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Emily Craven

Goodreads Author

Born

in Australia

January 26

Website

http://www.cravenstories.com

Twitter

CravenStories

Genre

Young Adult, Nonfiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Influences

Isobelle Carmody, Garth Nix, Tamora Pierce, Diana Wynne Jones, Meg Cab ...more

Member Since

October 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/emilycraven

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Chocolate. Karaoke. Star Trek. Travel. Books. Puppies. Shaking what your Mama gave you. All of these are some of my favourite things. But when I meet someone, I want to know who they are, not what they like. I want to know what’s their story? Why do they get up every morning?

For me, what rocks my world is showing daring creatives how to draw the curious down the rabbit hole with stories, how to use their tales to spark connection, understanding, and create belonging with a wonderland of their making.

Stories entered my DNA as a kid. They were what saved me from lonely lunch times with no friends when my family moved states and I was shoved into a new school mid-year, mid-puberty, mid-awkward-phase. They allowed me to escape to another world Chocolate. Karaoke. Star Trek. Travel. Books. Puppies. Shaking what your Mama gave you. All of these are some of my favourite things. But when I meet someone, I want to know who they are, not what they like. I want to know what’s their story? Why do they get up every morning?

For me, what rocks my world is showing daring creatives how to draw the curious down the rabbit hole with stories, how to use their tales to spark connection, understanding, and create belonging with a wonderland of their making.

Stories entered my DNA as a kid. They were what saved me from lonely lunch times with no friends when my family moved states and I was shoved into a new school mid-year, mid-puberty, mid-awkward-phase. They allowed me to escape to another world of adventure, of struggle (that wasn’t mine), of empathy, perspective, and heroes who strived against the bullies, and again and again, picked themselves. Stories showed me how to adapt, to care, to trust myself. They understood me on a level I barely understood myself. I was such a voracious reader I started writing my own books when I was 12 because my favourite authors just couldn’t keep up.

Stories were how I survived boredom. Boredom was how I ended up a Star Trek nerd. Every afternoon when I got home from school, my mother commandeered the TV to fuel her Star Trek addiction. The choice was be bored or be obsessed. You could say I was brain-washed a Trekkie and I have no regrets!

That’s the only reason I can think of for how I ended up choosing to study Astrophysics. Two years in and something happened that I never in a million years expected. I hated it. I had no idea what else I would even do if I quit. I was good at it, sure, but every six months I would have a mini-break-down in my bedroom, the words of high-school teachers and parents going around and round my head – ‘you’re too smart for art.’ If present me could time travel, I’d go back and slap them all up-side the head, with a loud, ‘hell no’ for good measure.

How many times have you been told you ‘should’? You should do this, you should do that, even though you know that box doesn’t fit you?

What I didn’t realise at the time was the reason I was so drawn to Star Trek wasn’t the science, it was the adventure. A soap opera in space; people working together solving problems, falling in love, and shooting phasers! This was the root of my unhappiness; I was suppressing the biggest part of myself. I didn’t want knowledge for the sake of knowledge, I want to create things that connected people. And the way that excited me, that lit a fire in my belly to create that connection, was by creating and sharing stories. Fictional preferably, with a hint of magic, a dash of quirky, and a sneaky side of truth.

I wish I could tell you that when I set my sights on career as storyteller, I shook off that ‘should’ energy. I did not. While I devoured dozens of courses on writing, publishing, marketing, editing and eBooks, and learnt one of the most important lessons of my life – that what you create alone will never be as good as what you’ll create together with the feedback of professionals who aren’t you and see your blind spots – I was still doing all the things you should. You should send your novels to traditional publishers, you should write short stories to get a name for yourself, you should have a ‘very’ professional website where you’re ‘very serious’ and therefore ‘competent’, as confirmed by your head shot which makes you look like you have sat on a cactus.

I waited a really long time for someone to pick me. And I was lonely, so very very lonely. When a boy who already had a 3-book deal with a major publisher got the only writing grant available in the state to writers under 30, something finally snapped for me. I was sick of waiting; it was time to choose myself. I couldn’t be rejected if I was the one creating the thing, right?

It was when I took the conscious decision to step off the beaten path that t ...more

64 posts
Emily Craven's Blog

Writing Tips

Resources For Writers And Self-Publishers On Writing There’s a lot of information about writing and publishing on the internet and it can be hard to know where to begin. This site alone has over 100 + articles and 15+ hours of audio interviews, as well as author freebies. In this new digital age writing CAN…

The post Writing Tips appeared first on Craven Stories.

Combine Editions
Emily Craven’s books

Average rating: 3.68 · 90 ratings · 41 reviews · 12 distinct works

	The Grand Adventures of Madeline Cain (Madeline Cain, #1) 3.78 avg rating — 27 ratings — published 2012 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Madeline Cain: The Adventure Begins (The Grand Adventures of Madeline Cain Book 1) 3.11 avg rating — 28 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	E-Book Revolution: The Ultimate Guide to E-Book Success 4.30 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 2011 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Madeline Cain: Adventures In Fashion (Madeline Cain, #2) 3.45 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 2014 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Noobs: New Adventures in Literature by Simon Groth (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Romy Ash (Contributor), Caroline Baum (Contributor) 4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2014 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tincture Journal, Issue Eight, Summer 2014 by Daniel Young (Editor), Stuart Barnes (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Meg Henry (Contributor) 4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2014	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Original Fantasy - A Practical Guide to Writing Genre 3.75 avg rating — 4 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Grand Adventures of Madeline Cain Box Set: Books 1 & 2 it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Original Fantasy: A Practical Guide To Writing Genre liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2017	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jake's Page: A Short Story and Play 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2012 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars