Julie Eshbaugh

Check out Pub(lishing) Crawl!

2012-01-09T00:01:00.000-05:00

Get ready, world...
Prepare to have your socks knocked off by Pub(lishing) Crawl, the latest blogging endeavor by the writers who brought you Let the Words Flow. Today is the official launch of Pub(lishing) Crawl, and we are celebrating with giveaways and the introduction of an exciting new member!
Click here to check out the new blog!

My Writing Resolutions

2012-01-07T14:25:00.003-05:00

Hi All!

I hope you all had a very happy and safe holiday season.

Have you made resolutions for your writing for 2012? My resolutions are generally less like brand new goals than they are the revival of earlier goals that, for one reason or another, I've neglected.
So here are my plans for 2012:

Write every day! I'll be honest - I don't always succeed with this one, but shooting for every day keeps me focused.
Read ever day! I'm miserable if I'm not reading. Why should I let myself be miserable?
Blog more regularly. ;)
Read writing blogs of my friends and favorite authors more regularly... and comment! This year, I want to be better at staying involved in the online writing community.
Forgive myself if I drop the ball occasionally.

Of the entire list, that last one may be the most important. I tend to let one bad week derail me. This year, I'm going to try to shake off those bad weeks and just pick back up where I left off.

Do you have big plans for your writing in 2012? I'd love to hear about them. Please share by leaving a comment!

Coping with False Starts

2011-11-12T13:02:00.002-05:00

(This post previously appeared on the blog Let the Words Flow)

It happens to every writer. An idea comes to you, and you are floating around the ceiling with inspiration. For a day or two, or maybe even a week, you’re ecstatic with the beauty of this concept. You write with an enthusiasm you rarely feel, until… the good feeling is gone.

You can’t say why, but you know this idea has lost your fancy, at least for right now. That initial spark might rekindle later, so you tuck the work you’ve done so far away somewhere, whether it’s in a folder on your desktop titled “Graveyard,” or a trunk at the foot of your bed full of partial manuscripts.

What causes this phenomenon, and how can you avoid it? I can only speak for myself, but here are some things I’ve learned by examining my own short-lived “false starts”:

You don’t have a story as much as an “idea.” An idea is a concept or a premise that sounds cool, but has nowhere to go. “A girl is born with gills” is an idea, but not a story. A story requires a goal, motivation, and conflict. The best ideas in the world fizzle out quickly if there’s nothing for the characters to do. (A good idea can become a good story, of course! But the process of pulling the story elements together is often the task that reveals that your feelings toward this idea are just infatuation, not true love.)

You have a story, but you don’t like the person it’s about. You know that good friend who gets on your nerves so thoroughly, at times you wonder how you stand each other at all? Generally it’s common experience and loyalty that will see that strained friendship through. Unfortunately, those factors don’t exist if your characters get on your nerves. You don’t have a history with your MC. You can walk away at any time. And sometimes, that’s exactly what you do. I’ve gotten to a point with a character where I’ve said, “Why am I wasting my time with you? I could delete you and create someone brand new!” Unfortunately, the whole story usually dies with the main character. A new MC generally takes the story in a whole new direction.

You come to the sudden realization that you are rewriting your favorite book. No one sets out to be derivative. But your favorite (and not-so-favorite) stories have taken root deep in your subconscious mind – the very same place you are trying to coax that next idea from. It’s possible you didn’t recognize Harry Potter because he was masquerading as a girl born with gills, but when it’s revealed that she is the only one to ever face the evil villain and come away alive, having been protected by a now-dead loved one, Harry can be glimpsed beneath the disguise. And once you realize you are reinventing a very well worn wheel, you have to walk away.

You thought it was the real thing, but it turned out to be a passing phase. If you’re going to write a novel, be ready to live with it every day for several years. Committing to an idea is like committing to a romantic relationship – it’s not enough if you really like it most of the time, you need to (almost) never hate it. You can get tired of it sometimes, and maybe other times you see that it has faults, but if you find that at times you loathe it, you should move on. Bad feelings tend to snowball, and the things you don’t like about your story can overshadow its strengths rather quickly. If you have doubts about a story early on, there’s a good chance you fell in love with the idea of a new idea, and not with the actual idea itself.

So what’s a writer to do? Can the “false start” be prevented?

I don’t think false starts can be prevented, because every idea needs to be tested. In my experience, the best ideas and the ones that flame out quickly seem the same in the earliest stages. It’s only after putting the idea on paper that I’m able to see if it has staying power.

More importantly, I don’t think false starts should be prevented. Experimentation is vital to discovering new things. Testing ideas is a big part of being a writer. Sometimes, you look at what you’ve started and feel relieved that you haven’t shown it to anyone, but even your worst writing is writing. You took a chance, and maybe you ultimately shelved the project, but somewhere in that experience, you most likely learned something. Something that will inform your next project. Something that will make you a better writer.

Writers write. Not all of what we write will see publication. Some of it will turn out to be practice. Some of it will turn out to be false starts. But none of it will turn out to be wasted.

What are your thoughts on false starts? Do you think they have value, or do you think they only waste your time? Please post your thoughts in the comments!

Writing Tips for the Horrifically Over-Scheduled

2011-10-30T18:28:00.005-04:00

(Note - this post was originally published on Let the Words Flow, on March 16, 2011. My reference to NaNoWriMo was probably a bit more appropriate at that time than it is today, on the brink of November. I hope that - November or not - these tips are still helpful to the over-scheduled writers out there!)

In the last few weeks, things have gotten out of control as far as my personal schedule is concerned. My “online presence” has really dwindled – I’m rarely on Twitter, the blogs, or even my own email – and it’s rare if I get a few quiet minutes in front of the computer. Despite this epic time-crunch, I still consider myself to be “writing,” and I’m still making forward progress on my current story. It’s definitely not easy to keep going when you find yourself having to choose between writing and sleeping, but there are other ways to keep up the momentum besides living like a sleep-deprived zombie.

Here are some tips for my fellow HOSWs (Horrifically Over-Scheduled Writers):

Remember that every month isn’t November. Don't live in the midst of a never-ending NaNoWriMo. Don’t feel you have to add 50,000 words to your manuscript each month. The key is to work on the manuscript. One day you’ll add 2,000 words. One day you’ll delete 1,000. But even on the days when you edit out most of what you added the day before, you’re making progress!
Write in the shower. Maybe you can’t take the laptop in with you, but you can brainstorm with (hopefully) minimal interruption. Once you've dried off, take a minute or two to write down a few words that can act as memory triggers later.
Invest in a handheld digital recorder. Hit the record button while you’re stuck in traffic and dictate your latest idea for a key plot twist or describe a character in depth. If you feel particularly frustrated with the traffic, describe how your characters deal with frustration. Use the circumstances that threaten to prevent you from writing and turn them into writing prompts.
Don’t forget that handy-dandy notebook! Carry a pocket notebook at all times and don’t preserve it for only your best, most notebook-worthy ideas. Even a moleskine can handle your worst! Give yourself permission to write down ideas that might embarrass you later. Notebooks are also great places to sketch maps!
Keep in mind that writing is not a race! Very little in life is improved by haste. Write your book in the time it takes. After the first one gets published, you'll have plenty of publisher-imposed deadlines to meet.

Do you feel overwhelmed by an oppressive list of time-consuming obligations? How do you make the most of the time you have? Please share your ideas in the comments!

Julie returns to blogging!

2011-10-30T18:05:00.003-04:00

So after a VERY extended absence, I have set a goal for myself to return to blogging! This may be a crazy time to return, since I have simultaneously set a goal for myself to participate in National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, as most of us know it,) AND to train for a half marathon. (Coincidentally, Kat Zhang, my blog-sister over at Let The Words Flow, just posted on her blog The Katacomb that she, too, is training for a half marathon. I guess we're on the same wavelength! Which might be the ridiculously over-committed wavelength. In fact, I'm pretty sure it is. :/)

Am I taking on too much at once? Maybe. Okay -- probably. So I thought one way to ease back into blogging would be to repost here on this blog the posts I contributed to Let the Words Flow over the past few months. (My apologies to those of you who may have already read these posts at LTWF.)

Amusingly, the first of these posts that I will be carrying over is titled "Writing Tips for the Horrifically Over-Scheduled!" I hope that's a coincidence and not a sign that this is not the right time to return to blogging... But I really miss this blog, so I'm taking a deep breath and diving back in.

Here goes!

2011-05-14T11:56:00.002-04:00

I probably should have posted this image a while ago! I'm taking a sabbatical from this blog, but I will be back soon. See you then! (And no, I'm not going to be sitting in the chair in the photo above, unfortunately. *sigh*)

Discover Anagnorisis!

2011-01-12T00:56:00.003-05:00

Okay, guys. Here's another post that begins here and continues over on Let the Words Flow. I hope you're not all getting sick of having to click over to the other blog. I promise to write some posts just for this blog very soon! In the meantime, please let me know in the comments if you feel a bit like I'm "dragging you around the web" to finish a post. :)

Anagnorisis (pronounced something like “and ignore all this,”) is a fancy word that refers to the moment in a novel or play when the hero makes a discovery and moves from ignorance to knowledge. If you’ve heard that classic line of dialogue, “Luke, I am your father,” then you have a clear example of a moment of anagnorisis for a character. Not only is the knowledge gained by an instance of anagnorisis often startling, it is generally game-changing. Once the character has this new piece of information, things usually can’t return to the way they were before.

The Greeks developed the use of anagnorisis through Aristotelian tragedy. In this context, anagnorisis went beyond the simple recognition of some previously unknown fact or circumstance; it generally involved the recognition of a previously hidden “truth.” The hero’s discovery went beyond the sudden awareness of another person, but included awareness of that person’s true nature.

In the Aristotelian tradition, the best tragedies involve a moment of anagnorisis when the hero discovers his or her own true identity or nature. Consider, for example, Oedipus, who kills his father and marries his mother without knowing what he is doing, but later, at the moment of anagnorisis, discovers the truth. Compare this to the tragedy of Medea, who kills her own children, but is aware that they are her children all along. Aristotle believed that the best tragic heroes were those who experienced a sudden understanding of themselves and their actions – an anagnorisis that came too late.

To read the rest of the post click here to go to Let the Words Flow.

The Snowflake Method of Drafting a Novel

2011-01-04T22:20:00.004-05:00

If the idea of methodically building your novel appeals to you, then the Snowflake Method, designed by Randy Ingermanson, might be just what you are looking for. (A link to Ingermanson’s site can be found at the end of this post.)

The Snowflake Method contains ten steps. These ten steps will take you from your concept to a completed first draft.

TEN STEPS:

Step One – Write a one-sentence summary of your novel. The best summary sentence is one that includes a reference to the character who has the most to lose and the thing he or she wants most to win. The one-sentence summary for Suzanne Collins’s THE HUNGER GAMES would be something like this, “A girl tries to stay alive in a fight to the death against twenty-three other teens that is aired on live television.”

Step Two – Expand your sentence into a full paragraph. In this paragraph, you should include the story set-up, each disaster, and the ending. You can decide the cause of each disaster, whether it is internally caused or brought on by external circumstances, and include those details as well.

Step Three – Next, your characters. For each of your major characters, write a one page summary sheet that includes the following:

The character’s name
A one-sentence summary of the character’s storyline
The character’s motivation (what does he/she want abstractly?)
The character’s goal (what does he/she want concretely?)
The character’s conflict (what prevents him/her from reaching this goal?)
The character’s epiphany (what will he/she learn, how will he/she change?)
A one-paragraph summary of the character’s storyline

Read the rest of this post on my group blog, Let the Words Flow, here.

Why I Write for Young Adults

2010-12-29T00:11:00.000-05:00

Today is my birthday, *throws confetti* so I thought that, instead of a typical “Julie post” centering on a specific writing technique, I would post something a bit more philosophical, addressing why I write Young Adult fiction. My birthday seemed a proper occasion to discuss the reasons why a writer who has moved beyond her own “young adulthood” might continue to write about characters in their teens. Tucked in with my “reasons why” are a few “reasons why not.” In other words, YA isn’t for everyone. In explaining why I continue to write for young adults, maybe I can help other writers see why YA might be right – or wrong – for them.

Reason #1 – Teen Protagonists Rock

Why are teen protagonists so fabulous? I could list dozens of reasons, but here are my favorite characteristics of teens, in no particular order:

They are still discovering who they are. They can do something incredible and not seem to be acting out of character, or be going against everything that has defined them for the past ten years.
They aren’t jaded yet. They may think they are, but their ideas are still flexible. Compare your favorite teen hero to his or her parent to see what I mean. Katniss did things in THE HUNGER GAMES that her mother could never have done. Well, maybe her mother could have done those things, before she’d been broken by life. In other words, back when she, herself, was a teenager.
Teenagers are resilient. Their young bodies bounce back. If Haymitch survived some of the physical challenges Katniss survived, the writer might lose some credibility. Imagine Dumbledore in Harry’s place and I’m sure you can see what I mean.
One of the universal truths of humanity is that we all started out young and naïve. We all were children once. We all were teenagers. The experience of seeing the world through young eyes is universal.

Read the rest of the post on my group blog, Let the Words Flow, here.

One More Christmas Song!

2010-12-24T11:16:00.000-05:00

My husband wrote this song years ago at the request of our son's elementary school music teacher. She knew that Gary was a singer/songwriter, and she was looking for an original tune for the kids to sing at the holiday concert. We finally got it posted on youtube this morning, so I thought I would share it with you all. HAPPY HOLIDAYS to your families from mine. :)

Holiday Song Parody - Let Us Write!

2010-12-24T10:16:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays, Guys! I had to share this with all of you. This little parody of a famous holiday song was written for all of us writers by Savannah J. Foley and sung by Susan Dennard, two of my terrific colleagues at Let the Words Flow. Enjoy!

Point of View - First Person, Third Person, or Objective?

2010-12-20T11:29:00.001-05:00

There are few decisions a writer can make that will have a stronger influence on their story than the choice of point of view. The point of view (POV) from which a story is told answers more than the simple question, “Who tells the story?” It determines “How much is the narrator allowed to know?” and “To what extent can the narrator perceive the characters’ thoughts and emotions and share them with the reader?”

There are four basic choices when it comes to POV:

1.) Third person omniscient

2.) Third person limited

3.) First person

4.) Objective

THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT may appear to a writer as the simplest means of telling a story, because the reader can know the thoughts of all the characters and therefore the writer can take the reader to any scene in the story and reveal as much – or as little – of the story as needed. Unlike third person limited or first person, the writer isn’t tied to what a single character sees or experiences.

Here’s an example of a scene from the classic story Hansel and Gretel told in third person omniscient POV. Italics are used to show the places the narrator conveys knowledge of a character’s thoughts or feelings:

“Hansel walked ahead of Gretel; after all, he knew he belonged in the front because Gretel was just a girl. Gretel dropped breadcrumbs behind her as she went, knowing that her bumbling brother couldn’t be counted on to find his way home from the outhouse, let alone from the middle of the woods.

Ahead of them, an old witch waited, her stomach rumbling at the thought of what a delicious dinner the two plump children would make.”

Read the rest of this post on my group blog, Let the Words Flow, by clicking here.

On Making Time to Write

2010-12-07T18:07:00.000-05:00

You may have noticed that I haven't posted on this blog since before Thanksgiving. I have had a myriad of obligations keeping me away - I was sick, there was the holiday, I got very busy with some freelance editing work, and I was asked by my agent for some revisions to a manuscript.

But through it all - sickness, editing, revisions - I still spent SOME time every day writing. Yes, revisions count as writing, but in this case, since I'd already started a new work-in-progress, I felt that I needed to keep working steadily on that draft. So as I pondered this neglected blog, I realized a perfect topic for a post would be how to make time for writing when you can't seem to make time for anything else.

(This will be a short post; as you know, I SWAMPED!)

1.) Decide that your "writing career" is your first priority. This may sound like an impossible dream, and if you make sure the laundry hamper is never overflowing or that every PTA meeting is attended, then, yes, it will be an impossible dream. I use the word "priority" because priorities are our own choices. Granted, that day job that expects your attendance isn't a negotiable priority, but the laundry, the dusting, the PTA meetings - they all need to be weighed against your need to write. Sometimes, you just have to let the hamper overflow for one more day. That's a decision you are entitled to make, because you are a writer.

2.) Make sure that your family understands that writers can't spend all their time in the kitchen or the family room. This is one of the toughest ones for me to follow. When my husband comes home, sometimes he wants to watch TV. (Shocking, I know!) Depending on the program, in some cases he'll watch with the set on "mute" so I can work. Other times, I pick up the laptop and retreat to the bedroom to work. Does this make me feel like a bad wife? Sometimes it does. Sometimes I think I should be more attentive to my spouse. But when my son has homework to do, I don't feel "neglected" because he retreats to his bedroom to get away from the TV. After all, homework is a priority. So is my writing.

3.) Learn to work in short bursts. Every one of us would love to have eight uninterrupted hours to spend getting that problematic chapter just right. Unfortunately, sometimes thirty minutes is all you can steal from the day. One way to get the most out of that thirty minutes is to think about your writing even when you are not actually writing. That way you don't spend the first half of your thirty minutes figuring out where you left off. Keep your novel in your head. Work through that plot twist while you fill the dishwasher. Then, head to the computer, and get a full thirty minutes of meaningful work done. It may not seem like much, but you have moved the manuscript forward.

What methods do you use to carve out a piece of your life to write? Please share them in the comments!

Chekhov’s Gun – How to Make this Technique Work for You

2010-11-22T12:20:00.000-05:00

The term Chekhov’s Gun refers to a literary technique built around playwright Anton Chekhov’s assertion that, “If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don’t put it there.” (This quote is found in endless variations. This particular version is from Gurlyand’s Reminiscences of A. P. Chekhov, in Teatr i iskusstvo 1904, No 28, July 11, p. 521)

Though this pearl of wisdom may be quite clear and helpful to you the next time you find yourself designing the set for your local community theater’s production of ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, perhaps you are currently wondering how Chekhov’s advice could possibly benefit you as a novelist.

Read the rest of the post on Let the Words Flow, here.

I've been given a blogging award!

2010-11-21T22:19:00.000-05:00

I want to thank Carol Riggs and her wonderful blog, Artzicarol Ramblings, for sharing this wonderful blogging award with me. Please check out Carol's blog! As soon as you do, you will have found a new "haunt" for your inner writer on the internet. Carol posts fantastic advice about writing, and she presents it all in a clear way that makes it possible to put the advice to work in your own writing immediately.

As part of the fun of accepting this award, I get to share seven things about me, and then share the award with a few more worthy bloggers. So here goes:

Seven things about me: I'm a left-handed Phillies fan who loves guacamole. I am a member of the cooperative blog Let the Words Flow, and my favorite vacation destination is St. John in the US Virgin Islands. My favorite color is blue but my favorite color to wear is black.

And now, to share the award with other deserving blogs! Please check out these wonderful writing blogs. Each is unique in its approach, and each will help you become a better writer, a happier person, or, (most likely) both!:

http://brookenomicon.blogspot.com/

http://hyalineprosaic.blogspot.com/

http://katacomb.blogspot.com/

http://spiritcalled.blogspot.com/

http://www.nailyournovel.com/

http://susandennard.com/

http://adventuresinagentland.blogspot.com/

Thanks again Carol!

Two Techniques for Creating Vivid Characters

2010-11-16T16:20:00.000-05:00

This will be a bit of a simple post, since I'm currently fighting the flu. (Right now it's a draw, but I'm hoping to emerge the winner in a day or so!)

Creating a vividly drawn, unique, and interesting character... Where does a writer start? I want to propose two techniques for bringing the spark of a real, multi-faceted character to life. One I stole from F. Scott Fitzgerald. The other I stole from Sheryl Crow (and also JD Salinger, but mainly Sheryl Crow.)

Technique One - Fitzgerald - The "Start with a Person" Method:

Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, is widely known to have been the inspiration for the character of Daisy Buchanan, who in turn is believed to have been the inspiration for the "flappers" of the Roaring Twenties. Daisy was a unique, complex character, who didn't seem to borrow from the literary heroines who had come before her. Fitzgerald always upheld that his characters were unique because they started with an actual individual as their inspiration.

Fitzgerald said, "You can start with a person, and end up with a type; if you start with a type, you end up with nothing."

Technique Two - Crow (and Salinger) - The Judgmental Narrator Method:

Okay, maybe Sheryl Crow never taught character development to fiction writers, but she does deserve the credit for this next technique, since her song, "All I Wanna Do," inspired me to create characters in this particular way. Here's a quote from the song that exemplifies this technique:

"'All I wanna do is have a little fun before I die,'
Says the man next to me out of nowhere
It's apropos
Of nothing
He says his name's William but I'm sure,
He's Bill or Billy or Mac or Buddy
And he's plain ugly to me
And I wonder if he's ever had a day of fun in his whole
life
We are drinking beer at noon on Tuesday
In a bar that faces a giant car wash
The good people of the world are washing their cars
On their lunch break, hosing and scrubbing
As best they can in skirts in suits

They drive their shiny Datsuns and Buicks
Back to the phone company, the record store too
Well, they're nothing like Billy and me..."

What I love about these lyrics is the way they not only describe "Billy," but they tell you an awful lot about the narrator at the same time. You learn about the narrator by her internal reactions to Billy - she doubts he really goes by William, even though it's the name he gives her, she considers him "just plain ugly," and she wonders if he's ever had a day of fun in his whole life. Just these thoughts about the man sitting next to the narrator at the bar give you a lot of insight into the narrator herself. The narrator continues with observations about the people washing their cars across the street. It's lunchtime, and while she and Billy are drinking beers, "the good people of the world" are washing their cars, "on their lunch break." Her final observation about the members of the car-washing crowd is that, "they're nothing like Billy and me."

Within this one stanza, Crow has created an idea in our minds of what kind of person Billy is, and even a bit about what kind of people are at the car wash, but she's created an even stronger sense of understanding in our minds of the sort of person the narrator is. A great example of a narrator who reveals himself through his observations of the people around him is Holden Caulfield in CATCHER IN THE RYE. Holden is quite willing to share the details of his opinion of almost every character who crosses his path, and by so doing, he reveals the most about himself. (Salinger, of course, deserves credit for inspiring this second technique, but to be fair, it is Sheryl Crow and "All I Wanna Do" that I turn to when I need to be reminded of this method.)

Do you have specific techniques or methods that you use to help you create vivid characters? Please share your ideas with me in the comments!

Wow! I've received ten queries to critique!

2010-11-12T18:28:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone who tweeted or retweeted about the query critique giveaway, and to all of you who have submitted a query. I'm SO excited about this! I see a lot of potential in these letters, and I'm already enjoying working on them. There's something really exciting about helping to shape an attention-grabbing query for a piece of writing that deserves to be read.

So thanks to all of you. Now I'm off to work on query critiques!

I want to critique your query for FREE!

2010-11-11T21:06:00.000-05:00

If you're working on your query letter, or your query is currently circulating but not getting the response you were hoping for, I would love to take a crack at helping you tweak it. I'm in the midst of launching this blog and my freelance editing services, and I'm enjoying a GRAND OPENING state of mind. So if you would like a free query critique, send it to me via email at julieeshbaugh[at]gmail[dot]com .

I'll take the first ten that come in. When I receive the seventh, I'll post and tweet a "last call for free query critiques" alert.

So send me your query letters! I can't wait to roll up my sleeves.

Letters from your Characters

2010-11-08T13:54:00.001-05:00

Wouldn't it be great if, when you went to your mailbox today, you found a letter inside from the main character of your WIP telling you just how she feels about the central conflict in the story? Or maybe she wrote a love letter to another one of your characters, and somehow it was misdirected to you? Imagine what a resource this letter would be!

When I do my outlining for a new WIP, I write up a lot of backstory. I also do character sketches, to help me have a definitive idea of each of my characters - not just hair color, eye color, and favorite movie, but what they would do on a perfect spring day, where they would go on vacation if money was no object, and - come to think of it - how they feel about money, in general. This is a fairly standard practice for character building, but I feel it only gets me so far.

That's why I've taken to writing first-person narratives - letters to me, if you will - in the voice of each character. These narratives generally address the main conflict faced by that character in the story, and how she or he feels about it. Does she believe that the problem is insurmountable? Does she still have hope? Who is she counting on most to help her? Who does she expect to cause her the most trouble?

I also write first-person narratives by all individuals involved in a romantic relationship in my story. For each one, I ask the character to tell me:

What do you love most about this other person?

What would you miss the most if he or she were taken away?

When did you first feel an attraction and what triggered it?

And, well, I'm sure you can come up with a lot more questions along this line.

When I wrote FIREFLY, I referred to these narratives constantly. They helped to maintain consistency within a character, but they also helped me see that, despite consistency, all well-rounded characters have internal conflicts they are dealing with. People are filled with contradictions. Your characters need to be, too, if they're going to leap off the page as real people with real complexity.

When you ask your character to tell you how he feels about the central conflict, chances are his answer will be complicated. It won't just be as simple as, "I hate my father and wish he were dead," because where's the true conflict in that? Nothing is ever that straightforward. If it were, in chapter one your character could pull out a shotgun and shoot his father and the story would be done. Instead, your character's answer to how he feels about the central conflict will be layered, complex, and in some ways, contradictory.

For you, as the writer, the secret to your character's arc lies hidden in these contradictions. Early in the story your character may respond most to the tug of one attitude toward the central conflict. But as the story moves along, he may feel the influence of another attitude toward that conflict, and he will begin to change. By the time he's completed his character arc, he may find himself in a place of compromise between these two contradictory attitudes.

So ask your characters questions. If they give you canned answers, or if they don't want to talk, find out why. Make them open up to you. Read your characters' diaries. (I won't tell on you!) In life, prying into a person's secret inner world might be a no-no, but in creating authentic characters, it's essential. Your readers will be thrilled that you did.

Idea Generation

2010-11-06T13:30:00.000-04:00

Where do you find your ideas?

This can be a difficult question to answer, since usually, an idea seems to come out of nowhere. One day you're driving in your car or taking a shower and BAM! An idea hits you. Some of us even wake up in the middle of the night and have to grope for a pen on the bedside table to jot down the idea that came to us in our sleep.

All of this would seem to imply that we as writers have no control over our ideas. I disagree. These ideas, I would argue, are the product of a subconscious mind that has been "trained" to act as an "idea generating machine."

Here are five suggestions to prime your mind to subconsciously formulate story ideas:

1. Always ask "what if"? You may have heard never to open a query letter with a hypothetical question - and I heartily agree with this advice - but that shouldn't mean that hypotheticals are useless to writers. Most of us think this way already. If it rains for three days straight, we say, "Imagine if this were snow!" If it starts to storm, we say, "Imagine if you had to leave on a flight on a day like today!"

Since most of us already think this way, I'm simply suggesting you take your questions a bit further, depending upon your genre, of course. You may ask yourself, "What if it never stopped raining ever again?" or "What if the rain that fell was acid and destroyed everything it touched?" You may think of the flight taking off in a storm and ask, "What if two long separated lovers were seated next to each other in a jet taking off in horribly bad weather?" or "What if lightning hit an engine just as a hijacker was storming the cockpit?"

Just pushing your "what ifs" a bit further will jump start your imagination.

2. Never accept that there is only one solution to a problem. If you have to pick up Joannie from cheerleading and Rebecca from field hockey, and they are ten minutes apart and you have only five minutes to make the trip, you can probably figure out at least one solution. Maybe Joannie catches a ride with another family. There's a solution, so the problem is solved. But as a writer, I suggest you train yourself to come up with a few extra solutions. Rebecca could walk to the local library and wait there. Joannie could ride her bike to practice so that you only need to worry about Rebecca. By looking for multiple solutions to problems, your brain acquires the habit of thinking creatively.

3. Ask questions like a child. I remember when my son was small he would ask questions all the time. "How does an antenna work?" "Why do fluorescent lights make my skin look blue?" "How does the TV find the right show when you change the channel?" I'm embarrassed to admit how many times I had to answer, "Go ask Dad." Shouldn't a grown woman know how an antenna works? And if she doesn't, shouldn't she be anxious to find out the answer? Unfortunately, as we get older, we let the day-to-day questions, "How am I ever going to pay the cell phone bill?" crowd out the questions that lead to much more creative thinking.

4. Read widely. While it's important to read in the genre you write, you should also be reading fiction you don't write, as well as magazine articles, the newspaper, travel stories, or science journals. Recently, while the miners were trapped, I developed a voracious interest in Chile, and tried to learn as much as I could about this country I'd rarely thought about before. Not long before that, a photo on a magazine cover spawned a frenzy of research into Machu Picchu. To date, I've never used anything I've learned about Chile or Machu Picchu in any of my fiction, but it has helped train my mind to imagine different environments, and the lives of the people who live there.

5. Think like a "social anthropologist." The best way I can explain what I mean by this it to tell you about a recent experience of having my car towed in Philadelphia. Finding my car missing from the place I had parked it started a series of events, each one more frustrating and inconvenient than the last. Hours later, my husband and I found ourselves in a neighborhood I most likely never would have wandered into, trying to negotiate with a very unreasonable man through a window so darkly tinted as to make it impossible to see his face. He directed us to a corner auto tags service - a tiny room where the none-stop sale of lottery tickets appeared to be the only purpose of the business. Once we managed to find someone who spoke enough English to understand what we needed, we were able to have proof of insurance faxed to the establishment so that we could then return to the rudest man in Philadelphia, talk to him through his bullet-proof tinted glass, and finally, claim our vehicle.

You may be wondering what this has to do with anthropology. Good question! After all, this experience was far from educational. Yet, it did introduce me to people, places, manners, and routines that are outside my typical life experiences. Through it all, I tried to make a mental image of the landscape, the behaviors, and the expectations that were unique to this particular situation. For that afternoon, I was a "social anthropologist."

As a writer, I'm sure you know that your mind is working on a subconscious level all the time, even while you sleep. Tell your subconscious that you want it to come up with new ideas and premises for you. Teach it as many creative thinking techniques as you can. Then, just get out of its way.

Do you have unique methods for generating ideas? Do you already practice any of these habits? I'd love to hear from you in the comments.

Welcome to Julie Eshbaugh's new home on the web!

2010-11-05T15:02:00.000-04:00

Welcome! I'm so excited to be launching a new blog in combination with newly offered editing services. If you're not familiar with me, please click the bio tab above. I look forward to getting to know a great group of writers through this new blog. :)

Cheers!

Julie