Eve Annajane Writes, LLC

As you may have surmised from the numerous places it is plastered around this website, my name is Eve Annajane, and I’m a writer. 

I wrote my first (very) short story from the backseat of my grandmother’s car in a Target parking lot when I was just four years old, and haven’t quite found a way, or a reason, to stop since.

In the lifetime since, I have continued writing and studying the works of others whose pens are drawn to paper. By the time I reached the ripe age of 16, I had amassed enough poetry to fill a collection. So, determined to get my words into the world, I saved up money waiting tables at a local creperie and self-published my debut collection, the girl who bled ink (which you can find here), the August before my junior year of high school. 

At this time, I was also involved in local writing communities and social activism groups, particularly Students Demand Action which allowed me to use my poetry to help spread awareness about the necessity of common sense gun control. I knew then, as I know now, that words have power.

When I graduated high school in 2019, all I could think about was continuing to learn and write, and luckily I was headed to a very good place for that: New York University. Taking six English classes my senior year (permitted by the fact that I avoided any science or math) had done nothing to satiate my appetite. Unfortunately for myself and pretty much every other college student, the Coronavirus pandemic derailed my freshman year and sent us all home. 

While being secluded to my suburban New Jersey home was a far cry from what I expected of campus life at NYU, fortunately my studies themselves were not greatly impacted by the change. I credit this to the professors who made extensive efforts to ensure that the depth of our studies and our connections to the materials were not hindered by remote learning (and, I suppose, a bit to the verbal nature of literature studies generally).

In the midst of the pandemic, my maternal grandfather passed away. He was an extraordinary man with an extraordinary story. Despite his loving and kind nature, his inner demons led him to crime and drugs early in his life, and he was sent to prison just a few months after my mother was born. While there, he worked tirelessly to get sober, complete his college education, and help other addicts. After his release, he continued to mentor and aid people who struggled with substance abuse and mental health and, by the time he retired decades later, he was the Juvenile Substance Abuse Program Coordinator for the State of New Jersey. His was a story of true redemption; the grandfather with whom I grew up was too affable and cuddly to even imagine in prison, but as I matured and learned more about his story, it was clear how his hard-won wisdom and self-knowledge grounded every part of how he lived his life and interacted with others.

My grandfather had touched many people’s lives as a family member, a friend, and an addiction counselor, and so his sudden passing left behind a whole network of people who dearly wanted a chance to honor and memorialize him. Because it was unsafe to gather for an in-person funeral service, my mother and I encouraged those who knew and loved my grandfather to write tributes to him — letters, stories, prayers — expressing their love and the impact he had on their lives. We compiled these tributes, along with background information, legal documents, and letters sent between my grandparents during the prison years, into a memoir we then shared with those who knew him. We decided to publish the memoir, which you can find on my Publications page, in the hopes that it may find someone else who was struggling with addiction and inspire them.

In the winter of my college sophomore year, I began offering freelance writing and editing services on Fiverr. Inspired by entrepreneur Alex Fasulo on TikTok (@alexfasulobiz), I was excited by the idea of being able to choose exactly what projects I undertook. I was, from the bones out, a storyteller. I needed the fiction, needed the fluff and the flowery prose. I needed the freedom to use commas liberally, and with reckless abandon. 

So, when I sat down to figure out exactly what sort of services I would offer on Fiverr, I was determined to ensure that storytelling would be a part of my workday. I designed my Outlining Gig specifically for this purpose, thrilled by the idea of working in various genres and of helping authors smooth out the knots in their plots. This is probably still my favorite service to perform for writers, and I often feel more like I am excavating the story more so than creating it. My Editing Gig also gave me the opportunity to work on an array of stories, as well as to brush off the skills I had cultivated as a teacher’s assistant. Because I love screenwriting, I also set up an Adaptation Gig to help people bring their stories from the page to the screen, and I have since expanded my offerings to include ghostwriting as well.

One incredible benefit which I had not expected when I first set up my Fiverr was that it afforded me the opportunity to work with returning clients on their stories at multiple stages, helping grow their project from a single idea to a completed and polished manuscript. I discovered a deep fulfillment in guiding and aiding authors through the process of bringing their work into the world. My own long nights toiling to the end of a first draft, compounded by my two experiences with self-publishing, had taught me that, though rewarding, writing is a daunting path to walk alone. From sitting down to write the first draft to figuring out cover design, everything is easier with support, and Fiverr has enabled me to be that support for others. 

Since this discovery, I have worked with multiple literary agents and book coaches to learn more about the publishing industry — both the traditional machine and the emerging self-publishing market. While I am passionate about growing my freelancing business, I am also aware how important collaboration is to this industry and want to take part, in any way I can, in helping other authors get their stories to readers. I have been especially fortunate to partner with Danielle Anderson, an incredible book coach and the founder of Ink Worthy Books, a full-service editorial and publication company which specializes in memoir, self-help, and personal development books. Danielle’s belief that every book has the power to change the world resonates deeply with me, and I have thoroughly enjoyed lending my editing eye to a diverse variety of passionate new works through our collaboration.

Throughout all of this, I have of course been writing. I am currently working to complete a literary fiction manuscript titled Murder Your Darlings (the first chapter of which you can find on the blog now!). The novel focuses on an editor named Sofia as she tries to write her debut novel, a process which is both complicated and catalyzed by the apparition of her main character. This has been an incredibly fun novel to write, as the form is a bit experimental and open to play, and I hope the excerpts which I share here prove as entertaining to read as they were to create! Simultaneously, I am editing a few previously completed manuscripts in the Young Adult genre. I also completed a second poetry collection as my final project at NYU, which you may see more of soon.

So, that’s me! I can’t wait to share my thoughts and writing with you on this blog, and I encourage you to connect with me on Instagram (@eveannajanewrites) and Goodreads (@EveAnnajane).

Thank you for reading.