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Author: Ellis Morning

The Ups And Downs Of Deadlines

The Ups And Downs Of Deadlines

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I mentioned word count goals a while back, the advantages and disadvantages of working with them. Now I’ll do the same with another go-to progress and motivation method: deadlines. Deadlines Are Great Deadlines can help you break down a huge, impossible-seeming goal- like novel-writing- into manageable chunks, and provide a timeframe for getting it done. They also give you that kick in the rear you need to stop procrastinating and start writing. We tend to prioritize tasks with due dates…

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Create What YOU Love

Create What YOU Love

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I learned something neat this week about the song Mother, by Danzig. If you don’t remember it, take a moment to refresh yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgSn0SbQJQI When Glenn Danzig released this song in 1988, it didn’t get much attention. It wasn’t until 6 years later that the song became a hit. In a 1994 interview, Danzig had this to say regarding Mother: It was the song I always wanted to write. … But I never wrote that song to make it a…

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Successfully Rewriting Existing Scenes When Expanding An Outline

Successfully Rewriting Existing Scenes When Expanding An Outline

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We’ll need a bigger, better palm tree! There are tons of degrees of rewrites: the little tweaks here and there; the nuke-it-from-orbit, scorched-earth policy; and everything in between. The sort of rewrites I’m conducting right now are part of a larger effort to expand the outline of a manuscript, all the way from A to Z. New scenes get inserted, old scenes that no longer fit get removed. There are also plenty of previously written scenes that still fit into…

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How to Successfully Delete A Scene

How to Successfully Delete A Scene

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Kill it with fire! (Image credit: Imagebase.net) Is there a particular scene you’re having a really hard time with? Do you dread writing it, and just can’t come up with a way to make it more significant or fun for yourself? Or have you toughed through it, but reading it over makes you cringe? Then have you thought about deleting that sucker outright? This scene might be taking up unnecessary space in your story outline. Maybe you can gloss over…

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2015 Comfort Zone Challenge

2015 Comfort Zone Challenge

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Between my German longsword and .22 revolver, I’ll be ready for the next zombie apocalypse. We all need nudges out of our comfort zone sometimes. Trying new things, talking to new people, pushing ourselves to achieve stuff we’ve never done before- all of these help us become more interesting people. And interesting people have great stories to tell- which also makes them better writers! So here’s my call to action: choose at least one new thing to try this year…

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“One Crisis At A Time!” Using Priority to Differentiate Heroes

“One Crisis At A Time!” Using Priority to Differentiate Heroes

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Does anyone else remember Swat Kats? I love this cartoon. Razor and T-Bone are heroes with a souped-up fighter jet, hearts of gold, and a common goal: protecting MegaKat City from villains. However, they sometimes disagree on how to go about it. Razor’s more cautious, strategic, and sensitive. T-Bone’s the stubborn tough-guy who relies on muscle and insane piloting stunts. So it’s not surprising that they come up with different ideas for handling a situation, or disagree on what their…

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2014 Year-End Summary, 2015 Goals

2014 Year-End Summary, 2015 Goals

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Before closing out another year, it’s good to take stock of what got done, and what the year ahead will look like. Then next year, we can giggle at how off-base all my hopes and predictions were :) The biggest accomplishment this year was saying so-long to my full-time job, and taking up writing as my new full-time (and then some) pursuit. I mostly already talked about stuff I did in 2014 here, at the six-month anniversary of said leap….

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Everyone Is The Hero

Everyone Is The Hero

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(Image credit: Imagebase.net) As you work on scenes- especially those in 1st person or 3rd person limited- it’s essential to nail down the character whose perspective you’re working from. I’ll call this the point-of-view (POV) character. You have to write from that head. You have to convey the sights, feelings, thoughts, and actions that are available to them. In the process, it’s easy to forget about doing the same for all the other characters in the scene: I’ll call them…

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What Do YOU Contribute To Your Characters?

What Do YOU Contribute To Your Characters?

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Short answer: caffeine and neuroses! How much are your characters an extension of yourself? This is a longer spectrum than one might think. At first blush, it might seem binary: either a character is based on you, or s/he isn’t. If s/he is, there’s a chance s/he’s the dreaded Mary Sue: a character who is 100% you (or what you wish you could be). Mary Sue tends to crop up in fanfiction, and is generally disliked. Why? Because when an…

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You Still Need Breaks, Even When You’re Funemployed

You Still Need Breaks, Even When You’re Funemployed

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(Image credit: Photos Public Domain) I’m an introvert who no longer works a traditional full-time job– so when my spouse goes out of town, I happily bunker in with my laptop and grind away. I added about 5-6K words to my manuscript in rewrites, drafted an article, drafted blog posts- waking up early each morning and falling asleep late each night. Friday, I picked my spouse up from the airport. With delays and weather, we didn’t get home until after…

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