#authorsays

[ellynoaksmith]

NanoWriMo 2015 (Funny is the New Sad): Chapter 11: Welcome to LA

NanoWriMo 2015 (Funny is the New Sad): Chapter 11: Welcome to LA

Scene One: The future screenwriter drives into LA in her grey 1982 VW Rabbit hatchback. It’s loaded to the gills with her meager possessions. Among them: the Times Literary Supplement Dictionary that she’s talked her parents into buying her. It’s a twin pack over-sized dictionary in micro-print with a small reading glass tucked into the top of the gold embossed navy blue carrying box. Somewhere…

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[ellynoaksmith]

On the Road with Nirvana

On the Road with Nirvana

This originally appeared on my group blog The GirlfriendsBookclub.org I hate research. It is the liver and lima bean of writing. When I invent a fictional world I am the benevolent dictator where everyone does what I say and nobody gets hurt. (Alright, they will get hurt, possibly even mauled but I don’t worry about it; it’s fiction.) If I don’t know how something works, I wing it and whip in…

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[ellynoaksmith]

See Girl Write. See Girl Flog Her New Book. (And Kindness Challenge.)

 Okay so calling myself a girl is pretty funny because I have teenagers who make me feel about 150 when they crawl downstairs with their dewy skin and lithe figures complaining about how horrid they look. But gimme a break, I have a new book that’s getting a  lot of cool buzz. Writers I market and group blog with are even jumping up and down with excitement on this one. Apparently no one told…

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[ellynoaksmith]

Has Writing 50 Acts of Kindness Changed Me? Yes, Profoundly.

This past week, in the middle of facing down the deadline that didn’t seem like such a big deal — final edits, fix some comments from an editor, wham bam, good-bye, I found myself in the middle of a family crisis. Also, since I’d made the amateur mistake of mixing verb tenses (sometimes in the same sentence *blush*) it was a much more detailed and painstaking vetting.

What happened was a…

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[ellynoaksmith]

#50ActsofKindness -- The Challenge

 When I was writing this book (available April 27 and pre-sale soon. Here’s a SNEAK PEEK) I thought a lot about being kind to other people and started my own Fifty Acts of Kindness. Here’s MY TENTH ACT OF KINDNESS. #50ActsofKindness sort of took off and I saw people tweeting about it. Now I’m ramping up again and started an Instagram Challenge. (It’s on Facebooktoo.) I challenged 10 people to do…

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[ellynoaksmith]

Go Ahead, Judge this Book Cover

Go Ahead, Judge this Book Cover

 Okay, so imagine you have worked with other publishers and they change your title (which has a deleterious effect on sales) and then they bam, present you with a cover (which is still pretty nice) and then you work with a lovely lady named Gemma Halliday who is an author herself and genious marketer and self publisher who has opened up a boutique publishing house with 30 odd writers (and I do…

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[talesinmyhead]

Bleargh

So, I've been sick. I know, I should write anyway, but fuck you. I lost the other story. In my head, not on my computer. I had a few scenes more that I never put up on here. Maybe sometime else. I think I'm going to go bigger and badder with this next one. A couple more characters, a couple more other...things. Whatever. I'm getting better, so I will try to write a bit each day, and when I am better, get back to doing at least 3 or 4 scenes a day. *shrug* Whatevs, I hate being sick.

[talesinmyhead]

About This Writing Thing

Ok, so, as it seems, this is going to be bigger than I thought. Or maybe I am just getting more into each it than I though. Anyways, I can get about four scenes out in a day (I procrastinate) if I write about 3-4 hours. I could probably double that if I focused more. But, I am me. Anyways, it looks like I will probably be getting out, at this rate, a story every 5-7 days. Maybe less. I still have a few hours before bed, so I can definitely write more, but I don't want to burn out early, especially on an exercise. I'm thinking I may post up a story a week (assuming the basic structure I used with this one. Four scenes per character (4) with a setup beforehand and an Aftermath montage at the end.) and on the other days I'm not writing this put in some dedicated work on another project or two. I may change up the process after I finish the first one, to possible stream-line the process, but I want to get the first one out as I have said I would and see how it works. *shrug* So, yeah, the first half of the first Act is up. Comments and feedback are welcome and encouraged, let me know what you all think.

~~Samm