Tag: writing

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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”

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

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

I Regret Not Being Fearless

September 14, 2011 jcladyluv

“Being fearless isn’t being 100% unafraid; it’s being terrified, but you jump in anyway!”

~Taylor Swift

I was watching an interview the other night on Lady GaGa and her rise to fame and her upbringing. I was excited to watch this interview because while I am a fan of her music, I am an even greater fan of her business savvy and her work ethic. She has certainly made a name for herself and her story didn’t start off that much different from other people that have a particular dream growing up. Of course her upbringing was different in terms of the fact that she probably had a lot more things in the pros column than the cons but the struggle to achieve her dream was still there.

What I love and can appreciate most about her is her bravery and her fearlessness. She has never been and still isn’t afraid to do anything when it comes to accomplishing her dreams and she seems to jump head first into everything without ever really looking back. Watching the interview I found myself wishing that I had that same fearlessness and bravery, both as a child growing up and especially now.

So many times I had opportunities when I was younger to maybe go to some poetry event or open mic night and read some of my poetry or even sing (because I could actually sing a lot better when I was younger) but I was too afraid. Afraid to be on stage in front a crowd full of people, afraid that they wouldn’t like my poetry or like my voice, afraid that I somehow would not be good enough and that maybe the talent that I thought I had was all made up in my head and that no one else would share the same thought. I wasted so much time on all of the cons and I missed out on all of the pros, all because I wasn’t fearless enough.

I guess it’s too late to wonder what could’ve and might’ve been if I had just been brave enough to jump head first into any number of the things that I wanted to do. The only thing left to do now is strive to be brave and fearless from this point on. After watching the interview I was wondering aloud to my best friend, was it just simply too late for me to do the things that I really wanted. I mean I’m 31 now and I’m not getting any younger and my dreams aren’t becoming any more attainable as time goes by. She told me (being the voice of reason that she always seems to be) that it’s never too late as long as I still have the ability and the passion to do those things that I want to do.

That voice of fear was in my ear yet again but this time I don’t plan on feeding into it. I’ve wasted too much time already and now it’s time for me to be brave, and yes even fearless. So how brave and fearless are you willing to be for your dreams? Until next time…Be brave, don’t give yourself anything else to regret!

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

An Ambitious Nature

September 12, 2011 jcladyluv

“If a woman is sufficiently ambitious, determined and gifted – there is practically nothing she can’t do.”

~Helen Lawrenson

I would like to think that I have an ambitious nature. Whether it is a low level of ambition or I am overly ambitious varies depending upon what day it is. I think that might just be my problem. With the things that I want out of this life and what I would like to accomplish as far as my career goals, I can not afford to have too many of days of underachievement where I don’t even reach the standard that I have set for myself.

On my accountability list that I emailed to my best friend last night of the goals that I need to accomplish this week I actually added to the number of things to get done this week. The first week my list had 8 items, the second it had 9, and this week it has 12. The way I see it, the more I expect of myself, the more I am likely to get accomplished.

Now I realize this method might not work every week but I am trying to get myself to that level where I don’t have weeks of underachievement, just weeks where I have tackled all of my ambitions head on and achieved them without fail. Now I am not so unrealistic as to think that every single week I am going to be able to actually check off everything on that list but nothing beats a failure but a try.

My message to those out there that might think that they are being a bit too ambitious (or unrealistic), don’t listen to that voice in your mind that is telling you that. Having higher expectations of yourself enables you to keep yourself on your toes and to raise your own bar. So how high are you willing to set your bar? Leave me a comment and tell me, what are some of the ways you make sure to hold yourself accountable for you goals? Well I guess I better go get started on that long list I have for this week. Until next time…stay on your toes!

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

For the Busy Writers

September 9, 2011 jcladyluv

I was so engulfed in trying to be productive and finish my goal list for this week that I almost forgot to do this blog post which is also on my list of goals. So I thought I would share some time management tips that may help those writers out there are that are trying to figure out how to deal with their everyday busy lives and incorporate writing into that mix. Hope some of these tips are helpful to you.

Publicize your writing goals- Tell your friends and family, even your kids, what your goals are that you need to accomplish for the week, or for the month. Put a list of those goals up on the bulletin board in front of your desk (because all writers should have one) or on a post it note and stick it on your computer. If you have a blog share some of those goals with your readers. This will help you to hold yourself accountable to the tasks you set out to achieve because if you don’t, now someone else will.
Do the more time consuming tasks first- You may be tempted to check all the smaller things off your list first but none of those smaller things help you to accomplish the few bigger things on that list then you may still get to the end of the week with those things unfinished and it will feel less gratifying. If you knock the big things out of the way you will feel more accomplished by the end of the week.
Be flexible- You will probably never complete an entire writing project without having something go wrong along the way, or not necessarily wrong, just not as you originally planned them to go. Make some back up plans for when things get thrown off track. This will help you to bounce back quicker than you would if you were just left without some sense of knowing what to do next.
Track where your time goes- Often times we don’t even know where the time goes or what we have done with that time. If this is the case with you, it may be beneficial to chart out your day and make notes of what you do and when. See where you can cut some things out that may not be so necessary in order for you to implement for time for writing.
Just Say No- Distractions are just a part of life and for a writer it is often that people will dismiss your need to actually sit down and write. They expect you to always be available to talk or go out and it’s hard to say no and justify why you’re not spending time with them so you can write. If you start telling them NO and letting them know that this is something serious for you and that it matters, they will eventually get the message and respect your craft. But you have to say No first.

I hope that some of these tips are helpful to you. I am still working on practicing some of them myself. Well I better get back to my craft now. Until next time…be blessed!

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

Passionate Writer

September 7, 2011 jcladyluv

“A strong passion for anything will ensure success, for the desire of the end will point out the means.”
~William Hazlitt

Very seldom do I ever wish that I could go back in time to when I was younger, perhaps in high school, and just live in that moment for while. Perhaps I would enjoy and take stock in the moments when I wrote simply because it was all I could do to get my feelings out, or when writing was not so much of a job or chore and more of a past time that I didn’t have to actually think about anything past the point of writing the actual story.

Now don’t get me wrong, I still absolutely love to write and I could never imagine anything else that I should be doing in this life or the next other than writing. But before there was the business aspect of writing (the hardest part of being a writer), and the marketing and publicity aspect, and the managing sales figures and making sure you are actually making money off of your passion, there was simply just the passion of it all.

I remember rushing to get home to just get the words of my characters out on paper (because back then I wrote long-hand), and I remember the feeling of accomplishment when the story was finished and when someone else told me that my words meant something to them. I didn’t worry so much back then about how to get my words published and how to market and how to make actual profits off of my work. I just knew that writing was my life’s dream and that was how I wanted to make my living. I knew that I wanted to make the best seller’s lists and write movies and write for magazines and television shows and that I wanted my living to be made from what I loved to do more than anything in the world.

Now I am making schedule’s to try and fit what I love into the rest of my life and reading and teaching myself about things pertaining to marketing and publicity, which are things I really don’t care about, but I have to know these things to make what I love to do work for me. I would just love to get to that point again where all I have to think about is the sheer enjoyment of writing my words down on paper and telling the story of my characters; back to the moment when I first fell in love with writing to begin with.

However, in reality, I want my words to be seen by the world and that part of my dream takes work and hard labor. But it is definitely a labor of love and one that I am willing to make many sacrifices for. So what are you most passionate about and are you willing to put in the hard labor to make it happen? Until next time…be blessed and make your labor of love count!

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

Even the Mind Needs to be Recharged

September 2, 2011 jcladyluv

“If you neglect to recharge a battery, it dies. And if you run full speed ahead without stopping for water, you lose momentum to finish the race.”

~Oprah Winfrey

Sitting in the starbucks working on trying to finish up my list for this week and just remembered that I have not yet posted my third blog post for this week, which is on my list. So while this post will not be long because I must get back to working on this query letter, I thought I would say a few words. More than anything this is for my best friend who always motivates me to get out of my own way and stop insisting that I can’t do something and change my way of thinking. Today she is having one of those “I don’t really feel like doing anything” days and while I know I started to get on her about working on her list for this week, I stopped myself to tell her that it’s okay because sometimes we just have those days. I had months of those days so who am I to get on her about anything. Sometimes the mind just needs to rest and recharge its batteries and that’s okay.

If we really think about it, recharging the mind does have a lot to do with completing our tasks and our goals because if our minds aren’t sharp then nothing we produce will be of much good. So to my very best friend, and any other writer out there who is just having one of those days, don’t feel too bad because in actuality as long as your mind is still spinning those ideas around in your head then you haven’t really stopped working. Until next time…let your mind recharge, and begin again tomorrow!

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

It’s All About Accountability

August 29, 2011August 29, 2011 jcladyluv

“It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable.”

~Moliere

So today I had planned on working on so many different things pertaining to my writing and my many other ideas. I even made a list for the week of the specific goals that I really want to get accomplished this week and my best friend made a list too in which we emailed to each other so that we can hold each other accountable for them.

Now I know the week’s just gotten started and there is plenty of time during the week to actually accomplish those things but I guess I just thought that as excited as I was to get started this morning, I wouldn’t get stalled as soon as I sat down at the computer. However, that is exactly what happened.

So I decided to write this post because it is actually one of the only steps that I have made thus far today towards my goals for this week which include posting here at least 3 times this week. I suppose you could say I used my lack of focus and concentration to my advantage specifically for this blog post. That way if I do nothing else today then I have at least posted 1 of my 3 blog posts for the week.

Now I am not completely giving up hope for producing something else over the course of the rest of the day but I really hope that tomorrow will be more eventful and more productive. I have a very ambitious list for the week but I have the very best friend and motivator in the world, which happens to be one hell of a writer, with very high standards that will hold me accountable for anything that I do not get accomplished.

On that note I guess I better go continue staring at the computer hoping that the words will somehow begin to flow and that my mind won’t continue to wonder. Until next time…..How do you hold yourself accountable?

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

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

The Writer and Their Distractions

August 24, 2011August 25, 2011 jcladyluv

“Work is hard. Distractions are plentiful. And time is short.”
~ Adam Hochschild

I have come to realize and accept the fact that writing completely without distractions is essentially impossible. From the television, to social media, and just life in general, distractions are just a part of anyone’s career path. I’ve also discovered that there are in fact some distractions that are not really a distraction, simply background material for you next story, or inspiration for your next article. When writers go to coffee shops to get some work done, most people would wonder how that is conducive to one’s writing because there is so much noise and so many different conversations going on at the same time around you. What non-writers fail to realize is that those multiple conversations can work their way in to so much of your stories or inspire new one’s.

Those aren’t the distractions that hinder me when it comes to my productivity. One of the biggest distractions that can be my downfall, yet can also be my inspiration, is the television. I try to escape it but there’s always something on it that intrigues me and gets the wheels in my mind turning and thinking of other ideas. Now this would be good if I was struggling with coming up with ideas but the problem is I have way too many ideas. But if I turn the television off then the complete silence becomes an even bigger distraction than the TV itself.

I guess a writer can never really get away from their distractions completely. There are many ways that they could probably limit or eliminate them in an effort to become more productive but maybe the key is in figuring out how to make the distractions work for you. I haven’t quite mastered that part yet but I am working on it everyday. I did manage to come up with a small list of a few things that hopefully will enable those writers who are having the same struggles with distractions that I’m having:

Write By Hand- This enables you to get away from the computer completely, and all of the distractions that the computer holds. Also having to actually write out your words allows you to examine them as you go along and sometimes the words flow easier.

Turn off the Phone- No one can help but to look at their phone when it rings or when you get a text message and of course if you look at the phone when it rings then you are most likely going to answer it. To avoid this timely distraction turn the cell phone off for the amount of your time that you decide to write.

Close out the window with the Internet- If you absolutely can not see yourself writing long-hand and must use the computer then be sure to close all other windows besides the one with your project. While you are typing out your story, or whatever project you are working on, have no other screen up or minimized waiting on you to click on. If you can see the other window (even minimized) you will want to click on it. It almost sounds too simple but it really works!

Write every Morning- Getting up an hour earlier in the morning allows you time when the rest of the world, and your household, is still sleep and you can have complete concentration on your work before your day even really gets started. Now this one is hard for me to do but I think I am even going to put more effort into making this one work for me.

Find your Place- Now some writers have certain places where they have to write. They literally can not write anything if they are not in their special writing place. So if there is a place that the words just flow easier and naturally then that’s where you should probably try to write all of the time. I believe I am one of those writers but economically it just isn’t possible for me to go where I need to go everyday to write.

If any of you writer’s out there has any tips and ideas on how I, or any other writer with this same problem, can minimize their distractions, or make them work for them, please feel free to share. Until next time…I will be busy fighting off my current distraction, the TV!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”