Know Thyself Challenge

It’s that time of year again. The point of the year where I am again trying to figure out where to which level I would like to take my writing and my writing style. I’m not a conventional writer. I don’t really follow any rules or any sort of standards of writing. I just do. But I want become a successful writer. I want to make a difference in someone else’s life through my writing. I would like to have a positive impact and/or influence over the younger and older generation in the same way writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Jorge Amado, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Sandra Cisneros, Eric Jerome Dickey and Maya Angelou have had on me, my life and my writing.

As usual, I’m forcing myself to complete a writing challenge so that I can “jump start” my motivation to write more. It’s a horrid cop out buuuuuuuut it’s all I know how to do. Not so much cop out of things, but to try to complete challenges. And just because I’m feeling adventurous, I might just try to complete two maybe three challenges at the same time. Lawd what in the fuck am I about to do to myself.

The first challenge is called the Know Thyself Challenge. I found this challenge about two years ago when yet again I was going through a creative slump and tried to reinvent the wheel instead of just spinning the sucker round and round. From what I can tell, this challenge is trying to get the writer/blogger to analyze and examine why he or she writes. What motivates the writer? What do you hope to accomplish as a writer? Yadda yadda yadda…

It’s a 25-day challenge. So that’s a post a day and if I start today then I should be done by August 23^rd. fuck that’ll be sooner rather than later! I could just wait until Saturday which is August 1^st buuuuuut I need to go shopping. #priorities

So there you guys have it. The daily prompts are below. I hope you guys embark on this journey with me. Please feel free to leave words of kindness and encouragement.

 

Thanks for reading…

 

the southern yankee

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Day 1: What do you consider your greatest strength as a writer?

Day 2: What is your biggest writing weakness, and what do you think you need to change to work on it?

Day 3: What’s the BEST writing advice you ever received?

Day 4: What tends to serve as the most reliable source(s) of inspiration for you?

Day 5: What do you hope a reader will take away from your writing?

Day 6: What do you find to be the most rewarding aspect of being a writer?

Day 7: Do you find that inspiration to write happens organically, or do you sometimes feel that you need to seek it out?

Day 8: How old were you when you started writing? What did you write?

Day 9: Do you feel that you have found your voice in your writing? Or are you still searching?

Day 10: What are your favorite and least favorite parts of the writing process?

Day 11: How much of your writing time is purely research?

Day 12: What is the last book, story, or poem you read that had an effect on your writing? Are you a better writer for having read this work?

Day 13: What motivates you to keep writing?

Day 14: Share with us your strategies for overcoming writer’s block.

Day 15: Which writer or teacher most influenced your work?

Day 16: As a writer, what are your biggest fears? How can you overcome them?

Day 17: Which genre of writing is your forte? Why?

Day 18: Which genre of writing have you not explored but want to? Why?

Day 19: Describe your revision process.

Day 20: Who has been your biggest writing supporter?

Day 21: How do YOU hope to help your fellow writers–now or in the future?

Day 22: Why should someone read your work?

Day 23: If you held all the cards, where would you want your writing to take you? Would you want to be the NEW YORK TIMES next big hit or a voice for the underground?

Day 24: Who are you writing for? Do you have a target audience in mind?

Day 25: What makes you want to write more?

Writer-vation: Milestone Monday

I can hardly believe it’s been five years since I started this blog. Geez time has flown by so quickly.

In five years, I’ve written almost 250 post; which I hope to double that number sooner rather than later; and have gained over a hundred followers; which, I have to say, shocks me every time I look at my blog stats.

I never really imagined even having that many followers much alone posting so many post because well I’m lazy as fuck. As you all know, I’m really sporadic when it comes to posting. I really don’t adhere to one particular topic nor do I follow any sort of writing/blogging/grammar rules. I write cuz I am in the mood or cuz I happen to be motivated by something.  I suppose one could say I’m museless. is that even a word “museless” ni modo Ima roll wit it.

I could and prolly should write more to perhaps invigorate my creative writer’s mind but it takes effort. I dunno I’m at a point again in my writer lifetime where I’m blocked mentally and emotionally. I find myself having more than enough to say just not enough time or motivation to write. But what else is new?

So with that said, I would like to say thank you thank you to those who have signed up to witness the most random weird madness that is my writing, life and blog. Please feel free to drop a line or two in the comment section. I hope you guys stay aboard the crazy train.

 

Thanks for reading…

 

the southern yankee

Writer-Vation: Starting Anew

Here we are several days into the year 2015 and I’m just not getting around to posting this Writer-Vation piece.

Sigh I’m always late for everything… well not as late as my sisters tend to be but late nonetheless.

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It’s a New Year and I promised in my Happy New Year post that I would try harder. I didn’t exactly specify what I would be focusing my best efforts on because let’s face it, more often than not I have squirrel moments which tend to last for several moons. It can’t help myself sometimes. Thoughts run through my mind like little kids hyped up on candy. One minute I’m focused completely on the task at hand and the very next minute… SQUIRREL!

It’s quite frustrating especially since I would like to one day publish a book or at least that’s the goal. Honestly, I just want to become an accomplished writer. I don’t have to be famous or have the longest running best seller. even though that would be fucking awesome Shit I don’t even need the… who the fuck am I kidding.. I do need the fortune. Times have been waaaay too hard and a sista gots to get PAID!

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I’ve talked a lot about making my writing work for me and not me for it. I’ll be honest with you guys I don’t really write for the sake of obtaining followers. While I immensely enjoy seeing my follower numbers grow, in the beginning, my main purpose for starting this blog was to provide some sort of self-therapy. A place where I would air all my little durty durty laundry. An outlet of sorts for the ridiculous amount of thoughts and emotions swirling around inside this mess of a body. It was meant to be a stepping stone for my poetic memoir which I think it may still be but who knows when that’ll be published or even at all.

But now, I would very much like my blog to reach new heights. But I’m not sure what that entails exactly. I’m not trying to reinvent my blog or change the current the format. I’m also not trying to pigeon hole myself into writing about a single topic or range of topics in every single post. Let’s face it this blog reflects the random chaotic sometimes volatile nature of my mind and life. And I like that because not only is it possibly more entertaining to my followers but it’s certainly less boring to me. Don’t get me wrong. I applaud bloggers/writers who can concentrate their creative talent into one topic or genre and consistently make their posts or books interesting. I just can’t do it.

Sooooooo here’s the deal… I need to become more organized when it comes to my writing and blog. I need to set aside time outside the fucking dealer cuz this hoe is an expensive fucking addiction to plan posts and topics. I need to become more involved in blogging community. But most importantly, I need to just write. I dunno what happened between the first week of December and now. I just fell off the face of the blogosphere. Totally not my intention but again… sQuIrReL!

Sorry I’m back I promise.

To help me stay focused, I downloaded and printed a 2015 Passion Planner. Again I’m late in starting this but perhaps it’ll keep me from having extended squirrel moments. Gawd I hope this works because I really want to make this blog work.

As always thank you guys for being patient and for following me as I continue my quest to becoming a successful writer.

Thanks for reading…

The Southern Yankee

Last Day of NaBloPoMo November

Sooooooo I made it to the last day of the BlogHer November NaBloPoMo challenge. I may have started late by a few days but at least I stuck with it and didn’t let it fall by the wayside. I am notorious for starting blogging or any other project and never finishing. Case in point the 52 Week Blogging Challenge that I stopped blogging about shortly after writing the week #2 post.

But I vowed to myself that I would complete this challenge. That I wouldn’t listen to the voices in my head telling me that it would be okay to skip a day. That I could just change the date on a post and I’d be aight. What?! It’s true mayne.

All writers have voices in their heads, don’t they?! No? Not so much?!?! Really?!?! Oh sorry! I was having a conversation with my other ahem personalities. Don’t judge me!

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I learned a lot about myself over the last few weeks. I learned that despite my laziness I can still accomplish my goals. I also learned that I don’t have to make this whole blogging thing as hard as I have been making it.

To be honest, like with anything, the only person stopping me from writing as much as I have throughout the month of November is me. But in my short defense, I always feel like I need to write a short novel in order for my posts to be a valid actual blog post. Yes I know I don’t have to write a short novel. I know I can post whatever I want but at the same time, I suppose my whole mindset is producing quality work instead of writing because I love it. More often than not I’m too busy to actually sit down and crank out posts like I would like. But I’m sure with a little bit of effort perhaps I’ll write a tad more in December.

Thank you to all who have been faithfully reading my blog. Welcome to the land of crazy if you just started following my blog. Please feel free to comment anytime!

Thanks for reading…

The Southern Yankee

Fulfilling a Dream

I’ve wanted nothing more out of my life than to become a writer. Writing is one of the few skills I possess that doesn’t bore me as easily as others. Like most people, I use writing to effectively communicate my emotions and desires. To tell someone off without using vulgar and explicit language. Lemme be perfectly clur tho… That’s only when I’m not pissed off!!! To calm the million and one thoughts swirling rapidly through my brain that constantly keep me up at night. To express what my mouth refuses to say eloquently and clearly.

I know I have written more than enough posts about my love and sometimes hatred for writing. I’m sure you guys would rather read about something else but the truth of the matter is I think I blog so much about writing because I genuinely feel this is my calling. Now you guys know how infrequently I blog about religion. I usually take the journalist stance and follow the three-things-journalists-don’t-discuss rule. It’s just better that way and I get into far less arguments with random strangers. But at the same time, I can’t help but feel like we all possess some sort of talent. That said talent, if tapped into at an early enough age, can prove to be the most rewarding life skill for a human being.

In a perfect world, I would squeeze out the creative juices at least three to four times a day. I would not only have my posts planned for this week, but I’d have next week’s planned as well. I would be like Wonder Woman because I would be accomplishing so much through my blog. Then I could branch out to dot com status, design my whole website and maybe rise to new heights through and with my blog.

But alas, this isn’t a perfect world because I have to be an adult. How I hate being an adult! It cramps my style to no end! But somehow in the mist of being a very child like adult, I am still able to find time to do what I love the most. Don’t tell Boo tho!

Thanks for reading and always being patient…

The Southern Yankee