Elana Johnson's Blog, page 79

Real Writers Write

Okay, so I went to a keynote address by Mary E. Pearson yesterday afternoon. I heard some great things that really reverberated with me, but the best one was "Real writers write."



Well, crap. I haven't been doing a lot of that recently. But it's okay. I can get back into it. In fact, some dear friends of mine (Suzette Saxton and Nichole Giles) practically held me down and made me pinky swear to write for a certain amount of time. They were like, throwing out "one hour" or "thirty minutes...

Holy Randomness

I know, I know. I said I wouldn't be around. But whatever.



Here's some random for you:



1. I am a volley whore. In tennis. I love to play the net, so I always get in the line that will get the volley feed.



2. Conversation at tennis: Friend: "Elana and I live in the ghetto."

Elana: "We do not live in the ghetto."

Friend: "We had the SWAT team and Hazmat van at our house."

Elana: "Okay, so we have a few drug dealers."

Other Friend: "Every neighborhood has a few drug dealers."



3. The...

WriteOnCon: The Mother Of All Pay It Forward Events

Dude, you guys. It's time for the next Pay It Forward event. And this time, we've pulled out all the stops.



That's right. I said we. And when I say "we" I mean me, Casey McCormick, Lisa and Laura Roecker, Shannon Messenger and Jamie Harrington. If you're not avidly following all of these people, you so should be. So go follow them. I'll wait. (And they all have giveaways too...)



Back? Okay. Are you ready for the Awesome to the Epic?



It's a...well, I could bore you to death with a written e...

The Mother Of All Pay It Forward Events

Dude, you guys. It's time for the next Pay It Forward event. And this time, we've pulled out all the stops.



That's right. I said we. And when I say "we" I mean me, Casey McCormick, Lisa and Laura Roecker, Shannon Messenger and Jamie Harrington. If you're not avidly following all of these people, you so should be. So go follow them. I'll wait. (And they all have giveaways too...)



Back? Okay. Are you ready for the Awesome to the Epic?



It's a...well, I could bore you to death with a written e...

Everything

Today's one liner: It is impossible to do everything, but it is possible to do everything you can.



Thoughts? What is your "everything" and are you doing it? Where do you draw the line between "everything" and "everything else?"

Friends for the Journey

Today's one liner: Writing is not meant to be a solitary journey, so make sure you pack a lot of friends.



Who do you need to email right now and tell them how glad you are that you're on the same path? Do it. I will be.

Way to Suck Less

Today's one liner: The more you write, the more you suck less. Word.



Do you think you get better the more you practice? Or do you have to learn something new and apply it before you'll become a better writer?



Oh, and I predicted the future yesterday...go check it out!

One

Today's one liner: It only takes one yes.



Check out Sara's blog if you don't believe me. Embarrassing Encouraging stats from yours truly.

Snack It Up

It's one-liner week here at ye olde blog. Frankly, it's all the energy I can muster at this moment in time. I hope you stick around until next week when (dare I say it?) you'll get to see me LIVE. (Oh, contain the tremors already. Freak!)



Today's one liner: When writing, it's best to have an entire bag of pretzel M&M's nearby.



What do you have nearby whilst writing?

Determining Character Motivation

Okay, so I asked you yesterday to give me some character motivation. I'm paralyzed with fear that my second book will have the exact same motivation as the first. And can you say YAWN?



So I've been soul searching the past couple of days (really, like five, cuz I write all these posts on the weekend), and I turned to a post-it stuck to the computer next to me.



It's a quote from GLEE, believe it or not. I scrawled it out in red Sharpie as soon as Jesse spoke it. Because it's exactly the...