E.N. Chaffin's Blog, page 8

Short Stories for Attention.

So I’ve been running through lists and lists of what I could write for this blog. And to be honest, I couldn’t find anything that would really POP!

Then I came upon a YouTube channel (Vivien Reis) that offered the advice of writing what you know and writing something you can offer that has your own unique voice. One of her suggestions was writing short stories. And that spoke to me.

You see, I have published three ebooks on Amazon.com through their Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Program. Unfortunately, due to my inexperience of advertising, and customer’s nervousness of spending any money on an author they did not know – which is understandable – only one of my ebooks sold one copy.

Needless to say, I felt devastated at first. And even though I tried hard to push out four to six short stories a month to publish, I became exhausted from the work. (It certainly doesn’t help that my full-time overnight job, novel writing, and YouTube videos take an incredible amount of time and energy from me.) And so, I stopped writing the short stories by November.

Nevertheless, I feel that my work still needs to be shared.

And to make it more convenient to my present and future audience, I would like to offer my short stories for free on this site.

So spread the word!

Give me feedback!

Help improve my writing by reading fantasy! (Something many of us love to do!)

And thank you for stopping by. I expect to bring you a lot more content in the coming year. And a lot more surprises are just around the corner.

 

E.N. Chaffin

Burnt Out (and still Flamin’!)

So after the long and extensive month of November – and the horrendous, agonizing pain of going through my first NaNoWriMo experience – I have discovered that having too much on one’s plate can burn one out fast.

But! There’s always a chance to keep the flame going, even when your candle is on its last piece of wax.

This last month I had to stop and ask myself if my novel was going anywhere? I have so many ideas for this one book (and the potential series to follow) that my story was becoming muddled and the characters were growing to be too stale. I did not know what to do or how to even attempt to do anything to stop this terrible writing experience. It was not writer’s block. No. It was worse: writer’s cramp. My words were getting too jumbled and ideas were clashing everywhere. My book was falling apart. And how did I fix it? By crying in the corner, asking what did I do to deserve this!

But after that melodramatic scene, I got up, returned to my work, and tore it apart, analyzing each bit. I found that my original outline was complete crap. But I also found that I was so focused on getting the writing done that I did not focus on the story. I decided to take a step back and plan out my next steps to get back on track. I needed to focus on my attitude and my lacking focus. And here’s how I did it!

Take a step back from what you’re doing and BREATHE! – If you are seriously stressed out from something, you need to take a literal breather. The oxygen to your brain will do you some good, while the act of concentrating on your breathing will calm you down.
Write down your main goal at the top of a sheet of paper. – Have a clear main goal in mind and put it on a physical sheet of paper to help you keep it in mind.
On the same sheet, list everything you need to do in order to get to your main goal. – This may seem overwhelming at first, but listing everything you need to get done in order to achieve your goal will help you not forget anything while working towards it.
Reorder everything on your list. REMEMBER! List them by what needs to be done first and/or how easy each task is.
Write when you want to achieve your main goal. – Do you want to get this done in a week? A month? A year?
Write out how much time you can give to work on your list. – If you only have one hour to dedicate to a huge list of to-dos each day, then don’t expect to get fifty steps done in just one week.
Start at the top of your list and work your way done, striking out tasks (NOT erasing them) when you’re done. – Instead of erasing each task, or deleting them if you are typing the list up, and striking them out will allow you to see all of the work you have done so far. This actually gives a sense of accomplishment.
Celebrate when you are done and have made it to your main goal! – Yay!

Need an example how this applies in real life? Let’s just take an example of a college kid needing to get his essay done in a month.

Kickin’ Writer’s Block in the Butt

(YouTube Video Coming Soon)

Every writer goes through the dreaded Writer’s Block.

*DUN, DUN, DUUUUUUUUN*

But I have recently discovered a way to stop Writer’s Block.

After dealing with the dreaded WB for the first few days of NaNoWriMo, I decided to take a break from staring at a blank screen and head to the library. I thought: Maybe other authors’ words will help motivate me.

And they did.

I picked up this book: Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird.

(FYI: Post not sponsored by Lamott or Amazon.)

I have only read one of the passages called “Sh*tty First Drafts,” but I’ve gotten good vibes from this book so far.

She basically explains that all first drafts, even those of best-selling authors, are complete crap. They are not the great stories we read after publication, but sorry excuses for kindergarten-grade work. BUT it is absolutely necessary to just write your first draft, crappy or not, because if you never write, then you’ll never be able to revise and rewrite.

Now this is something I have known for a long time – through middle school, junior high, high school, college, etc. But since I have been super tired and overly anxious about writing my rough draft for my novel, I lost sight of this bit of knowledge.

Thankfully, I was able to get a reminder from Lamott. And since then, I have nearly doubled my word count, and have almost caught up to where I need to be to stay on top of the NaNoWriMo challenge.

So for all of you who are struggling with writing your novel, short stories, or essays, just remember: Write that first draft with just the facts. THEN go back and revise your work, making it look beautiful and professional.

A Great APP for NaNoWriMo!

If you are taking the NaNoWriMo challenge like I am this year, then you might try using the Wrimo Companion app! It helps you keep track of how many words you do each day – and helps you post your word count too!

I have created a short animated video HERE. It goes through the setup of the app and all the features it has.

I hope you check it out! And have a great November! (And NaNoWriMo!)

NaNoWriMo is Underway!

Today is November 1st. And for all the writers out there, that means that start of this year’s NaNoWriMo!

For those of you who do not know what NNWM is, let me explain. NNWM stands for National Novel Writing Month. It was created by a group of people who wanted to see if they could write a novel (a story around 50,000 words or more) in one month. Since they started back in 1999, they have grown in numbers each year. Members of the original group decided to see if they could make it even bigger. They didn’t know that it would one day become a worldwide phenomina!

Each year thousands try to write a 50,000 (or more) novel in one month. Everyone who makes the goal within the time frame becomes an automatic winner! They get the joy of knowing they wrote a whole story in such a short amount of time.

This is my first year participating in NaNoWriMo. Since I am writing a fantasy novel, I have decided to go beyond 50,000 words and see if I can hit anywhere near 100,000 words. (Wow!)

At the end of the month, I’ll update everyone on if I won and how far I got. Wish me luck!

If anyone would like to be my Writing Buddy during this challange, just look me up! My penname is enchaffi. I can’t wait to hear from you!

Visit Me on YouTube!

In order to widen my presence on the internet, I have created my very own YouTube Channel! This channel will not only feature updates on my debut novel, but also various tips on writing, cosplay (an interest of mine), college life, and anything else I can think of.

If you have an idea for a video or some constructive advice on how I can improve my videos or online presence, please contact me through the Contact page.

Thank you!

Nectere for October!

I just wanted to announce that Nectere Monthly: October 2016 has just been released on Amazon.com!

 

A stranger hidden in the ceiling, thieves looking for their next heist, a witch with a temper, and a child out for murder. Join the World of Nectere with four stories in its October edition. But don’t forget to lock the door before you do.

 

1st Quarterly Goals for my novel!

So! I decided to take advice from one of my favorite upcoming authors, Vivien Reis, about writing quarterly goals to help with advancing my novel beyond the idea stage, to the first stage, all the way to the final publication stage. I know I’ll have many goals to hit, in order to make sure my novel is the best it can be for publication. I want to bring the best story I can to the world, and that means working hard at it.

Just like Reis, if I can complete at least 3/4th of these goals, I’ll consider it a success.

Without further ado, here is my list of goals I need to complete before January 1st:

Finish researching for my novel. – Even though I’m writing fiction, I want to make this novel as believable to the reader as possible. My research is almost done, but I still need to collect a bit more information.
Finish my novel outline. – With me, outlines are a must. I have so many ideas for this first book, but I want to make sure the story will flow and I won’t loose track.
Finish my first draft. – this is pretty easy to explain. I can’t have a book without a first draft, right?
Start searching for beta-readers. – in order to make sure my story flows naturally, I need to let others read it. Maybe they’ll catch something I can’t.
Start searching for editors. – Just like with beta-readers, I’m going to need a great editor to catch all the little grammar and spelling mistakes I may not have noticed when writing or reading through myself. (I hate when I see a writing error in a professional publication. Especially one that could have been easily fixed. This point will be the most crucial for me to complete.)
Celebrate my best friend’s birthday! – Yep! That’s right! Who says all my goals have to be serious? I think adding this to my list of goals is a great way to keep me motivated.
Make at least one post per week on my website. – I want to keep you followers up-to-date on my progress. Not only on my book or monthly journals, but also with my daily life. Just in case you’re interested in the life of a first time writer.
Write and publish Nectere Monthly October. – By the time you read this post, October’s edition will probably be out.
Write and publish NM November. – Have to keep updated on my journal! ^_^ It keeps my writing skills fresh!
Write and publish NM December. – See explanation on #7.
Clean my room. Sell off anything I don’t need. – I am notorious for throwing things around my room, getting into stuff, and NOT cleaning up afterwards. (Probably because I’m so busy with writing and watching television. Whoops!) So I’m making sure to keep everything clean in order to focus on my writing when I need to. (Let’s hope I can keep this up!)
Take and post a professional author photo. – This is important for any author. Readers need to see the face behind the pen. I hope to get this done as soon as possible.

 

So these are my goals. I’ll update my progress on them possibly halfway through the quarter, and definitely at the end of it.

Make sure to check out Vivien Reis’s website! I have learned so much about the tasks ahead of me from her and her blog. http://vivienreis.com/

October Nectere Monthly Update

I wanted to tell everyone that this month’s Nectere Monthly is nearly complete and will be on sale soon on my Amazon.com store. Once it’s up, I’ll update this site to include it. I hope all of you Halloween fans are ready for scary, spooky, and (almost) everything in between!

Welcome to the Official Website of E.N. Chaffin

This is the Official Website of the author E.N. Chaffin.

E.N. Chaffin has always been fascinated with other worlds – from fantasy to mythological to those that spread among the stars. Even those portrayed in her favorite games and Japanese anime has fed Chaffin’s undying passion to experience great stories. Deciding that it was boring to just write fan fiction for other worlds, she started to develop her own creation. The result of this was Nectere Monthly, a series of flash fiction, which debuted in August 2016. There is a new publication each month, featuring four to six stories.

E.N. Chaffin plans to launch her first full novel in late 2017.

Check out Nectere Monthly on Amazon.com.