Ask the Author: Elise M. Stone
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Elise M. Stone
Recently my family got together to celebrate my mother's 90th birthday. It's been quite a long time since I've seen most of my cousins in one place, and the conversations were interesting. My brother has pursued the genealogy of both sides for a number of years, and on this occasion, I found out two of my cousins had also tried to find out the origins of our family (on two different sides).
The mystery is one of my grandfathers, who apparently was an illegitimate child. We know this because he was born in a home for unwed mothers. Who his father was is the mystery. This is compounded by the fact that his name was changed, either by his mother or himself, several times. Why all the name changes? Who was the missing father? What secret was his mother keeping?
The mystery is one of my grandfathers, who apparently was an illegitimate child. We know this because he was born in a home for unwed mothers. Who his father was is the mystery. This is compounded by the fact that his name was changed, either by his mother or himself, several times. Why all the name changes? Who was the missing father? What secret was his mother keeping?
Elise M. Stone
Write more.
I don't actually believe in writer's block. That doesn't mean I don't get stuck. The worst thing I could do would be to walk away from my desk and start worrying about not knowing what to write next. It's much better to keep writing.
First, I try plunging ahead with the scene I'm currently attempting to write. I keep typing and, sometimes just the right words come out on the screen to inspire the next idea. It doesn't matter that a bunch of them are crap. A first draft is supposed to be crap.
If that doesn't work and I find myself staring at the screen with no idea of how to even get started, I close up my laptop and pull out my journal and a pen. Writing by hand uses a different part of the brain than typing does and sometimes that's the part that has the answer. I start by freewriting, just letting the words flow about what my problem is. I'll go back to basics and ask myself what my character wants in this scene, what do the other characters want, what's wrong with my concept for the scene, or how could I make things worse for my character.
If all else fails, I go for a walk. Getting outside, stretching, working off that angst over what happens next, usually results in my muse coming up with a solution.
I don't actually believe in writer's block. That doesn't mean I don't get stuck. The worst thing I could do would be to walk away from my desk and start worrying about not knowing what to write next. It's much better to keep writing.
First, I try plunging ahead with the scene I'm currently attempting to write. I keep typing and, sometimes just the right words come out on the screen to inspire the next idea. It doesn't matter that a bunch of them are crap. A first draft is supposed to be crap.
If that doesn't work and I find myself staring at the screen with no idea of how to even get started, I close up my laptop and pull out my journal and a pen. Writing by hand uses a different part of the brain than typing does and sometimes that's the part that has the answer. I start by freewriting, just letting the words flow about what my problem is. I'll go back to basics and ask myself what my character wants in this scene, what do the other characters want, what's wrong with my concept for the scene, or how could I make things worse for my character.
If all else fails, I go for a walk. Getting outside, stretching, working off that angst over what happens next, usually results in my muse coming up with a solution.
Elise M. Stone
Twitter. Yes, I'm serious. I kept seeing this hashtag from a person I follow and had no idea what it meant. That led to web searches and the more I found out about it, the more I thought the scenario would make a fascinating murder mystery. I'm having a blast writing "Kill Them All" (the title may change) and hope to have it ready for publication later this year.
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