Dear O'Abby: How do I come up with ideas?

Dear O'Abby,

I've been writing for several years and am finding it increasingly difficult to come up with original, new ideas for my stories.  Do you have any advice for someone struggling to come up with something new?

Best,

Clueless

Dear Clueless,

There's nothing worse than staring at a blank page and waiting for inspiration to strike, yet sometimes it is difficult to find that first spark of an idea.  

When you're struggling to find a story, there are a number of places you can go to try and find inspiration.  You can try using writing prompts.  Websites like Writing.com have daily contests with prompts and I've used prompts to spark short stories and even to guide the plot of a (still unfinished) novel.

Reading the newspaper can also spark ideas, especially if you juxtapose two very different stories together.  But sometimes a single story can be enough to start a story.  One of my novels was born from a newspaper article that made me so darn mad, I just had to write something against it.

Reading books and seeing films can also help shake good ideas loose.  I can't tell you how many great story ideas I've had come out of documentary films I've seen.  And I sometimes read a book where I like the premise a lot, but not the actual story the author wrote to the premise, so I then write my own story around that same basic premise.

You can also use your own life and experiences to spark a story.  Think of an event or a person important to you and use that as the basis for a story.  Unless you want to write a memoir, you can fictionalise this story a lot and I'd advise changing real peoples' names to avoid getting in trouble.

Or what about re-telling a classic story? There are hundreds of stories, plays, poems and legends you can make your own while using the original text as the framework. The book I'm currently working on started off as a lesbian re-telling of Romeo and Juliet. Admittedly, it has veered away from the original plot a lot in the writing and most people don't seem to know that's what it was based on...

Hopefully one of those might help you find the inspiration for your next story.  If not, maybe you just need to take a writing break, do something else to exercise your creative muscle.  I often find that doing something different gives my brain the break it needs to find the next story or character I'm interested in exploring.  So grab some paint, or knitting needles or a lump of clay and see what happens.

X O'Abby

NaNo Tips from O'Abby's Archive

 At this point in November I imagine that some of you are struggling with NaNo.  I know that the first half is always easier for me than the second and we're a few days into the second half now.  You can do it!  And if you find you're feeling stuck, here's some advice from O'Abby's archives to help get you past that sticking place. 

I remember this book and the problem I was having with it when I wrote this, and I can assure you that I managed to move past the point I got stuck and hit my 50K goal.  I also have to admit this book is still sitting in my hard-drive, unfinished at around 70K...  Maybe I need to take some of my own advice, huh?

Dear O’Abby,

I’m doing NaNo and I’m stuck.  I’m at a point where there are multiple choices for my MC and I can’t for the life of me figure out which way to make her go.  I’ve tried skipping beyond this point, but because it’s a crucial decision, what happens next depends on this choice and I can’t write what happens next without her making this decision.  I’ve been going back and forth with different ideas for days, but I’m not happy with any of my choices.

Any ideas how to get past this?

Yours,

Stuck.

Dear Stuck,

I know this feeling all too well.  When there are 155,000 options for your character and you’re not sure which one is the right one. 

Well, my advice is to choose the wrong one.

Fiction is better when characters make mistakes.  So whenever your character is faced with a decision, make her pick the one that is going to create the most trouble for her.  Pick the thing you would never select personally if you were faced with the same dilemma. 

I’ve had the same problem with the book I’m writing this month.  As a grown woman, I know the right thing for my protagonist to do in his particular situation is to call the police or some other authority figure and tell them what’s going on.  There will be a whole string of consequences from this choice of course, but all of them lead to the main problem he is facing being dealt with.  So as a writer, I’ve made him stubbornly refuse to go to the authorities, preferring to deal with the tricky, illegal situation on his own.  And of course making that foolish decision will lead to a whole lot of other, trickier situations for him to deal with. On his own.

That's important too.  To be interesting, your character needs to be active and really driving the outcomes from any decisions she makes.  If doing something one way puts the outcome into someone else's hands, choose another direction, one that forces your MC to solve her own problem, or places another one directly in her path.

So be decisive.  Never let your character dabble in her options.  She needs to pick the wrong path and navigate it, however feels natural for her.  And each time she reaches another branch in the road, she needs to choose the direction that leads to the most trouble, the most conflict.  It’s hard, I know.  We grow to love these characters like our own children and it’s hard to send them off in the wrong direction, especially when we know their choices are going to lead to them or someone else getting hurt.

I hope that helps!  Now, I’m off to give my MC some unexpected consequences for his poor decision making. Poor guy!  He doesn't know what's coming at him...

XX 

O’Abby

Dear O'Abby, Help Me! I'm Stuck.

 Dear O'Abby,

I'm in the middle of NaNo like so many other writers this month, and I'm completely stuck.  The first 30K went really smoothly, but I reached a point where I just can't seem to get my characters to move toward the next major plot point.

To further complicate matters, I had another truly compelling idea for a book last week, and it's clamouring at my brain for attention. 

A part of me wants to stop writing the book I started at the beginning of November and work on my new shiny idea, but another part of me tells me to finish what I started.

Any advice?

Best,

Conflicted.

Dear Conflicted,

To be honest, I think you could do either.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with dropping the project you started and picking up another one if the other one is really banging at your head to get out.  Just add your word count on the new novel to what you already have on the one you've started, and you can still win NaNo.

I've done that before.  More than once, in fact.  You don't end up with a finished draft by the end of November, but you're still a lot further into both books than you were at the start.

But if you feel like you need to finish the book you started in November, you should do that.  Just ignore the place you're stuck and move on.  Leave a note for yourself or a big swathe of blank space so you remember there's stuff that needs filling in and move on to the next point in the story you're excited to write.  Often once you've written the stuff that comes after the place you're stuck, you find a way to move through it.

That's one of the reasons I rarely start writing a book at the beginning.  I almost always start with one scene that really demands to be written, one event which is the core of the story I'm trying to write.  So I write that and figure out from there where the story goes next, or how it got to that point.  Usually both..

The most important thing to do is keep writing.  You've made it through 19 days of this madness, so don't give up now.

X O'Abby

Dear O'Abby: Characterization

There is no Dear O'Abby question this week, but The White Rose took the time to comment on the post about writer's block last week, and she has some really valid points, so today's post is about characterization and how to use it to drive your story.

Another writer's block tactic for me is to review the very extensive characterizations I write for the protagonist, antagonist, and supporting characters of my stories. Quite often plot points, both major and minor, come out of these characterizations, as well as traits and odd tid-bits that make the characters more interesting and quirky, and act the way they do throughout the story. These traits can spur a new (and often exciting) direction for them and the story.

I've been a member of several writing critique groups for several years and it never fails to surprise me how many new writers don't spend the time getting to know their characters by writing comprehensive characterizations before they start writing! They need to do the work! Most have a story structure or outline they follow, but the "bones" are not enough. The "flesh" of the story comes from the characters' actions/reactions to what happens in the story, as well as the character of their natures that act as a stimulant/catalyst for what happens. - The White Rose

I don't think I can underestimate how important characterization is to your writing.  No matter what the story is you are telling, it is filtered through the characters who are experiencing it.  And often, when we get stuck somewhere in a story, it's because the character is doing something that isn't right for them.

Each character has to have something they want and something they need.  These should not be the same thing.  Conflict, which is so crucial to a story, arises when what the character wants is different to what she needs. And when one character's wants and needs oppose another character's.  As each character fights through the story to get what they want, other characters will get in their way because they too are fighting for what they want.  These wants and needs should be set up early in the book as these are what compel the characters to move through the story, interact and finally resolve whatever the central conflict might be.

Every decision your characters make will come from these wants and needs and the more in opposition they are, the more tension you will create.

While I don't think it's entirely necessary to write long, detailed biographies of each character before you start writing (but hey, I'm not an outliner either so do whatever works for you), I do think it's absolutely critical you know your characters well.  Even if you never put any of it on the page, your characters need to have a past that has informed who they are at the time the story takes place, a set of beliefs that define them.  This will drive the ways in which they react to the different plot elements you put in place to thwart them.

When you find yourself stuck at any point, go back to the last place your characters had to make a major decision or action and check that the way they responded fits with the personality and backstory you have created for that character.  Does it go against their moral code?  Is it beyond the physical capabilities you have outlined for that character?  While people do extraordinary things, particularly in times of distress, how they respond is almost always in line with their personalities and one of the fastest ways to break your story is for your character to do something that isn't.

Hope this was helpful!

X O'Abby

Dear O'Abby... Scratch that. Dear Readers.

Dear Readers,

O'Abby here.  This week I need your advice because I'm the one with a writing problem I can't solve. So really hope some of you out there might have some thoughts on what I should do.

I can't finish my book.

This is not something that's ever happened to me before.  Usually I know the ending, or something that resembles an ending right at the start of writing a book.  Even if the first scene I write is somewhere toward the middle of the story.  I even usually write the ending early on in the drafting process so I have somewhere to aim for.

I should add I'm not a plotter or outliner.  Writing the ending is about as much plotting as I do, usually.  But for some reason, I left this unfinished manuscript sitting on my hard drive without an ending.  And now I've filled in all the rest of the missing bits, but still can't figure out how to end it.

To be honest, even if I had written an ending back then, it probably wouldn't fit with the story I've written now.  But on the other hand, maybe if the ending had been there, I wouldn't have written the middle parts the way they've ended up.

The problem I have, is that I've taken everything away from my MC.  Everything he has worked toward throughout the book, everything he believed he needed.  And I don't feel like I can end the book with him at such a low place.  There needs to be some spark of hope for him.  I don't need a happy ending, just something that offers some chance that he might actually manage to find happiness or fulfillment in the future.

There are two women who have been a part of his life over the course of the book and I feel like they need to be part of the ending.  But I can't figure out how to write them in without it feeling forced.  The first woman disappears from the story after about chapter 5 or 6 and is only mentioned again once or twice, but I feel like she's the one who could show my MC a way forward.  But I'm not sure how to re-introduce her in a way that feels natural or organic.

The other woman is more consistently a part of the story, but I don't think my MC would go to her at this point in the story.  Not without someone or something else urging him to.  Things between them have become weird for a number of reasons.

So I'm asking for advice.  What do you do if you can't finish a story?  Are there techniques you use?  Do you put it away and leave it for a few weeks?  Let someone else read it and offer suggestions?

I'm asking for your advice.  Apart from not being able to end it, I love this story and my stupidly messed up characters.  And I want to give them the ending they deserve.  Even if it isn't the ending my MC thinks he wants...

X O'Abby

What it's Like to Be a Full-Time Writer

In August, my partner and I moved from Minnesota to Belgium. I looked for jobs, but I was struggling to find something I was qualified for that would also enable me to apply for a work permit (as it turns out, the law is very complicated – who knew). So I figured, hey, we have enough money for us to survive for a year if I don’t work; why not use this year to finally finish my manuscript and find an agent? Sounds like a breeze!

Narrator: It was not a breeze.

No it was not. By the time a month had passed, I’d barely done anything. It was infuriating. After years of wishing I had time to just sit at home and write, that was my reality – but the words refused to come. For weeks, I spent more time than I’d care to admit yelling “WHAT THE HELL” in my mind as I stared at blank pages or chapters that simply refused my revision efforts.

It seemed so backwards. Six years of college yielded countless notebooks that started out with the good intentions of taking relevant notes but devolved into mostly plot ideas and character descriptions with phrases like “lake turnover” and “anaerobic respiration” crammed into the margins. All the ideas that had come to me when I really should’ve been paying attention to my classes had completely fled my mind.

After struggling for several weeks, I talked to one of my critique partners about how lost I felt. I had tried setting daily goals for myself, like “write for two hours” or “write 2,000 words,” but neither had really worked. Could I count time spent staring at my computer as “writing time?” What if I deleted a couple thousand words, did that put me in the red for that day? I spent way more time thinking about the act of writing than I was spending on actual writing.

My CP gave me two great suggestions. She knew that I had previously been a competitive short story writer, and that I’d been a part of a free-association writing group in Minnesota. She tasked me with writing a short story every day for the remainder of my time in Belgium. At first, I thought there was no way I’d be able to do that – it seemed like so much work and I am, admittedly, very lazy. But then I realized that I’d able to do just that when I was thirteen when there were actual stakes, and there was no reason I couldn’t do it now.

So, every day, I find time to sit down for thirty minutes maximum and write a short story based on a writing prompt from Reddit. (If you’re interested in doing this, visit r/writingprompts for free writing prompts every day. You could even make an account and post your stories if you’re looking for feedback!) Amazingly, as of today I’ve written a short story every day for more than a month. They’re not all good – in fact, some of them are downright terrible – but about once a week or so I write something that I’m proud of, and that makes the bad stories worth it. I’ve even written a couple pieces that I’d like to expand into full manuscripts. I try to choose various genres to write and vary the length to push my creative boundaries. Sometimes I let myself write the full thirty minutes, and sometimes I force myself to only write six sentences. No point doing the same thing over and over expecting to learn something.

The second suggestion my CP gave me was to read THE 90-DAY NOVEL. (This is not an advertisement, this is just what happened.) If I was skeptical of my ability to write a short story every day, I was downright suspicious of a book that claimed to be able to teach me to write an entire novel in three months. I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo with varying success since 2014, but I usually cheat and use it as a way to force myself to work on existing manuscripts. I’m very much a planner – I want to know exactly who my characters are, what motivates them, what the conflict is, and I usually write an entire novel’s worth of worldbuilding material before I even get started writing the actual story. Doing all of that in a very compressed time frame seemed impossible.

As of this writing, I’m only on day twelve of the ninety days, but it’s going better than I anticipated. I started out with a vague idea for my manuscript – I wanted to write about an all-female combat robotics team – and I’ve already outlined the three acts; created a detailed background for my protagonist, antagonist, and love interest; and come up with a pretty solid opening and ending.

Even with all this planning, though, I’m still nervous for the point where I start writing the first draft (which doesn’t start until day twenty-seven; everything before that is brainstorming). I’ve already tried to write this story twice, and both times I crashed and burned after less than a week. Luckily, I started doing this just in time for NaNoWriMo, which will begin about a week after I start writing. I’m hoping that I’ll be motivated enough to finish this thing and I won’t fall off the word-count wagon.

For a long time, I thought that if what I wrote wasn’t good, there was no point writing it. My flash drive is a graveyard of abandoned manuscripts, and you wouldn’t believe the number of notebooks I have in a storage unit in Wisconsin littered with tidbits of stories I never even began writing. I thought this year would be a panacea – a chance to finally be a full-time writer and turn the frustration of not having enough time to write into an amazing manuscript that would go on to become a cultural phenomenon, or maybe just a thing a few people enjoyed reading, I don’t really know. So far it hasn’t quite lived up to the hype, but the year isn’t over yet. 

I think I can do this.

Solving Story Problems Collaboratively

I’m a big advocate for writers’ groups. I figure that drawing on the wisdom of eight brains will certainly get me further than the limited wisdom of my single brain. 

One of the things we like to do in my writers’ group, The Anita Factor, is help each other brainstorm when we have a story problem.

I’d come up with a new concept for a novel. I was pretty jazzed about the idea, but I lacked one thing—a disaster. A major one. One that would level a huge portion of a town and result in the deaths of thousands. As you can tell, I’m all giggles and butterflies over here. I was stumped as to what that disaster should be. This is where novels can become trite, where authors choose something that’s been done hundreds of times. I needed a unique disaster.

I decided to take my problem to my writers’ group. I explained the main character and the premise of the story and, for the next 20 minutes, we brainstormed. I wrote down all of their ideas, no matter how silly, unusable or ridiculous. When we were done, I had 32 disastrous ideas. None of them stood out as, “the one,” but I had pages worth of material to ruminate on.

That night, when I went to my car, still thinking on all those potential disasters, I came up with idea number 33. It was THE idea! While my group may not have come up with it, I needed to go through all of their ideas to stumble upon mine. I also have the assurance of knowing that if these highly creative people didn’t come up with my idea, then there probably are not hundreds of novels out there structured around the same disaster.

Are you a part of a writers’ group? How do you help each other? Do you brainstorm with friends or beta readers when you’re stumped? Leave a comment.

Melinda Friesen writes middle grade, young adult and new adult fiction. Learn more about her and her novel, Enslavement, at www.melindafriesen.com. 

The Source of Inspiration, or 28 Sources

One of the first questions big-time authors are often asked is, "What inspired you to write this book?" I'm always fascinated by the answers, whether it was a dream or reading another book, or staring at the night sky. Inspiration is an important component of creativity. We seek it whenever we want to begin something new, or if we feel stuck where we are. Many of us have go-to places for inspiration, like a favorite bookshelf or a Thinking Spot (Thotful Spot).

Think, Think, Think

I'm of the opinion that mixing it up is always a good thing when it comes to inspiration and creativity, so here we go: SOURCES OF INSPIRATION

• The Zoo
• The Park
• The Coffee Shop (people watching)
• A favorite book
• A book from a different genre
• An old favorite song
• A folk song
• A new favorite song
• A biography
• Historical fiction
• Science magazine
• Church
• Hymns
• Poetry
• A self-help book
• A survival how-to manual
• Interview a child
• Interview an adult
• A painting 
• A whole museum
• A play
• A movie
• A TV show (e.g. Firefly or anything by Joss Whedon)
• A daycare center
• A school (make sure to get a visitor's pass)
• Twitter #amwriting #scifi (etc.)
• Meditation
• Dream Journal

You can't properly claim writer's block until you've tried all of these things, right? Right!

Happy Weekend and Be Inspired!

(random capitalization brought to you by Katrina LantZ)

The Blank Page

For the most part, I am a linear writer. I like everything together in the same document, in the order I want it to go in, but that doesn't always work. 

In my WIP, I've been stuck on one scene for a while now. Of course, it's an action scene. For me, those scenes always require a lot of revision. I always put in too much emotion or too much detail or both and totally screw up the pacing in the first draft. My perfectionist brain can't handle this. Just the idea of writing an action scene makes it shut down and then, somehow, I'm checking my email. Or Facebook. Or anything besides working on that blasted action scene.

I tried to sit down and force myself to write it. I knew how I wanted it to go, so that wasn't the issue. It was just getting my fingers to type what I knew would be horrible, horrible words. I couldn't tarnish my previously "perfect" draft with such an awful scene.


The solution (that I've known about for a long time but always forget)?


I opened a blank document and told myself it was okay if I screwed it up because it never had to touch the real document if I hated it. Three days later, I have a shiny new action scene that, at least for the moment, I think turned out pretty good. Such a simple solution. Too bad it always takes me so long to remember how well this works for me. :)


What about you? Any types of scenes that trip you up? What do you do to get unstuck?

Writers Block

Writing time begins with the best intentions.

Our tea/coffee/beverage of choice is beside us. The chocolate goodness is ready as a reward (writing a sentence counts as a reward, right?). The computer is fired up. The word document is waiting. Your hands hover over the keys...until we find the little word gremlins have stolen our prose.

Yup, we have writers' block.

For those days when the words just won't flow, I prescribe the following video to rid you of the wordage blues. Enjoy.