Writers – Page 15 – Write 2 Be

Thinking Out Loud

November 14, 2013 jcladyluv

I know that it is National Novel Writing Month and I am supposed to be participating. I had a plan, I signed up, and even tried to motivate myself to focus on doing it. Nevertheless, I have not written anything on the novel that I was supposed to be finishing (that truthfully should have been finished by now) and to add to the lack of production, I have not done a very good job lately of keeping up with this blog which I love.

I tried to pinpoint the reasons behind my recent lack of motivation towards writing in general, thinking that for some time it has been my focus and determination to finish up my degree that was enabling my laziness when it came to my writing. But now that I am finished with my Master’s degree (and have time to contemplate whether or not I want to enter the doctorate program) I thought for sure this would be the perfect time to get back into high gear with all of my writing efforts.

Sadly, that has not been how it was been working out. I have felt so un-motivated to write anything, and feeling a lot like what I say doesn’t matter. I’ve been mostly feeling a little depressed that my writing career hasn’t evolved into what I thought it would have already been by now. I even mentally entertained the idea that there could be a possibility, that somehow I was not cut out to be a writer like I had dreamed about since the age of 6 and that maybe all this time I thought that God was instructing me that this was my calling and maybe I was wrong, maybe I assumed what I wanted to assume and that wasn’t what my calling was at all. I even entertained the reasoning that my heart just wasn’t in it anymore, that maybe the amount of rejection for my (what I always thought was talented) writing had somehow hardened me and that I just couldn’t muster up the energy to try it anymore.

All of those thoughts have been running through my mind and life throwing other monumental curveballs at me in the interim has added its share of unproductiveness. But then I think of the fact that if that were truly the case, if it truly was not in me to do anymore, if this truly was not the calling that I had always perceived it to be, that I wouldn’t still have so many (good) ideas that flow through my mind and so many ways that I feel I can use my writing, my words to implement things that will not only change my life but the lives of the other people around me.

My whole message for Write 2 Be is to instill empowerment to people, in particular to children who are constantly told that they can never be what it is that they want to be, that there is nothing that they can’t do with the willpower and determination to make it happen. Sometimes I have to remind myself that even when it seems like what I am trying to do doesn’t matter, that it does, and not just to me, not just for my daughter, but for anyone who has ever felt discouraged and who has ever been overrun by their fears of never being able to be what it is they feel that they were truly meant to be. I can’t say why my motivation has dwindled these past several months, but I know that I am definitely not throwing in the towel on my dreams and on my purpose.

I feel like I needed to write this because I get the feeling that I am not the only one of you out there who has had these feelings and these doubts. I suppose the hardest part of feeling the fear and doubt in yourself is thinking that you are all alone in thinking what others are too afraid to say out loud. So this is me thinking out loud and hoping that it helps the rest of you who might be thinking the same thoughts and feeling the same way know that someone else gets it too.

Jimmetta Carpenter

My Write 2 Be is…

CEO/Writer/Editor

Write 2 Be Media/Write 2 Be Magazine

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

http://write2bemagazine.com/

https://twitter.com/write2bemag

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

https://twitter.com/jcladyluv

Don’t Think I Forgot that It’s NaNo Time!

November 2, 2013 jcladyluv

I know I have been unusually absent from my blog recently and I am trying to get back into the swing of things. I haven’t forgotten what time of year this is (aside from the dreaded beginning of the holiday season). It is National Novel Writing Month and while I do not have a new novel outlined and ready to go, my plan (which is my failed plan from last year’s NaNo) is to finish a novel that I started during NaNo about two years ago (wow, didn’t realize it has been that long). My first attempt at a mystery which I had such excitement about, and still do, is begging to be finished and I am going to put forth my very best effort to do it. I have to admit that I am off to a bad start considering the fact that NaNo started yesterday and today, the second day of NaNo, is almost over and I still haven’t opened my novel file to work on it yet. However, today isn’t over yet and I haven’t thrown in the towel at all. NaNo is also usually a really good time to work on maintaining my blogging so look for November to be a very productive month from me. I hope that all of you who are doing NaNo this year have a very productive month and that if nothing else you put forth your best effort. Good Luck fellow NaNo Writers and hopefully you’ll clue me in on what you are working on this month!

Jimmetta Carpenter

My Write 2 Be is…

CEO/Writer/Editor

Write 2 Be Media/Write 2 Be Magazine

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

http://write2bemagazine.com/

https://twitter.com/write2bemag

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

https://twitter.com/jcladyluv

Weekend Motivation

September 6, 2013 jcladyluv

I will admit that I have not been as productive as I would like to be lately. I could have been doing so much work that I haven’t been getting accomplished. I could blame it on this Master’s program that I am finishing up which is draining a lot more out of me than I had anticipated it would. I could blame it on the fact that I have been feeling more blocked lately. I could accurately blame it on trying to be an active and aware mother who pours so much of her focus into her child that she sometimes forgets about herself (which is actually truer than I would like it to be).

But won’t do that, I won’t blame things or circumstances in which I have control over. Truthfully I just haven’t been effective at carving out the time for what I should have never let myself lose time doing. So this weekend I will be planning certain projects and figuring out a way to schedule the things that I need to get accomplished. What are your weekend goals?

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

There are new things to be found in Write 2 Be Magazine 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.

What’s in a Name?

July 18, 2013 jcladyluv

Apparently it is not always about the talent that you have but just the name that you possess. By now most of the literary world knows that J.K. Rowling (famed writer of the Harry Potter Series) has written a book under a pseudonym, Robert Galbraith, called ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’. Now this book was released in April of this year and it received positive reviews, however, it didn’t do so well in the sales department. I’m sure it wasn’t what J.K. Rowling was used to. Of course that was before it was ‘accidentally’ leaked that the true author of the book was in fact J.K. Rowling.

Now the book has sailed to best-seller status and number one on the Amazon for hardcover and ebook. We all know how talented J.K. Rowling’s writing is and while her name does carry a lot of weight, she actually has the talent to back it up. But when that same talented writer wrote a book under another name, a virtual nobody, no one was looking for the talent, but rather a name that they could recognize.

Proof that you can be the most talented writer but if no one knows who you are and your name hasn’t become a household name, then you have almost no chance (I said almost) of making it as a successful novelist. It’s a little disheartening to be a writer who hasn’t quite made it yet and have that fear hanging overhead that you may not get there simply because no one knows who you are already.

So what that means for all of you unknown authors or one’s who have not yet made the best-seller’s list (that includes me) is that you have to start getting your name out there, even (and preferably) before the book that you are writing comes out. If your name is already buzzing all over the internet and people already know who you are and already are tuned in to the talent that you have it gives you a head start to that best-seller’s list.

Talent is no longer everything that you need to make it. It’s about how well you can sell your product, how much people want to read what it is that you have written, and yes, about whether your name means anything to anyone. So to answer my question in the title of this blog post, what’s in a name, the answer is….EVERYTHING!!!

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

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.

No Time Like the Present

July 17, 2013 jcladyluv

I’ve been feeling a little bit of writer’s block so I don’t have much to write about today. However, I wanted to encourage all of you out there to stop putting things off until tomorrow, or a week for now, or until you think that all of the stars are aligned. We know that nothing is promised to us and that everything is not going to go smoothly and perfectly with no stumbles and no falls. So if you have a novel that you’ve been meaning to start, a business that you are trying to start, or a goal that needs to be met, don’t wait until you think that everything is just right, don’t keep putting it off. Start today!

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

A Great Writer Can Never Forget to Be a Good Reader: 5 Ways to Make Sure You Fit Reading Into Your Everyday Life

July 11, 2013 jcladyluv

I get really frustrated when I can’t find the time to work on my novels, outside of finishing up school, maintaining both my blog and my online magazine, Write 2 Be, trying to keep up with Social media and market myself the way that I should be doing (which I still haven’t mastered yet), and of course, trying to be the best mother that I can be. What frustrates me even more is when I can’t even find the time to read like I want to.

I think that I have been reading the same book for months now (which normally I can read a book quicker than that) and it’s not that it is not interesting or that it is slow because I find myself thinking about the characters and what is going to happen when I am not reading it. I see other writers who have this balancing act down in such a neat and tidy way that you would never know (until you actually sit down and talk to them) that they struggle with these same time constraints as the rest of us writers.

It’s funny because I keep trying to rearrange and arrange again my schedule for writing, for doing school work and for everything else and it would seem that the more that I try and tweek the schedule and the time constraints that the less time I seem to have to write much less to read. However, reading is something that is extremely important for a writer to maintain and it is primarily the reason most of us writers even began to write in the first place.

So I thought of some other tactics that maybe I could try to better fit reading into my daily routine. I thought that maybe I could share them here with you, just in case I am not the only one who is struggling with trying to fit reading into their day.

1) Don’t mix your reading time in with your writing time—I’ve tried this before. I don’t know why I thought that it would work but I quickly found out that this does not work, at least for me. Now granted I have seen people do this. They will write for a few minutes, put their writing aside and then pick up a book and read for a few minutes. I guess this works for some but I think that for the vast majority this does not do anything but make you wish you were reading while you are writing, or vice versa.

2) Make sure that you read a book that holds your interest—I know that it is said to be a bad thing to stop reading a book after you have already started it and once upon a time I would have agreed with this. However, there is no point in wasting time reading a book that is not of interest to you either because it is too slow or it is just not captivating enough. You will save time by just moving on to the next book which, if you love it, will probably take you no time to read.

3) Just like you schedule your writing time, schedule your reading time too—If you have a hectic writing schedule and you have a deadline looming over your head, then you just have to find a way to work reading into your schedule. It may feel odd to have to do this for a task like reading but we fit so much of our daily lives into boxes on a calendar, why not add our reading (down time) to the list.

4) Make your reading time your down time—Use your reading, not as a chore that you must do, but rather as your time to wind down and wrap up your day. Perhaps read a few pages before going to bed which will still keep your mind feeling creative but allowing it to, in a sense, debrief, for the end of the day.

5) Treat Reading As the Norm—You have a routine for most everything that goes into your daily workload and your comings and goings. You know what time slot is for what and how to take a few minutes away from this time block to make room for this other task in the next time block. So make reading apart of your regular routine. After all it should be!

I hope that some of these suggestions work for you. I think that they are already beginning to work for me and I am almost finished with this book and have the next one picked out already. Just remember that a good and avid reader makes for an even better writer!

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

The Things that I Continue to Sabotage Myself With

June 28, 2013 jcladyluv

“Self-sabotage is like a game of mental tug-of-war. It is the conscious mind versus the subconscious mind where the subconscious mind always eventually wins.”

~Bo Bennett

There is something inside me that keeps allowing me to sabotage myself. You know how you can realize the self-sabotaging behavior that you are committing as you are doing it. You understand that it’s not good for you to criticize everything that it is that you do, or to compare what you do to someone else that you may think is doing things better. You comprehend that there is a better way of doing things, a more effective way of accomplishing what you want but yet you can’t seem to catch yourself before you tear your own efforts apart.

For some people it is really hard to get out of your own head and to think and live with your heart. There’s a lot of risk in doing that, in just going for it and taking a leap of faith in yourself, but it is worth it when you do. It’s so easy to have a leap of faith in what others can do but we can’t seem to put all that faith into ourselves.

I keep feeling convinced that I finally have it, the unlimited faith in myself and my abilities to do whatever it is without question. But then I get that nagging voice in my head that won’t shut up and it tells me all of these negative things that I somehow start to believe, if only for a moment. They hold me up from making progress, and they hold me back from my destination. So I thought I would share with you what I keep struggling with and what still, despite my efforts for them not to, keeps allowing me to sabotage myself.

1) I’m still riddled with fear, both of the possibility that I will fail and also of the pressure of actually succeeding

2) I sometimes still don’t believe that I am good enough

3) I still can’t seem to put myself first without feeling extreme guilt about it

4) I don’t believe the good things that people have to say about me

5) I keep letting what I don’t have get in the way of what it is that I want to achieve

6) I am terrified of change and not knowing what is next

7) I say No way more than I allow myself to say Yes

I realize that being confident in yourself and in your own abilities to make things happen is not a practice that is just inherited and that you are born with. It is something that you have to work hard at. It is a practice that you have to maintain and treat as a routine occurrence in your everyday life. Particularly for those who may not have a positive support system, or may not have ever had very much of one, it is a struggle to believe that you deserve the best.

When you have so many obstacles that stop you along the way that you lose count, you can tend to get jaded in your thought process and in your effectiveness within your work. It’s not something that most people have not experienced and it is probably a problem that isn’t going away any time soon.

I am working on an ebook (details on how you can get a copy coming soon) on how we as writers, artists, or creative types in general can start to get out of our own way and stop sabotaging our own dreams and our own business endeavors with this self-doubt that we create in our own heads. We have to stop being so in our heads and start living from our hearts. We have to stop second guessing everything and changing our own minds or basing our level of success on what someone else’s is. Life is so short and tomorrow is not promised to us so we have to get out of our own way and start making the best of our life now, not some day in the not so distant (or distant depending on who you are) future, but right in the moment that you are in.

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

My Journey is My Own

June 27, 2013 jcladyluv

I try not to compare my journey to the journey of others and I try not to be envious of the opportunities that I see other people receive and then just throw away. I know that it is something that you are not supposed to do and it really doesn’t do any good because it doesn’t make your journey any more or less complicated than what it already is.

It gets hard when you see people in the media who seem to be throwing their wonderful opportunities that they have worked so hard to attain right down the drain. But then I remind myself that my path is mine for a reason. It is constructed however God decided to construct it and the obstacles that fall in my path are what God is using to prepare me for the next level of my journey that he already has mapped out.

I just have to keep fighting for my opportunities and removing my obstacles one at a time until I reach the destination that is in store for me. I really have to start remembering not to regret the mistakes or the bumps along the path because those will be the same mistakes and bumps that are going to catapult me to my highest destination possible. I suppose that I should stop wishing for another journey because then I may not like the results that come along with 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

Does the Reality of Being a Writer Take the Creativity Out of Being an Artist?

June 26, 2013 jcladyluv

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”

~Ray Bradbury

I was thinking about when I first realized that writing was something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. There’s something about what power words hold. To think of how you can change people’s lives, and perhaps even reflect changes within yourself with something as simple as words.

I remember when I first started writing poetry and jotting down ideas for novels that I didn’t know how to begin just yet. I remember knowing that someday I wanted to be published, even a New York Times Bestseller, but at that moment writing was just fun for me. Well maybe fun is the wrong word, freeing would be more like it. It was a way for me to express emotions that it didn’t seem okay for me to express to anyone else. It was a way for me to cry out about some of my childhood experiences without actually screaming out loud. It was how I displayed the real me.

I was ten when I started writing and even all the way through high school there was no pressure. I wasn’t shopping anything around to publishers and agents hoping to be in bookstores (not then anyway). However, with the desire to be published came so much pressure and so many fears and yes even unrealistic expectations. I think I thought back then that someone would just read my work and see me on a page and accept everything that I put before them but that was very unrealistic. What was also unrealistic in my thinking back then was that being a writer didn’t involve some sense of business savvy to go along with it.

Being a writer when you are young and only focused on the creative aspect of it is simple, easy, freeing. There’s no pressure involved and no headaches with trying to figure out how to make it work for you financially and still keep your artistic integrity. Making a full-time career out of being a writer is hard, and it takes work, and it places a lot of pressure on your shoulders.

I have days where I truly feel like the reality of being a writer and thinking about marketing and promotion and how to earn more money doing what I love to do has in some way stripped away the joy of actually writing and creating plots and stories that will captivate people. I made quite a few mistakes in my journey to get published that I would change now if I could go back but I suppose that instead of regretting them I could treat them for the lessons that they have become.

Maybe some days I should just take time to go back to being that writer in high school who didn’t have the pressure of trying to be a widely successful writer. I think that focusing on the creativity some days instead of stressing over the business of it all will possibly allow me to get back to actually being productive in my writing. So my question to you guys out there is this: Do you ever think that having to be your own business person as a writer gets in the way of your creativity as a writer? Were you a better writer before you tried to make it your business?

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

Sometimes You Have to Take a Step Back Just to Realize How Much You’ve Grown

June 13, 2013 jcladyluv

I realize that I have slacked off a lot lately in my writing. Or at least that is what I think until I realize that I have kept up pretty well with this blog and other articles that I am writing for other blogs and publications. Let’s not forget that I am still in school finishing up a Master’s degree so that is not to be taken lightly. I am really hard on myself. I am my own worst critic but then again I think most of us are highly critical of ourselves. But when do we ever stop to take a step back to really look at the progress that we have made.

I was talking to Ms. L. last night and we were talking about our journey’s and I was telling her that while I know that most people don’t understand certain choices that I have made, and if I am being honest some days it doesn’t make sense to me either, but I feel like the path I am walking is the one that I am meant to walk. It may be unconventional (that would be putting it mildly) and it may not be the most common sense choice (to other people who don’t have to walk in my shoes) but I just know that it is the right one.

I told Ms. L. last night that when I do reach my destiny, when I achieve the purpose that God has for me, it will all make sense and then everyone will wonder why they ever questioned my choices. Truthfully they weren’t solely my mine. They were what I was being guided to do. Knowing who I am and that what God has for me is nothing but good, I have to trust the path that I am on.

I am working on not being so harsh on myself and on the lack of productiveness that I feel is taking place within my work right now. I just have to remind myself to take a step back every once and a while. Survey everything I’ve accomplished, everything that I have been through and the person that I have grown into. I have to acknowledge that everything may not be the way I want it to be right now and I may not be in the position that I feel I should be in right now but I am right where I should be and everything is just as it should be. It’s the way God has designed it to be.

When you think you’re not doing enough, that you haven’t moved an inch, take a step back and just look at where you were compared to where you are now. I guarantee you that, even if it is small, you will see a difference!

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