New Year Challenge!
Last year I started, and then dropped like a hot rock, a 52 Week Writing Challenge. This year I am recommitting and I hope that you will join me! I love having writing buddies and I especially love seeing what others write and do. So, the first week is the "Meet Me" post. You'd think it would be easy to write about yourself, but sometimes it's a challenge! So here it is, my story on becoming a writer. :) Enjoy!
Meet Me
Introductions are such a tricky thing. There’s deciding where to begin and then what to say, but I’ll give it a whirl anyway. I’m Jessica L. Elliott, which I’m sure some of you already know. I was born in California and then promptly moved away to Kansas which has settled so deeply into my blood that I pretty much refuse to leave; except for the occasional vacation. I love my Midwestern home. I love the beauty here and the peace.
But that’s a story for another day. Right now you want to know about me. Well, I’m pretty ordinary, I suppose, as far as authors go. My mother says I started writing from the moment I could pick up a pencil. Probably pretty accurate. I’ve always loved a good story, whether I was reading it or telling it! I fueled my over-active imagination with wonderful books and fun adventures with my five younger brothers and sisters.
As I got older, writing went to the backburner for a while. I still came up with ideas and wrote occasionally, but I was trying to focus on my studies. I had decided to be an elementary teacher and I knew that was going to take a lot of work. So I put my writing to the side, except when a friend introduced me to the frenzy of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Then a ghost story that had been simmering in my brain started to take shape. In that November I wrote over 60,000 words in it. Then it went right back to the recesses of my mind so I could focus once again on my studies. A year passed with very little writing, other than the required essays and minutia demanded by my professors. The next November I didn’t even make an attempt at NaNoWriMo as I was student teaching and knew that I didn’t have time for writing and couldn’t afford the distraction.
And then a horrible thing happened. A dreadful thing. A thing that makes writers cringe and unleashes weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. My computer which held all my writing, my schoolwork and everything else died. No resurrection even possible. Well, I had to do my schoolwork and so many long hours were spent at the school computer labs. My writing, well, that had been a side thing anyway and for a couple years I pouted and generally refused to write creatively purely out of misery at losing so much that I had started.
During all of this, I was still telling stories. My youngest brother is fifteen years my junior. Visits from college were spent trying to build a relationship with him by making bedtime our time. I told him the fairy tales my mother had told me, embellishing them and making them longer so his droopy eyes would finally close. Then the unthinkable happened: he said to me, “Jessica, fairy tales are for girls. I am a boy and I don’t want to hear one.”
!!!
In desperation I flung about in my mind for some way to tell him the stories I loved in a way that would be appealing to him. “What if I tell you a story about a prince?”
“That might be okay. But only one kiss, if that many.”
With that, I started making stories for the princes who had such an important, and yet underrated, role in the fairy tales I had told. They were kidnapped by pirates, fought dragons, sailed the seas in search of their princesses. These were no ordinary Prince Charmings. They were the ultimate Prince Charmings! They were the guys that every girl longs to have pop out of the ground and sweep them away. They were the type of guy that I hoped boys would relate to and want to become.
Then my brother started asking questions and from his questions the school, Charming Academy for Boys, was born. These dashing heroes had to have learned somewhere all the tricks of questing. It made logical sense that there had to be a school. Unbeknownst to me, my mother had started listening in at the door. One night when John’s droopy eyes had finally closed to yet another “happily ever after”, my mother said, “Those stories you tell him are really good. You should start writing them down.”
It was all the encouragement I needed to pick up my dusty notebook and far-too-long pencil and begin writing again. Jobs for new teachers were scarce, at least in the areas that I wanted to go. So while substitute teaching I rekindled my love of writing. I didn’t mind that much having days with no jobs because I could throw myself into my storytelling. Summer was a frenzy of character creating and scene writing.
And then a Prince Charming so wonderful and amazing that I couldn’t possibly ignore him came back into my life. I’d met him during college, but without any hopes of dating since I knew he was soon going on a two-year church mission. Now he had come home and it was soon apparent that I’d found someone to live out “happily ever after” with. The only minus to this blossoming relationship was that once again, my writing went to the backburner. But I didn’t mind at all. I was living out my own fairy tale and it was going much easier than any I had written!
Once the excitement of getting married and settling down had started to fade (only a little because I’m still head-over-heels with him), I jumped right back into my writing. My loving sweetheart supported me fully, though he couldn’t understand why I would want to write so much. Writing isn’t his thing, which honestly is probably much better for our relationship! He was patient when I would spend long nights clacking away on the keyboard. He didn’t complain when I offered leftovers for dinner because I didn’t want to break away from writing long enough to cook anything. He made sure that I did eat and did sleep, even when all I wanted to do was live, eat and breathe my novel.
When the first manuscript was finally finished, he celebrated with me and helped me get it formatted the way I wanted it. Then we unleashed Charming Academy on the world. It was a BEAST! While it didn’t sell phenomenally, it was a huge book and many of my friends were excited to finally be able to read what I had been working on for so long. Soon I found that I had to cut down from it. It was just too big and hairy. So I began the painful process of cutting scenes, characters and miscellaneous details that really weren’t necessary. It was still a huge book, but it wasn’t break-your-brain huge anymore. Truth be told, soon it will receive another trimming. But that won’t be until after I finish writing the last book of the series so that I don’t accidently cut something important.
So that’s who I am as a writer. I now have six books out. The four Charming Academy books that are finished, Mischief, Mayhem and NOT Burning the House Down, and How Many Snowflakes Until Christmas?. It’s been a fun adventure and I’ve learned a lot about myself and about writing through this process. I’ve learned that being self-published is hard and it’s a lot of work, but it also gives me a lot of freedom. Freedom that I appreciate because it allows me to maintain the greatest control of my stories. I set my own deadlines, which for a young mother is really, really nice! I set my own writing pace and I create my own writing goals. I don’t have anyone telling me what I should write or how. I try to follow the cues I get from my readers and I would hope that you have seen the improvement from the clunky first edition of Charming Academy to what my writing has become in my later books.
Writing isn’t the only thing in my life. I have two (almost three!) adorable children who take time and energy to keep up with! They inspire me and definitely keep me on my toes. I have a puppy who is way too smart for her own good and also does a good job of keeping me busy. And of course, there’s my Prince Charming who has made my life so wonderful and blessed that it would be horribly remiss of me to forget him. I take on probably way too many art projects and I have too many hobbies ranging from various crafts to gardening. But I am who I am and I love me. Truly, I love being me! I love the person I have grown into and look forward to seeing where I am taken in the future.
Now you know a bit about me and my story of coming to be an author. What’s your story?
Meet Me
Introductions are such a tricky thing. There’s deciding where to begin and then what to say, but I’ll give it a whirl anyway. I’m Jessica L. Elliott, which I’m sure some of you already know. I was born in California and then promptly moved away to Kansas which has settled so deeply into my blood that I pretty much refuse to leave; except for the occasional vacation. I love my Midwestern home. I love the beauty here and the peace.
But that’s a story for another day. Right now you want to know about me. Well, I’m pretty ordinary, I suppose, as far as authors go. My mother says I started writing from the moment I could pick up a pencil. Probably pretty accurate. I’ve always loved a good story, whether I was reading it or telling it! I fueled my over-active imagination with wonderful books and fun adventures with my five younger brothers and sisters.
As I got older, writing went to the backburner for a while. I still came up with ideas and wrote occasionally, but I was trying to focus on my studies. I had decided to be an elementary teacher and I knew that was going to take a lot of work. So I put my writing to the side, except when a friend introduced me to the frenzy of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Then a ghost story that had been simmering in my brain started to take shape. In that November I wrote over 60,000 words in it. Then it went right back to the recesses of my mind so I could focus once again on my studies. A year passed with very little writing, other than the required essays and minutia demanded by my professors. The next November I didn’t even make an attempt at NaNoWriMo as I was student teaching and knew that I didn’t have time for writing and couldn’t afford the distraction.
And then a horrible thing happened. A dreadful thing. A thing that makes writers cringe and unleashes weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. My computer which held all my writing, my schoolwork and everything else died. No resurrection even possible. Well, I had to do my schoolwork and so many long hours were spent at the school computer labs. My writing, well, that had been a side thing anyway and for a couple years I pouted and generally refused to write creatively purely out of misery at losing so much that I had started.
During all of this, I was still telling stories. My youngest brother is fifteen years my junior. Visits from college were spent trying to build a relationship with him by making bedtime our time. I told him the fairy tales my mother had told me, embellishing them and making them longer so his droopy eyes would finally close. Then the unthinkable happened: he said to me, “Jessica, fairy tales are for girls. I am a boy and I don’t want to hear one.”
!!!
In desperation I flung about in my mind for some way to tell him the stories I loved in a way that would be appealing to him. “What if I tell you a story about a prince?”
“That might be okay. But only one kiss, if that many.”
With that, I started making stories for the princes who had such an important, and yet underrated, role in the fairy tales I had told. They were kidnapped by pirates, fought dragons, sailed the seas in search of their princesses. These were no ordinary Prince Charmings. They were the ultimate Prince Charmings! They were the guys that every girl longs to have pop out of the ground and sweep them away. They were the type of guy that I hoped boys would relate to and want to become.
Then my brother started asking questions and from his questions the school, Charming Academy for Boys, was born. These dashing heroes had to have learned somewhere all the tricks of questing. It made logical sense that there had to be a school. Unbeknownst to me, my mother had started listening in at the door. One night when John’s droopy eyes had finally closed to yet another “happily ever after”, my mother said, “Those stories you tell him are really good. You should start writing them down.”
It was all the encouragement I needed to pick up my dusty notebook and far-too-long pencil and begin writing again. Jobs for new teachers were scarce, at least in the areas that I wanted to go. So while substitute teaching I rekindled my love of writing. I didn’t mind that much having days with no jobs because I could throw myself into my storytelling. Summer was a frenzy of character creating and scene writing.
And then a Prince Charming so wonderful and amazing that I couldn’t possibly ignore him came back into my life. I’d met him during college, but without any hopes of dating since I knew he was soon going on a two-year church mission. Now he had come home and it was soon apparent that I’d found someone to live out “happily ever after” with. The only minus to this blossoming relationship was that once again, my writing went to the backburner. But I didn’t mind at all. I was living out my own fairy tale and it was going much easier than any I had written!
Once the excitement of getting married and settling down had started to fade (only a little because I’m still head-over-heels with him), I jumped right back into my writing. My loving sweetheart supported me fully, though he couldn’t understand why I would want to write so much. Writing isn’t his thing, which honestly is probably much better for our relationship! He was patient when I would spend long nights clacking away on the keyboard. He didn’t complain when I offered leftovers for dinner because I didn’t want to break away from writing long enough to cook anything. He made sure that I did eat and did sleep, even when all I wanted to do was live, eat and breathe my novel.
When the first manuscript was finally finished, he celebrated with me and helped me get it formatted the way I wanted it. Then we unleashed Charming Academy on the world. It was a BEAST! While it didn’t sell phenomenally, it was a huge book and many of my friends were excited to finally be able to read what I had been working on for so long. Soon I found that I had to cut down from it. It was just too big and hairy. So I began the painful process of cutting scenes, characters and miscellaneous details that really weren’t necessary. It was still a huge book, but it wasn’t break-your-brain huge anymore. Truth be told, soon it will receive another trimming. But that won’t be until after I finish writing the last book of the series so that I don’t accidently cut something important.
So that’s who I am as a writer. I now have six books out. The four Charming Academy books that are finished, Mischief, Mayhem and NOT Burning the House Down, and How Many Snowflakes Until Christmas?. It’s been a fun adventure and I’ve learned a lot about myself and about writing through this process. I’ve learned that being self-published is hard and it’s a lot of work, but it also gives me a lot of freedom. Freedom that I appreciate because it allows me to maintain the greatest control of my stories. I set my own deadlines, which for a young mother is really, really nice! I set my own writing pace and I create my own writing goals. I don’t have anyone telling me what I should write or how. I try to follow the cues I get from my readers and I would hope that you have seen the improvement from the clunky first edition of Charming Academy to what my writing has become in my later books.
Writing isn’t the only thing in my life. I have two (almost three!) adorable children who take time and energy to keep up with! They inspire me and definitely keep me on my toes. I have a puppy who is way too smart for her own good and also does a good job of keeping me busy. And of course, there’s my Prince Charming who has made my life so wonderful and blessed that it would be horribly remiss of me to forget him. I take on probably way too many art projects and I have too many hobbies ranging from various crafts to gardening. But I am who I am and I love me. Truly, I love being me! I love the person I have grown into and look forward to seeing where I am taken in the future.
Now you know a bit about me and my story of coming to be an author. What’s your story?
No comments have been added yet.
