Ask the Author: Deb Elliott
Answered Questions (6)
Deb Elliott
Boy, that's a tough one. DJ4 is a natural continuation of the end of book 3...which is how this series rolls because it's really a chronicle of DJ's life. It had to start as a natural outflow of the events that occurred at the end of book 3 -- the events/decisions that brought her there.
Re: location for this one: I bounced ideas off two of my friends during water aerobics, and Ayron said, "Aw, don't do Chicago! Chicago's been done." Great point, so I went with Omaha because I used to live there (write what you know, you know??). The rest of the ideas just flowed in behind that decision.
Re: location for this one: I bounced ideas off two of my friends during water aerobics, and Ayron said, "Aw, don't do Chicago! Chicago's been done." Great point, so I went with Omaha because I used to live there (write what you know, you know??). The rest of the ideas just flowed in behind that decision.
Deb Elliott
From reading or listening to others' work. When I feel particularly empty creatively, I go to poetry meetups. One night after one, I walked home and wrote three poems.
I belong to a small group of writers who get together and spend an afternoon or evening writing to prompts; I also beta-read and edit for them. Their ideas spur my own. I also belong to the East Saint Paul Speculative Fiction Meetup group; reading and critiquing others' works starts ideas spinning in my head that I wouldn't normally have. Like, I'm not much of a scifi writer, but our group is having a flash fic night next week, and one of my friends challenged me to come up with a 500-word story. The idea for mine came the next day.
I also read poetry when the creative well runs dry -- Maya Angelou, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, the Romantic poets, Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath. Afterward, the words just seem to spill out of me. But then, I majored in English literature in college, and I have a deep appreciation of these writers of the classics.
I get my best story ideas in the morning between when I first wake, then roll over and go back to sleep and then wake up again. I also have very vivid dreams that are story fodder. Keeping a pad of paper and a pen next to the bed is important for me because if I don't write the ideas down right away, I forget them.
I also do a lot of thinking about my writing when I'm driving -- long commutes to work or when I'm traveling to see my family who all live about 4 hours away.
I belong to a small group of writers who get together and spend an afternoon or evening writing to prompts; I also beta-read and edit for them. Their ideas spur my own. I also belong to the East Saint Paul Speculative Fiction Meetup group; reading and critiquing others' works starts ideas spinning in my head that I wouldn't normally have. Like, I'm not much of a scifi writer, but our group is having a flash fic night next week, and one of my friends challenged me to come up with a 500-word story. The idea for mine came the next day.
I also read poetry when the creative well runs dry -- Maya Angelou, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, the Romantic poets, Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath. Afterward, the words just seem to spill out of me. But then, I majored in English literature in college, and I have a deep appreciation of these writers of the classics.
I get my best story ideas in the morning between when I first wake, then roll over and go back to sleep and then wake up again. I also have very vivid dreams that are story fodder. Keeping a pad of paper and a pen next to the bed is important for me because if I don't write the ideas down right away, I forget them.
I also do a lot of thinking about my writing when I'm driving -- long commutes to work or when I'm traveling to see my family who all live about 4 hours away.
Deb Elliott
Currently, I'm working on book 4 of my Midwestern Shapeshifter series. I'm 2200 words into chapter 5, and the work is somewhat slogging because of the research I'm having to do before I draft.
Deb Elliott
Write, write a lot, write every day. I have an advantage over most people because I write every day in my day job. I'm an instructional designer and technical writer; I've written every day for over twenty years so I know how words need to go together (for the most part -- my first drafts are always shitty too).
Don't let your fears get in the way of your dreams...use your tool -- words -- to write the fears out of your psyche; otherwise, they'll keep you from making your dreams come true.
Don't let your fears get in the way of your dreams...use your tool -- words -- to write the fears out of your psyche; otherwise, they'll keep you from making your dreams come true.
Deb Elliott
The high I get when I'm writing and the words just flow out of my fingertips. Also the wonderful friends I've made by going to writing groups.
Deb Elliott
For me, writer's block is a product of stuffed emotion or the delusion that I need "to let the story marinate."
I have a real fear of writing what isn't "good," but I know from Anne Lamott that "all first drafts are shitty," so I have to just write out what I'm afraid of, as in journaling. Once I've journaled out my fears or stuffed emotions, that clears the obstruction in my creative pipes...and then the juices flow. Works every time for me.
Then there's the whole "letting the story marinate" fallacy. That's also a self-deluding obstruction that I find myself indulging in from time to time. What helps break that up is just thinking and/or writing about my story. "Okay, now, what if I do this? How would the other characters react? How will that impact the rest of the book?" I also do my most productive thinking in the middle of the night when I can't sleep. I've plotted out a whole book just lying in bed, the victim of disrupted sleep-schedule insomnia.
I have a real fear of writing what isn't "good," but I know from Anne Lamott that "all first drafts are shitty," so I have to just write out what I'm afraid of, as in journaling. Once I've journaled out my fears or stuffed emotions, that clears the obstruction in my creative pipes...and then the juices flow. Works every time for me.
Then there's the whole "letting the story marinate" fallacy. That's also a self-deluding obstruction that I find myself indulging in from time to time. What helps break that up is just thinking and/or writing about my story. "Okay, now, what if I do this? How would the other characters react? How will that impact the rest of the book?" I also do my most productive thinking in the middle of the night when I can't sleep. I've plotted out a whole book just lying in bed, the victim of disrupted sleep-schedule insomnia.
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