New WORDS on WORDS by Ellie.

Today’s word:  Do it!

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For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to write.  I loved books and reading as a child and felt the compulsion to write my own stories.  So I did.  I wrote short tales of fantastic proportions that almost always ended with “..and they lived happily ever after.”  I wrote diaries that contrasted sharply with my own reality and became my comfort zone.

I also read everything I could get in my eager little hands.  And from those stories. I morphed the plot into an exposition of my own fantasy life.  Diaries, notebooks, scraps of paper, almost anything that could serve to hold the tales I held in my mind was put to use and became my very own library.

Then I grew up and marriage, children, an adult career, and life itself crowded out the time for writing.

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Now here I am at the other side of life with the time to do whatever I desire. And I desired to learning to write again.  What an amazing transformation that has been for me. I’m feeling emotions I haven’t felt in decades: the pure joy of indulging my love of writing.

Quality doesn’t come into it at this late stage, just as it didn’t matter when I was a child.  The pure joy of creating people, situations, events, joy, sorrow, awakenings, failures and so many, many possibilities is just that:  pure joy!

How often do we deny ourselves the great pleasure of doing something we’ve always wanted to do because we think it’s too late?

It truly is never too late!  If you have something you’ve always wanted to do?  Do it!  You’ll be so glad you did.

Writer and Author, Ellie Pulikonda

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About The Author:

Author, Ellie Pulikonda’s shocking debut novel, “Split Second” had readers and Amazon reviewers asking for more novels by this prolific writer of psychological thriller mystery. She listened and has now released her second novel titled; “Finding Faith.”

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Ellie attended several colleges after high school to obtain her BA in Education, MA in Library Science, and her MS in Adult Education. She is or has been a daughter, wife, mother, widow, partner, single mom, grandmother, and great-grandmother.

She has worked various jobs and in different fields such as a law office, a librarian, newspaper article writing, a welfare office, and finally as the director of a public library in Tipton, IN.

“I write for the pure joy of writing” . . .

“At first, it was diaries, journals, and musings; then I graduated to short newspaper articles, some unpublished but staged mystery/comedy plays, scripts for amateur musical productions and now books. My hope is that my readers will enjoy my books and also be prodded to think about the actions and motives of my characters, to question their choices and why they made them, and to see the characters with greater insight.”

You can see all her published books including her new release; “Finding Faith” on Amazon  and she is a blogger @ Grants Pass Writers.com …..

WORDS ON WORDS ~By Author, Ellie Pulikonda

TODAYS WORD:  NO

A magazine recently had on its cover “Say yes to saying no.    It’s a clever way to make you think about how often we say “yes” when our gut is shouting at us to say “no.”

Why is it so hard to say no?  “Oh, would you be a dear and chair the next meeting?”  Everything in you is shouting “no” but some twist of our thinking has us saying “oh, sure, I’d be glad to do that.

 

Is it because we really do want to be considered a dear or a lifesaver or a go-to person that someone can use that to flip our switch?  Think about it.  By hooking the “Be a dear” up with the request, your refusal amounts so announcing to that person that you are not “dear.”

There have been campaigns in recent years to embed in our minds the phrase “Just say no” to problems like drugs and alcohol abuse. Most of us have no trouble saying no to such things but still cave in when asked to be on a board or chair a committee even when we feel it’s not a good fit for us.

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And sometimes when we dare to say ‘no’, we are met with latent hostility that shakes our sense of self-worth. Cajoling, pleading, harassing, anger, and many other reactions to our ‘no’ are quite simply another form of manipulating us into saying yes.

It takes determination to over-rule the guilt trip and just say no, but unless we do say it and make it stick, we become easy targets to future requests.  Then we can be eased into situations that take up more time than we care to spend and bring us no return, not even the thought that we did the right thing. Things that we agree to under stress often bring us only frustration and anger.

 

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So prepare for the next time. Practice saying “no” without adding an apology, any excuse or even an explanation.

“Learn to say yes to saying no.”

Ellie Pulikonda, Author/Writer

 

Words on Words. I’m Back ~ So Write On Writers!

Words on Words  ~  Today’s word:  Challenge

When I finish writing a book, I question myself. Do I really want to start working on the next plot that I have in mind?  Writing is such hard work. Finding just the right word at any given sentence is nearly impossible. Carrying the thread of the story carefully through each paragraph, page and chapter is so frustrating. Shepherding the process through editing, publishing, and promoting produces so much anxiety and takes way too much time ….  Why would anyone willingly subject themselves to this misery?

I can only speak for myself, of course, but the simple answer is that I can’t stop myself.  The ideas, sentences, even paragraphs just pop into my brain and until I set them down on paper, they will not let me be. When I’m reading someone else’s book, so engrossed in the story line and eager to see how the situation is resolved, suddenly there is a burst of inspiration on the book I’m currently writing and it will not let me go.

Sometimes when I’m talking with someone about a book they’re reading and they say something that triggers a direct zing to the sentence I got hung up on in my own novel, I ignore that at my peril.  Often when I’m watching a beautiful sunset or a particularly enchanting scene, I suddenly am overwhelmed with descriptive phrases that I must write down to be used in a future novel.

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Add to that the ever-present idea that maybe this isn’t the great American novel, after all, and maybe not many copies will sell or be read, and maybe I’m only a leaf falling in the forest that makes no  impression anyone. How in the world does anyone ever sit in front of a computer and write?  It makes no sense whatsoever.

So, of course, I’m working on my next book, even as I pass through all this angst.  I sleep, wake, eat, dream, pace, contemplate, write, re-write, delete words, delete phrases and sentences and  paragraphs and even whole chapters,  It will not let me go.

So, I’ve come to the conclusion that writing is cheaper than psychiatric appointments, more fulfilling that  banging my head against the wall, easier on my health than binge drinking or eating, and relatively harmless for those around me. I am a writer and nothing, not even frustration, mediocre sales, and a critic panning my work can NOT change that.

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And every now and then I get a favorable response to my book.  One reader told me she couldn’t put it down, another that she was moved to tears over the plight of the characters, another that she looked forward to getting back to the story each time.
Aaah!!

Just Write on Writers!

 

Ellie Pulikonda, Author/Writer

( Grab a copy of both my books now available here on AMAZON! )

Ellie’s WORDS on WORDS. My Guest Today is Lori Rogers ~ My Daughter.

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TODAY’S WORD:  READING

(Note: This week’s blog was written by my daughter, Lori Rogers, who shares my love of books and reading.)

Books have always been a part of my life. I almost always have at least one book with me everywhere I go and now, thanks to the e-readers, I can take a whole library with me. I may be alone but I never feel lonely when I am reading. I love stories, being caught up within them, wondering if I can guess how they will end or even what happens next, and even rewriting my favorite parts in my head to see if that changes the experience.

If I am somewhere that I can’t read (for safety or PC reasons) I ‘write’ my own stories or revisit in memory books I’ve already read. Books make up some of my earliest and longest friendships. I don’t mind reading a favorite book two, three, or even four times. Perhaps the friendship is actually with the author; I eagerly jump into a new book by a favorite author.

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The book is new but the author’s thoughts and take on life are familiar. Like my mother’s new book titled; “Finding Faith”  In this sense reading is actually sharing someone else’s thoughts and ideas, traveling with them to a new dimension and a deeper friendship. I don’t mind traveling back from that dimension because I can always slip back into it just by picking up the book again. Really!

Now excuse me, I hear her book calling ME.

Thanks All!  ~ Lori Rogers

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About Ellie Pulikonda, Author/Writer

Author, Ellie Pulikonda’s shocking debut novel, “Split Second” had readers and Amazon reviewers asking for more novels by this prolific writer of psychological thriller mystery. She listened and has now released her second novel titled; “Finding Faith.”

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Ellie attended several colleges after high school to obtain her BA in Education, MA in Library Science, and her MS in Adult Education. She is or has been a daughter, wife, mother, widow, partner, single mom, grandmother, and great-grandmother.

She has worked various jobs and in different fields such as a law office, a librarian, newspaper article writing, a welfare office, and finally as the director of a public library in Tipton, IN.

“I write for the pure joy of writing” 

WORDS on WORDS By Ellie – Awe, The Golden Years.

TODAY’S WORD: AGING

“I’m not sure when it happened but when I was distracted and not paying attention, someone else moved in and started running my body. And I can’t say for sure but I’m thinking that she’s about three years old.”

So, here’s what’s happening. The first thing I noticed is that she must have found my boxes of Crayola crayons for she began to color brown splotches all over my arms and legs and neck. Once in a while, she seems to choose a purple crayon for the splotches but mostly they’re a drab and ugly brown. I’ve just about used up my flesh-colored crayon trying to color over the brown splotches so they won’t show.

Then she began to play Charley Horse with my leg muscles. She mostly loves to do this in the wee small hours of the morning and generally interrupts a fabulous dream in which I’m decades younger. Lately, she’s begun to bend my toes under at the same time so I don’t know where to massage first. That doubles the fun. For her!

I gather she loves to twirl around and around inside me the way three-year-olds do because I’m the one who gets dizzy all the time. She just bounces off to another activity, like putting small objects in front of me that I trip over when I walk.

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Now she’s begun playing peek-a-boo with my eyes. When her little hands cover my face, everything grows blurry and indistinct. I’m pretty sure she’s also the one who puts her fingers in my ears on occasion causing me to miss parts of conversations.

But the naughtiest thing she does is re-arrange my memory. Things from my childhood come readily to mind. Childish memories are front and center where they simply crowd out current activities of the brain, like where I laid down my glasses, did I or did I not pay the gas bill, have I taken my medications this morning.

She doesn’t show any signs of moving out soon and there’s been no evidence that she’ll grow out of this mischievousness. So I guess I’ll have to learn how to live with my new, young roommate and hope she moves out before she becomes a teenager!

AWE, The Golden Years .  .  .  .  .

Ellie Pulikonda, Author/Writer

Grab a copy of my New Book before I forget It just released! LOL.

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( Finding Faith ~ Ebook Now 2.99 )

WORDS On WORDS ~ By Ellie

Words on Words  ~  TODAY’S WORD:  ‘WRITING’

“Writing is a messy business.”

Each page of the handwritten manuscript is blotted with cross-outs, strike-overs, arrows pointing to a bit of re-write, underlines indicating a section that resonates with the author. And more.

I’ve tried composing strictly on the computer but frequently find I’ve deleted something that didn’t seem quite right only to discover that I could have used it further down the page or in the next chapter. If I still had a written copy of the now deleted text, it could easily have been typed into the space appropriate to it. But it didn’t stay in my brain long enough to retrieve it from there.

The next problem is, of course, knowing how much of the early writing truly is worth saving. These words are your own children, after all, and each has a special place in your mind, if not in your heart, so the tendency would be to save every single syllable. Trying to save all the pretty words is fairly unworkable. There are just too many of them, each saying approximately the same thing but with small nuances and minor corrections.

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It is not unusual, I believe, for an author to re-write any given paragraph eight or ten times, much of the time reworking the piece directly on the computer by deleting the unwanted material in favor of the newer edition. In this case, the earlier copy almost certainly has been erased in favor of what has just been written. And by the time you realize that some of it could have been incorporated into the new bit very compatible, you can’t remember what it was, exactly.

So, the answer, I’m thinking is having more than one computer and switching back and forth between them, incorporating any great bits as you move from one to the other. Very cumbersome, to be sure, but breathless bits of prose are worth the effort. So, one problem figuratively solved.

Next, comes the bigger problem: How to recognize those ‘breathless bits of prose’ as actually worth saving. Hard to separate vanity over one’s own words from the reality that perhaps they really should have been deleted permanently. Writers are not often the best critics where their own words are in the balance. So, what to do?

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Oh, wait a minute! Isn’t that what beta reader and editors are for?
Problem solved!

KEEP WRITING AUTHORS!  ~ Ellie Pulikonda, Author

(“Finding Faith” is now Released on Amazon Kindle Store for Just $2.99! )

WORDS ON WORDS ~ By Ellie

 

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TODAYS WORD?   WORDS!

My novel, Willa, is written. All two hundred and twelve pages of my manuscript are covered in words. Now comes the hard part: re-writing to tighten phrases, eliminate redundancy, facilitate the flow, check spelling, grammar, and syntax, and make it a good read.

Words have been a lifelong love of mine. Even as a small child I loved hanging around words to see what they had to say. I was the brat who aced every vocabulary test, won every spelling bee and cheered when essays were assigned.

The tendency for a lover of words is to see every word of their own writing as perfect, precise, apt, and immovable. Removing words I have written down is almost as painful as having a splinter removed (and just as necessary).

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So here I am, faced with the editing of two hundred plus pages of manuscript. I can procrastinate by sharpening pencils, (even though I’m using a computer), checking pagination, straightening the stack of papers on my desk again (and yet again). I then remember that I need to take something out of the freezer for dinner and straighten my closet and, yes, it’s time to walk the dog again. Even writing this blog is evasion.

So! Enough of this procrastination. I will give myself a good talking-to and get going on the re-write. Right after I put in a load of laundry and straighten up the living room. Oh, and clean the kitchen counters.

Writing is fun. Re-writing: not so much.

Ellie Pulikonda, Author & Writer,  (My new novel “Finding Faith” below)

 

Just received new Book Reviews on Amazon! Click book and purchase!

 

A Special Weekend WORDS on WORDS

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“I write for the pure joy of writing” . . .
Words onWords

Today’s Word: WORDS

Words are the most powerful tool mankind has ever invented, more powerful than any other single invention. Words have enabled us to create civilization as we know it, to discover and name new experiences, and to share their merit and usefulness with others. And words have given us the ability to direct our lives toward our own goals.

Nowhere is this more evident than in writing and publishing our words for others to read. Being a novelist is exciting and rewarding, enabling me to share my thoughts and discoveries about the human condition with others. After all, being an author is simply choosing, writing, and publishing words that communicate to others what the authors has found to be true in her own experience.

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So it is with the novel I’m currently writing, which carries the brief title of “Willa.”
Willa was not a name to be worn lightly. The question that informs her story is: did the name (the word) create the person or was the naming a kind of foresight of the person that she was born to be.

Notice that I did not say “the generous woman she was”. She gave grudgingly to those who found her favor but not many who walked with her through some part of her life gained even that slight reward. Nor did I say she was a beloved woman or one who loved well. She had her favorites, oh, yes she did, and they warmed themselves, sometimes briefly, in her regard for them. But there were also those who served her wearily with no real expectation of any kind word or warm regard, although surely they hoped that at some time they would be rewarded for their steadfast service.

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She was, nonetheless, a remarkable woman, her coming of age occurring during the heady days of the suffragist movement. Determined to live on her own terms when most women didn’t dare dream of such freedom, she seems to have ignored the proposition that others should have shared equally in that privilege. It was a life she claimed only for herself.

“Willa” is the tale of this remarkable woman’s journey through life. It raises more questions than it answers but questions have a way of changing our understanding even as, or because, they provoke us.

More on the novel as it progresses.

Author/Writer,  Ellie Pulikonda ~ New Novel now released on Amazon!

( E-book now only $2.99 here on Amazon Kindle )

WORDS ON WORDS By Ellie

Today’s Word: Mindset 

“I believe we all by some point in our lives have a certain mindset that has been developed over the years by our experiences and our interpretation of those experiences.”

 
Our mindsets are useful tools, helping us to sort our current experiences quickly and without having to think too long and hard to make conclusions about them. In a way, they’re like a filing cabinet with tabs for our experiential knowledge. We can quickly determine where a current idea or thought process belongs and sort it into the proper “bin” in our minds. Or toss it into our virtual waste basket.

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It’s one reason us folk “of a certain age” (I would never say “old fogies”) are prone to sort through current happenings, pass judgment on them, and relegate them to the proper bin in our minds. We don’t have to spend too much time thinking through any given situation or set of facts to test them. We just recognize the keywords from our past experiences with them and quickly determine which folder this given bit of information goes into.

This works efficiently whether our judgment is pro or con. We’ve already worked through our beliefs on that particular idea and don’t need to dwell on it now. The problem I find in handling information always in this way is that it doesn’t allow for new understanding.

Change is constant and things that were true ten, twenty, fifty years ago are often found to be untrue or irrelevant today. So our file drawers may not always be the best way to handle all the incoming information we receive. Our mindset may no longer be the best sieve to filter current events through.

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To be sure, past experience is a factor in sizing up current situations and making helpful decisions about them. And it is a time-saver. Yet if we are too quick to pigeon-hole current information based only on past experience, we may miss some of the richness of living in the present.

I wonder what would happen if we approached each new experience or bit of information as though it was the first time we were feeling or hearing it. We just might discover a richness of knowledge that we could never have dreamed existed.

Until Next Time Writers!

Ellie Pulikonda, Writer/Author  of  “Split Second and now released, Finding Faith”

 

(Click books to Amazon)

Words on Words~Writer Ellie Pulikonda

 

Today’s word: Blogging

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I feel very inept at blogging. It seems to me it’s a little like standing on a corner on a soapbox, proclaiming my views to indifferent passers-by. Although I’ve always been inclined to ‘climb on soapboxes’ in conversations where there is give and take, I find it much more intimidating to do when I’m up there on that box throwing out words. And never knowing where they land.

The conventional wisdom is that if you’re going to be a writer (or even if you’re just trying to be a writer – big difference, there) you need to keep in touch with your potential readers. The current best way to do that seems to be by blogging. And so I blog. I get it that my publicist would like me to blog more frequently and more regularly and I do try to do that.

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But I always feel that it’s a little like the old question: If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound? If a blog is posted and no reads it, does it matter? Actually, I know I have a few readers: family members, good friends (at least I think they’re still good friends), some folks who have read my two books, Split Second and Finding Faith. And occasionally I hear back from some of them; it’s always a highlight of my day when that happens. Makes me feel a little less like I’m standing on a soapbox on a deserted corner.

But I’m hard at work on my third novel, Willa, and so I’ll continue to blog even though I’m unsure if the words cause even the slightest ripple in the ether waves. It is, if nothing else, a good exercise in putting down one word after another. Which is what writing is all about.

Cheers to Blogging!

Ellie Pulikonda, Writer, Author, and Blogger

My new book has now released;  FINDING FAITH  … E-book only $2.99

( Click book to purchase now on Amazon )