Tag: Writers

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NaNoWriMo Day 10: The Toll of our Sacrifices

November 10, 2011 jcladyluv

Okay the early morning writing sessions are starting to take their toll on me. I am beginning to nod off at the keyboard while writing. My story isn’t slowing down, but that hour and a half earlier that I wake up every morning, that hour and a half of sleep that I am losing, is beginning to catch up with me. Nevertheless, November is not over yet and I must press on. This novel is not going to exactly write itself so it’s just a sacrifice I’m going to have to make. But we writers often make lots of sacrifices for the sake of our craft. There are some people that literally rearrange their whole routine during this month to write their novels and some people that lose a lot more sleep than an hour or so. They plan out simple, uncomplicated meals that don’t take up time that could be better spent writing, or they just buy T.V. dinners to fix during that month.

I think that sometimes people don’t realize what us writers go through and sacrifice just to put the words to paper and construct a story worthy enough of getting published, and interesting enough to get the readers attention. The books that people are so eager to buy from the stores or online take time and a lot of effort. But those same eager people are the one’s who just dismiss what we do and say that writing isn’t real work. I guess I say all of this because I have confronted by quite a few people lately that just shrug off my craft as just a simple hobby or something that everything else can be worked around. I see it as my work, my gift, my purpose, and something that everything else in my life (except my daughter) will have to be worked around.

Well I suppose I should get back to strategizing for tomorrow’s writing session. I like to prep for where I’m going next. Although sometimes where I intend to go in the story one day changes by the time I sit down the next morning but I at least try to be prepared. For all of you writer’s out there making huge sacrifices to be able to complete your novels this month, know that there are others doing the same thing and that your efforts do not go unappreciated. Until next time…Endure the sacrifice for right now to better enjoy the product that is yet to come!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

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

NaNoWriMo Day 6: Starbucks really does work wonders!

November 6, 2011 jcladyluv

Okay so I am at good ole Starbucks, drinking coffee that is probably way too high in calories but I got the job done for the day. I thought about the possibility of making this an everyday ritual or at least a ritual for every weekend but that could become way too costly and I already can’t afford the coffee I bought today. Yes another one of those rewards (just one given before the actual words were met for the day). Nevertheless, I wrote 1,700 words today which brings my total word count to 10,418 thus far. And what’s more is that my story seems to be flowing along beautifully. I am possibly having the best NaNoWriMo experience that I’ve had since beginning this process four years ago. I have not gotten stuck and my story hasn’t started to drag and I am grateful for that (hoping I haven’t jinxed myself). Tomorrow begins the early morning wake up sessions again for the week. I think Mackenzie might have a very complicated time this coming week. She’s about to be put through a lot. Stay tuned! Until tomorrow…Enjoy how far you’ve gotten so far and keep going!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

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

NaNoWriMo Day 5: Oh the Rewards that will follow!

November 5, 2011 jcladyluv

Okay so I had to really think last night of whether I was going to do the early morning wake up sessions for the weekends as well because I hadn’t really thought about it. That was an easy and quick decision. I need to make up for the lost sleep somewhere. It is also no easy to get my words done on a Saturday because I have so many other things to do as well but I just completed my words for today thanks to my local Starbucks. I am going to go get me some Chinese food now as my reward for dinner because I haven’t had it in a long time and I feel that I deserve it. I’m going to go home and watch a movie which I also haven’t done in a while and probably get even more inspired by whatever movie I decide to watch (haven’t made up my mind). Should I decide I want to laugh tonight I also have some stand up comedy on my DVR somewhere in the 93% of recorded items so either way I will make a good night out of it. I hope you all are doing well with your novels and that your characters are still speaking to you. Let me know how you’re doing. Until next time…Don’t forget to reward yourself along the way!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

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

NaNoWriMo Day 4: An In Between Day

November 4, 2011 jcladyluv

I love NaNoWriMo! Okay so I might not like getting up an hour earlier than normal but I suppose the reward of a finished novel at the end of thirty days helps make up for the lost sleep. There are some days where the characters are just speaking to you and you can’t even type or write fast enough to get everything it is that they’re trying to say. And there are the days when you feel like your characters are trying to tell you something but you don’t really know what it is so clearly you can’t convey their message.

Now granted today is not one of those days, it’s also not one where I can’t keep up with my characters train of thought but it is a good day in terms of writing. It was a day where things flowed adequately enough and I feel the story is moving along. I did however, start brainstorming ideas (along with my best friend and fellow NaNo-er) about how this could possibly have the potential to turn into a series but we will see how the story manages to unfold itself. I’m already getting signals pulling me in different directions then when I originally planned my outline.

Writing can be difficult, but it is so well worth every bit of blood (the red pen my best friend, the editor, uses to edit my work with), sweat (no I don’t really sweat over my story either), and tears (yes sometimes I really do cry with my characters), and did I forget agony. A writer takes his or her characters with her, wherever they go and that can be difficult because they tend to pop up and start talking to you out of the blue and then you look crazy because you actually answer them (or is that just me).

The writing process is already a task that is challenging and sometimes frustrating. But to try and write a whole novel in 30 days or at the very least have the framework of that novel put together is incredibly hard. I feel like I can’t afford to have an off day or a day where I fall behind in my word count because there is so much of this story that I feel needs to be told and I don’t want to leave anything out.

It’s a lot of pressure to write a novel, then to write it in 30 days, and then to have it actually be good. But I try not to think about what happens once I finish this thing because then I would have to think about my best friend and the RED ink from her trusty red pen that she likes to mark up people’s manuscripts with. Well I’m gearing up for a weekend full of…you guessed it, more writing. I hope that you all will be writing as well. And I hope that you guys will clue me in on some of your stories. Just a little teaser maybe! Until next time…Don’t stop writing yet!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

If It’s What You Love To Do, Stay Hungry and Stay Foolish

October 17, 2011 jcladyluv

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

~Steve Jobs

When Steve Jobs died on October 5 he left behind so much more than just his extensive contribution to the technological world. In my opinion, what’s worth far more than his Apple Company is the determination that it took for him to reach his level of success and the words that he expressed in his 2005 commencement speech at StanfordUniversity. I must admit that I had not actually took the time to watch the speech until after his death but there was so much that I got out of those fifteen minutes. One thing he said that stuck with me was to not let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.

Another memorable thing that I took away from his speech was his last four words; Stay hungry, stay foolish. It seemed to be words that he lived by until his dying day and I found these words to be both intriguing and inspiring. When you stay hungry you never really lose sight of what is at stake for your dreams. You stay focused and steady. You stay driven and determined. You never settle if you have not gotten to where it is you want to be. When you allow yourself to stay foolish you give yourself permission to have the courage to do the things that everybody else might think of as stupid or crazy. Those that remain foolish have the ability to ignore the logic that might be telling them that something will be too difficult or impossible to make happen.

In the last few weeks I have been continually told, in so many words, that what I want for my life is not going to happen and that I am wasting my time with it. I should just go make a career out of working behind a desk and be content with that because it’s a good living. They say writing is not practical, writing will never make me rich or even provide enough money to live off, writing is a great hobby but it’s not realistically possible to make it, especially in the current economy. Well I say to hell with anyone who tells me that doing what I love to do, what I was born to do, is a waste of my time. It’s who I am and it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.

It’s not as if I just woke up a year or two ago and said hey, I think I want to be a writer now. I have known since I was six years old that this was what my purpose in life was and I have never, in 25 years, wavered from that belief. Honestly, at this point I’ve put in so much time and sacrificed so much in the effort of making this work that I can’t go back now. Sure I’m not where I would like to be within my career at this point, nor where I thought I would be, but I know it’s coming because I know it’s meant for me.

So many times I hear about or see people who have spent their lives doing something that is practical and might have garnered them success but it wasn’t what they wanted for themselves. It wasn’t the way that they wanted to achieve their success and they weren’t very happy. They spent their lives living up to others’ standards and other people’s ideas of normal and practical. They lived a life, but it wasn’t theirs.

I’ve already wasted too much of my limited time on this earth living the way someone else thought I should, doing what was practical all the while longing to follow my heart. I am not going to leave this world feeling like I didn’t at least try to live the life I was meant to live. As Steve Jobs also said in his brilliant speech, “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way to avoid the trap of thinking that you have something to lose…” What good is living if I am not going to go for it all, come hell or high water? I’ve always wondered what it would feel like to really throw caution to the wind and just jump feet first without worrying what will go wrong. I think that I’m going to start finding out. I thank you Steve Jobs for being brave enough to Stay hungry and Stay foolish. Until next time…Imagine all of what you can do if you were just a little more foolish and a lot less logical.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

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

Should I Really be Content?

October 8, 2011 jcladyluv

“If you are foolish enough to be contented, don’t show it, but grumble with the rest.”

~Jerome K.

I am not a perfect person. I am a good writer, but by far, I am not the best that there is. I am driven and overly ambitious but I do, a lot of the time, tend to let my fear get in my own way. I will not do everything right all of the time and I am sure to get many more things wrong in this life before I leave it. It is a waste of time to pretend that I am anything close to what people might wish I could be.

I read online somewhere the other day something that said ‘until you make peace with who you are, you will never be content with what you have’. The only problem that I have with that saying is that I don’t think that anyone should ever really be content with what they have if their goals in life far exceed where they are right now. I have made peace with me and with all that I am, and more importantly with all that I am not and it took me a very long time to get to that point where I could be at peace with myself.

However, I can not say that I am content with what I have. Not out of some sense of being greedy and wanting more. And not because I don’t appreciate the things that I do have right now at this very moment, but because I know that there is so much more that I can be doing and goals that I am striving to get accomplished, and I can’t say I’m content yet. I know I could be doing better.

I think a state of contentment happens when a person gets to that point in their life where they can check off the majority of the things they set out to achieve, when they are where they need to be in life, and they don’t necessarily have to be rich, but rather self reliant and independent, and more importantly, stable. I am grateful, and very aware of the good things that I have had happen in my life, and of the potential that I have to do more with my life, but I do want to do more. I am not content with being ordinary, but rather, I strive to be extraordinary.

I think that sometimes people get complacent and they settle for what they have managed to achieve. Maybe they get in this rut where they honestly feel that they can’t accomplish the rest of their goals that they had wanted to achieve. That is not being content. That is settling for what you have managed to do so far. I think that it is okay to be at peace with the person you are and still not feel as if you are content. Once you reach the point of contentment, what else is there to strive for? Then what will our purpose be? I am who I am and I am okay with that, but I don’t think I will ever think that I am done doing what I was put on this earth to do. Until next time…If you think there is more in your life that needs to be done, are you really content?

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

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

The Theme of It All

September 26, 2011 jcladyluv

I was talking to Ms. L the other night and we were reminiscing about T.V. show theme songs from back in the 90’s and before you knew it we were googling some of those theme songs and singing along with them into the wee hours of the morning. We went from the Mary Tyler Moore show, All in the Family, and Good Times, to Growing Pains, Family Matters, and Friends. There were many more and perhaps even a CD of theme songs may have been involved but I won’t run down the entire list. In between singing these songs together, we even shared common gripes about the fact that it seems as though most of the TV shows now do not have theme songs and how we missed them.

I realized, somewhere between Perfect Strangers and Laverne and Shirley, that the difference between television shows then and now is that the writers seemed to want their shows to be graced with theme songs that were motivating and that uplifted their audiences into believing in themselves and in their dreams. The songs promoted family unity and families supporting one another through good times and bad, and through the things they want to accomplish. Now there are no theme songs, just a flash of music in the beginning of the shows and sometimes a few words to the beat of a random song, but no real theme song. No real promotion of family unity or uplifting of the spirit. It’s almost as if the writers of the shows stopped caring, along with the rest of the world, of the spirit of the people that watch their shows.

The theme shows from before were large reasons that I watched those shows in the first place. The songs would get me motivated and before the show even began I was rooting for those people, for their dreams, and for their family. I got valuable lessons from those promotions of family unity and the empowerment of following your dreams through the music of the theme songs. So when did they stop feeling the need to inspire the audience and to motivate and uplift them? When did the writers of the T.V. shows stop realizing that we still need that push and that empowerment, even if it is in the simple form of a song at the beginning of a show?

Sometimes it is the littlest things that can give someone the inspiration they need to do something different. The writers of these television shows may just see it as an insignificant theme song that cost too much for just that one minute sound bite, but that one minute sound bite might be just what that one person in their intended audience needs to hear. It might be what gets them moving and gets them motivated and lights a fire under them to do something great. That one minute sound bite is more than worth what it cost if it incites someone to be better and be greater than what they were before they sat down to watch their show.

In one of her blog posts, Ms. L said that we sometimes think that with us just being one person, what we do doesn’t count and that it doesn’t make a difference. But one person actually can make a difference and even when you might not think that what you say or do is affecting someone else, there’s a great chance that it is in fact touching someone else’s life in some way. Those writers of television shows may not think anything of the theme songs of the shows in television history and may not consider it worth their time or money to go that extra mile to find or create something that will incite inspiration but I would assure them that those songs mattered and they meant something and if anything it made people more drawn to watch. Just as everything a person does matters, what they don’t do also speaks volumes. Until next time…Do what you do best, even when you think no one will care or is paying attention; chances are that someone is watching!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

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

The Stigma Behind Creating Greatness

September 19, 2011September 19, 2011 jcladyluv

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.”

~ Marianne Williamson

I was listening to a clip the other day of a speech that author of Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert gave discussing the need to nurture creativity and to dismiss the automatic assumption that all writers, or creative types in general, are tortured souls. I hadn’t realized until I watched this clip just how much I had always bought into that myth in the past and in some ways had fueled my creative ability behind it.

Now it’s not that I would be any less of a writer if I didn’t have a terrible childhood where I grew up with no father and a very angry and all around abusive mother. In my case I think that my bad childhood was indeed the fuel behind my early beginnings as a writer. But I think that sometimes I got it into my head that if I wasn’t going through hard times and struggling to find my footing then I wasn’t a true writer. However, I’ve realized that in the most recent years, when it comes to my writing, pain and suffering actually stifles my creativity rather than enhances it. I feel more of a fluid movement of words when I am optimistic about things and when things seem to be going in the right direction.

It’s always been projected that writers, artists’, and creative like minded people have this angst and anguish, this pain that lies behind their genius. So does that mean that these creative people can not produce greatness without their individual tragedies? You hear of great writers and poets like Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, Virginia Woolfe, Edgar Allan Poe, and so many others who have had such tragic lives and their own demons to deal with and they dealt with them through their art. However, if they were truly meant to be artists’ would it have mattered if their lives were happy and filled with never-ending promise?

You write something today that’s a fictional story of tragedy and suffering and undoubtedly one of the first questions that someone will ask you is “Is this a true story.” It’s as if our minds can not possibly come up with a story that is brilliant and filled with drama and tragic events that is not our own actual reality. They do after all call it fiction for a reason.

My daughter has a great talent brewing for writing and my best friend’s son is a movie director in the making who also has a great love for writing and they are not tortured souls. They don’t have some tragic incident that has happened to them to suddenly make them begin to use writing as their source for directing the pain. Why can’t there be writer’s who have come from a happy childhood and have experienced wonderful experiences throughout their whole lives?

Why can’t writer’s, or any creative individual for that matter, not have that label of alcoholic, or drug addict, or suicidal that can be placed on them at any point in their career? Why must writers, past, present, or future, be afraid of being doomed simply because they are doing what they feel they were put on this earth to do? I would like to think that our future generations of artists don’t have to have that cloud of darkness hanging over their head simply because they wanted to explore their creativity. Are we really only as great as our greatest tragedies or could it be possible that our tragedies are what strengthen the talent that is to be our greatness? Until next time…don’t ever allow yourself to feel doomed for doing what God put you hear to do!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

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

Write 2 Be Online Magazine is looking for Writers…

September 16, 2011 jcladyluv

Write 2 Be Magazine, produced by LadyBug Press and set to debut in January 2012, will be designed to give writers and artists a broad platform to showcase their work and share their experiences in dealing with the ins and outs of both the creative and business side of writing and the publishing industry.

Write 2 Be Magazine is looking for writers to make submissions of poetry (including clips of spoken word performances), short stories, articles, personal essays, and book reviews. Currently we are a non-paying market and can only compensate you with exposure and the opportunity to touch thousands of lives with just the click of a mouse.

If you are interested in joining the community of writers that will make up Write 2 Be Magazine please feel free to e-mail any submissions and/or inquiries to write2bemagazine@yahoo.com. We look forward to hearing from you and wish you the best in all of your writing endeavors.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”