J.T. Ellison, New York Times Bestselling Author

View Original

6.23.14 - On Barbaric Yawps

Friday’s barbaric yawp seemed to terrify my Muse, who got in line and allowed me to find a thread, albeit a small one, and definitely not golden, into the story. Despite some sort of bug-like ickiness over the weekend, I managed a couple of thousand words, adding a new character, a prologue, and a few new scenes. I’m happier now. 

It's always fascinating to me how this works. I hit this wall writing nearly every books, though this time was worse than ever before. The only thing that works is opening up a vein and asking the universe for help. So thank you, everyone who sent good thoughts and vibes, because you helped me find a path. 

Today I started fresh, from the beginning, editing the new stuff, added 800 words and got up to Chapter 14. There’s something resembling a book in here, but it’s going to take a week of truly concerted effort to find it. But I’m at 30K now, and building toward the end of act one, so we’ll see what happens.

Made soup, and did 5.5 miles on the bike. I’m trying very hard to up my cardio, and up my yoga. The more I move, the less stuck I seem to be. All that oxygen going to the right places, I guess.

In other news, I wanted to share this quick clip of Elizabeth Gilbert talking about the intimacy of social media.

It’s true - I’ve experienced the same thing. My Facebook page is a really fun place, for both me and hopefully everyone there. I love Twitter, always have, though I sometimes lurk more than I post. Having direct contact with readers, many of whom have become friends, is the coolest part of this gig.

And in the bittersweet news category - Kyle Mills will take over writing the Mitch Rapp novels for the late Vince Flynn

I think Kyle is an excellent choice. He’s great writer, and will do the character and series justice. We do miss Vince, though. He was one of the good guys. If you haven't read him, I can't recommend him highly enough.