Ep. 242: Jennifer Craven on How to Get the Words On the Page

Jennifer Craven is the author of “A Long Way From Blair Street” and “All That Shines and Whispers,” both works of historical fiction. In addition to her novels, she had bylines in various publications including the Washington Post, HuffPost, Motherly, Today’s Parent and more. When she’s not writing, she teaches fashion merchandising at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pa.   

How Do You Write Podcast: Explore the processes of working writers with bestselling author Rachael Herron. Want tips on how to write the book you long to finish? Here you’ll gain insight from other writers on how to get in the chair, tricks to stay in it, and inspiration to get your own words flowing. 

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Transcript:

Rachael Herron: [00:00:00] Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron. On this podcast, I talk to authors about how they write, what their process is and how their lives fit together. I’ll keep each episode short so you can get back to writing.

[00:00:15] Well, hello writers! Welcome to episode #242 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. So thrilled that you’re here with me today, as I’m talking to Jennifer Craven, who was such a joy to talk with, and we really talk about how to get the words on the page, which is something that we are all always dealing with. So, that is coming up in the interview section. A little bit about what’s been going on around here. Y’all it’s getting closer, six weeks out. We’re six weeks away from moving to New Zealand. And when I say those words out loud, I don’t even understand them. I keep stopping in my tracks and thinking, oh my God, we’re really doing it. So, I know maybe you’re getting tired of hearing that. Sorry about that. It is just what is going on. We got a beautiful bouquet of flowers from the buyers of the house, saying they can’t wait to live here. So I’m thinking that they don’t want to cancel the contract yet. We still have, it is Thursday. We still have five days to go before escrow closes and I will believe it when I see it, but we just got the flowers yesterday and they’re gorgeous. And I just thought that was the most thoughtful, sweet thing ever. In the meantime, I have been actually getting work really done. I’m still working on Life in Stitches, the revision and the adding the extra chapters to it. I’m planning on hopefully starting to record the audio book next week because we have two more weeks in this house and I have an empty closet and I got all this stuff to line it with. So, I’m going to do that and record it before we go. 

[00:01:57] I also got another idea for a new book. They just keep coming to me. But this one is kind of sticking. I may see if I can write it while I’m doing a couple of other things. I always talk about how, for me, it is best to focus on a project and stick to it until it is done and then I pick up another project. However, there is an exception in my world with this and that is sometimes I am able to work on a fiction project at the same time that I’m working on a non-fiction project. And that’s what this would be. So, I could keep working on these non-fiction projects that really need to get off of my desk while perhaps I am writing a thousand words a day-ish or so on this new project. I will just say that it involves organized religion and tarot, and things that delight me to think about writing about, I don’t know if I ever told you all, but in my youth, I think that kids either go to sex, drugs, rock and roll or religion, and I was that teenager. Oh my goodness. I was Pentecostal, speaking in tongues, that kind of thing for about two years of high school. My hippie parents were incredibly upset about this. I think it was my best way of rebelling was basically becoming a Republican and a Pentecostal at the same time. Both of those things passed right around the time I got my first girlfriend, which changed everything and the church didn’t want me, at that point, I wonder why. But it would be really fun to write about that stuff. I dunno, it feels fun and dangerous. And, I shared this somewhere. I can’t remember where, but Hush Little Baby is to date my best book. It is my strongest work. Super proud of it. People are loving it. The people who are reading Hush Little Baby came out last month, loving it. I will say that people who are reading Hush Little Baby, are not that many. It is not selling well. Books right now, a brand new books, especially hardcover fiction is just not selling. 

[00:04:06] So, my book isn’t selling. That’s why I may not be a thriller writer for much longer, or I may have to take a break from it. If I want to write thriller, this is, these are my guesses. If you happen to be my publisher and you’re listening to this number one, I know you won’t. Number two, cause you’re very busy, Stephanie. But number two, I also know how publishing works. My first book did pretty well, very well. My second, and I’m talking about my thrillers, my second thriller, which just came out, Hush Little Baby, is not doing well. Which means that if I don’t earn out or get close to earning out my contract, the advance that they gave me, then they can’t financially offer me a new contract, because I’ve already been a blot against their bottom line, right. So, I know in my heart that perhaps I won’t be writing thriller for a little while. And honestly, my heart is okay with that. I’m just so filled with all these other book ideas that are not thrillers. 

[00:05:02] So that is all right, but it’s something I really wanted to make clear and actually made myself a note of this. And I can’t believe I remembered to say it, but there’s this myth that a good book will sell well. That is not true. Commercial viability has nothing to do with quality. And you’ve seen this. You’ve seen crappy books outsell all the other books. And you’ve seen your favorite book failed to perform well in the marketplace. Every once in a while, it will go together. A great book will sell well, and those are the ones that we celebrate. But, I’m far enough along in my career and I’m happy to report that I know that bad sales have nothing to do with the quality of the book. And that’s fine. I can hold both things in my head that I wrote a really good book that people love and also nobody’s buying it. I don’t know why I feel so cheerful about it, but I do. Because I know that this, I’m not in this for one book. And I bet that if you’re listening to this podcast, you’re not in it for one book too.  You were possibly in this game for the one book you’re writing right now, and then you want to get it out there into the world. The best thing you could be doing while you’re trying to get that first book out into the world is writing the second book and the third book and the 15th book and the 25th book. 

[00:06:18] You don’t have to go up to 25 if you don’t want to, but you’re a writer, you’re going to keep writing. And that is the thing, like while my book is either becoming a bestseller or failing to sell or somewhere in the middle, which I’ve been kind of on all of those spectrums, except for the extreme bestseller. I’d like to try that someday. While all of that is happening, it doesn’t really matter. That’s the part I have almost zero control over. I can Instagram about it. I can write blog posts. I can write articles and try to send people towards me so that then they then discover the book. But that kind of marketing is very hard to do. I can’t do much. I have no control. So, I choose to let go of that and work on the books that are thrilling me. The ideas that literally keep me up at night and I can’t stop thinking about, so that’s what I’m doing. And that is what I would encourage you to do, too. 

[00:07:14] If you are thinking hard about marketing, if you’re thinking hard about how to get an agent, number one, if your book is not done and revised a bunch of times, and it is the best, and you’re done to the best of your ability, you don’t need to do that right now. You don’t need to be researching that and figuring out how to do things. You need to be spending your time writing and revising the book so that then you can get it off of your plate and start writing the next one. When you get closer to releasing your book, you can start thinking about all that other stuff, but I’m just gonna encourage you to put the time in on the hard stuff. It’s the easy stuff is thinking about marketing. The easy stuff is thinking about what, where’s the publishing market right now when it comes to middle grade fantasy. That’s fun. Of course, you want to research that rather than doing the work, but again, get comfortable with doing the hard work of sitting down, keeping your butt in place, doing uncomfortable work. Anything else would feel better. But you know, that after you’re there 15 or 20 minutes, you slip into it and suddenly it starts to feel good to work. 

[00:08:18] So, I would challenge you if you haven’t done any writing this week, pick a time and a place, set yourself down and do a little bit. This is the work of your heart. Listen to me less and write more. I know that you can do it. I know that you have it in you. That’s why you listen to podcasts like this. That’s why you’re here, because writing is inside your heart. So please do some of that for yourself. Come find me on the internet, tell me how it’s going. And in the meantime, let’s get into this interview with Jennifer Craven, and I wish you very, very happy writing my friends. 

[00:08:53] Hey, you’re a writer. Did you know that I send out a free weekly email of writing encouragement? Go sign up for it at www.rachaelherron.com/write and you’ll also get my Stop Stalling and Write PDF with helpful tips you can use today to get some of your own writing done. Okay, now onto the interview.

Rachael Herron: [00:09:11] All right. Well, I could not be more pleased today to welcome to the show, Jennifer Craven. Hello Jen!

Jennifer Craven: [00:09:15] Hello! Thank you so much for having me. 

Rachael Herron: [00:09:17] So happy to have you. Let me give you a little bit of an introduction here. Jennifer Craven is the author of “A Long Way from Blair Street” and “All That Shines and Whispers,” I love that title, both works of historical fiction. In addition to her novels, she had bylines in various publications including the Washington Post, HuffPost, Motherly, Today’s Parent and more. When she’s not writing, she teaches fashion merchandising at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania. That’s why you look so cool. That whole fashion merchandising thing. So welcome to the show! 

Jennifer Craven: [00:09:50] Thank you. 

Rachael Herron: [00:09:52] Let’s talk about your writing process because obviously you’re a busy person and you do a lot of different things. 

Jennifer Craven: [00:09:57] Yes. 

Rachael Herron: [00:09:58] How do you get it all done? 

Jennifer Craven: [00:10:00] You know what? It’s not easy. I don’t think any writer would ever say it was easy.

Rachael Herron: [00:10:04] Oh my god, if they said it was easy. I’d probably boot them up the show, 

Jennifer Craven: [00:10:08] Honestly. Seriously. 

Rachael Herron: [00:10:09] Just like, click the hang up button. 

Jennifer Craven: [00:10:11] Yes. So, I mean, for me, it’s more of, kind of like, you know, the idea spark and then finding time to just kind of like, get it all, get all the words out, you know, and then go back and sort of revise. But yeah. So, you mentioned that I do teach there, like that. I do have kind of that day job thing going on, but in addition to that, I have three young kids. So,

Rachael Herron: [00:10:30] What are their ages? 

Jennifer Craven: [00:10:32] Eight, six, and four. 

Rachael Herron: [00:10:33] Oh see, that is, I don’t know how. Got to tell us how. 

Jennifer Craven: [00:10:37] That’s what a lot of people say to me. They’re like, how on earth? Like a lot of my friends have kids around the same age, you know, that sort of thing. But they play really well independently and they know that I write. They know that I’m a writer. We talk about that kind of stuff. They, you know, they show their books for like show and tell on, you know, like zoom. And,

Rachael Herron: [00:10:55] Oh, how cute.

Jennifer Craven: [00:10:56] I know, so, honestly, there, they just really kind of get it. And, but I, but I’m also very conscious to say like, okay, if my kid needs me, I’m going to stop what I’m doing and give my kid the attention. So, it’s a lot of maybe like I’ll bust out like a quick paragraph and then, you know, go do a puzzle on the floor or like, I’ll be coloring in a coloring book, like thinking about my plot. You know, that kind of stuff. So, it’s really just kind of like a balance, but yeah. So, it’ll be after the kids go to bed and thankfully mine go to bed like at a pretty decent hour. 

Rachael Herron: [00:11:27] Oh, that’s nice. Yeah. 

Jennifer Craven: [00:11:28] Yeah. Or weekends, or, you know, my husband’s great and he, you know, helps out. But honestly, when I really get in like the writing groove, it like flows. So, you know, I can really just kind of like, get it going and I get a good chunk done a lot of times. 

Rachael Herron: [00:11:44] I think that seems to be one of those blessings, hopefully given to most parents who have this, but I think there’s so much, and this is my guessing. So, you tell me if I’m right or not. But there’s so much that you can’t do that when you can let it flow, you have to let it flow. Like it’s just got to go. 

Jennifer Craven: [00:11:59] Oh, for sure. And that’s so true. You know, especially with first drafts, because sometimes I can get stuck in my head and over analyze what I’m writing and then I’ll say like, no, stop. Just get it out, just write. And then you can go back later and it’s probably going to be garbage and you might delete it all, but you know, at least it’s something there and you can like work with it and craft it from there. So yeah, I have to like really stop myself from trying to edit as I go along.

Rachael Herron: [00:12:28] Are you more of a plotter or a pantser? 

Jennifer Craven: [00:12:31] Hundred percent plotter. 

Rachael Herron: [00:12:32] Wow! Talk to me about that. 

Jennifer Craven: [00:12:34] Yeah. So, I am not a spontaneous person in, so like the idea of just like going by the seam of my pants gives me extreme anxiety. So, I’m like highly organized. I like lists. I like reminders. In fact, my office space is really a corner of my kids’ playroom. So, you know, I kind of have this, like, we have this agreement that I don’t want toys in my little area, you know, that kind of stuff. But I have a little, 

Rachael Herron: [00:13:02] That’s really beautiful though. Like they have the full reassurance that you’re right there. 

Jennifer Craven: [00:13:06] Yes. 

Rachael Herron: [00:13:07] But you’re busy.

Jennifer Craven: [00:13:08] Yes, 

Rachael Herron: [00:13:09] You’re doing your job and they’re doing their job. Yeah.

Jennifer Craven: [00:13:11] I mean a lot of times and I’ve snapped like kind of like selfie pictures for, you know, my Instagram where it’s like, I’m sitting here typing and my four-year-old is sitting right here, like playing cars, you know? So it’s kind of fun, but I do have this one little wall space next to me. And I recently just put up this big, huge piece of paper and I’m like plotting things and I have notes and I have pictures, ‘cause I like to like visualize characters and that sort of thing. So yeah, I’m definitely a planner. Definitely a plotter. 

Rachael Herron: [00:13:40] That’s awesome. I wish I could be more of a plotter someday, someday. What is your biggest challenge when it comes to writing?

Jennifer Craven: [00:13:47] Probably like that whole perfectionism idea, to be honest, you know. Just thinking about like, too far in advance of like, well, what am I going to do once the, and it’s kind of like, Jen, just stop, just be in the moment. Write what you’re thinking and you worry about all that other stuff later. That’s, I kind of have that problem in general and in life, you know. 

Rachael Herron: [00:14:07] Yeah, me too, me too.

Jennifer Craven: [00:14:9] You know? But, 

Rachael Herron: [00:14:10] You’re making it sound easy, though. How do you actually do it? Like when you’re at the desk and when the, how do you do it when the scene is just sucking?

Jennifer Craven: [00:14:18] Maybe take a break or maybe just think like, all right, I’ll come back to this, you know. I know I want to have this scene, but it’s really just not coming to me right this second, but I might have something else in my head. If I have another scene, I’ll just jump ahead, like, you know, have a page break and start something else and then I’ll come back. I don’t like that because I like, you know, that order sort of thing, but I’ll do it. And if I don’t have that secondary scene, it’s like, all right, maybe that’s my signal that I just need to like, step back for a second, take a little break, go for a walk, whatever, you know. Writer’s block happens. It’s a real thing. 

Rachael Herron: [00:14:52] It’s hard when we’re, when we have the time, when you don’t have much time to get it done, that must be really difficult when you do feel that blockage.

Jennifer Craven: [00:15:02] Right. I mean, yeah, I’ve listened to so many author interviews and things, and obviously authors who are older than me or whose kids are grown, that kind of thing. And they’re like, oh, I wrote all day and I, you know, sip my coffee and or whatever. I went away for the weekend to write. And I’m just like, what? You know.

Rachael Herron: [00:15:18] It must be nice.

Jennifer Craven: [00:15:19] I couldn’t even imagine. I have like at least 15 more years till something like that would be possible, you know, but it’s something to look forward to, I guess. But on the flip side, I liked having my kids around and I think it’s important for them to see me doing something that I love and, you know, they understand that, like feeling passionate about something and also understanding that like, mommy works, like I have things to do, you know? So, 

Rachael Herron: [00:15:45] I think that’s really, really, really beautiful. I love that. What is your biggest joy when it comes to writing? 

Jennifer Craven: [00:15:52] Definitely just hearing people’s reactions to my words, whether it’s like an essay that I’ve written for someplace or the books, you know, I’ve just had a flood of people just tell me the really nice things, you know. I had one person who I’m friends with on Instagram, who really is kind of like a new social media friend where we don’t know each other in real life and she sent me like a really sweet message. And those sorts of things just are really uplifting and validating that what you’re doing is, you know, not just for yourself, but other people are getting something out of it too. So, I mean, I would write, regardless. I would write if no one read it, but my grandma, cause she would read everything, you know. That sort of thing, but it’s really nice to hear other people’s validation. And if someone tells you otherwise, they’re lying.

Rachael Herron: [00:16:44] Do you, keep those at a certain way?

Jennifer Craven: [00:16:47] I mean, I definitely screenshotted that message from the one person. I did send it to like my mom and I was like, look how sweet this was. You know, it kind of made my day, but otherwise I just remember it and try to like live in the moment, whether it’s like, you know, with a friend or a neighbor, or I had a book signing like last, you know, week or two ago. And just really trying to remember those moments. 

Rachael Herron: [00:17:07] You had like an in-person book signing?

Jennifer Craven: [00:17:08] We did. I mean, I’m in a small town at a small local bookstore and we all had massive social distancing.

Rachael Herron: [00:17:13] Oh, that sounds so great. 

Jennifer Craven: [00:17:15] It was nice to kind of be able to get back in, in front of people and, and that sort of thing.

Rachael Herron: [00:17:19] Yeah. The reason I asked about saving it is because people who say that those things don’t light them up, I think are lying, like you said. And I really believe in saving them. I have something called a mash notes folder and the emails that touch me the most, I save in there for like a rainy day for like the worst day ever. I’m saving them. I’ve actually never had to go in and reread them. And I don’t, I’ve never felt the urge to reread them, but I think at one point I’m going to have a terrible, terrible day and I’m just going to have to go back and reread them. So,

Jennifer Craven: [00:17:48] Yeah. That’s a great idea. I love that. I mean, reviews online are always there, but those extra special things that were just sent to you personally. Yeah, for sure.

Rachael Herron: [00:17:56] Yeah. And the problem with the reviews online, is you know, then there’s the one stars also there, you know, you don’t want to read all of them. Yeah. Can you share a craft tip of any sort with us? 

Jennifer Craven: [00:18:07] So for craft, I kind of touched on this a little bit earlier, but I think probably just trying to like, get, just get the words out and not being like too stuck in your head. And then my other thing I was going to talk about was the plotting, which you brought up as well. And I 

Rachael Herron: [00:18:26] Well, let’s go a little deeper with the plotting. How do you do it? Are you keeping it in an Excel spreadsheet or in a notebook or what? 

Jennifer Craven: [00:18:33] It’s a lot of my head and a lot of stuff comes to me at night, which doesn’t, it always, you know, in the middle of the night. So, I might like jot something down on the, like the notes app on my phone so I can remember it in the morning, things like that. But, my husband’s really great because we kind of like sometimes bounce ideas off, or I’ll say, like, I kind of had this idea and he loves movies and movie kind of buff. So he has that like storyline sort of ability to what makes a good story. Not from like a writing perspective, but from a movie story.

Rachael Herron: [00:19:00] A story’s a story.

Jennifer Craven: [00:19:01] Yeah.

Rachael Herron: [00:19:02] If somebody understands story, they get it.

Jennifer Craven: [00:19:03] Right. So, I kind of usually have a general idea or I want to write a book about, it’s like kind of, sort of set in this sort of scene or whatever, and then I’m sure some of your listeners have heard of like the snowflake theory, where it kind of grows. 

Rachael Herron: [00:19:17] Talk to us a little bit more about it because I’m actually, it’s one of those series I’ve always meant to look at and I, I’m not very clear on that. So can you tell us about it.

Jennifer Craven: [00:19:22] It’s really kind of pretty simple, but just like a snowflake, kind of how there’s like a center, you kind of have like that really small idea. And then each little branch of like the snowflake would be kind of like growing it bigger and bigger and bigger. So, there’s, if you go to like a website, there’s all kinds of explanations, like detailed explanations of how to do this, but essentially, it’s really just starting small and then adding a layer, adding a layer, adding a layer. So I usually kind of have that original idea. And then think, okay, well, how could I up the stakes? Or how could I add more tension or okay, this character’s arc is going to do what you know, so, and then it just kind of builds from there. 

Rachael Herron: [00:20:02] I love that. I’m in that delicious period right now where I’m like trying to decide what book I’m going to work on next. So, I think I’m snowflaking all over the place and that’s, that’s really fun. So what thing in your life affect your writing in a surprising way? 

Jennifer Craven: [00:20:20] I would probably say teaching.

Rachael Herron: [00:20:22] Yeah, how so?

Jennifer Craven: [00:20:23] Just because I come in contact with so many people. So, I teach college and so, they’re adults. I’m not teaching like elementary school. So, I’m having conversations with these young adults all the time. So, I don’t really write Y.A books, but they’re sort of in that demographic. So, sometimes they’re kind of stories or experiences can inspire some ideas for me that I could then merge into like the adults’ realm. Yeah. Or tie in, like, sometimes I like to have a character who is kind of in that Y.A age range, but it’s not like the main focus, so it doesn’t become a Y.A book.

Rachael Herron: [00:21:02] Right. 

Jennifer Craven: [00:21:03] So yeah, it’s kind of interesting that the students, cause I, you know, college, it’s like a whole cross section of people and in my department is primarily female. So, I have kind of like a lot of those girl issues and cliques and those sorts of things. So, it’s interesting to see where those kinds of things end up in my books. 

Rachael Herron: [00:21:25] Can I ask a really dumb question? I don’t really know what fashion merchandising is.

Jennifer Craven: [00:21:30] Oh yeah. So, fashion merchandising is basically kind of like the business side of fashion. So,

Rachael Herron: [00:21:35] Okay, that’s what I assumed, like the marketing and the sales.

Jennifer Craven: [00:21:38] It’s more like buying and planning, those sorts of things. Visual merchandising, styling. All of those sorts of things. So yeah. It’s not like, we’re not teaching like the fine arts of sketching and draping. Not that kind of thing.

Rachael Herron: [00:21:50] Right. How does that inform your work? Does any of that kind of? 

Jennifer Craven: [00:21:55] The fashion stuff? 

Rachael Herron: [00:21:56] Yeah. 

Jennifer Craven: [00:21:57] I always find myself wanting to drop it into my books. Like in the one that I’m sort of querying right now out in the query world is, you know, the one I mentioned the dad wearing like his Ralph Lauren buttoned down and, you know, he’s expensive loafers and that kind of stuff. So that comes really easy to me, describing clothing. I mean, I, you know, I have a master’s degree in textiles, so I’m very in tune with like fabrications and how something would like drape on the body, you know. So sometimes I might go a little overboard on that because it’s just so natural, but it makes for a good description.

Rachael Herron: [00:22:32] It does. And actually, that’s a really nice bonus skill to have, because I feel like I’m always, if they’re not wearing something wool and knitted, I don’t know how to describe it. They’re wearing, they’re wearing clothes. Their bodies are covered in the way that should be covered legally. Yeah. That’s all I have.

Jennifer Craven: [00:22:47] We’re just at like a big benefit gala. So they were wearing like brocades and all these Italian, you know, so that was kind of fun. 

Rachael Herron: [00:22:54] I love reading those kinds of things. Okay. Speaking of reading, what is the best book you’ve read recently and why did you love it? 

Jennifer Craven: [00:23:00] I just finished. I feel like I was late to the bandwagon, The Vanishing Half.

Rachael Herron: [00:23:05] Oh my gosh. I’m the last of the band, right? It’s like on my Kindle and I haven’t started it yet. You loved it?

Jennifer Craven: [00:23:09] Okay. So, I was waiting for my library to open back up. Cause I want, I like to try to support my local library. And so I just got that two weeks ago, finished it in less than a week. So good. It was, it met all the hype for me. It was really great for fiction. And then before that, I actually read Hidden Valley Road. 

Rachael Herron: [00:23:30] Hmm, I don’t know that one.

Jennifer Craven: [00:23:32] By Robert Kolker, it was, I want to say it was maybe 2019, but it’s a true story based on a family in Colorado Springs who had, this was, would have been in maybe the 70’s –ish. 12 children, and six of them are, were officially diagnosed with schizophrenia. So, it was like a wild, true story, family story, but it also kind of delved into like the science behind it and the research and that kind of stuff. So, it was fascinating, but because it was a true story, it was just like, it was also, it read like a novel 

Rachael Herron: [00:24:07] I love those, kind of non-fiction. 

Jennifer Craven: [00:24:08] Yeah, so that’s definitely one to check out. 

Rachael Herron: [00:24:11] Thank you! Thank you. My TBR list goes deeper by the second. Okay. So, can you tell us about yourself, your most recent book and where we can find you on the internet?

Jennifer Craven: [00:24:21] Absolutely. So, my most recent book was All That Shines and Whispers. 

Rachael Herron: [00:24:26] It’s such a good title. Let’s talk about that again. Like, it’s beautiful.

Jennifer Craven: [00:24:30] Thank you so much. It came out in February. And it’s basically a re-imagining of the Sound of Music. So, it’s kind of like where the story ends or leaves off at the end of the film, kind of what happens next. So, if anyone is a fan of the Sound of Music, I think that you will like the book.

Rachael Herron: [00:24:50] I’m like a super fan. 

Jennifer Craven: [00:24:53] So am I, it’s my all-time favorite movie. And every time I would watch it and my kids and they know all the songs and all that kind of stuff, the film credits are rolling. They’re going up over the Alps and I’m like, I want it to keep going. I want more, you know, I want more drama and whatever. So I played with it. I had some liberties of imagining character lines and that kind of stuff, but I think, you know, it’s really just kind of like a fun, but some surprising twists, you know, that I sort of re-imagined, and that one, yeah. So, it’s a pretty quick read, but I had a lot of people saying like, oh my gosh, this totally like brings back the movie and it’s very nostalgic and all of that kind of stuff.

Rachael Herron: [00:25:32] Oh my gosh, I cannot wait to read this. I may start it tonight in bed. I think I need exactly that. And where can we find you out there on the internet? 

Jennifer Craven: [00:25:39] So I’m most active on Instagram. I’m @jennifercravenauthor   and a little bit on Twitter (@jencravenauthor), but I’m not, you know, super, super active there. I’m also on GoodReads, so I was posting about like, where you can, you know, what I’m reading and that sort of stuff. Mostly Instagram. 

Rachael Herron: [00:25:56] I love Instagram. And while my dog barks us out, I will just say, thank you so much for being with us, Jennifer. That was so, so, so awesome. And I wish you happy writing and I’m sorry about the dog.

Jennifer Craven: [00:26:08] That’s okay.

Rachael Herron: [00:26:09] Take care.

Jennifer Craven: [00:26:10] I’m so glad that we could chat. I appreciate it. 

Rachael Herron: [00:26:11] Me too. Alright, happy writing.

Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, www.rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at www.patreon.com/rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers rachaelherron.com/write/

Now, go to your desk and create your own process and get to writing my friends.