off into the world ready to pursue their dreams.  Prepare them for the cold hard truth that there are thousands of other people out there just like them.  There are thousands of people that have just graduated high school, some with honors.  There are thousands of people that have been accepted into top notch universities and are majoring in the very same thing that they are.  There are thousands of people that want to change the world just like they do.  There are thousands of people who are just as smart and as talented as they are.  In other words, they are not special. 

Now obviously Mr. McCullough didn’t really mean to discourage these kids into thinking that all that they had accomplished thus far meant absolutely nothing and that all the hard work they had put in until that point was all for nothing.  He simply didn’t want to send them out into this big old world thinking that there weren’t thousands of other people just like them, who had accomplished the same things and worked just as hard. 

Of course our children are special to us, and everything they do is special and remarkable, but if we don’t prepare them for the fact that when they go out into this world, what we see as being remarkable, the rest of world will see as simply average, then we are doing them a disservice.  We are not giving them the proper tools to really make something of themselves.  They need to know that the world can be their oyster but it will not just open itself up to them without them putting in the work to pry it open. 

We keep sending them out into the world with this sense of entitlement, thinking that they are so special that they don’t have anyone else out there to compete with.  We are allowing them to dilute themselves into thinking that they are the only one’s who can do whatever it is that they do.  But they are not.  We have to let them know that they will have to fight for their rightful place in a world full of people who are exactly like them.  As David McCullough stated in his speech, “if everyone is special, then no one is.”

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

Oh the Obstacles We Duck and Dodge While Investing In Our Future

jcladyluv

“If you make the investment up front, the return will come back later.”

~Bishop T.D. Jakes 

As writers we go through many obstacles, if we’re lucky, before ever really hitting our stride in our career (and I say our, because I am speaking my future successes into existence even though it is not quite a reality yet).  We go through tons of rejection, writer’s block, having doubters and negativity with anyone who doesn’t see the vision, and often times we are our own and biggest obstacle that stands in the way.  

I was just talking to Ms. L. earlier and saying that I really wish that my journey to this success that I know I am destined for could be going a lot smoother and with a few less obstacles to stumble over.  But then I quickly took that back because I remembered something I heard while listening to Bishop T.D. Jakes talk about living your life on purpose.  He talked about making investments in your future, in your purpose, and how sometimes our mistakes and our struggles are our investments.  

They are what make our successes all the more worthwhile.  He said that sometimes “what you think is working against you is actually working for you” and that “it is the digression that causes the progression”.  I suppose that is what is meant when people say what doesn’t kill you will only make you stronger (although it never feels like that when you’re going through whatever it is you’re going through).  Our struggles are in many ways our fuel and motivation to keep going and to keep dodging those obstacles as they come.  

Bishop T.D. Jakes also said that when it comes to making investments into your future “you can never reap of a dividend where you don’t make an investment—you sow first and reap later; you can’t sow and reap at the same time.”  I suppose that I have to be a little more patient as I make my investments and have a little bit more faith that everything will work out the way that it should.  

I can’t honestly say that all of the obstacles along my journey have not had their purpose.  It may not have felt like it at that particular point in time, but looking back on them now, they all, in so many ways, served their purpose.  I think that all of the struggles that we go through are simply just preparation for when our success comes to fruition.  Then we’ll be able to say to anyone who has something to throw at us to bring it on because there won’t be anything that they have to hit us with that we can’t handle.  

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

If You Don’t Dream Big You Might As Well Not Dream At All

jcladyluv

“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” 

~Lawrence J. Peter 

I was reading a blog post by one of the bloggers I subscribe to today (Chersti Nieveen) about daring to dream.  She spoke about a conversation she had with one of her critique friends about allowing yourself to believe whatever you want for five minutes, and then accept the reality of the situation.  Basically allow yourself to dream big, as big as you wish, for five minutes, and then focus on what your reality is.  

At first I was a little confused because it seemed like if you thought about everything you wanted for yourself and then you jolted yourself back to a reality that makes those dreams seem impossible then it would feel like a big let down.  However, after thinking about her post for a while I think I realized what it was that she was trying to advise to her readers.  

If you allow yourself to imagine all that you dream to have for your life, all the things that people will tell you are just not possible, and then tune back into the reality of where things stand, it can give you some focus on what needs to be done to make those visions you had for those five minutes become a reality.  

When I took five minutes to think about what I dream of (to be honest I probably would need a little more than five minutes) it included many things but the main things are to sustain a living solely from my writing, to publish more novels, to have my articles start to appear in national magazines and newspapers, and to start my online magazine (Write 2 Be Magazine).  Allowing myself to dream of the those things as if they were already in existence gave me a clearer focus on how to better go about attaining those things.  

Sometimes I forget that it is okay to let myself think about the big bold dreams that I have for myself.  The one’s that for so long seem so impossible to ever reach.  It’s not crazy to think that you could actually make those dreams come true.  It’s not that far fetched is it?  After all, how can you ever really go after what it is you want without really admitting to yourself all of what it is that you want.  Knowing where you want to end up only enables you to focus on the path you need to take 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

Smiling Through the Not Knowing of It All

jcladyluv

“Nobody trips over mountains.  It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble.  Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain.” 

~Author Unknown 

You ever have those days where you sit and think about all of the things that are just not going the way that you expected them to.  Where you are not where you thought you would be and you’re tired of trying so damn hard because it all seems like it just might be for nothing.  

Today wasn’t a bad day for me necessarily but I had a conversation with someone who was talking about how much they doubted themselves at what they’re purpose was at one point in time and how they finally decided to move out of their own way and get hustling even if no one else believed in them.  

It’s the way I used to be and the way I would love to be again but I just had that slight feeling of ‘what’s the point’ after having that conversation.  I believe in me but to this very minute I still feel like I’m the only one that seems to believe that I am good enough at what I do to ever make a decent living at it.  Ordinarily there is nothing wrong with being the only one who believes that you’re good at what you do, for a while that is.  

The only thing is that with being a writer, there has to be someone else that believes you’re good enough eventually if you ever want to make a living at it.  I don’t just mean the one person here and the one person there that comes around so sporadically that you can’t really call that a decent living, I mean the steady stream of people that are willing to take a chance on the belief that you have in yourself.  

Well when I have one of those days, where I just want to throw in the towel on it all and simply give up I try to listen to music that motivates me and gets me back in the right frame of mind again.  One of the best songs for me to listen to when I feel like giving up is Kirk Franklin’s ‘Smile’ because the lyrics of the course are just what I need to hear.  

I Smile. Even though I hurt see I smile

I know God is working so I smile

Even though I’ve been here for a while, I smile.

Smile.  It’s so hard to look up when you’ve been down.

Sure would hate to see you give up now.

You look so much better when you smile, so smile. 

How can you not smile after hearing such lyrics?  How can you want to give up after hearing those lyrics?  How could you not feel motivated to do what God put in motion for you to be doing?  After hearing that song everything seems to be put back in focus again.  My purpose seems to be back front and center, where it should have always been.  

The fact is that I would not just be letting myself down if I was to toss my dreams aside, but more importantly I would be letting God down as well.  I just have to remember that just because I am down right now, just because I am not where I want to be right now, doesn’t mean that God isn’t still working on me and my life.  I guess I keep forgetting that I am not the only one who believes in me and my gifts, because God believed in me first.

 

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

Who’s Still Afraid of Rejection? Oh Yeah, That Would Be Me

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“Believe in yourself and in your own voice, because there will be times in this business when you will be the only one who does. Take heart from the knowledge that an author with a strong voice will often have trouble at the start of his or her career because strong, distinctive voices sometimes make editors nervous. But in the end, only the strong survive.”

~Jayne Ann Krentz 

Yes, I said it.  As much as I try to convince others not to be afraid to go after what they want for their dreams and to not always be afraid that someone is going to say no, I have not yet been able to take my own advice.  But isn’t that how it always goes?  You tell someone to go for it, don’t be afraid, go big or go home, and all of those other motivating and encouraging things you say to your friends, that you whole heartedly mean when you’re saying them, yet somehow you still can’t apply that rule of thumb to you and your life’s dreams.  

I can’t seem to move out of my own damn way.  I keep putting it on my to do lists that I have to get these query letters to these national magazines that I’ve been dying to see my writing in, or the query letters to this list of agents that I want to possibly represent me, and yet when I go to type up the letters, or even just a simple letter of introduction, I get so caught up in trying to make them perfect.  I’ll get the letters done but then when I go over them it just doesn’t scream perfection and I get worried about a rejection that hasn’t happened, and one that can’t if I don’t ever send the damn letters anywhere.  

I can’t figure out why I always do this to myself.  I know I’m not perfect and while you hear people always talking about pitching the perfect pitch and not sending imperfect query letters out, I know that all of them couldn’t have gotten it right all the time.  Their letters couldn’t have always got them a guaranteed acceptance from the publication or agent of their choice.  So why is it that I can’t get the notion of perfection out of my head?  

It’s seriously holding me back and the truth of the matter is that the most imperfect query letter is the one that never gets seen by anyone.  Next week I am going to make it my mission to get up the courage with being okay that I’m not perfect and that my letters most likely won’t be perfect, but at least they will be sent out, and at least, if they do get rejected by everyone I send them to, they were still seen. 

 

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

Approval Ratings

jcladyluv

“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” 

~Judy Garland 

Today I got this feeling around me like I was being talked about.  I almost felt like I was back in high school again, when people would talk about me and my insecurity level would rise.  But then I realized something strange, well at least strange in comparison to how it was in high school.  I just didn’t care.  

I mean of course it feels horrible to have anyone talking about you in a negative way, especially when you did nothing to warrant that type of behavior.  But oddly enough, my insecurity level didn’t creep in, and I didn’t feel defensive and I didn’t feel the need to say something to somehow defend myself.  I just simply didn’t care.  I almost felt honored to be on someone else’s mind so much, in any capacity, that they felt the need to converse about me.  

For as long as I could remember, I have always been that person that has sought the approval of others.  Mostly I wanted my mother’s approval (which I realize I am never going to get), but because I couldn’t have her approval, I desperately needed others to approve of me.  It was when I was listening to a sermon by Bishop T.D. Jakes that I realized that I must have somehow, within my journey in this life, gotten to the point where I didn’t need the approval of anyone else.  I don’t know how I missed it because that’s a pretty important moment.     

He said that “the losing of those who don’t stand by you is the discovery of you” and that “people who don’t know who they are, are always needing validation to feel secure, but when you know who you are, you are safer within yourself, you don’t need everybody in your space to make you feel good about who you are.” 

In many ways it feels very freeing when you just stop caring so much about what others think of you and what they have to say about you.  My best friend Ms. L. once told me that if people are talking about you then that means you must be doing something right because it’s nothing but the devil trying to put more walls up to keep you from moving forward.  I sure wish she was around when I was in high school because I sure could’ve used that bit of knowledge then.  

I suppose the devil has been putting walls up in my path for a very long time then, and I have just been foolishly letting him.  Now that I am in a place where I don’t need anyone else’s praise or approval I feel more secure within myself and with who I am.  I am in no way perfect and I am probably going to make many more mistakes but I am happy with who I am.  Even if no one else agrees with my path, it is the path that I have chosen and I am quite happy with it. 

 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 Life You Breathe Into the Words That You Speak

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“As it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.”

~Romans 4:17

Words have a lot of power.  Not just the words that we write down, but also the words that we speak.  Not just to other people but the words that we tell ourselves.  I was watching an interview between Dr. Wayne Dyer and Oprah Winfrey on her Super Soul Sunday show the other morning and he was speaking about the Art of manifestation and placing into our imagination who it is that we are and not stressing who it is that we are not. 

That really hit me when he said that.  No really, I was actually still asleep when the interview was on and I could hear the T.V. in my state of being still half sleep and half awake, but when I heard him say that it woke me up.  I quickly sat up in my bed as I heard him talk about how people who constantly say I am depressed, I am sick, I am sad, I am broke, I am not good enough, are inadvertently breathing life into those words and those feelings.  I thought to myself, I am one of those people. 

Not because I ever wanted to be.  Just because I think I spend way too much time professing the circumstances that I am stuck in instead of approaching it in the manner of claiming the end result.  Something so simple as taking the phrase ‘I am broke’ out of your vocabulary, and claiming the prosperity that lies ahead of you and that is within your reach could change the journey for any one of us.  Instead of reminding ourselves of what it is that we don’t have, or the not so positive feelings that we might be feeling, we have to lay claim to what it is that we want to be true. 

It’s not that you should pretend that you are not depressed, rather that you can choose another thought to have.  You can make the choice not to put into your imagination something that you don’t want to materialize.  If I am feeling like I am just (as I felt all last week) not very much in the writing mood, and I breathe those words into life, then of course no writing is going to get done. 

I am going to work very hard to start practicing those words of wisdom from Mr. Wayne Dyer in regards to manifesting what I want in my life by speaking it and making it so.  I have to keep in mind that when God said that all things are possible through him, he didn’t mean some things and not others.  He meant exactly what he said, ALL.  I want to breathe life into much more positive ways of seeing things. 

 

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