Writers in the Storm

by Eldred “Bob” Bird

There’s no doubt 2020 has changed some of our writing habits. In the years BC (Before Covid), one of my favorite writing exercises was people watching. I’d tote my laptop to parks libraries, pubs, and a whole host of other public places. This is where I found inspiration when building characters or looking for new and interesting ways to represent human interactions in my writing.

I paid close attention to things like body language, facial expressions, and all the little nuances that set someone apart and made them stand out from the crowd. I listened in on conversations and tried to guess where the person talking was from based on their accent and use of slang. I made up stories about the couple whispering at a table in the dark corner of the bar. This was my creative playground.

But then things changed.

Bars and restaurants are now half deserted or closed, faces are covered, and social distancing and mask-muffled voices makes it difficult to eavesdrop for those little tidbits that helped me bring my characters and dialogue to life. This ‘New Normal’ was crippling my creativity. So, what’s a writer to do during a pandemic?

Adjusting to the New Normal

If there’s one thing we writers are good at, it’s using our imagination. It’s the bread and butter of our existence. I figured if I applied some of that imagination, I could find a new approach to people watching and get my character hunting back on track. Here are a few solutions I came up with.

 The Big Cover-up

Masked faces are one of the biggest game-changers, but instead of worrying about what I can’t see, I now pay more attention to what I can see. Not being able to focus on full facial expressions has made me much more aware of just how expressive the eyes alone can be. Cheeks elevating, eyebrows arching and scrunching, pupils dilating and shifting around the room, foreheads wrinkling—all tell me something about the emotional state of the person I’m observing. I’ve also noticed an increased use of exaggerated hand gestures.

How someone wears their mask may also give character clues. Is it below the nose? Are they wearing a cheap disposable mask, or a high-end reusable one? Is it colorful, or basic black? Maybe they’ve personalized it or refuse to wear one at all. These details speak to the personality of the wearer and help to develop characters as well.

Video Voyeurism

The proliferation of work-at-home and video conferencing has given us a peek in the windows of our coworkers, family, and friends. Instead of gathering in conference rooms, cubicles, restaurants, and bars, we sit in front of a screen with a camera pointed at our faces and into our private spaces.

Video conferencing has made me more aware of who has pets (and spoils them), who has kids (and how those offspring behave), and what kind of knick-knacks everyone has on their desks and tucked in bookshelves. Paying attention to what’s going on in the background has given me all kinds inspiration for personality quirks and created questions for my imagination to feed on. Even what virtual backgrounds someone chooses to display can tell me something about them. It also makes me wonder what they might be hiding (like the disaster area in my office).

Into the Great Wide-open

I’ve learned a lot watching how people handle the new normal inside. I’ve found it just as informative to observe how they act when they get outside. People watch in the parking lot of your local supermarket for an hour and you’ll see what I mean. Everyone has their own little quirks.

Some people don the mask before getting out the car, while others wait unit the very last second when they get to the store entrance. Then there are those who argue with the employee at the door because they don’t want to wear one at all. My favorites are the ones who rip off their masks as soon as they step outside. They scrunch it tight in their fist and draw in a deep breath, as if they’ve been deprived of oxygen and are about to pass out.

There are also those who wear the mask in their own car even when they are alone. I imagine these folks masking up before stepping out of the house and keeping it on until safely locked back inside. These are the people we used to make fun of for always have a bottle of hand sanitizer in their pocket. Who’s laughing now?

Some Final Thoughts

Just because we’re not currently allowed to get too close to other people doesn’t mean we can’t still watch them. We just have to watch in a different way. Pandemic or not, the world changes every day, and we are constantly changing with it. I’ll admit it’s usually a gentler curve rather than the left turn we’ve been dealt, but the bottom line is we will adjust and survive, as we always have.

Has 2020 altered your writing habits? How have you adjusted to the changes?

* * * * * *

About Eldred

Eldred Bird writes contemporary fiction, short stories, and personal essays. He has spent a great deal of time exploring the deserts, forests, and deep canyons inside his home state of Arizona. His James McCarthy adventures, Killing Karma, Catching Karma, and Cold Karma, reflect this love of the Grand Canyon State even as his character solves mysteries amidst danger. Eldred explores the boundaries of short fiction in his stories, The Waking Room, Treble in Paradise: A Tale of Sax and Violins, and The Smell of Fear.

When he’s not writing, Eldred spends time cycling, hiking and juggling (yes, juggling…bowling balls and 21-inch knives). His passion for photography allows him to record his travels. He can be found on Twitter or Facebook, or at his website.

by Ellen Buikema

One of the most valuable qualities of writing YA Literature is how it addresses the needs of its readers. Young adulthood is a tumultuous time of evolving, searching for self and identity, growing and changing, transforming from the world of childhood to that of adulthood. This rite of passage is a distinct part of life, marked by specific needs—emotional, intellectual, and societal.

Many adult readers enjoy YA novels in part because it allows them to travel back in time to revisit events of their youth, cheering for the protagonists and agonizing with them. There can be a sense of catharsis, following the protagonists on their journeys.

Modern civilization has left a gap. In many societies elders no longer lead their youth through a rite of passage or coming-of-age. YA stories can assist in fill that gap, helping young adults to experience these transitions through the written word.

Samples of YA novels in various genres

• Western: Shane, by Jack Schaefer
• Fantasy: The Queen of Nothing, by Holly Black
• Horror: Anna Dressed in Blood, by Kendare Blake
• Paranormal: Vampire Diaries, by Richelle Mead
• Crime: The Naturals, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
• Steampunk: Leviathan, by Scott Lesterfeld
• Historical Fiction: Code Name: VERITY, by Elizabeth Wein
• Romance: Along for the Ride, by Sarah Dessen
• Memoir: Ordinary Hazards, by Nikki Grimes

There are many YA novels that cross over several genres. For example, The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, covers fiction, romance, dystopian science fiction, fantasy, action, and adventure.

Rules of the YA Road

The kids are in the front seat.

Adults in Young Adult stories should take a backseat to the teens, as well as to the action. Adults may appear when needed, and then go away. The protagonists must make their own decisions, go forward with the plan, and figure out their dilemmas themselves. Otherwise the book will be unsatisfying. The struggle needs to be real.

Protagonists Need to be Relatable

Recognizing yourself in the pages of a YA novel sends the message that you are not alone.

Problems posed in Young Adult fiction don’t have to be limited to teen problems, although there are plenty of those. The teen protagonist may try to save the family by coming up with wild schemes to pay the mortgage, like composing a tune that allows for teleportation, or building a self-refilling refrigerator. Anything goes.

Many protagonists have issues in common.

• Struggling with the motivation to move forward
• A need to be accepted by peers, and parental acceptance at a deep level
• Determining who to trust
• Battling depression and anxiety
• Self-respect and standing up for what you believe in
• Intimate relationships
• Facing torment from peers
• Drug use and abuse

Every one of these problems creates stress for the characters and helps with relatability for the reader.

The themes in Young Adult novels are adult in nature, but not graphic.

Point of View

The story’s point of view determines how the tale will be received by the reader.

Most Young Adult novels are told from either first-person or third-person perspective. First-person adds intimacy. It brings the reader into the personal experience of the narrator. Third-person, particularly omniscient, allows the reader to catch any clues the characters miss.

There is no right or wrong.

Choose which perspective works best for you and the story. you might begin the first draft in third-person close past-tense, decide that doesn't work for you, and then go back to the beginning and write in first-person present-tense. If after a few chapters you feel you are unhappy with your choice, choose again. Experimentation is good.

Gritty vs Profane

When can I swear, dagnabit?

Generally speaking, swearing can be used to shock, for comic effect, to show mood, and can be a form of linguistic violence. Swearing in YA is frowned upon, so it should be kept to a minimum. Grit may be shown in character action and mood.

Language Use

Language will vary, especially if you are writing a series and the characters are aging, therefore, undergoing complex emotions. In J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Harry, the main protagonist, ages from an eleven-year-old boy to a seventeen-year-old young adult, with all the confusion hormones bring. His language changes as he ages to keep his character authentic.

Vocabulary will change due both to situations and maturity. A character may be a mimic and after a few days begin to speak as the locals do, or might use different speech around friends than with grandmother.

Personal Growth

YA fiction may be considered the literary category where characters achieve the most growth. Teens are in a constant state of change and so should the protagonist in a YA story. The protagonist needs to have new experiences and face roadblocks until the end goal, changing as a person along the way.

Lob on the conflicts to create tension—problems adapting to change, self-identity, relationships. More tension gives greater possibilities for personal growth. You are carving a unique soul. As far as I know, your characters can’t murder you in your sleep, so no worries.

About the Plot Points in Your YA Novel

Consider the following points for each scene:

1. What are my characters learning?
2. Is the conversation important for character growth?
3. What is driving the emotions?
4. Does the scene move the plot forward?

Most authors ask these questions of every scene in any novel. Remember, by answering these questions, you will keep the readers’ interest.

Finding Your Inner Teen

A tip for finding your teen voice: Revisit popular music from your teen years.

In a quiet space, close your eyes and listen to the music. Let your mind wander to a high school dance, music store, a friend’s house, driving in a car with friends, driving alone, hanging out at the pool during the summer, or being alone in your room.

Musical memory is deeply rooted in the mind. When you hear the music and visualize where you’ve heard it in your past, memories from that time will return, allowing you to reconnect with teen memories.

Do you have a favorite YA genre? What technique(s) do you use to reconnect with your younger self? Do you prefer a particular point of view for YA? Please share with us down in the comments section!

About Ellen

Author, speaker, and former teacher, Ellen L. Buikema has written non-fiction for parents and a series of chapter books for children with stories encouraging the development of empathy—sprinkling humor wherever possible. Her Works In Progress are, The Hobo Code, YA historical fiction and Crystal Memories, YA fantasy.

Find her at http://ellenbuikema.com or on Amazon.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

by Julie Glover

When my husband read the first draft of the first novel I ever wrote, he asked about my protagonist, “Is this you?”

That’s hardly the only time that question has come up. How much of our real lives and personalities go into the characters and world we writers create? Our readers, including friends and family, may suspect we’re largely putting autobiographical stuff on the page.

After all, aren’t we supposed to write what we know?

No, It’s Not Me

I can assure you that Annie Lewis—whose story has yet to be published, but someday will be—is not me. Nor are any of the other characters I’ve constructed in more than 20 novel and short story manuscripts.

And I’m not alone. Other authors say similar things:

Making fake biography, false history, concocting a half-imaginary existence out of the actual drama of my life is my life. There has to be some pleasure in this job, and that’s it. To go around in disguise. To act a character. To pass oneself off as what one is not. To pretend. The sly and cunning masquerade.

Philip Roth, Paris Review - The Art of Fiction No. 84 (theparisreview.org)

I write fiction because it is a beautiful place to hide.

Jami Attenberg, Stop Reading My Fiction as the Story of My Life - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Fudge is based on my son, Larry, when he was a toddler. A very interesting child.... But that wasn't a serious look at him.... Peter and Tootsie are from my imagination. At least, I think they are.

Judy Blume, Judy Blume Interview Transcript | Scholastic

Make-believe and imagination are what fuels most of our characters, plots, and stories. That’s why it’s called fiction.

But Real Life Inspires

What we read, hear, experience, and do often provides the inspiration from which stories grow.

For instance, the idea for my young adult novel, Sharing Hunter, came from me thinking about the success of TV shows like Big Love and Sister Wives and my interactions with teenage girls (mostly through church youth groups). All that came together when I posed this question: What if two girls shared a guy in high school? And then I had to figure out how on earth to make that a believable scenario!

Not only that, one main character of that novel, Chloe Fox, began as a composite of three people I know in real life. Whenever I got stuck with What would Chloe do? I simply imagined what her real-life exemplars might do and went from there.

Cecily von Ziegesar, author of The Gossip Girl series, said it this way:

I use my experiences as a kind of foundation, and then I elaborate extensively on them. I'm always saying that my books are not autobiographical because they're not. I can't choose any one scene and say, "Oh, this is exactly what happened to me!" I just use little snippets of things as a starting point!

Interview With Gossip Girl Author Cecily von Ziegesar - Cum Laude By Cecily von Ziegesar (seventeen.com)

Letting real life inspire and inform us helps us write believable, compelling stories.

Real Life Gives Perspective

Take any well-known story—from the fairy tale Cinderella to the legend of Bloody Mary—ask ten different writers to write their version, and you'll get ten different stories. Because our personal biographies influence how we see the world, what aspects of any story attract us most, what real-life ideas inspire us, and how we craft the words.

In that sense, fiction is autobiographical, in that we can’t help but bring who we are to what and how we write. Even what we imagine is different depending on our backgrounds, personalities, and more.

I like the way author Alice Munro said it:

The stories are not autobiographical, but they’re personal in that way. I seem to know only the things that I’ve learned. Probably some things through observation, but what I feel I know surely is personal.

Go Ask Alice | The New Yorker

Surely, our best stories are personal. They represent who we are, what we value, and what we wish to share with others.

Mine Real Life for Story Gold

If an author wishes to write their own lives, autobiography and memoir sell well! Go for it.

For those of us writing fiction, we should know when and how to let real life creep into our stories. Here are four ways to mine your life for story gold.

• Let real-life people inspire characters.

Just as Judy Blume and I did in our books—oh my goodness, did I just equate me and Ms. Blume in some way!—someone you know in real life can be the launching point for your characters. But as you continue to write and knead the story, the character will likely come into their own.

For many writers, our creation ends up feeling almost as real as the live person who inspired them, with their own unique ways.

• Tap into your emotion.

Authors often hearken back to how they felt during a personal experience to write effectively. Maybe they didn’t lose a loved one in the exact way their character did, but they know what loss feels like and how grief takes its toll. Maybe they didn’t have the scathing breakup they describe in their novel, but they recall rejection and loneliness. Maybe they haven’t found The One yet, but they know what it is to desire and love.

Whatever the story situation, we write more compelling scenes when we let our true selves and emotion seep onto the page.

• Know your passion.

What moves you? What themes do you long to get across? Your personal passions can help you determine genre and characters and story ideas.

Plenty of authors become known for the type of novel they write, which comes from their personal passion or philosophy of life.

A novel is never anything but a philosophy put into images…. This secret fusion between experiences and ideas, between life and reflection on the meaning of life, is what makes the great novelist.

Albert Camus, Review of Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea, in Alger Républicain (20 Oct 1938) | WIST

Even if you write in varied genres, you likely have themes that crop up again and again. For instance, every single work of fiction I’ve written has three takeaways:

1. You are stronger than you think.
2. Do the right thing, even when it’s hard.
3. Embrace humor to get through life.

I’m moved by those messages, so they show up again and again in my books.

• Throw in interesting or quirky stuff from life.

Some writers set stories in a town where they lived or visited. Some include minor characters they knew, with different names. Some give their main character a habit they have themselves (looking at you, Christina Delay, with your coffee-swigging characters). Some include phrases they’ve heard from friends, family, or—as mystery author Leann Sweeney reported—from the teacher’s lounge. Some fold in a brief retelling of something that happened in their own life.

In my most recent release, a short story from our Muse Island series titled Gryla’s Gift, someone at the holiday carnival opens a kissing booth. In our day and age, I’d be surprised if that’s even a thing. But when I was in high school, a close friend worked that booth at our choir-sponsored carnival (and raised decent money). It was a detail, but a fun one to include that worked with my story.

Add some quirky details to your story, like literary Easter eggs. That’s a fun way to add a bit of autobiography while maintaining your story as fiction.

How do feel your writing is autobiographical or personal? How have you mined your real life for story ideas?

About Julie

Julie Glover is an award-winning author of mysteries and young adult fiction. She also writes supernatural suspense under the pen name Jules Lynn. Her most recent book is Curse of the Night, book four in the Muse Island series, and her most recent story is a holiday short, Gryla's Gift.

When not writing, she collects boots, practices rampant sarcasm, and advocates for good grammar and the addition of the interrobang as a much-needed punctuation mark.