Writing

I love summer! For three or four months out of the year, our family grills and eats outside whenever possible, until cold weather puts an end to it all. But when it comes to writing fiction, grilling is always in season, and it’s guaranteed to add a depth of flavor to your characters and a sizzle to your plot. Let me explain. You may have heard it’s a good idea to interview your characters before you write your story. I say grill ‘em. Turn up the heat and make them sweat. In addition to getting their basic bio information and physical description down, you’ll want to dig deeper by grilling your main characters with these questions. You may be surprised by the flavorful blends their responses will give you! 1. The question: What do you want more than anything? What’s your goal right now? The purpose: Her goal will be what she’s striving for throughout the book. This is what you need to place in jeopardy the entire time through a variety of obstacles. How to use it: It should be clear in the first chapter what the character’s goal is. (Yes, goals can change during the course of the story, too.) When you grill another character and learn what his goal is, you can put these two goals at odds with each other. For example, in my novel Wedded to War, Charlotte Waverly’s goal of being a nurse for the Union army conflicts with Phineas Hastings’ goal to keep her in New York City and marry her. Charlotte is also at odds with her mother Caroline’s goal to keep her safe. 2. The question: What would happen if you didn’t reach the goal? The purpose: This helps you figure out if her goal is big enough to carry a novel. If it wouldn’t be a big deal  for her goal to be unmet, she needs a bigger goal. The stakes must be high—life or death, even. This could be a literal life or death situation, or a professional, emotional, or spiritual death. How to use it: You’re going to have to disappoint your characters by blocking their goals at least a few times in the course of the novel. Will she back down or try harder? Will his heart bleed or turn to stone? Watch how Phineas reacts to the obstacle to his goal in this scene: Phineas should never have let her go. He crumpled Charlotte’s latest letter and jammed it into his pocket, nearly popping the stitches with the force. He should never have let her out of this city, out of his sight. The evening’s chorus of chirping crickets seemed to be laughing at him incessantly. His breath came faster, his legs propelled him farther down Twenty-first Street in a blind fury. He kept his head down so no one would see his eyes under the brim of his black bowler.   He had written to Charlotte begging her to come home now that disaster had befallen so near to her. He had been kind. Romantic, even. At least he had thought so. But firm. And she had written back—but not for days—and said no.   She said no to him.   She had defied him, like his mother had always defied his father. The thought made him sick. Then we get into what’s really bothering Phineas—the fear that he’ll either lose Charlotte before he can marry her, or end up a hen-pecked cowardly husband like his father had been. How far will Phineas go to keep that from happening? 3. The question: What are you really good at? What do people like about you? The purpose: Find her strengths. Readers will not find your character like-able unless there are things to like or love about her. How to use it: Use her strengths to set her up as a sympathetic character. But later in the book, make her fail at the very thing she thought she was really good at. This will bring her to a dark moment, or a crossroads, where she has to decide what to do. A choice that may have previously seemed out of character for her would now be believable. 4. The question: What do you hate about yourself? The purpose: Learn her flaws. It could be a body part she isn’t satisfied with or a single or habitual sin. A follow-up question would be: What’s your biggest secret? How to use it: If she hates something about her appearance, it will color how she carries herself, or the clothes she wears. If it’s something deeper, it may cause her shame, guilt, or an inability to form close relationships with others.  Whatever she hates about herself must come out in the open at some point. Then what will happen? When we meet Irish immigrant Ruby O’Flannery, in Wedded to War, we see immediately what she hates about herself: her posture deformed by needlework. Later in the book, she hates something else—her new biggest secret—and this drives the rest of her storyline. Here we see her weighing her options: Ruby couldn’t sleep.   The same mattress that had once cradled her body in softness now felt like a bed of nails, the sheets like weights pressing the air out of her lungs.   Like a body. Hot and heavy.   Ruby threw off the covers and jumped out of bed, gasping for air. Her racing pulse sounded loudly in her ears as she knelt down on the cool hardwood floor for the seventh night in a row, unshed tears swelling thickly in her throat. Would she ever be able to sleep in a bed again without being haunted by an unforgiving memory?   . . . Now, when each night’s blackness rendered her blind on a bed again, her mind reeled her back to the very moments she wanted most to forget. What had she done to deserve that?   If Matthew found out, he would kill her.   If Mrs. Hatch found out, she would fire her.   If the American Moral Reform Society found out, they would turn their backs on her.   God already knew, and could never forgive her. He had turned His back on her already.   She was on her own now more than ever before. 5. The question: What is the most dramatic event that has happened in your life, and how has it shaped you and your beliefs? The purpose: First, it gives you more backstory to help you understand her. Second, you’ll get to see if her faith and beliefs are shaken by circumstances, or if trials make her stronger. How to use it: This will help you understand her motivations as she navigates life throughout the book. If you want her to change how she responds to hardship, you will want to introduce another character or event that will change her mind. The most dramatic event for the Waverly family was the death of Charlotte’s father in a cholera epidemic. The memory of his kindness to the patients in the hospital prompts her to apply to be a nurse. The memory of his death from exposure to disease fuels Caroline’s desire to keep Charlotte away from hospitals. One is motivated by mercy and service, the other by self-preservation. 6. The question: What is your biggest fear? The purpose: This will tell you how to rock her world. How to use it: Your characters must face their biggest fears in the book. How far will they go to stay away from what terrifies them? It depends on the intensity of their fear. 7. The question: What is your most treasured possession and why? The purpose: This will tell you what’s important to her, both materially and nostalgically, since most objects are made more valuable by the memories attached to them. How to use it: If the object is small enough, use it in a mannerism, or see what happens if this object is lost or stolen. Better yet, what would cause your character to willing part with it? In Wedded to War, Phineas has a gold pocket watch from his father which he holds whenever he feels insecure. Readers can tell he’s feeling threatened when he grips onto his watch. Obviously, if you’re going to really grill your characters, you’ll need to ask all the pointed follow-up questions you can think of, and then some. But these will certainly get you started. Grill your characters with questions like these and your plot will go from flat and bland to spicy and robust. Conflicted and well-drawn characters make a story sizzle.

Recently a writer friend emailed me with this: “I noticed on your Facebook post this morning that you said you had ideas ‘again.’ Does that mean that for a while you didn’t?” She was feeling such pressure to be inspired and write another book, and it just wasn’t coming together for her. Do you ever feel this way? Yes? Welcome to the club of Almost All Writers Almost Everywhere! Inspiration is a slippery thing. Sometimes I have way too much of it to be practical, and other times, I am bone dry. Here’s what I shared in response to my writer buddy’s email: “Yes, friend, yes, for a while I did not have any ideas. I was completely burned out, and the pressure to perform also sucks the creativity from me. In fact, my publisher sat me down for dinner last year in Chicago and asked what I wanted to write next—anything was fine—and I could not come up with a single solitary answer. I had nothing. Also, I’ll tell you that I’ve had some false starts on my way to my current ideasthat are totally pumping me up. I spent lots of time researching a couple of topics that just fizzled out because I couldn’t get passionate about them. So if you’re having half-hearted ideas, keep looking for something that captures your FULL heart. You might not find it right away. And remember that reading good books is part of your process. Fiction and nonfiction. Just read. Sooner or later you’ll find something that snags you, and you should just pull on that thread and see where it leads. But try not to put pressure on yourself to find that gem right away, because then it isn’t fun anymore. Just explore.” This is not just what I told my friend, and what I’m telling you right now—it’s what I tell myself, many times. For those of you who have a fondness for lists, as I do, perhaps this will be helpful for you as well: Seven Steps on the Journey to Inspiration Read. As I mentioned earlier, this includes fiction and nonfiction. I was inspired to write my Heroines Behind the Lines Civil War series when I was reading dusty archival materials in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. But the ideas I have brewing right now hatched because I read the little cards next to displays at a museum my family visited. Read books on writing. Read good books. Read. Ask questions. My favorite question to ask while plotting always begins with “What if…”. If you’ve got your story and characters lined up but it all lacks a certain spark, interview your characters. (It’s OK. You’re a writer. Having conversations with fictional people is part of the job.) Watch your favorite movies. Write down what you love about them. Characters’ virtues or flaws? Story line? Plot twist? Dialogue? What makes that story great? Can you do that in your own writing? Pay attention. People watch. Listen when people tell stories about their lives. Read newspaper headlines, and the buried articles, too. Watch human nature react to different situations. All of this is ripe with possibility. Think hard, without distractions. This means separating yourself from email, Facebook, Twitter, phone calls. Shut it down, writer. Interruptions are not conducive to creative genius. Some of my best thinking has been with a notebook and pen in hand. Take care of your brain. Brains function best when we get enough sleep, eat the right kinds of food, and get a moderate amount of exercise. Many writers go for walks, bike rides, or jogs to rev up their creativity. Me? I watch my kids try to do a pilates video while I sit on the couch. That counts, right? No, seriously, I only did that once. I actually do break a sweat a few times a week now just in case it will make me think better. Pray. We should all be praying every step of the way that God will guide us to the stories He wants us to tell, and then guide us as we tell them. And now: repeat. Ironically enough, inspiration is not something I can guarantee with “seven easy steps” after all. You may have to go back and repeat this entire thing, and perhaps more than once. But if you invest in the process, you’ll find your inspiration. Be ready to grab hold!

If you're a beginning writer, and have been discouraged by the stuff that's been dribbling from your proverbial pen, allow me to share some really great news with you. If you can understand this now, and really internalize it, it will help you more than you can imagine. This will set you apart. Writing is hard. "Right," you're saying. "Enough with the preamble, already. So what's the good news?" Writing is hard.   That's the good news. The good news, dear writer, is that the words on your page do not disappoint you because you have no talent, but because writing----good writing----is hard work. And this is good news (I'm not kidding) because it means that if you work hard, consistently and over time, you'll improve. I promise. [Tweet "Writing is hard. That's the good news."]   [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1124", "attributes":{"class":"media-image alignright size-medium wp-image-2663", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"225", "height":"300", "alt":"DSCN8119"}}]]The process of writing my first novel, Wedded to War, had a lot in common with my 8-year-old daughter's Suzuki violin method: Before she drew her bow across her strings for the first time, she listened to her CD of music that she'd be playing. The parallel in writing, of course, is that we must read good books. It is non-negotiable. This should also make you quite happy. ;) The music book of instruction is also indispensable for my daughter. It doesn't just have songs, but diagrams showing posture and techniques. When I first launched into fiction writing, I bought pretty much every variation of "how to write a novel" that my local Barnes & Noble carried. I asked my favorite authors which craft books they recommended, and I bought and read those, too. (I still go back to them with every novel I've written since.) My equivalent of a music teacher was that I hired a book coach to help me make course corrections as needed. The next two novels I wrote, I hired My Book Therapy to just help me hash out my outline, and then I took it from there. The really hard work, for both violin and writing, is the actual practice. And believe me, my first draft(s) had much in common with the dying-cat sounds of a beginning violin student. I never felt like I got the book "just right." In fact, when Wedded to War was in the galleys stage (when it's printed for proofing), I requested sixteen hundred more changes. (My editors ignored most of the requests.) Last, hard work pays off. Wedded to War was a Christy Award finalist in both the First Novel and Historical Fiction categories and won the gold medal in Historical Fiction from the Military Writers Society of America. I tell you this not to say that I am talented, but to say discipline works. Even those who are born with musical ability cannot just pick up the violin and play Bach perfectly. Neither can we writers expect to get it right without putting in the work. Moreover, if you go through a phase of not writing for a while, and you try again only to discover you're writing disappoints you, take heart. It's not that you've lost your talent. It's just that you're out of practice. I get rusty, too. The best remedy is to keep at it. The ratio of talent to discipline among those who write well is surprisingly skewed toward discipline. Someone very wise once said that writing well is a matter of 10 percent talent and 90 percent discipline (read: constipated first drafts, gut-wrenching revisions, writing without a muse, etc.). This means that it's not enough to have an innate gift for storytelling. It also means (this is the good part) that those of us who are willing to work hard at it can succeed. Now, when I say "succeed" I'm not saying "get published," although that often comes along with it. To succeed, in my estimation, is to write something truly worth publishing. Make writing well your first goal. Seek publication, if you like, after you seek to hone your craft. [Tweet "To succeed is to write something truly worth publishing."] I was so encouraged by the following clip from Ira Glass (of NPR's This American Life), and I hope that you will be too. Don't you love that? What you're going through (and what I still go through as multi-published author) is totally normal. Do a lot of work. Fight your way through it. It will get better. Now, get to writing, writer! *Related: On Writing, and In Praise of the Crummy First Draft: 5 Things It Does For Us You may also like: Follow Jocelyn's board The Art and Science of Writing on Pinterest.Follow River North's board The Writing Life on Pinterest.

You know I'm about to start writing another Civil War novel when I receive four more Civil War movie soundtrack CDs in the mail from Amazon! My most recent special deliveries: Lincoln, Gone with the Wind, Gods & Generals, and Dances with Wolves. I love writing with music in the background that stirs emotion and evokes a sense of Civil War drama. Here is my complete Civil War playlist. So far. :) Movie soundtracks are wonderful because the difference between a slow, contemplative song and a fast-paced "action" scene song remind me that as a novelist, my scenes should be about action and reaction. A novel full of action but with no time for the characters to digest what that means to them or for them could be a roller-coaster ride, but super shallow on character development. Likewise, a novel that's all about interior monologue needs to be spiced up with some action scenes. So writing with soundtracks has worked well for me. BUT-when I'm editing, I don't listen to any music at all. I don't want the music in the background to trick me into thinking my writing is good if it really doesn't stand on its own. By the time I'm done writing, the novel should be able to evoke its own emotion, without a soundtrack in the background. Now that I have my soundtrack all lined up, it's time to really get serious about my writing time. That means I'm going to drop off the blogosphere and Facebook for a little while. I'll pop my head up every once in a while, but for the most part, I need to buckle down and crank out the chapters. Yankee in Atlanta is calling my name. And I'm pretty excited. It's going to be a great story...

[[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"679", "attributes":{"class":"media-image alignright", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"193", "height":"300", "alt":"WeddedtoWarcover-193x300"}}]]by Jocelyn Green I should have known better. But when the local reporter came to interview me about my newly released novel, Wedded to War, I told her that my kids, ages 3 and 6, would be home with us, but that they “knew how to stay quiet.” Can you guess how that interview went? Let’s just say that by the end of it, the reporter shifted her line of questioning from the Civil War inspiration to: “This is your fifth book since I was here last time. How do you write with two little kids running around?” Great question! I’m practically starved for writing time most of the year, and if you have a family or a job or some desire to do anything other than write, I know you can relate. I do have one writer friend who, when a book deadline approaches, packs up and heads to her cabin in the mountains for weeks at a time to just get ‘er done. How nice for her. But since we can’t all have the cabins of our dreams, and the time to use them, what’s a writer to do? The only answer is to maximize the time that we do have. Here are ten tips I’ve picked up over the past several years. 1) Write without editing yourself. (Yet.) I was an editor before I wrote any books. But when I let my editor’s brain take over my writer’s brain, I played a mental tug-of-war on the page, rewriting a scene (or even—dare I say it?—a single paragraph) several times and not making any actual progress on the word count in a given day. Since then I learned that we write with one side of our brain, and we edit with the other side. So don’t try to do both at once. Just write the thing first. You can edit later. In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott says: “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something—anything—down on paper. A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft—you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft—you fix it up. You try to say what you have to say more accurately. And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it’s loose or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy.” I have gone through more than three drafts, I’m sure, but that’s beside the point. The point is—get it down. Editing slows the process in the initial stage. 2) Don’t do the laundry. At least, not during your writing time. Writing from home, it’s so tempting to “just throw in one load.” But if you put a load in the washer, you’ll probably want to put it into the dryer. And if you put it in the dryer, chances are, you’ll want to fold the clothes before they wrinkle. The interruptions pile up faster than the laundry. The same concept goes for washing the dishes, dusting, etc. It might seem like just a few quick minutes to straighten up, but if it’s taking away from your writing time—and more importantly, from your focus—it’s not allowed. I read somewhere that after every interruption, it takes about 20 minutes to get fully back into the groove of your previous momentum. I can’t cite this source, and I’m not sure how they did this study, but it feels true enough, or close enough to the truth, for me to ruthlessly squelch the urge to do just a tiny chore during writing time. 3) Set goals. And make them just beyond what you think you can achieve. Whether you try to hit a word count or write a certain number of scenes per day, aim for something. If you’re at a loss in this area, the book 90 Days to Your Novel spells out all the daily goals for you. You can adjust the timeframe as you see fit. 4) Write “as the bullets fly.” I’m stealing this phrase from Pamela Redmond Satran in a recent article she wrote in a recent issue of Writer’s Digest. She shares how after she had a baby, she waited until the quiet moments of nap time or after bedtime to write, but it was never enough. Then, she had an epiphany. She says: “Forget about waiting for the quiet moment alone in the pristine room: I was never going to get that again, at least not for a long time. And so rather than stealing writing time in my office, I moved my laptop to the living room. Instead of writing late at night or early in the morning before my child woke up, I started doing it while she was right there. I wrote while I watched the 802nd viewing of Cinderella. . . ” And the pages added up. This is something I am learning to do right now. My “office” (aka laptop) now travels with me to the playroom, the family room, and the backyard. I use www.logmein.com to access the files and email on my desktop computer. 5) Be anti-social. When you’re up against a deadline, shut down your email, turn off Facebook, Twitter, etc. One writer I know deactivates her Facebook profile when she’s writing, and reactivates it once she’s done. If you really can’t go totally dark, tell yourself you will only do social media during one (or two) designated small slots of time a day. Being anti-social in real life helps, too. For weeks or months, I just have to say no to most of my social life. Pampered Chef party? I'll order online. Girls Night Out? I'm eating at my desk in my writing pants. Fantastic movie playing? I'll see it on Netflix later. (You get the idea.) One important exception-I make a point of deliberate one-on-one time with my husband, and of course some quality time with the kids. I can make all kinds of sacrifices in the name of deadline, but I do draw the line somewhere. 6) Write when you’re fresh. If you do your best writing in the morning, don’t whittle away that time responding to emails. Write first. The emails can usually wait. I used to tell myself I could write in the evenings, but I’m so exhausted by the end of the day, one hour in the morning is worth three hours at night! 7) Get up earlier. Hey, I’m not a morning person either, but I found that by getting up at 5am instead of when my kids get up at 7, I can double the amount of writing time I usually get in a day. Amazing! 8 ) Skip writer’s block. If you have trouble writing a certain scene, skip it and move on to something else you can get into. You can always go back to that trouble spot later and fill it in. Just keep writing. 9) Create time. What can you delegate to others to free up more writing time for yourself? Would it be worth it to have a maid service come in so you can use that time to write? Child care is always a dilemma when they are young. I hired a babysitter (make that seven babysitters—long story) last summer. This summer I am bribing them. If they are good in the morning, we go bowling or to the water park in the afternoon. I’m also trying to write as the bullets fly! If they are too young for this to work, you might want to find another mom and swap kids a couple times a week. The other relentless time-consuming issue is meal preparation. I don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen before and after we eat dinner, but I also don’t want to resort to fast food or take-out. So I make meals ahead of time and stock the freezer with them. Check out the book Don’t Panic! Dinner’s In the Freezer for plenty of recipes. When I run out of my own freezer meals, I'm not above Stauffers, Marie Calendar, etc. 10) Pray. This is the easiest thing to do, and so important. Before your fingers touch the keyboard, pray. Pray that God will give you focus, clarity, creativity, whatever it is you most need on that day. And ask others to join you! Many writers, myself included, have a prayer team supporting them throughout their writing project. Or just ask a few trusted friends for prayer on a more spontaneous basis. I cannot even count the number of times I have asked friends to pray, and then within days (sometimes within hours) that specific request was answered above and beyond my expectations and hopes. Stories are powerful. Jesus used them (parables) to communicate profound truths. Why not pray that God will help us tell the story He wants us to tell, the way He wants us to tell it, and that He would help us do it before our deadline? If he could feed the five thousand from two loaves of bread and five fish, He can help us make the most of our writing time. How do YOU make the most of your writing time?