Beware of the False Negatives

I think that sometimes people, particularly artists, have a hard time trusting ourselves.  I’ve noticed that with myself at least.  I know I’ve shared with all of you in the past that I constantly second guess myself and then when I decide on something, I rethink it and wonder if I made the right choice.  I wonder if I’m good enough.  Sometimes I even think that when I have confidence in something that I might be getting too far ahead of myself because maybe, just maybe, I shouldn’t be nearly as confident as I am.

I tend to give advice to others about trusting their gut and doing what they know if right for them and trust that God will not steer them wrong or allow them to get too far off course.  I give good advice that I never seem to be able to take myself.  I seem to have no problem filling my head with all of these false negatives, I’m not good enough, I’m not smart enough, I’m not strong enough, I didn’t work hard enough, I didn’t try enough, but the odd thing is that deep down inside I know those to be false statements and yet they are so much easier to believe then the truth.  Why do we do that?

We tell ourselves the worst, perhaps trying to not allow ourselves to get big headed or to get overly confident or to get our hopes up, but why shouldn’t we be all of those things?  Why shouldn’t we be confident and why shouldn’t our hopes be raised?  Joel Osteen said something in one of his sermons that stuck with me.  He said “you can’t have faith if you don’t first have hope”.  We’re always so worried about the other shoe dropping from somewhere out of the sky to make everything around us crumble.

The fact is that so many things can go wrong that we don’t need to add to it by standing by and waiting for what we presume might be the inevitable.  Instead of worrying about this invisible shoe from some unknown place and filling our heads with all of these false negatives that we like to tell ourselves about our own abilities, why don’t we just chose to act now.  Act on those instincts, don’t second guess, don’t over think, don’t wonder if you’re good enough, don’t question all that might go wrong, just take action.

Think of all of the opportunities you’re walking right pass while you are worrying and waiting for that other shoe that just might never drop.  It’s a false expectation that helps to foster all of those false negatives that you have come to rely on to be true.  Sometimes the lies we tell ourselves can end up being the death of all of our dreams.

 

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.

How Do I Get this Thing Off of Repeat?

We sometimes tend to get into cycles that are not good for us to be in and they often seem to be a cycle that we subconsciously repeat.  I have many cycles that I personally would like to never repeat again but today I started to notice a professional cycle beginning to repeat itself and it is one that has been on repeat for quite some time now and I am working my hardest to not hit the repeat button again.

I have this cycle with my writing (as I touched on briefly in yesterday’s post) where I get excited about my projects to the point where I can’t stop talking about it (and drive my friends crazy with these characters who are not real to them).  Then I get stuck on how to miraculously work on all of my projects at precisely the same time (yes I tend to be drawn to the impossible).  And when that doesn’t happen the way that I want to I just stop producing altogether.

I mean sure I am watching T.V. or a movie and calling it inspiration (which sometimes it does inspire), or I’m reading a book that I suddenly can’t seem to put down (which in and of itself is not a bad thing), or I’m staring at the blank computer screen willing the words to just somehow leap from my brain onto the screen without me having to lift a finger (too bad there’s no real technology for that—or is there).  All of these are quite possibly valid and relaxing time wasters, but they are also great procrastination techniques as well.

I have a plan for this year, to focus mainly on moving my writing career forward and promoting myself and my brand and heading towards success.  I promised myself that I would get away from the major distractions and really purposely direct my focus to what needs to get done to not only reach that level of success but to also remain on that level.  I started to notice that I was doing it again.  I was getting hung up on trying to work on all of my writing projects at one time and getting frustrated because it just isn’t possible to get an effective amount of work done trying to do it all at once, and lately I have found myself constructively procrastinating.

Constructive or not, procrastination is just that, procrastination.  I have to stop repeating the cycle of trying to do too much at one time and instead, designate the appropriate amount of time to each project at different times and not getting discouraged if it’s not getting done as quickly as I would like it to get done.  Truthfully, I would like my ideas to be able to write themselves because if that was possible I would have over a dozen novels by now, but good quality, thought provoking writing, takes time and can not be rushed.  Expecting perfection in my writing is one cycle that I can’t wait to stop repeating itself, but it’s all a work in progress.

 

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.

The Reasons Why My Novel Might Not Be Finished Yet

I started my current novel some time ago (I’m embarrassed to even say how long ago it was) and it should’ve been finished by now.  In fact I should’ve not only finished that novel but have already been well into the next one.  Nevertheless, I am still not finished yet.  I think that these are some of the reasons that I haven’t finished my novel yet:

  1. Too many ideas
  2. Can’t balance my time effectively
  3. Too ambitious with the projects that I want to accomplish
  4. Too much time spent not writing

In the end they all boil down to excuses that just aren’t good enough but I thought identifying with them would possibly help me finally get to the point where I could perhaps finish the novel.  I believe the biggest reason I can’t seem to finish is the fact that I just have one too many ideas running around in my head; too many characters; too many plots.  I did what I seem to always do.  I get to that point where I am almost at the end (literally, I’m on Chapter 22 of a novel that is supposed to go to chapter 29—of course that could change) and then another idea that I’ve had in my head for sometime starts to become a stronger presence in my subconscious and then it’s the only idea I can concentrate on.

It’s a terrible habit that I have and it almost makes me wish that my problem was having a lack of ideas so the ones I have won’t take over every other project that I am working on.  Perhaps this is another form of writer’s block.  I always thought that it pertained to not having any ideas or inspiration to write at all but I think it might be just as bad to have so many ideas that you can’t focus on just one.  Maybe I can’t seem to finish because it is my first attempt at writing a mystery and I’m nervous it won’t turn out as good as I am hoping.  This is the point where I chuckle at people who seem to think that writing is easy and that all writers do is come up with stories.  It’s so much harder then people think it 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

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.

Happy Love Day

I know Valentine’s Day is almost over but I couldn’t let the entire day go by without at least a few words and then it’s back to work on the Magazine.  Of course this is a day for showing just how much you love that special someone in your life.  But don’t forget to do something special for yourself, and it doesn’t have to be today, but just be reminded today that you do need to show yourself that special attention sometimes too.  In addition, don’t forget to show your love for your writing career and your writing in general.

If you’ve started to forget why you are working so hard at this, do something that reminds you just how much you love writing and why.  Write in a journal, write something that you’re not doing as an assignment, write something that is different from what you normally do, just do something to reignite that deep love that you have for the craft of writing.  So don’t take your loved ones for granted, don’t take yourself for granted, and don’t take your writing career for granted.  Happy Love Day everyone!

 

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.

Put Your Money Where Your Dreams Are

The idea and title, for that matter, of my blog post today was inspired by my best friend Ms. L’s video blog post regarding her thoughts on the State of the Union Address made by President Obama last night.  One point she made in her post was about us, in our everyday lives, being willing to invest in ourselves and essentially “put your money where your dreams are”.

She got me to thinking of how we can find a happy medium in between investing everything we can into that dream we are striving towards and being able to somehow still reward ourselves for the accomplishments that we do achieve along the way in our journey.  I thought of a couple of things that we can maybe think of doing that might not seem so impossible to actually do.

1.)    Bank on Your Dreams—Give your dream its own bank account.  If you already have a separate business account, this would be also considered your dream account (unless your own business is not in fact your dream- then you still need a different account to build on your dream).  This is an account that is only for things pertaining to making your dream a reality.  This IS NOT an emergency fund for when things start getting tough.  If you are striving to be a successful writer and make your entire income by writing then when you need to go to a conference to network, that would be when you tap into this account.  It is not for seeing a movie that you want to call research for your next great project.  That is not an emergency.

2.)    Be Your Own Bill Collector—Treat your dream, and the expenses for accomplishing your dream, as if it is a bill and you are its bill collector.  Whether it be once every two weeks, or once a month (however your income flows) take a percentage or a set amount each time you get paid and put into your dream.  This is where the dream account comes in handy.  If we treat our dreams as if it is just like all of our bills other bills that come every month, the one’s we stress ourselves over, then perhaps we will actually manage to put some money into it.

3.)    Give Up Unnecessary Wants—Be prepared to give up what you don’t need to have.  You know what I mean.  That night that you ate out when you had food in the house you could have fixed.  That extra pair of shoes that you didn’t really need to buy.  That bottle of wine that you didn’t actually need to get.  Those cigarettes that you bought when you know you need to quit anyway.  Those are things that you want, possibly things you think you need, but that you don’t.  This is money being taken away from that dream you keep hoping to see progress in.

4.)    Reward Yourself Feasibly—Okay just because I said that you have to be willing to give up those unnecessary wants doesn’t mean that I am saying to not ever reward yourself for the things you do accomplish along the way.  If you don’t reward yourself in some way you will most likely start to feel like you’re not getting anything out of this because it is (unless you are lucky enough to make it big overnight) going to take some time to see the complete end result that you are looking for.  However, let’s keep our end results in mind when we reward ourselves.  For instance, I can see buying those sneakers that you really need because your current pair are almost in the category of falling apart, but do you really think the extra pair of $300 shoes is necessary.  That handbag that you want to buy for $100 is not really a need when you have a dozen perfectly good handbags at home (and that one is hard for me because purses are my weakness).  One cup of Starbucks a week is a nice reward but do you actually need to go every day when you have a perfectly good coffee maker at home.  Reward in moderation.

So do you see any of these on the list that you can at least start with this week?  I think that I can see one specifically that I need to do for myself that I can’t even believe I haven’t done yet.  Hopefully you will find some of these helpful and perhaps you can even think of a few that I didn’t include that you can share with me.  Let’s start taking our dreams off of the back burner where we tend to forget about them, and placing them on that front burner so they are always at the top of our agenda.  We have to take our dreams seriously, because if we don’t know no one else will.

 

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.

If Only I Could Have It All…Time That Is

I don’t think this is the first time I’ve mentioned this but I have extreme issues with time management.  With me and my writing there isn’t a problem with having enough ideas, I have plenty of those (too many in fact).  There isn’t necessarily a problem with drive and determination, I have tons of that.  There is, however, a serious mismanagement of time.  It isn’t always that I don’t have enough time either (although it certainly feels that way), but rather that I don’t think that I am doing the right things with my time.

I know what you’re thinking.  If you know that then it should be easy to fix, right.  Well you know what they say.  Some things are just easier said then done.  I get trapped by the normal time traps that I’m sure trap everyone from time to time; checking emails, checking facebook (both my personal page and the Write 2 Be fan page-seriously for networking purposes mostly), watching TV (especially the shows that inspire further creativity), and just the everyday mom stuff.

It’s not that I don’t get any work done, I do, but I haven’t gotten back to my novel in months and I miss it.  I miss that side of my writing and it’s not as if I don’t want to finish my novel, I just can’t seem to find the time.  At least it always feels that way.  I know it should be a simple solution but rarely will the things that seem simple ever actually be simple.  So I thought of a few things that I could possibly do to improve my time issues as it pertains to my writing.

1.)    Cut out some of my TV time— Okay not necessarily just completely ignore all of the shows I love and can’t stand to miss.  But perhaps I could block out a chunk of time for my writing that can not be interrupted by the television and just DVR those shows that I can’t miss (after all what else do I have DVR for).  That way I can also have that set time where I’m relaxing and catching up on all of the TV that I missed while writing.

2.)    Not check my emails every thirty minutes— Seriously, what am I really going to miss in thirty minutes.  I just need to set three times in a day that I can check my emails.  There probably won’t be a crucially urgent email in there that can’t wait to be read.

3.)    Not try to make everything perfect—Nothing is perfect and you would think that I would have realized this already.  A large part of what takes up the time that I do spend writing is stressing about whether everything that I produced is perfect or not.  Nothing comes of trying to make things 100% perfect except for a lot of wasted time and missed writing assignments.  Perfection is, after all, overrated.

4.)    Map out a schedule—I know all of the projects that I need to work on, and I know all of the marketing that I need to do to further promote myself, now I just need to set certain time periods to work on certain projects.  That way, if I set a specific timeline to work on a project then I know I have that allotted amount of time to work on that project and that project only.  This way I can make absolute sure that something gets worked on.  It’s more efficient then what I am doing now which is just working in whatever I can whenever I can.

Hopefully if I begin practicing some of these tips I will be able to finish my novel and move and perhaps even start the next one.  Maybe some of these tips can also work for someone else out there who is struggling with actually producing the amount of work they know they should be getting out.  After all, time doesn’t stand still and we can’t keep wasting it by not having a plan of how best to use 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

 

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.

Self-Promotion Monday

The second issue of the Write 2 Be Magazine will be available on Friday and it is just as nerve-racking as when I put together the first issue.  However, nerve-racking it may be, it is still the most purposeful I have felt in a long time.  I am still busy putting together the issue so I don’t have much to say today but I did want to take this time to post a few announcements concerning the magazine.  I guess I am making today self-promotion Monday.  So below are a few things that pertain to the magazine and to all of the fellow writers who may want to join the magazine and who would like to write for the magazine.

Always Looking for Writers and Artists’

Write 2 Be Magazine is looking for writers to share their words through poetry, short story, personal essays, or articles on and about writing.  We are also accepting artwork or photography, book reviews, as well as video clips of spoken word performances.  If you are interested in joining the community of writers that make up Write 2 Be Magazine please feel free to e-mail any submissions and/or inquiries to write2bemagazine@yahoo.com.   

Seeking Authors to Interview

Write 2 Be Magazine is looking for authors to interview and who would like to bring attention to their published work and discuss their journey within their writing career.  Please submit all requests for an email interview to write2bemagazine@yahoo.com and for those who live in the DMV area, you can request a face to face interview if you would prefer.  I look forward to being able to help bring attention to the work of more talented writers and poets, in particular those who are just getting started on their journey.  

February’s Magazine Giveaway

Last month Write 2 Be Magazine was giving away a Starbucks gift card for anyone who liked the Write 2 Be Magazine facebook fan page.  This month I am giving away a FREE copy of my book, The Diary: Succession of Lies.  For more information on how you can be entered to win a free copy of my book tune into the magazine on Friday.  

I hope to see what wonderful artists’ you are soon!

 

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.

When Sweating the Small Stuff Takes on a Deeper Meaning

There are many myths and associations that go along with being a writer.  Writers are said to be big dreamers.  They are rumored to be alcoholics and deeply depressed.  They are said to be flighty and unreliable.  But one major thing that is associated with being a writer is that we are huge coffee drinkers.  Of course that’s not to say that there aren’t non-writers who love to drink coffee, but rarely will you meet a person who is a writer that does not drink coffee.

Well coffee is one of the things that I get really excited about getting to each morning.  I sit with my cup of coffee (usually the first of two) and read some of the blogs that I follow and get inspired to write and work on what I need to work on for the day.  I must say that it never dawns on me just how important my coffee actually is to me or my creative process until I don’t’ have it for one reason or another.  So all of that to say that I almost had a meltdown this morning because I put my coffee in the filter and the water in the machine and turned it on only to come back into the kitchen and find that there was nothing in the pot.  The light was on but no coffee had come out.

I immediately started to freak out and try and figure out how to get a new coffee pot considering the fact that I was low on funds and even lower on gas.  I’m still not really sure how I managed to scrounge up the money to get, not only gas to get to the nearest Walmart, but also for a coffee pot that was completely overpriced for its size, but needless to say I have now had my cup of coffee.  Ms. L. laughed at me when I told her that I had begun to have a meltdown in the store when at first they didn’t have the coffee pot that I wanted and that I had even shed a few tears.

The thing is that I don’t think that I was actually upset over the coffee (well yes I really did need my coffee) per say, just the culmination of things.  It’s like when you have everything else not adding up quite the way you want to and the one thing that you know you can rely on, for even a slight way to reward yourself, suddenly isn’t there and doesn’t work anymore.  That’s how I felt.

I am trying to work on the things that I need to work on within my writing so that when the shift that is going to come happens I am prepared and I am ready (at least as ready as I can be anyway).  Even when God places things in your path and he is working in your favor, you still have to be prepared for all that he has to offer.  Having said that, I am not quite as prepared as I would like to be for the changes that I know are coming my way and the one thing that I treasure every morning is my cup of coffee.  It helps me to relax, it allows me to think better, and allows my creativity to flow a little smoother.  So when my relaxation was gone, and my creativity wasn’t flowing right it made me a little on edge.

I guess I’m sharing this with all of you because I know that someone else out there has some ritual or some routine that works for them and when it’s broken or disturbed in some way it may make you a little crazy (not literally of course) and out of sorts.  I just want you to know that you’re not the only ones who feel this way and as trivial as your rituals or the things that keep you going may seem to other people, if they are meaningful to you then they matter.  Everyone has their own way of dealing with things, of coping with setbacks, of balancing their risks verses their rewards.  You should be okay with whatever gets you through and helps you to push forward to that next level of preparing yourself for the shift that is to come.

 

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.

Right Where I Belong

I’ve felt a little unsure of myself this week.  I guess you could say I’ve been doing a lot of second guessing (and I know that I shouldn’t) which is a bad habit I am trying to get rid of.  It’s been a week of feeling uncertain but I was watching a program this morning where the focus was the film director James Cameron and how he became such a visionary.  He said a lot of things that struck a chord with me and it kind of put things into perspective.

I get asked so many times by people who don’t consider writing an actual job (at least not a very viable one) why, when my reward thus far has been so little and the struggle has been so hard, why do I continue to pull my hair out over it.  Why don’t I just get a regular 9 to 5 job and settle with the joy of having a steady paycheck will do for my life.  They tell me it would make me so much happier, steadier, and that I would be able to do so much more for myself and my daughter.  Some days I don’t know the answer to those questions.  Not any that would make sense anyway.  But most days, the answers are simple, maybe not easy for others to understand, but they make sense for me.

For a large part of my childhood, all of my adolescence, and the vast majority of my adulthood I have doubted everything, and I had believed what my mother always made sure to remind me of which was that I was never going to be anybody and I was never going to get anywhere.  I let her words carry over into too many aspects of my life and while it was her lack of support that fueled my own doubts, it was my mistake for not recognizing that she was one of those negative people that I needed to steer clear of.  However, the one thing that I have never been uncertain of was my writing.

Sure there have been times that I have wondered if my writing could measure up to others, and if it was really truly about who you know rather then your actual talent, but I’ve always known that writing was what I was supposed to be doing with my life.  I never really had to be one of those people who had to search for what God’s purpose was for me because I’ve known from a very early age that it was my writing.  Not necessarily writing just in the form of novels, or poetry, or even launching my own magazine and eventually my publishing company.  But my words, they mean something and what I have to say matters.  My vision for where I want to go within my writing career has the potential to really change things and that is something I am not doubtful of.

I made a decision years ago that I could no longer do the 9 to 5 thing.  I couldn’t work towards building someone else’s dream while mine continued to sit on the back burner indefinitely, and on top of that, miss the most important moments of my daughters life because of it.  It’s not that I think that there is anything wrong with that, there are plenty of people who do it and I admire their ability to make that work, it just isn’t something that was working so well for me.  I wasn’t happy, in fact I was miserable, and I feel like my daughter could sense how miserable I was and that it weighed on her too.

I had always felt like I didn’t fit in at those places I worked at, like I wasn’t where I was supposed to be.  Now, I may not have as steady a stream of income coming in as I would like (for now anyway), and I may be seen to those people who don’t consider writing to be a job as always struggling (which may not be far from accurate) and doing nothing, but I am actually a lot happier then I was when I was working a regular full time job and trying to cram in my dream a few hours every night.  I feel as though, as uncertain as where the journey I am on is going to lead me, what isn’t uncertain is that I am in deed on the right journey, for me.

What is the meaning of going through this life if what you are doing, on a day to day basis, pushing towards your future, is not what you want to be doing, if it’s not your purpose?  I feel as though being among other artists; other creative people, other people who are considered to be weird and strange; other people whose broad and elaborate imaginations are considered to be eccentric and unrealistic; this is where I belong.

I Have the Write 2 Be Where I Feel I Belong…What is Your Write 2 Be?

 

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.

 

I Should Have Kept a Diary As a Child

I started to think about all of the wonderful autobiographies that are written and a great deal of them stem from diaries that the authors kept when they were younger.  I feel like the childhood I had could fill at least two books of teachable moments that could somehow help some other person out there who dealt with some of the same things I did.  The only problem when I try and sit down and capture all of those teachable moments on paper is that I have spent so long trying to forget a good majority of my childhood that now it is hard to piece together every possible moment that would be important to remember.

I never kept a diary when I was younger because I honestly didn’t feel that I had anything good to capture on a page.  Most of my writing that I did was poetry which was how I expressed my emotions but a lot of it wasn’t literal, it was more metaphorical.  The other half of the time I spent writing it was creating stories that were far away from my reality, stories that were much better than my reality.

More and more as I get older and as I realize that a lot of what I went through as a child could really help someone else who might be going through the same thing now.  Now I am really wishing that I had kept a diary when I was younger.  If I am being honest with myself (and I try to be) I sometimes wish that I had kept a diary during childhood because the only memories I seem to be able to access were painful and hurtful ones, and I would like to think that there had to be some good memories in there somewhere.

I know that it couldn’t have been entirely bad but all that seems to stick with me is the abuse that I went through at home and the bullying that I endured, both at school and at home.  Then there were the people in my childhood who I should remember and yet I have no recollection of.  One person in particular who is important to me and I have no memory of them.

I almost admire those who keep a diary or a journal because they will be able to hold onto those memories every single day of their lives.  Even when they are older and can’t remember every detail they want to remember, they can just open up an old diary and there those memories will be.  I sometimes feel like my memories are lost.

I think that it would be a good idea to encourage my daughter to keep a diary so that she can capture all of the things that she wants to remember and express any emotions she needs to get out that she might feel she can’t talk to me about.  I think a diary could be a good outlet for children to express themselves so that they don’t turn to the wrong things or the wrong people.  If you are one of those lucky people who has documented every single detail of your childhood and your adolescence right into your adulthood, then make sure you celebrate those memories and perhaps even share them with others.  You never know what part of what you have experienced on your journey could end up helping someone else.

 

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.