Young Adult Author
To write will be an awfully great adventure.
Today is a huge milestone for me. Today I bought Scrivener.
I first heard of Scrivener through author Jackson Pearce in her numerous videos on Youtube about writing. At the time I wanted to be a writer but I just wasn't all that serious about it. I was in college and $45 was too much to spend on software. But let's back up a moment. What is Scrivener? Scrivener is a writer's dream. It's word processing gone wild. You can divide up your manuscript into chapters and scenes, move everything around like it's printed on little notecards, add tags and notes and outlines, track the places your character is going and all of your different characters, and it'll format everything into a proper manuscript for you! Love! So what made me cough up the cash now? A couple of reasons. First, I actually properly know people who use it. My critique partner, several of my friends, a few of the authors I'm close to. Second, because I got a coupon code from my lovely critique parter letting me get it for $24 instead of $45. That's a big difference for little 'ole me. Thanks Austine! And of course, encouragement from my wonderful husband. So now it's all about learning the platform and playing with all the features. I have no idea where even to begin but I think I'll just jump right in and see what happens. With that said I should probably get back to it. So, if anyone has some tips for using Scrivener PLEASE leave a comment so I don't get completely lost. To Scrivener and beyond, Erin
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I love maps. A lot of fantasy fans love maps. As a reader I love maps because I have something to look back at if I need a little reference as to where things are an as a writer the purpose is similar.
As a writer, sometimes it's hard to keep your own world straight in your head. Where id a town in relation to a capital city? A mountain range in relation to a desert? A lake in regards to a forest? How long would it take to travel from point a to point b? Within a large capital city, where is the palace in relation to a slum? This is why I make maps. My world map I made on a website called Inkarnate. It's detailed and beautiful and rendered in full color. You can see everything, from the snow in the mountains to the different kinds of trees that makes up various forests in other regions of the continent. Northern forests are pines, Southern are oaks and other kinds of deciduous trees. The woods at the edge of the desert are skeletal, with no leaves at all. Yes, these are the kinds of things authors think of. I have other maps too. One is of my capital city, drawn in not very much detail in my writer's book. It doesn't show up until book 2 of the duology but you never know when you need to reference a bit of information. The last is of a camp that plays a rather big part in the current book. I will say very little here, mostly because of spoilers, but it is also a little hand-drawn thing and subject to revisions every other day it seems. I like to have maps to reference. If I'm having a character walk towards a specific location, I'd rather make sure I keep straight what direction it might be in. That way I know where everything is in relation to everything else and we don't have phantom places that move throughout the story because the author (me) forgets what they said in the previous 30 pages. Even then, like making maps. I find it relaxing. So if I'm feeling like I can't write one day I'll make a map or plot so I'm not losing that time and work is still getting done. At least I'm being productive. OR so I tell myself. :) Are you guys fans of maps? Maybe you have a favorite? Comment below and share them. Let's Write, Erin
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Writing is not an easy business. Some days you sit for hours, staring deep into your computer screen like it will give you all the answers you seek.
It doesn't. Sometimes you'll go for days without writing a single useful word and feel like a complete and total failure. You aren't. This is just how it goes. And honestly it just feels like crap. There's no getting around that. But writers say write every day, and so I do. I may not work on my manuscript. I may take some time to come over here and talk to anyone here who may be listening. I may go blog elsewhere. I may work on one of my many other projects, plotting or writing a little on something different to clear out my headspace. I may go find a prompt and write a short story, just because I can. Sometimes those stories become something more, sometimes they don't. But it's writing. Other days I may pick a random character from my manuscript and write a short story or scene from their point of view. It helps me understand them better. I don't like to skip around when I write, so rarely will I skip over a spot to continue the story at another point. It just helps me to think of it linearly. But my book is single point of view, so it's not skipping around if I write a different character. Or so I tell myself. I'm a bad liar. I won't always have a good writing day and I'm learning to accept that. It's not easy, not at all. But that's how writing is. I think it's worth it, or it will be when I can hold my finished manuscript in my hands and say, "I did it, I made this and it is mine." That will make everything worth it. So go write something, even if it's not your big masterpiece or a big bestseller. Write every day. Write something. It's the only thing that will help the bad writing days become good ones. Write On! Erin Through the Flames is the working title for my first full length novel. It is the work in progress I am currently attempting to finish, revise, and query to a traditional publisher. Easier said than done. Still, what's the point of dreams if you don't have to work hard for them? Based on a dream I had nearly 3 years ago and worked on through 2 NaNoWriMos, I have finally broken through my major writers block and am on my way to a proper working manuscript. It is the culmination of years of hard work and dreaming. I only hope the industry will believe in my little story as much as I do.
So, Through the Flames is about a girl named Thea, the daughter of the head elder in her village and a girl without powers in a world of low level elementals. After a horrible incident involving a member of her family Thea discovers that not only does she have power, but she has a gift long since thought extinct. She has the gift of Flame. Thea is a wonderful character, full of complicated motivations and real world emotions. She deals with anger, guilt, and fear throughout the novel just as anyone in her situation would have to do. She is strong, with a mind of her own, and doesn't always follow even what I want her to do. Often she is a character who writes herself and I adore her. As I write this Thea is ever-changing the way I look at my world and my characters. Planned as a duology, this story has taken me to places I never thought I would go as a writer. She shapes me even as I shape her and the rest of her world. Even if this isn't the book that gets published I am glad to be writing it. Ever onwards, Erin This is a question most people who write will get at some point in their careers. I think everyone has a different answer to this question but for me it get my ideas from dreams. Yes, really.
A couple of years ago I won a giveaway for one of Robin LaFever's books. Along with the book itself I got a necklace, a bookmark, and a little leather bound unlined journal. At the time I had no idea what I would do with it. A few months later I had a dream that later became the concept for Through the Flames. I was terrified of forgetting it so I looked around and there on my nightstand was my little journal, empty and lonely. I grabbed a pen and wrote down everything I could remember. Since then that book has sat at my bedside each night. I often wake up from dreams and immediately pick that book, writing down everything I can think of before going back to sleep. I don't want to forget any of it. Sometimes at the beginning this led to incoherent entries like "bastard sword" or "dragon cats", things that I barely remember or have no context for. Now I try to be a little more descriptive. If I can't find my book (or it's too dark to write in it) the ideas go into the notes on my phone. Later on when I go through them I'll transfer them to my book along with any other ideas that come come to me during the day. This book is full of character names, places, character descriptions, and any other tidbits that I've collected for my writing. It is my holy grail, the keystone for everything I write. I would be lost without it. Last night I had another vivid dream. My brain writes stories for me while I sleep and I translate them onto the page in the morning. This one was different from what I usually have, it was accompanied by pictures I had to draw in my book before I forgot them. It wasn't fantasy, it was post apocalyptic, a genre I rarely write for. After Through the Flames I think I'm going to try this one next, just for something new to do. A new story is brewing and I think I'll have to follow it. It's time to write, Erin Good Afternoon, friends!
I'm Erin. Welcome to my website. Here I share my writing journey as I write, edit, and try to publish my first book. Well, my first proper book. I've been writing in various forms since I was young. I wonder if my mom still has the books I wrote as a kid. Today I will reach 20k words on my WIP, tentatively called Through the Flames. My main character has a mind of her own, already making her own decisions despite what I think of them. My husband has encouraged me on this journey, giving me the freedom to write full time and follow my dream. I cannot thank him enough. So this is my world, my journey, and my life. I hope you'll join me. Love and Books, Erin |
AuthorErin is a YA author attempting to publish her first book. ArchivesCategories |