Squirrel Tao

Getting Caught Up on My Online Novel Writing Class

Jennifer Franklin Elrod — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 13:53:44 +0000

It’s hard to believe this is the first blog post I’ve written since April. I’ve been knee-deep in living several dreams at the same time, besides being bitten hard by spring fever. Throughout half of April and most of May, I spent most of my free time outside. Every week-end I worked outside made my weight drop by two pounds — an added bonus. Plus, my mornings are now spent exercising, not drinking coffee while feverishly working on my computer until the last possible minute before I have to get ready for work — which was how I created most of my Web Site design. It’s hard to have balanced, healthy habits while working full-time and fleshing out a fictional Web Site part-time.

(...)
Read the rest of Getting Caught Up on My Online Novel Writing Class (250 words)

Browse all the entries under Writing, Personal, Myth of Merula.

The Myth of Merula Expands from Fictional Story to Fictional Website

Jennifer Franklin Elrod — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 16:14:03 +0000

I’ve decided to make all of DreamFishery.com a fictional Website, including even the philosophy wiki. Everything on DreamFishery.com, except this blog, will be a part of the digital storytelling that Alice Mountolive is doing as the narrator of The Myth of Merula. Making this decision just feels right to me. As soon as I imagined doing it, I could feel my creative juices start flowing more than ever. Making the whole site fictional feels liberating. It’s like taking a boat out to sea after being landlocked for a while. It’s also fun. It’s like playing pretend. Writing fiction is like playing pretend, in a way, too; but making the whole Website fictional really puts me into character, so to speak. And being in character, as the narrator Alice, helps me create the story. It occurs to me how much writing can have in common with acting, and I wonder why it never occurred to me before.

(...)
Read the rest of The Myth of Merula Expands from Fictional Story to Fictional Website (269 words)

Browse all the entries under Writing, Myth of Merula.

Writers as Myth-Makers, Artists as Shamans

Jennifer Franklin Elrod — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 21:45:53 +0000

In A Short History of Myth, Karen Armstrong writes that writers and artists, not religious leaders, are filling the age-old human psychological need for myth in the contemporary world. Writers and artists are filling the vacuum that was left by the suppression of mythos in the wake of the Enlightenment. Logos is all well and good, but it can’t deal with our deepest, darkest imaginings, yearnings and feelings. The need for myth lives on and, when not filled by something better, results in everything from Nazism to Elvis worship. It will be expressed, one way or another.

(...)
Read the rest of Writers as Myth-Makers, Artists as Shamans (313 words)

Browse all the entries under Writing, Art.

Heroes and Heroines in Romance and Other Genres

Jennifer Franklin Elrod — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 19:56:24 +0000

I never knew that there was such a variety of romance heroes and heroines. Writing about archetypal heroes/heroines my characters remind me of: that’s my exercise this week in my Forward Motion Writers’ Community online writing class. To prepare for the assignment, one source of research was a Web site listing eight romance hero archetypes and eight romance heroine archetypes. Think the macho man or the perfect woman are the only type of romance characters? Think again. Such creatures as The Professor (if a man) or The Librarian (if a woman) lurk in romance and are also found in many other genres, too. These are but two surprising animals to be found in the zoo exhibit of romance hero and heroine archetypes.

(...)
Read the rest of Heroes and Heroines in Romance and Other Genres (432 words)

Browse all the entries under Writing.

Online Novel Writing Class Is Helpful for Writing The Myth of Merula

Jennifer Franklin Elrod — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 19:00:05 +0000

This January, I joined a free online class in novel writing at the Forward Motion for Writers community, and I’m glad I did. Its timing is perfect to help me write The Myth of Merula. It’s a two year novel writing class with weekly assignments that cover every aspect of novel writing, from idea to characters to worldbuilding to writing to editing to submission and publication. Lazette Gifford, a very prolific author with many published novels under her belt, is the teacher. Her attitude is practical and experienced. I sense that this gal knows how to go through all the steps of writing a novel without wasting her time. I could use some o’ that.

(...)
Read the rest of Online Novel Writing Class Is Helpful for Writing The Myth of Merula (226 words)

Browse all the entries under Writing, Myth of Merula.