Elizabeth Gilbert | Nicole Evelina – USA Today Bestselling Author

When I was in college as a business major (my second major was English), there was lots of talk about finding your mentors, those people who would take you under their wing and groom you for future success through advice, modeling positive behavior, and extending opportunities to grow.

The other day I got to thinking about how this applies to my life as a writer. While we tend to have fewer in-person opportunities with our mentors because of geographic distance (as opposed to working in the same office), the internet, and social media in particular, has given us greater access to those we admire.

To truly call someone a mentor implies a special sort of relationship that goes beyond admiration into having changed your life in tangible ways. For that reason (and for the sake of brevity) I’ve narrowed my list to three.

Writing Craft Mentor: Michael Hauge
Having written six books, it may sound weird for me to say I just recently discovered someone who can explain the craft of writing in a way that makes sense to my brain, but it’s true. I’ve tried many books, attempted to worship at the altar of other people’s writing gurus, but nothing seemed to work for me.

I knew the basics of storytelling already, but I didn’t truly understand the three-act structure or the interplay between inner and outer motivations/goals of the characters until a few weeks ago. That’s when I watched a DVD by screenwriter Michael Hauge called Grabbing the Reader in the First 10 Pages. Boom! In an hour or so understood what you need to know and convey about your characters re: goals, needs, etc. Then he tweeted this article on story structure. *Lightning bolt from heaven.* I now understand story structure, plus how the character arc evolves alongside (and intertwined with) the plot.

I’ve spent the last few weeks revising Madame Presidentess based on what I learned and I am in awe of how much better my MS is. This stuff is possible to learn, once you find someone who speaks English instead of Greek. I can’t wait to go back and revise my other books now. In that way, I’m fortunate that I haven’t been published yet.

I have to thank my local RWA chapter for introducing me to Michael Hauge and my DIY MFA program for making me purchase and watch his DVD. Maybe now I can revisit the other people’s works with greater clarity. I am so going to fangirl when I meet him at our October meeting.

Author Mentor: Deborah Harkness

Deb Harkness and me, August 2014

Many of you know that I was fortunate to attend a week-long creative writing course last year taught by Deborah Harkness. I chronicled my learnings from her on this blog, so I won’t go into the details. Oddly enough, as I write this, her second group of students from that class are just returning from their own life-changing week.

But that amazing experience is only part of the story. Long before I was fortunate to meet and learn from her, Deb’s writing inspired me. It’s something about her style, her seamless way of weaving past and present, reality and fantasy into a face-paced story with characters I wish were real. Granted, she’s certainly not the only author to do this, but something about her books has always been special to me. Then when I found out she’s a history professor at USC, I dreamed of taking a class with her. Little did I know I would, but it would be about historical fiction.

Since then, she’s kept in touch with all of us from the class and has remained a model of how to live success with grace and poise. I am honored to call her my friend and will continue learning from her for as long as she’s willing to put up with me!

Inspiration Mentor: Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert and me, July 2014

Some people may say it’s easy to be inspirational when you’re a bestseller. Maybe, but I could name quite a few from whom I draw absolutely no connection. What makes Elizabeth Gilbert different? For me, it’s her willingness to share her personal struggles openly and to give back to the writing community. Her TED talks on creativity and inspiration were my first foray into her genius as a speaker and ability to move me creatively. Then I saw her interviewed a few times on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday and thought, “yeah, she’s one of my people.”

Elizabeth’s relentless optimism and genuinely held belief that we can all live creative, fulfilled lives is part of what keeps me going, especially when rejection inflicts its terrible sting. I call her my guru because it seems like no matter what has happened in my life, she has a quote that makes me feel better and remember why I’m doing this masochistic thing called writing for publication. One of my recent favorites reminds me not to worry about what is trending right now and write what’s in my heart: “Let inspiration lead you wherever it wants. For most of history people just made things and they didn’t make such a BIG FREAKING DEAL OUT OF IT.” Another reminds me not to get too caught up in the goal of publication and just write: “Your own reasons to make art are enough. Create whatever causes a revolution in your heart.”

I realize she is also promoting her next book, but Elizabeth’s sharing of these quotes as well as daily Facebook encouragement is what I need. She’s someone who has been where I am: working for a living while trying to make it as a writer. She’s also been where I hope to be: on the top of the bestseller list. But more than that, she’s shown that a writing career can survive a bomb of a book (every writer’s greatest fear) and come back better than ever.

I cannot wait for the release of Big Magic in September. It’s all about living a creative life. I’m sure it will cement Elizabeth’s place even more firmly as my creative guru.

And let’s not forget the writers who inspire me to greatness every time I read one of their books: MJ Rose, Susanna Kearsley, Patricia Bracewell, Geraldine Brooks, Katherine Howe, Robin Lafevers, Mary Kay Andrews and on and on. I hope that this will be an ever-expanding list, growing as I meet and form relationships with more authors and instructors. The Historical Novel Society Conference, which I will be attending this week in Denver, will be a great opportunity for that. It’s funny, but I always found networking for my day job extremely nerve-wracking and awkward, but when it comes to writing, networking is as easy as breathing. I guess that’s yet another sign that it’s what I’m truly meant to be doing.

Who are your mentors, either as a writer or reader? Whom do you admire and why? Who has affected your life? I’d love to hear your stories.

Elizabeth Gilbert (left) and a very excited me

I’m popping my head out of the research cave to share with you an amazing opportunity I got this past week. Last Tuesday, I had the good fortune to meet author Elizabeth Gilbert as part of her book tour for The Signature of All Things. (If you haven’t read it yet, go, go, go! It’s historical fiction that is so lush, you really feel like you’re there with the characters. Plus, it’s unique to all the other nineteenth century novels out there – I promise you’ve never seen these characters or settings before.)

I first encountered Elizabeth like so many of us, with Eat Pray Love, which had a profound effect on my life, albeit one I can’t really put into words. But how I really came to love her was through her TED talks on creativity. (Here’s are the first on creative genius and the second on success, failure and the drive to keep writing). Both of them made me cry, in a good way, out of pure joy at encountering someone who spoke directly to my artistic soul. Then I read The Signature of All Things (I’m about ¾ of the way through – had to give it back to the library, but now I own it!) and knew she was an author I’d stick with long into the future.

Elizabeth is no less wonderful in person than she is on the Internet. She has the rare gift of being both a fantastic writer and an inspiring, engaging and entertaining speaker. And she’s so human. I found myself in tears (it had been a very trying day anyway) several times while she spoke, nodding my head, thinking, “Yes, yes. This confirms that I’m meant to be a writer.” I’ve included below a recording of her opening remarks and reading from The Signature of All Things. (Not sure why it didn’t give me a proper thumbnail. The video really is there, I promise. Sorry if the sound is low. This is the best I could do.)

Even if you don’t watch that, you may want to see her answer to a fan’s question about where she gets her inspiration. I missed the beginning of her answer, but she started with “Are you ready to get freaky?” and proceeded to explain how she believes ideas are always floating around looking for a home (which is my theory as well. I believe our stories choose us, not the other way around):

Other highlights of her talk/Q&A:

Even though Eat Pray Love was such a huge success, she was not an overnight phenomenon. She was three books into her career before she quit her day job.
She recommends writing every day and using a kitchen timer for whatever time you can allot yourself, even if it’s only 15 or 30 minutes. She doesn’t work based on word count because “you might right one word one day that’s a really important word, but a thousand the next and end up having to delete them all.”
She will be continuing in historical fiction (yay!). Her next book is set in the theatre world of 1940s New York. (Love that already!)
She is still in touch with everyone mentioned in Eat Pray Love, except for Richard from Texas, who passed away three years ago. But they were close friends to the end and she spoke at his funeral.
She talked about the word focus and that it comes from the Latin word for “fire.” The idea is that when people sit around a fire, they inevitably end up all staring into the fire. She emphasized the importance of making sure you have a fire at the center of your narrative to keep your reader’s attention.
Her biggest tip for anyone is to follow a path of curiosity, because that spark of questioning will lead you to your passion in life.
She also talked about how you can tell more truth in fiction than in memoir and many times you end up doing it without even realizing it. She said that while memoirs are true, they are a matter of “making a piece of art out of what happened,” rather than showing you a raw diary. They are by necessity, very polished versions of the truth. In fiction, you can let the more raw versions of yourself out.
Her sister is MG/YA author Catherine Gilbert Murdock.

When she was finished speaking, Elizabeth was kind enough to personalize the already autographed books and sign copies of other books people brought along. I had her sign my copy of Eat Pray Love as well. While she was doing that, I got to talk to her a bit about being a writer and she noticed my tattoos and wanted to see what they said. When it was my turn to get a picture taken, she put her arm around me and said, “oh, you!” in a favorite aunt sort of way. It was a wonderful, uplifting experience that went a long way toward refreshing my well of creativity and hope, which was running a bit dry.

I’m really amazed by the kindness and graciousness of the three authors I’ve been fortunate to meet so far (Alyson Noel, Deb Harkness and Elizabeth). They strong women in their own right and wonderful examples of how to interact with your fans. I hope that I’ve internalized what I’ve learned from them and will be just as pleasant to my fans someday as they are.

If nothing else, they’ve all taught me some important lessons: 1) success is possible, 2) don’t ever give up, 3) it may take time, but it will happen.

Have you ever gotten to meet a famous author? If so, who? What was it like? If not, who do you want to meet?