Interview #16: Ellesar

Ellesar: Riley

Your Nweb and NaNoWriMo usernames, were they inspired by anything?

Ellesar on both sites. it's an unintentional misspelling of Elessar that happened in high school and I've used it ever since

Who are you?

My name is Laura and I just recently graduated with my master's degree in biomedical engineering. It's my dream to go into research of neurological diseases and hopefully be able to find a cure for some of them. I have one cat and still live at home with my parents. Currently, I'm trying to go back to school in order to get my PhD so that I have the ability to teach in a university. I love writing and plan on trying to finish all of my current writing projects sometime in the future.

How were you sucked into NaNoWriMo? Did someone person brainwash you into joining?

I... don't really remember. I think it was someone from NWeb who finally convinced me to try it out.

Was this your first, second, tenth time participating?

This was my fifth year participating.

What was your novel synopsis (or original idea) at the beginning of nano? Genre?

This year's NaNo was a sequel to the one I did a couple of years ago, so I basically just picked up right where the first one left off. I usually stick with fantasy since practically anything goes and this year's NaNo was a medieval fantasy.

Was your synopsis the same or different at the end? Or did you end up writing something completely different?

My synopsis pretty much remained the same throughout it.

Did you finish? What superpowers enabled you to write 50k in one month?

"Finish" is relative. If by finish you mean, hit 50k, then yes I did, but I have not finished the novel as of yet. Honestly... I have no idea since I managed to get to 50k while working full-time.

What method of writing proved to be the most effective?

Pretty much writing in every spare minute I got. Also, word wars proved to be very useful

Did this method involve glue, ropes, caffeine or some other forceful inducement?

Caffeine is my friend during NaNo. Especially during those late nights and early mornings

What lesson(s) did NaNoWriMo teach you this past November?

That I certainly have it in me to write 50k words in 30 days, despite the fact that I had barely any time to write. As a result, time management is key to be able to keep on schedule

Website, blog, twitter, etc you want readers to know about?

If you're interested in some book reviews, check out my blog at http://ellesar2009.wordpress.com/