Tag: writing

Putting Yourself Into Your Work

jcladyluv

I was reading an article in a writer’s magazine today that talked about how this particular author always incorporated a little piece of herself and her life, whether it be childhood or adulthood, into her novels.  They are not autobiographical per say but in some ways each of them give away some aspect of who she is.  I started thinking about the book of novel storylines that I have that I want to work on and realizing that in some ways I do the same thing.  

Now my first novel (The Diary: Succession of Lies) is very much based on some true events that I experienced and worked into the novel.  The second one that I want to get published (When Love Calls; currently awaiting the editing phase) may be a little less based on accurate details but I totally identify with my main character as if a piece of me is in her even though she and I are not really alike.  With the current novel that I worked on during NaNoWriMo and am still working on (Through the Looking Glass) right now is so far a part from any real experience I have ever been through but yet I identify with my main character, Mackenzie, so much.  Now Mackenzie and I are absolutely nothing alike but yet I feel so in tune with her.  

How is it that I can be so in tune with a character that I am nothing alike?  Isn’t it funny how sometimes when you are telling a story you can identify with a particular character that you really have nothing in common with?  But then again that’s the joy and excitement of writing novels.  You get to tell stories that you would probably never actually live through and if you want to throw in a few real life experiences you can do that too.  Until tomorrow…How much of yourself do you put into your stories? 

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

A Wish to be a More Avid Reader

jcladyluv

“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the most.  Read! You’ll absorb it.  Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out.  If it’s not, throw it out the window.”
~William Faulkner 

A writer is supposed to also be a really good reader as well and I have to admit that, while I used to be, I am not the best at reading.  Not since I have thrown myself more into writing and concentrating on perfecting my writing skills and techniques.  I make an honest effort every year to try and do better at maintaining my reading pace.  When I make my list of books to read I try to put a little bit of everything on the list from romantic novels and mysteries, to some writing instruction books as well as motivational books.  I typically find myself only completing about half of my enormous list that I actually think I can read in a year.  

I suppose I would like to think that I could still read at the same pace that I used to read (like ten years ago).  But in reality I know that as I get more and more into writing my novels and other writing projects, I most likely won’t be able to read at that same rate but that never stops me from trying.  This year I am really going to attempt to make a manageable list that I will hopefully complete.  However instead of packing it with an eclectic mix of genres as I normally would I am going to be reading all mysteries next year.  For the last few books on this year’s list I’ve chosen the mystery books and I am really getting into the mystery genre.  I really like Sue Grafton and J.D. Robb novels right now.  

Also since my novel is a mystery and I am beginning a series, then it seems that I like to write mysteries as well.  So if any of you have any mysteries that you would like to suggest for my 2012 reading list I sure would like to hear them.  I have a few of my own already to put on there but I still would like to hear what books you would recommend.  Well I have a list to go finish.  Until tomorrow…What’s on your reading list?

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

Just a Little Break (I Promise)

jcladyluv

Okay so I have officially taken two days away from my novel now, and I know that I have to finish the first draft (hopefully before the end of this month), but I just need to take a mental break for a moment.  Trust me, it won’t be a long break because Mackenzie is nudging me along trying to get me back at the keyboard sooner rather than later.  I think that my mind is just so flooded with all of the ideas concerning the rest of this novel, but more so with the next book that will be next to come in the series, and even the one after that.  I have lots of different angles in mind of where to go but until I finish this novel I won’t really know which angle to take.  Well I just wanted to touch base with all of you.  Hope you all have a blessed night!  Until tomorrow! 

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

NaNoWriMo Day 30: Just In Time

jcladyluv

Okay I was really beginning to doubt whether I could make it.  But I DID IT!  50,002 words.  I completed this year’s National Novel Writing Month successfully.  And let me tell you I think this might have been the hardest day of the whole month.  The feeling of not being sure whether I was going to finish or not was lingering over my head.  With all of the other characters that were beginning to tell me of what the next book in the series should be about I could hardly concentrate. 

Well as most of you writers out there, a novel consists of way more than 50,000 words so as you might imagine my novel is not actually finished so I still have the personal challenge of finishing this novel.  But that won’t be hard because I am so excited to finish and so excited to see where this book will end because I had an ending all planned out in my outline but as so much of this story has gone off the course of the outline, so to will my ending.  I have already seen the vision of the new ending in my head and by time I get to the end that might change as well.  Well I am going to bed now to rest my fingers and my mind so that I can come back to the keyboard tomorrow but this time I won’t have the added pressure.  Well I take that back because I have a new online Magazine to finish putting together for its release in January.  Goodnight all you writers out there.  I hope you were successful as well and if not, trying is half of the battle and it is better to have tried then to never have tried at all.  Until tomorrow! 

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

NaNoWriMo Day 29: I Can See The Finish Line

jcladyluv

Still typing away.  I think I’m over 45,000 words now.  Not too sure because I am still writing.  I just wanted to take a break to post this and then it’s back to the writing for maybe another hour.  My fingers hurt and are starting to cramp up a little bit but it will be worth it when I can say I Did It!.   For now I will leave you with these inspiring words that I can really relate to write now.  Until tomorrow! 

“The characters who come to life on the page or on the stage are the ones that have passed through the storyteller’s imagination.  Your readers already ‘know’ people as well as real people ever know each other.  They turn to fiction in order to know people better than they can ever know them in real life.” 

~Orson Scott Card 

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

NaNoWriMo Day 28: Almost There

jcladyluv

Still pounding away at the keyboard to get to those 50,000 words.  I’m a little over 40,000 now but I’m not quite in the home stretch yet.  Didn’t want to let the day go by without posting something that will hopefully inspire the rest of my fellow writers out there to keep pressing forward.  

“If you are a writer you locate yourself behind a wall of silence and no matter what you are doing, driving a car or walking or doing housework…you can be writing, because you have that space.” 

~Joyce Carol Oates

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

NaNoWriMo Day 27: I Feel So Far Behind

jcladyluv

I am working really hard to get to those 50,000 words before the 30th which, believe it or not, is only 3 full days away.  I am still behind in my word count so I am getting worried that I might not be able to finish.  I hope I make it, cross your fingers! 

“Every time I start on a new book, I am a beginner again.  I doubt myself, I grow discouraged, all the work accomplished in the past is as though it never was, my first drafts are so shapeless that it seems impossible to go on with the attempt at all, all right up until the moment…when it has become impossible not to finish it.” 

– Simone De Beauvoir 

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

NaNoWriMo Day 26: In My Own World of Writing

jcladyluv

Okay technically it is aftermidnightbut for me until I have gone to sleep and woke up again it is still day 26.  I have gotten lots of work done today, despite the procrastination I powered through earlier.  I just wanted to leave you with this quote and then my day is done. 

“My closely guarded solitude causes some hurt feelings now and then.  But how to explain, without wounding someone, that you want to be wholly in the world you are writing about, that it would take two days to get the visitor’s voice out of the house so that you could listen to your own characters again?”

 – Margaret Bourke-White; Portrait of Myself

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

 

 

 

NaNoWriMo Day 25: Just a Short Note

jcladyluv

This weekend I will be consuming myself with nothing but writing because I have unfortunately slacked off on my word count over the last few days.  I will be thinking about nothing but my story and Mackenzie Brown and stopping to do nothing but maybe eat every once and a while.  So if I do not check back in here tomorrow (which I’m pretty sure I will) that is what I am doing.  I have to make it to that 50,000 and I don’t have much longer.  So goodnight all my fellow Nano-ers and I hope your novels are going well.  Until next time…Write, Write, Write! 

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

NaNoWriMo Day 24: The Season for Preparation Begins

jcladyluv

Today reminds me that we are getting closer to a new year, with new plans, new goals, and new projects that we will be working on.  I have to take a look at my goals that I had for this year and look at just how many I didn’t get accomplished and see which ones I think I might actually be able to achieve next year and which one’s are just out of my reach (at least for next year).  I really should start a short term and long term goal list and then I might feel a little more accomplished come this time next year.  I don’t know if I have told you guys but I am an extremely overly ambitious person, sometimes to my own detriment.  Usually as Christmas approaches I sit down and begin making a list of my goals, the projects I want to get done, and the books I want to read for the next year.  While my friends who do this same thing have short, attainable lists, my lists look like the goals of about two or three people put together.  My challenge when I make my list this year is to make my lists something that I can feasibly accomplish.  My list has to be something that meets my ambitions, but does not exceed my own reality.  It needs to be a list that when I go back and look at it at the end of the year I’m not going to feel like I am an absolute failure because I didn’t even get half of a ridiculously long list done.  So as Thanksgiving moves out and the Christmas season officially begins, so does the preparations for the year to come.  Until next time…What are your goals for next year going to look like? 

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

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

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress