Taiia Smart Young's Blog

Before the ball dropped on 2020, I took a minute to put some repeck on 2019. It was a challenging year for me personally (I worked out some ish in therapy) and professionally (I asked for abundance and then felt overwhelmed). But I’m thankful for all of it, even the times when I stumbled (literally and figuratively). I used that time to figure out my one word for the New Year and give a hat tip to the rollercoaster moments. 

The blessings reminded me of what’s possible when I have my ish together.

The lessons reminded me of what happens when I don’t. Ouch.

But, like Chance said, “I turned all my Ls into lessons… Dreams filling up, I’m like skrrrt.”

And I didn’t do all of this reflection by myself. I hosted my final writing challenge for the year. It was Pick One Word to Define 2020 and 70-plus people signed up to move purposefully in a new direction. Here’s a quick recap of what we did. 

ON DAY 1: LOOK BACK AT IT

On the first day we followed that Zen proverb says: Let go or be dragged. We didn’t beat ourselves for old mistakes. Instead, we identified one disappointment. Then assessed and acknowledged the damage and decided to learn from it. After that it was onto the good stuff. We celebrated our big and small wins. For me, that was throwing a high school graduation party for the No. 1 Son and a 65th shindig for my mother.

ON DAY 2: ANSWER THE $64,000 QUESTION: WHAT’S YOUR PURPOSE?

In my twenties, success means titles and promotions and now it’s much deeper than that. I enjoy the perks of a nice piece of coin just as much as the next entrepernuer, however, if my work is not pushing me toward my purpose of coaching others to tell their stories and create influence impact and income then what am I doing?

So, I pushed everyone in the challenge to dig deep. They had to answer:

How do you define success?
What energizes you?
What scares you the most? (Why do you allow this to have power in your life?)
What are you looking forward to in 2020?
What are you being called to do? What’s your purpose?

ON DAY 3: THE POWER OF ONE WORD

Unlike me, some people started the challenge with their one word—alchemy, domination, focus, happy, faith, discipline, trust—already on deck, which was cool. But they still had to create a personal definition for that word and a mantra to:

Remind and affirm how they want to live their life
Reframe their thoughts
Center their mind when doubt and overwhelm kick in (because it will) 

My word for 2020 is significance. What’s yours?

The post New Year’s Challenge: Pick One Word to Define 2020 appeared first on Taiia Smart Young.

Weeks after Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us (a series about the Central Park Five) debuted on Netflix, folks are still talking about it. And DuVernay tweeted that more than 23 Netflix million accounts worldwide have seen the series—making WTSU, the most watched program in the streaming service’s history. Let that marinate for a hot second. 

That’s the power of telling OUR stories. 

And as everyone added his and her thoughts on the series and experiences with the criminal justice/injustice system to the mix (i.e.conversation), an editor at Bustle.com asked me to write an essay about growing up during that time.

I was 16 at the time the Central Park Five (now known as the Exonerated Five) were sentenced to jail,

That assignment inspired me to teach a class about I used my memories to write that essay, which brought up some painful memories. Whenever I write, I always start with some notes. Just immediate feelings about the subject and ideas that I don’t want to forget.

The first three things I wrote down were:

The unforgettable Daily News headline with the word “wilding” splattered across the front page
How NYC back in the 1980s was so different from NYC now—there wasn’t a Starbucks on every corner
About being a mother of an 18-year-old son and how what happened in 1989 can happen in 2019

In the video above, I share four tips for using your memories to write an essay or memoir. Hint: Your POV (point of view) is huge.

>>> Hang out with me via Yeah Write with Taiia Smart Young on FB for free writing classes, challenges, interviews and tips. 

  Reading is super sexy, so check out:

>> Want to write juicy dialogue? Start here.

>>  Do what you say you are going to do, i.e. hold yourself accountable to your writing goals.

>> Stop overthinking your writing process. If you don’t, you’ll never start writing. 

 

 

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When I write for ESSENCE, I cover entertainment but I have been dying to cover relationships for them because I am fascinated by how people stay together, why they break up and what they argue about etc. (I also have this unhealthy obsession with Divorce Court too. If you thought your relationship was jacked up, you MUST watch this show. You will have second thoughts about the definition of crazy, sexy, cool.)

Oh, and I used to have a Facebook Live show called Tea With T that was allll about relationships, sex and love. So I get my idée fixe with relationships quite honestly. 

Anyway, I got an email from the relationships editor at Essence about cranking out a four-page feature about how diverse couples, despite their differences, make love work. And when I say diverse, I mean, my challenge was to find a regular smegular Black Republican (that wasn’t Herman Cain or Clarence Thomas) married to a Democrat and find a happily married couple that worshipped different Gods.

Whoa. What did I get myself into? 

There was the biggest how to question staring me in the face: How do I interview four couples without losing my mind?

My first challenge was to FIND these lovebirds because let’s face it, there aren’t too many Democrats lovin’ up on members of the GOP. Let’s just be honest. I needed my social media “friends” to do the heavy lifting. I knew that any number of them and would connect me to a couple of different faiths. And they did, I had the best convo with a Muslim and Hare Krishna couple who taught people how to love better.

BOOM! The universe was conspiring in my favor. 

There’s more to the story in the clip above. Check it out and let me know what you think.  

Oh, and join me live every Thursday at 1:30 p.m. EST on FB for free writing tips and classes. 

Reading is super sexy, so check out:

>> Use Your Book to Secure the Bag

>> Your Work Ain’t For Everybody

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post How to Interview 4 Diverse Couples Without Losing Your Mind appeared first on Taiia Smart Young.

If you haven’t heard, you can flip a book into a business or at the very least, a few additional streams of income to secure the book bag.

Back in the day authors were just obsessed with how many books they sold and charting on a best sellers list, but these days a book can be the direct path to snagging a ridiculous, supersized bag.

If the goal is to sell 500 books, know this: you aren’t going to sell the bulk of them at a book expo or festival. Why? Because the vendors at those events are all doing the same thing and you my fellow scribe need to be different. Not sixth toe different, but different like Prince, the only guy to rock the hell out of black eyeliner and convince me that he’ll be there for me until the end of time.

Your book is your foundation of the big picture. It’s the thing that will help you run the marathon (rest in power, Nipsey). And there are probably about 20 or so ways that you can eat, i.e. get those “big fat checks and big large bills,” from your book. In this clip, I cover just four ways.

Check out the video above, then tell me which of the four ways you plan to boost your influence and increase the zeroes in your bank account and secure the book bag. 

Remember to hang out with me via Yeah Write with Taiia Smart Young on FB for free writing classes and tips. 

Reading is super sexy, so check out:

>> Be About Your Business in Q2

>>Your Work Ain’t For Everybody

The post Four Ways to Secure the BOOK Bag appeared first on Taiia Smart Young.

If you started the year with a laundry list of writing goals and haven’t achieved any of them, it’s time to hit the reset button and break those goals into quarterly buckets. This way, if you plan to finish an essay in Q3, you can spend Q2 polishing up the first draft and getting feedback from a trusted reader like moi.

The biggest challenge is holding yourself accountable. Sure, it’s easier said than done when you have an editor tapping you on your shoulder when the deadline for your first draft was due yesterday. It’s super difficult when it’s just you, a blank screen and a half-baked idea that sounded good at 2 a.m.  after you’ve downed several cocktails called the Long Kiss Goodnight.

So I ask, what kind of writer do you plan to be in Q2? How do you plan to achieve your writing goals?

One of The Four Agreements pushes us to be impeccable with our word, to always do our best. For writers, that can translate into this:

Do what you say you are going to do.

In 2018, I came up with this idea for a Write & Sip (think: paint and sip, minus the canvas and replace them with writing prompts) but I kept pushing it off because I wasn’t full ready (or so I thought) to execute my idea and I was SCARED TO DEATH (or so I thought). 

Fear is a powerful, ugly beast in sensible shoes.

But fear, doesn’t allow me (or you) to honor our ideas and gifts. So I’m happy to report that the Write & Sip is on and poppin’ for April 20, 2019. Finally! It took guts to honor myself, be impeccable with my word and do what I said that I was going to do. 

And you know what? Like Tony! Toni! Toné! said: “It feels good. Yeah.”

Check out the video above and tell me how you plan to be a writer who honors his or her word. Remember to hang out with me via Yeah Write with Taiia Smart Young on FB for free writing classes and tips. 

Reading is super sexy, so check out:

Break Up: Four Signs That Your Story is Over

6 Ways to Find Juicy Story Ideas & Dialogue

 

The post How Will You Achieve Your Writing Goals in Q2? appeared first on Taiia Smart Young.

As writers, story ideas are our bread and peanut butter. It’s how we pay for all the things, like Netflix, Apple watches and therapy to keep us sane. Shout out to my therapist for dragging me from the edge week after week. We cannot write for free. Don’t get me started on that. 

But even the best of us get stumped and find ourselves sweeping the dust bunnies from under the bed while wondering where the next story, screenplay, poem or line of dialogue is going to fall from the idea cloud and miraculously change everything.

Courtesy of CBS Access

We cannot all have Jordan Peele’s idea cloud, although I’d give my left pinkie toe for a lint-ball sized piece of that thing. And even Peele, with all of his wonderfully creepy original ideas, will put his spin on a classic—the Twilight Zone.

So while the goal is create that new new, there’s nothing wrong with being inspired by a movie, book or TV show and putting your stank on it, via a spin-off.

Hollywood does it all the time. Every summer I look forward to a reboot of something that I enjoyed as a child. Then, I see it and I immediately need Will Smith’s neuralyzer from Men in Black to permanently erase whatever trash is trying to make an imprint on my brain.

In the video above I break down six ways to find juicy story ideas and dialogue.

Oh, a quick word about dialogue: When you listen closely (okay, eavesdrop, damn it) to people talking in Target or at the nail salon you’ll get a few gems for your characters.

But my favorite place to read the most outrageous convos and find perfectly imperfect words to put into my character’s mouths is Overheard in New York. Follow them on Instagram. And if you cannot relate, try Overheard in LA or London.

Reading is super sexy, so check out:

Reading is SoulCycle For Your Brain

Break Up: Four Signs That Your Story is Over

 

 

 

 

 

The post 6 Ways to Find Juicy Story Ideas and Dialogue appeared first on Taiia Smart Young.

In an effort to declutter my life and only keep things that give me joy (what a novel idea, Marie Kondo!), I spent a few hours purging my shelves, donating books and browsing through old notebooks filled with old stories and ideas.

Some of them were five years old. Cue the terror and nerves. To my shock (you know writers are dramatic), some of my stories were good and I’ll revisit them at some point, and others were like that hot and heavy situationship I had with this Dominican hottie who kissed like he invented it—it was sweet, satisfying but it went nowhere fast. 

Yes, sadly some romances and stories, poems, scripts and books aren’t meant to be. Did we learn nothing from Bey when she sang:

“You turned out to be the best thing I never had.”?

Anyway, sometimes you have to break up with him, her, they and yes, the story. And depending on who you are, breaking up with the story may be harder than telling bae of two years that it’s quits via text.

Not sure if it’s time to break up with your story? Allow me to share four signs (in the video above) that it’s time to say it’s over. (Heads up, FB was quite disrespectful and cut this video off at the very end. I’ll get them back somehow, some day.) 

Annnnnd…

Don’t forget to join the Facebook scribe tribe for free classes! LIKE Yeah Write With Taiia Smart Young and turn on the notifications button, so you don’t miss me when I pop up with a LIVE stream. 

Reading is super sexy, so check out:

Reading is SoulCycle For Your Brain

Should You Write for Free? (Congratulations. You Played Yo’ Self.)

 

 

The post Break Up: Four Signs That Your Story is Over appeared first on Taiia Smart Young.

So e’erybody is on this Keto craze and that’s cool and all, but is reading a part of of your workout routine?

If you are over there drastically reducing carbs, loading up on fats and hitting a weekly spin class while claiming that you cannot read a book, well you and I cannot be friends. You heard it here: Reading is SoulCycle for your brain.

No, seriously. Save your pancake recipe made with coconut flour. I. Don’t. Want. It. All of my friends read for pleasure and some for work and some because we need to be one up on 45’s nonsense. Reading and writing go together like peanut butter and jelly; like four chicken wings and fried rice; like Bey and Jay. 

Listen, it makes so sense to be a hottie with a body, but your brain is a bowl of lumpy ass oatmeal. 

Oh, that’s where reading comes in. The science people, the ones who research and study brains and stuff, said that reading can protect thinking and memory skills as we age—and I helps us live longer.

This is enough reason to read to thank Lavar Burton for that Reading Rainbow.

Somewhere someone is singing…`

Butterflies in the sky, I can go twice as high. Take a look. It’s in a book. It’s Reading Rainbowwwwww.

For writers, reading is especially crucial. Why? Well, I thought you’d never ask. Check the video for my thoughts about how reading boosts your creativity, vocabulary and spelling. Oh, and for my friends riding the back wheel of the grammar bus, reading helps you out too.

Join the Facebook scribe tribe for free classes! LIKE Yeah Write With Taiia Smart Young and turn on the notifications button, so you don’t miss me when I pop up with a LIVE stream. 

Reading is sexy, so check out:

Overthinking is the Grandma to Procrastination (Tell her to Go Nite, Nite!)

Should You Write for Free? (Congratulations. You Played Yo’ Self.)

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Overthinking is the grandmother of procrastination. I bet you didn’t see that on the family tree, but she’s up there next to grandfather Why Bother.

And here’s something else that you may know but have forgotten, it’s the ultimate creative vibe killer, especially when it comes to writing.

Somebody cue Kendrick:

I can feel your energy from two planets away. I got my drink, I got my music, I would share it but today I’m yelling, b!tch don’t kill my vibe.

You know this and yet, you still overthink. 

For many reasons, one of which is so simple that even Geico’s Cave Man (shout out to those old commercials) knows this: You are afraid to pull the trigger on your writing because you are TERRIFIED of what others will think. And then you tell Bonita Applebum, the one person who believes everything is TRASH and she has a never-ending list about why X won’t work and what happened when she tried it.

Here’s the deal, the reason why you told Bonita is because she’s the expert at assisting people who are scared of their greatness. You keep Bonita on speed dial because you want to be regular schmegular.  You are not ready for your Cardi B glow up. All of Bonita’s commentary feeds the doubt you already had or creates doubt that didn’t exist there before. It’s a lose-lose situation. None of this is good for your creative brain. Alexa, play Cardi B’s Get Up 10. 

One of my favorite stories about two guys who had an idea about renting out a place to sleep but didn’t overthink a damn thing comes from the founders of Airbnb. They started by renting three mattresses to guest and offering them bagels the next morning. That international company, the one that started with three AIR mattresses, is now valued at 10 billion.

Imagine what would have happened if the founders of Airbnb called Bonita Applebum? She would have laughed them right into poverty and left them crying on a stinking pile of forgotten dreams.

Here’s my advice: Don’t text Bonita. Stop overthinking. Pull the trigger. Get started.

Oh, and watch this video.

Join the Facebook scribe tribe for free classes! LIKE Yeah Write With Taiia Smart Young and turn on the notifications button, so you don’t miss me when I pop up with a LIVE stream. 

Reading is sexy, so check out:

9 Ways to Fix Your Horrible Pitch

This Is How to Get Your Inner Writing Critic to Shut the Eff Up

 

The post Overthinking is Procrastination’s Grandma (Tell Her to Go Nite, Nite) appeared first on Taiia Smart Young.

What’s a writing niche? It’s that part of the sweet potato pie that belongs to you and only you because you are super dope at said thing. It doesn’t matter that five other people write about the same topic.

You know how Verizon, AT&T and Sprint operate in the same universe and they brag about being the best even though they provide the SAME service? Yeah, well this the same concept.

The niche writer is an expert or a specialist, in one or more topics. While the generalist writer, well, isn’t.

A wise person put it this way, if you have a choice between two dentists and they both have the same experience, but one is a specialist, say an endodontist who does 20-25 root canals in a week, while the generalist dentist does maybe two to three per week, which one are you going to choose?

If you said podiatrist, I suggest you go back to anatomy. Jokes aside, you are going to choose the endodontist, right?

You may think this is too specific, but there are riches in the niches because what happens is this: you become the go-to writer for the assignments about entertainment, tech, real estate, beauty, style or parenting because editors know you’ll stay current on all matters related to your writing niche. Translation: you don’t have to send your editor endless pitches about the latest trend in reality TV dating shows. 

Check out this video for three ways figure out your writing niche, plus a word from me about getting paid for your worth. Oh, and if you’re wondering if you should write for free, check out this blog post.

Join the Facebook fam for free classes and like my Yeah Write With Taiia Smart Young (turn on the notifications button), so you don’t miss me when I pop up on your timeline with a LIVE stream. 

The post Find Your Writing Niche Because: Your Work Ain’t For Everybody appeared first on Taiia Smart Young.