Tag: writing

Introducing: Something Written This Way Comes Podcast

Posted July 24, 2018 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Writing / 0 Comments

Something Written This Way Comes Podcast

You may know Alex Brown as one of the co-creators and showrunners for the fantastic audio drama, The Bridge. But I’ve known Alex for a few years before she and Rebecca Mahoney created those characters and that world. We’ve been critique partners and friends for quite some time now. So, I thought there was no one better than Alex to host a writing podcast with me. Therefore, I’m introducing the Something Written This Way Comes podcast!

The Something Written This Way Comes podcast will serve a purpose partially of an accountability tool for Alex and myself. With new episodes every other Tuesday, we’ll report our writing progress and any writing revelations we’ve had recently as well as other topics.

Essentially, the Something Written This Way Comes podcast will be a conversation between the two of us that flows wherever the conversation takes us. Sometimes, we’ll have a topic to guides us, but otherwise, the format will be really loose.

Why every other Tuesday?

In short, Alex and I are both podcast aficionados and thought this sounded like a lot of fun. But, we both know all too well how fun projects can turn into sources of unnecessary stress. And both of us have lots of other things going on in our lives between our writing and other time commitments. We wanted to make sure that we had time to schedule in our conversations, upload the episodes, and write the episode summaries at a pace that didn’t feel overwhelming, or like it would take away from our other projects.

That said, I’m proud to introduce our first episode! We introduce ourselves and the conversation flowed toward our writing processes and the plight of the pantser. Alex and I both consider ourselves pantsers, rather than plotters.

To learn more, visit SomethingWrittenThisWayComes.com and you can listen to our first episode below, or via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or Stitcher.

It is the first day of November and so… NaNoWriMo begins

Posted November 1, 2017 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Writing / 0 Comments

Happy November, and happy first day of NaNoWriMo to those of you who are participating!

I have fond memories of the madness of NaNoWriMo (also known as National Novel Writing Month). I’ve participated many a time, and won a couple of times– one of those times was working on the book that would become my debut novel, Threats of Sky and Sea. Although, in those days, I was still referring to it by its working title, Apparent.

I’ve used the energy of NaNoWriMo in the past as a revision month–what I called NaNoReMo. This year, I’m not participating directly, but I do have some lofty goals.

Namely, this one: I plan to finish this draft of Over Raging Tides (Lady Pirates #1) before Thanksgiving Day in the U.S.

I’m shooting for this draft to be about 50,000 words, so I have approximately 20,000 to go.

Over Raging Tides will be released in March 2018, and as, I’ve booked some promotion and a slot with my editor, I am sticking to these hard and fast deadlines.

To that end, I’m kicking off November 1st with a goal of 3,000 words today. And I thought that I would share some tips I’ve found helpful, as well as wisdom I’ve earned from my time in the NaNoWriMo trenches.

One of the most common pieces of NaNoWriMo advices that you’ll see floating around, is also one of the most helpful: “Get the words down. You can fix it later.” Even when it isn’t NaNoWriMo, I find myself repeating these wise words. “Get the words down. You can fix it later.” That, my friends, is what revisions are for. But you can’t edit a blank page.
Turn off the internet and eliminate the distraction of social media. I like to use the Freedom app so that I can still google a piece of research, but sometimes shutting off your wifi will work just as well.
Write or Die is your best friend. Or, at least, it’s mine. When I’m stuck, there’s nothing like the threat of a screaming baby, screeching violin, or wailing alarm that gets me to put down some words, even if they’re terrible. See also, Written? Kitten! if you prefer positive reinforcement.
Similarly, part of the fun of NaNoWriMo is finding the community in it. In years past, I often met my word-count through word sprints that people on Twitter were taking part in. Even if your Twitter follow list isn’t participating in NaNoWriMo, try following @NaNoWordSprints and playing along there.
You know that saying, “Comparison is the thief of joy?” I’ve found it to be true. Celebrate your friends’ word counts as you celebrate your own, but don’t worry about how many more or less words they’ve written than you.
Take advantage of some of the special offers that NaNoWriMo offers to its participants. I started writing in Scrivener during the free trial offered to NaNo-ers (or Wrimos, if you prefer) and liked it so much that I used the coupon code I was offered when NaNoWriMo was over to buy the full version. I rarely draft in anything else now. In my opinion, its planning features and functionality for writers are unmatched, but if you’re interested in trying out other software, there are other offers available.
Finally…

It is OKAY if you don’t “win” NaNoWriMo. Any words you get down this month are words that you didn’t have before. You made progress! And that should be celebrated. No matter what.

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo, or do you have other goals this month? What advice do you find helpful in meeting those goals?

NaNoWriMo 2016

Posted November 1, 2016 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Writing / 0 Comments

Hey, friends!

Here’s a very quick post to let you know that I’m going to be participating in NaNoWriMo 2016– also known as National Novel Writing Month again! I’m planning to write a total of the usual 50,000 words, but I plan to do that between drafting two short stories and starting the first draft of my next novel.

You can follow along with me by being my NaNoWriMo 2016 buddy! My profile is here.

Good luck, fellow Wrimos! I’ll see you on the other side~

Reflections on writing prose vs. an audio script

Posted October 19, 2016 by Jennifer Ellision in Writing / 0 Comments

Pretty much all of the writing I’ve done has been prose– that’s how most of you know me, right? Former fanfiction writer turned novelist (with a couple of short stories thrown in for good measure). But recently, I tried something new. You see, one of my critique partners, Alex Brown, co-created an audio drama podcast called The Bridge that I am O B S E S S E D with. And The Bridge has a few mini episodes that stand apart from the main story arc. Alex invited me to write one. I was intrigued– because hey, this was sort of an opportunity to write canon fanfiction for a thing I love! But I was also nervous. I’d never written any sort of a script before. Still… I’m rather happy with how it turned out! You can listen to the […]

Questions to ask when you’re world-building.

Posted October 12, 2016 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Writing / 4 Comments

Once upon a time, I was a baby author, daunted by the task of world-building for my fantasy novel. The majority of my writing had been fanfiction. The stories I created were set in worlds other people had established. I had to think deeply about the world I presented in my Threats of Sky and Sea series if I wanted readers to believe my world-building; to truly immerse themselves in the world and story. As my friend Angel said, after reading an early draft of Threats: Do all of these world-building details need to be included in the book? Not necessarily. But should I, as the writer and world-builder, know them? Absolutely. A version of this post originally appeared on my old blog, Almost Grown-up, but with a completed series under my belt now and gazing off into the horizon at my next upcoming […]

10 Writing Lessons from Friends

Posted June 3, 2016 by Jennifer Ellision in Lists, Writing / 0 Comments

So, no one told you life was gonna be this way. *clap, clap, clap, clap, clap* Your job’s a joke. You’re broke. Your love life’s DOA. Is it possible the Friends theme song secretly describes writers? Today, I want to revisit a post from my old blog, Almost Grown-up, to talk about some basic writing rules-of-thumb… with the cast of Friends. Because I think its proper home is here and, to be honest, any post with Friends references is a better post, in my humble opinion. 1. If you’re a pantser, like me, beginning a new draft can feel like this: And that’s okay. 2. That can sometimes lead to a little of this: But that’s what revisions are for. 3. The thesaurus is a wonderful tool! But be sure not to overdo it. 4. PACING matters 5. Get into […]

Bust the Rut: A Fun and Easy Craft to Break Out of a Writing Rut

Posted May 30, 2016 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Writing / 0 Comments

Sometimes, as a writer, you find yourself stuck in a writing rut. Hey, there’s no shame in that. We’ve all been there. But when you’re in a writing rut, it can be tough to break out of it. Especially if you’re feeling uninspired when it comes to the project you’ve been staring at, day in and day out, for God only knows how long. Lucky for you, my dear writer friend, I have an idea on how you can bust out of that writing rut and even get a cute little decoration for your desk out of the deal. You will need: 1. a container of some sort I used a mason jar, because it’s what I had handy. But you can use a small bucket, a decorative bowl, a vase… Don’t be afraid to get creative with it! 2. […]

Choosing to write under a pen name

Posted May 27, 2016 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Self-Publishing, Writing / 2 Comments

“You wrote a book? Where can I find it?” It’s one of the top questions I receive when people that I meet face-to-face learn that I’m an author. I tell them a couple of titles and that they’d be sure to find the books on Amazon as e-books, paperbacks, and audiobooks, depending on their preferences. “Oh,” I add, “And don’t be put off when the last name is different. Ellision is my pen name.” Their blinking is as loud as a record screech. They ask, “Wait. Why did you write under a pen name?” Why did I write under a pen name? (By the way, this is another one of the most common questions I get.) There are a lot of reasons, actually. I think of my pen name as the name of my business. I wanted a slight degree of separation […]

My Writing and Publishing Toolkit: The Electronic Edition

Posted May 23, 2016 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writing / 2 Comments

Hello, friends! Today, I thought I’d share some of my favorite programs and website for my publishing journey, as well as talk about how I use them in my self-publishing journey. This is my publishing toolkit, y’all. These are my must-haves. My software Ride or Die BFFs. Writing: Scrivener First in the publishing toolkit, is Scrivener. I tried Scrivener during one of my first go-arounds with NaNoWriMo. There was a little bit of a learning curve, but Literature and Latte, the company that makes Scrivener provides helpful video tutorials that helped me quickly grasp the basics so that I could get to writing the way that I wanted to. I write in almost nothing but Scrivener. The ability to easily move from chapter to chapter, rather than scrolling through a hefty document to find what I’m looking for, is invaluable. It’s not just a writing tool, […]

Letting Your Characters Go

Posted May 20, 2016 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Self-Publishing, Writing / 2 Comments

Writing Now and Again was a new experience for me in a lot of ways. I was publishing in a new genre, for a new audience, brushing the dust off of an old project that I hadn’t touched in years. But it was different in another way. Let me explain. When I published Threats of Sky and Sea, I was nervous. I mean, of course, I was nervous. I’m nervous with the publication of every book and this was my very first. I knew more people were going to read my work than ever before. More than my fanfic, more than my creative writing workshops, more than small literary magazines I’d submitted to in the past. I worried about whether readers would respond to my writing, the world I’d created, would they like the plot…? My God, the worries went on and on. But one […]