Be Productive During This Time

Happy Friday! For those that are working, I know you are excited that this day has come. To those who are home with pay or just at home, this blog is for you. I go back to work on Monday ( from home), but I am a little mad at myself that I wasted 2 whole days watching YouTube and sleeping, lol. Granted I am getting over being sick, but I could have more productive. How, you ask? Well, I have so many books that I need to finish writing and finish reading.  If you read yesterday’s blog, you know I want to blog every day! I’m proud to have stuck to day 2 of consistency.  Nonetheless, my point is to take the time to do some things that you didn’t have time to do because you were working.

If you wanted to start a business, now is your chance! Want to write that book that you’ve been putting off? Do that to. We can’t allow this situation to put fear in us from continued living. I’m going to continue writing and figure out how I can be paid to do just that as a side hustle. Learning is re-learning. Always remain teachable  and the sky is the limit. Taking action steps to do the unthinkable shows not only character, but that you don’t give up. Tell me, what is one thing that you enjoy doing that you would do it for free if it still brings you joy? Whatever that is, figure out how to bring in income doing just that. It just maybe your calling. I know I am. Be Productive. Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.

The Writing Still Continues

Hey Readers! Happy Thursday! I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe. I’m doing fine, I’m home and will be working from home for the forseeable future. If anything with this whole pandemic, I have learned to be content in all things. Sure, we have to adapt and do things differenly in order to have the same results, but change is still something that is constant.

It’s a little after 8 pm and I have the pleasure of video chatting with my bestie and  writing friend, Julia who then introduced me to her writing friend, April. April and I clicked right away. My bestie was like I want my two best friends to be friends. The sentiment was so sweet. We talked like we were friends for years! Sometimes you have good chemistry with people and know it’s right. Which bring me to writing. It’s my thing. Having good chemistry means the relationship is likely to last.

The Writing Continues…

While having nothing but time, I was thinking to myself about how I want to be consistent with my writing. I have in my planner to write daily and yet I’m 3 days behind! It’s okay. As long as I start and don’t give up that is the key. My goal is to write daily on a novel and to blog daily. I figure if I can post on Facebook everyday, I can give you guys some good material. If you are a writer or want to start writing, the goal is to just stat writing. In turn, I have a guide on how to write a book, screenplay or journal titled, ” The Krystol Method: An Easier Approach To Getting Your Words Out” on amazon.

As I started to publish books, I’m always asked, ” how do I write a book?” I figured I’d explain that in more detail. Now this isn’t to pitch you to death,  but if it intrests you it can be a resource. This story that I am working on now is called ” Worth The Wait” which is about two twin girls who are preacher’s kids  who venture out in the world living their lives where God is suppose to be the center of their life, or is he? This is my first Christian book and if I’m honest, I’m really nervous as to how the population will like it. But, I will cross that bridget when it comes. For now I’m going to just enjoy the process of writing.  Let me know, what are you currently working on?

Money, Why Are You Stressing Me Today?

 

I want to love you, but today you are making it hard.

I was fine all day until now. It’s currently 9:35pm and I’m here pestering about you. Sure, they say you don’t grow on trees, but right now, it’s like you are growing in my mind and I am going to mentally combust! I blame you, money. This is all your fault! My dilemma is trying to figure out how to make you and keep you around AND still be happy with that choice. In my mind, I want to make you where you I have passion and purpose. But, I’m in a rut trying to figure out what that is. What is it? Money, do you know?

I want to make so much of you, but I want the task to make you is fun. Lately, I notice that I have a passion for you. Your real name is finance and I’m all over you. I love learning all that you bring to the table with different entities like personal finance, debt, credit card, financial advisor, everything that I’m learning you are standing for I am here for it. You are my new passion in so many different ways. I have to use you to pay my bills, my student loan debt, you help me budget. But, I tell you where to go for my budget and you listen. Unlike my ex boyfriends, but that is another story. We will NOT go there money. I’ve used you for those clowns, but you taught me a valuable lesson. If I don’t take care of you, you will disappear.  At this time in my life I’m learning so much about you which is great.

On the other hand, writing is a passion as well and I’m trying to make you while doing that. Right now, I work in your industry, in the corporate world, but I want better with you, with us so we can always be together. Just like everyone else, I want to have as much as you as possible while having fun earning you. Earning your trust.  The stress of you is how to make you with my passions. I love you, finance and I love the written words called writing. How do I intertwine them both to make you more successfully? I’ve prayed on it and even reached out to other writers on twitter who have been amazing. I met one tonight named Julienne and she helped me tremendously! Thanks, Julienne!  By the way, her work was featured in the New York Times! It feels good to know that writers still look out for other writers. My goal is to make as much of you as possible so I can be debt free.  Now, that I’ve had the chance to talk to you, I feel less tense and I’m more relaxed. With that being said, I’m grateful for you, I appreciate you sticking around when others haven’t and thanks for making me feel secure. Glad we had this talk. Until next time, keep growing for others in terms of promotions, raises, income, and continue to bless many with you abundantly.

Accomplishing Our Purpose, On Purpose

The statue above has been my mood for a couple of days now. Is it your mood as well when it comes to your purpose? Currently, I’m reading The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason. If you haven’t read it, PLEASE DO! The story that I just finished is called, ” Seven Cures For A Lean Purse.” As I read these cures, I noticed that it was a replica of how to get in tune with your personal finances. It reminded me of Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman, Tony Robbins, Warren Buffet, all of the greats who have had the opportunity to become wealthy. But, there was a section in the book that spoke on accomplishing your purpose.

Now…

We often hear or have heard to trust the process, but how do you do that on purpose or with our purpose? There comes a time when we feel like we have our lives figured out to a T and we know what we will become and how we will benefit from it. It’s funny, my mom just said today if you want to make God laugh, make plans. We learn so many things and can be passionate about all of them, but still have trouble seeking what it is we are not only good at, but can do that will make us money and we won’t get bored. Or, is that just me?

When I was a senior in highschool, my father told me to take up accounting because it made $60,000 a year at that time. I wanted no parts of it. I was afraid because I wasn’t the best at math in school. I got a C. He told me, if you can count your money, you can be an accountant. Well, I wanted to help people. I loved giving advice and writing. First, it went to being working in Human Services, which was my first major at community college, I got wind of psychology and fell in LOVE! Then, I wanted to be a shrink and diagnose people mainly because the people in my household were crazy, lol. Then, I wrote my first book after a very bad break up that led to more break ups. I wanted to tell that story and I did. Now, thirteen years later, I develop this passion for personal finance. I noticed my current and previous roles were in the financial services industry. I did collections, customer service for student loans, collected on credit cards and now working with accounts who have six figures and will call about being charged twice for an item on their card. I mean, I get it, it’s their money. I’ve become fascinated with my journey of becoming debt free and personal finance. Crunching numbers, budgeting and figuring out where money goes, is enjoyable to me. Now, I find myself wishing I would have majored in accounting, lol.

How do we accomplish our purpose on purpose, if we are still trying to fine tune what it is? Granted, we learn through trial and error, this job, that job, this opportunity, that opportunity. What will stick that is ours and ours alone? At least the talent portion of it and wanting to do it. They say, if you love what you do, then it’s never a job. No matter if you know your purpose or you are still fine tuning it, keep at it and be the best at whatever it is you are doing. Excel in that job, career or entrepreneur on purpose until your purpose finds you!

NanoWriMo, It’s A Wrap!

I know that you didn’t expect me to finish Nano so early. To be honest, I didn’t expect to finish either. But, let me first say that when Nov.1st came, I already had about 10 thousand words already on my project. I didn’t want to have slow days where I would slack off not write. So, you must be asking, how did you write 40k, in 10 days?  Here are some tips that helped me.

1. Make Friends – This might sound silly, but it really helped me. I joined a lot of Facebook writing groups and even found YouTubers who were doing Nano also. We made our videos where we talked about our projects. We followed each other on our own social medias and stayed in touch.
2. Word Sprints – I did a lot of word sprints via twitter, the nano-website and on other writer’s live streams on YouTube. This was fun because I wasn’t alone. We all had the same goal and that was to write. We talked about our stories and even got ideas from one another.
3. Set a goal- The first few days I was hitting the normal minimum target of 1,667 a day. Then I changed myself to write 2k a day then bumped it up to 5k a day. I know you must be thinking, “Krystol, you are crazy”, I thought I was. But, I had the extra time in the morning since I’m not working right now. I wrote 2,500 words in the morning and then 2,500 in the evening. Some of my writer friends working in the mornings and at night, so I would sprint with them before they went to work.
4. Read the e-mails from authors on NanoWrio- This kept me encouraged when I was just tired of writing some days. One that really spoke out to me was Dean Koontz. He gave us ( writers) advice on how not to accept no or follow other’s people rules. He gave the example of his agent not wanting to pitch a book that ending up selling millions of copies.

I know that it is still early in the month and some of you are still writing. I want to encourage you to keep going and not dwell on the word count, but to have fun writing the story. My story ended up being 50,089 words. I am going to publish it in about two weeks. I must say that I am very excited. I was going to wait until February, but I am going to put it out sooner. I hope that my subscribers purchase my psychological thriller and enjoy the read. Below is the cover and synopsis.

Synopsis:

Artie Leigh was never the popular guy. He was teased mercilessly for being different. It wasn’t until he made a YouTube channel that he found his place. Artie stumbled upon a channel by a girl named Kaylee St. James and subscribed. They became internet friends, and she made him a moderator for her channel. Kaylee was only interested in running her channel professionally, but Artie saw her as something more, something special. Artie was determined to win her heart and use his charm. Things were looking up for Artie. He had a place that he belonged and made friends in the online community. Artie had an opportunity to go to a meet and greet in London where he could finally meet Kaylee and her subscribers. But something unexpected happened on the trip that drove Artie a little over the edge. Will he be able to make Kaylee see his true feelings for her, or will she refuse him and kick him out of her life, forever?

 

Jobs For Writers

Being a writer is hard work. There are many people will believe in your gift, and others will laugh in your face. I’m sure writers like Stephen King and J. K. Rowling were laughed at, but look at them now! I would LOVE to be on their level one day and even write for Huffington Post or a great company like it. Speaking of writing for a living, I have been applying to several writing jobs.  Now, I’ve worked as a writer before, but I am looking to do so on a full-time basis. If you read my plea for wanting a career as a writer, I was speaking for us all when I said we wanted to make it through our words. There are many jobs out there that writers can do. To name a few:

• Content Writer
• Staff Writer
• Freelance Writer
• Creative Writer
• Fiction Writer
• Screenwriter
• TV Writer
• Contributing Writer
• Blog Writer
• Journalist
• Copywriter
• Technical Writer

These are jobs that I have applied for in various companies. Let’s hope one of these turns out to be a winner. But, if not, I am still writing. My suggestion would be to ALWAYS write. The more you write, the better you will be become in your craft. But, there is one thing a writer should always do as well. That is to:

A great writer is also a great reader. I LOVE to read as you know if you’ve been seeing my  Goodreads page, and book reviews. I watched a few interviews with Stephen King and he said that he reads all the time. It helps strengthen his writing.

Writing is already a job within itself, but sometimes we have to get day jobs, too. I used to work full-time, go to school and STILL would write before I went to bed. Lately, I have been writing a lot of samples for the writing jobs that I have been applying for. My point is that writing should always be precedent if it’s something you plan on doing for the rest of your life. As for myself I want to be like Stephen King and just write for a living. In time I have no doubt that it won’t happen. I am going to re-read On Writing by Stephen King just to get inspiration to keep going. This journey can be a lonely road, but I will not stop climbing. If you want a writing job and to continue your own projects, keep striving. Don’t let or allow anyone to tell you differently.

Dream Deferred

At times in life, our life shifts into different directions that are out of our control. Today I experienced a shift that totally not only knocked me off my feet, but again the wall so hard that I can’t move. Trying to find a job in the writing and research field is hard enough ( hell, a job period), but finding out that you can no longer get the education to continue to try to be on the way of success is a hard blow. I found out that I can’t finish pursuing my PhD. On this blog, I like to keep it real with my readers and give it to you straight no chaser. I know that set backs and things happen. I also know that it’s not the end of the world and I will be able to finish, but right now, in this moment, I feel like someone has taken my air supply for me to breathe. Due to financial reasons, I am unable to finish school at the moment. I know that many have been where I am, and even more have experienced this same situation, but this is my current reality. The reality that I feel like I’ve failed. Parents raise their children to follow the directions, law and get a good education. I have done all of that and yet it seems like it was for nothing. Being a PhD student has taught me a lot about myself and to endure patience in the inevitable. Even though I only have 3 classes until I start writing my dissertation, I guess patience is something I still have to endure before I am able to go back to school. Ah, the irony!

Not working in a field or job that is tolerable is the worst kind of agony that I don’t wish on anymore. At first it’s like, ” Okay, I’m going to be fine. I have a savings that will hold me for a while.” Then it turns to, ” Holy shit! I’m out of money, what am I going to do?” The unthinkable of not wanting to feel even more like a failure or lame you turn to those parents who taught you how to make it on your own and tell them not only have you failed, but school is deferred. It’s something like a hard blow to the head on the way down to the floor. Now, I’ve never been hit in the head, but I can imagine the pain that comes with it. I know some of you may be thinking, ” It’s not the end of the world, you will go back when you get the funds.” I hope that does happen. Its just an initial shock. I’m still struggling to find work and I’m no longer in school. I have to take a leave of absence for a while just until things change.

This is currently how I’m feeling. Determine what the next step is for my life, if there is a next step to take. Im doing all I can by applying for jobs everywhere on a daily basis. My dream of successful writer is still in the works because I am writing or at least I will be. I opened up a manuscript that I had started and read it. It’s a love story and yet I just keep staring at the chapter 3 mark. We will not even go there in the relationship department. Granted, I want to be happy and have a successful relationship that will lead to marriage, but right now I don’t know if I’m coming or going. I just keep asking myself, ” Why do good people get the shittiest hands in life?” I understand the concept of life happening and things are never perfect, but it’s like every time you turn around it’s always something. Well, I think I’m done turning. What can happen if I stand still? Oh yea, nothing, lol. At least if I’m turning, I’m moving, right? Prayer has been my best friend and my journal has been my right hand. In due time I will have a good job and school will resume. The dream is not put off, it’s just a dream deferred.

Thoughts

Happy Tuesday! I hope all is well. Just had a few things on my mind that I wanted advice on. I appreciate everyone that comes by and reads my blog, so I think of you guys as my online family. Anyway, I had a post a few times about getting organized and staying on track. My own methods have not helped one bit!

Procrastination

This is my ugly cousin who always shows up. No matter what I want to do or have plans on doing. I will watch youtube, fiddle on the internet or Facebook. It’s crazy. I think about if I’m ADD all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I get things done, I just do it on my own time. I’m wondering maybe planning doesn’t work for me?

Organized Chaos

My office area is a mess, but I know where everything is, lol. Can anyone relate to this? Of course you can! I’ve read articles where they state ” messy” people are the ones that are the most intelligent. I heard that Albert Einstein had a messy work space and look what he became to be. Don’t get me wrong, I like for this to be neat, but I like my own area and space. I could not live with someone who was OCD. They’d hate me. My mother is OCD (hasn’t been diagnosed), and she hates my messes around my apartment.  I was thinking about things that I can do to not procrastinate so much. It’s crazy how technology takes up so much of our time. Any ideas?

Book Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Just Between Us by Mario Lopez Book Review

Hey readers! Here is a book review from the latest book I read. I really enjoyed it, I gave it a 4 out of 5 stars!