You are what you create
It is I, Ellen.
WRITER. MOTHER. MAKER OF THINGS.
My job is to be the silent partner behind the scenes, helping authors turn ideas into books. I've edited manuscripts, developed book concepts, ghostwritten chapters, coached writers, and spent countless hours thinking about what makes someone want to keep turning pages.
I tell people, “I’m here to make you look good on paper.”
For years, my creative energy had a job to do. It built businesses. It served clients. It supported authors. It helped other people bring their ideas to life.
Meanwhile, my own ideas waited patiently in the wings.
Essays I wanted to write.
Projects I wanted to start.
Skills I wanted to learn.
Questions I wanted to explore.
Now, it’s time to give my own creative projects that same care and attention.
Enter: Ellen On Paper.
The early lore
Some of us have always been the artsy girls, and some have just discovered their love for crafty hobbies. I, however, was the 4-H girl.
In rural Indiana, there’s not much to do in the summer besides sports and 4-H — especially if you grew up in a house with no video games and a family computer that could only access the internet via a hotspot on your iPhone 4.
Every summer, I'd sit down with the 4-H project catalog and decide what I wanted to try next. Some years it was cake decorating and tin punch. Other years, it was photography, cross stitch, quilting, painting, baking, knitting, geology, model rockets, or whatever happened to capture my attention that season.
Learning those skills usually meant finding someone who knew more than I did and spending time alongside them in their studio. Sometimes it was my grandma. Sometimes it was a neighbor. Sometimes it was an artisan, maker, librarian, or teacher who had been practicing their craft for decades.
Basically, I had a portfolio career before it was cool…or even had a job.
Those experiences shaped the way I still move through the world today. And I learned that curiosity is worth following, making things changes the way you see things and gives you confidence in your abilities, and every interesting skill begins with being willing to be bad at something for a while.
Most importantly, I learned that some of the best parts of life happen when people share what they know with one another.
Even now, I'm constantly searching for people who are deeply invested in their craft. The woman teaching quilting on YouTube. The writer sharing reading notes on Substack. The artist documenting a year-long project. The gardener who somehow turned tomatoes into a personality trait.
I love watching people care about things.
I love learning from people who have spent years paying attention to something I know nothing about.
Ellen on Paper is my contribution to that tradition.
Human writing for human consumption
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Human writing for human consumption ＊
We’re out with lanterns, looking for ourselves
This is the corner of the internet where we’re following our interests, collecting ideas, and sharing the things that make life feel bigger, richer, and more interesting.
Part essay collection, part digital commonplace book, part creative laboratory, part this-is-so-cool-and-you-need-to-see-it-too energy, Ellen on Paper is where I share about books, creativity, motherhood, ambition, making things, learning things, and becoming the kind of person who never stops being interested in the world around her.
Ellen on Paper is for the women who want to try everything — the ones who have never forgotten the feeling when Veronica Roth’s character Four said, “I don't want to be just one thing. I can't be. I want to be brave, and I want to be selfless, intelligent, honest, and kind.”
The women with a TBR so long, it will never be completed in a single lifetime.
The women who save craft tutorials they'll definitely come back to later.
The women who are equally excited by a new notebook, a library card, a quilt pattern, a fresh journal, or a wildly specific rabbit hole they discovered at 11:47 p.m.
The women who suspect that being interesting has less to do with expertise and more to do with paying attention.
The women who believe that being interested in many things isn’t a distraction from a successful life; it is the only way to feel fulfilled.
If that's you, welcome.
We’re in this together.
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