Video Transcript (computer generated - may contain errors)

Sara Gentry: Hello, writers! We have got Laurie Calkhoven with us today. Hello, Laurie!

Laurie Calkhoven: Hi!

Sara Gentry: Well, I want to introduce you a bit to our writers, and then we're gonna hop right into some character development. So this is going to be a great session for you writers. But let me tell you a bit about Laurie. Laurie is an Author Accelerator certified book coach, and she loves nothing more than capturing young readers, and inspiring them to love books, reading, and writing as much as she does. From more than 15 early readers to laugh out loud chapter books and historical novels that bring the wacky facts of history to light, she's published more than 50 books for children and teens. Congratulations on that, by the way. That is amazing! And she coaches children's novelists who are dedicated to improving their craft. She's had experience with all genres of children's fiction, including mysteries, fantasies, thrillers, and historical novels. She often uses meditation to help uncover character and conjure scenes, and has taught those techniques to writers and illustrators at the Highlights Foundation and at regional SCBWI conferences. Prior to becoming a full time writer, Laurie spent many years working in book publishing. She was the founding editor of the Team People Book Club, and was an executive editor with the scholastic book clubs, which is just awesome all around. So many great experiences that you've had in publishing.

Laurie Calkhoven: Yeah, I've been very lucky. Yes.

Sara Gentry: So Laurie's been so gracious to come and chat with me today about some character development. Because, as I mentioned in her bio Laurie does a lot of classes and meditation classes around developing character. So maybe just for the writers here to provide a little context, maybe let's first start by talking about why, it is important to make sure that we spend time developing our main characters.

Laurie Calkhoven: Character development is key, no matter what age group you're writing for, because readers, for the most part, read for character, even in really plot driven books. It's the character that draws them in and the character's problem and their attempts to solve it. So as writers, we need to know those characters inside and out.vThey won't be 3 dimensional. They won't step off the page for the reader if they're not 3 dimensional for us, and of course, we convey that in dialogue and action and exposition. But first, we really need to know them.

Sara Gentry: Yeah. So when we're dealing, I mean, since you have written across a lot of different age categories here KidLit, I mean, some of the books are gonna be shorter in length and perhaps as we get into the older age groups we have more complexity and perhaps more going on. How in depth do writers need to get along the way here, as we're looking at the progression of age categories.

Laurie Calkhoven: Yeah, I don't think the depth of characterization really changes from chapter books to middle grade to YA, there are big differences. But one of the main differences between chapter books, middle grade and YA is the level of the story problem. So in middle grade or YA, your character might be dealing with the loss of a loved one or a family member. They might be falling in love for the first time. They may be trying to figure out their place in the world. And it's the process of watching them solve that story problem that the reader gets caught up in. The same is true in chapter books, although in chapter books and early readers the story problem is much different. The story problem is, is my classmate going to invite me to their birthday party or my parents still gonna love me when the new baby comes, you know, am I gonna lose the class pet when I bring it home for the weekend? You know the story problems are much simpler, but to those readers to those characters and those readers, those story problems are just as big. They're just as important. So if you're writing for second graders, if a problem matters to a second grader, it should matter to you, as the writer.

Sara Gentry: Yeah.

Laurie Calkhoven: We can't look at it as simple. It's only a second grader. It's only a little kid, you know. If it's important to them, it has to be important to you as the writer. But the other, the other big difference between middle Grade and YA and chapter books is the idea of transformation and change in middle grade and YA. We expect the character to transform in some way as they solve their story problem. We want to see that character change in the end. In chapter books, that's not necessarily true. Most chapter books are written in series. Kids at this age are really building their reading muscles. So they're just beginning to read, [...] So they're using the books for a different purpose. But they're still struggling a bit with their reading. And so that's why these series are so important to kids this age, and why they get so caught up in them. Because there's the excitement of a new problem in every book. But there's also the familiar. The characters are familiar, and the way they approach their problems is familiar. So in chapter books, you don't have that same transformation that you would expect in a middle grade. Novel characters might learn something about themselves or solve a story problem and learn something in that way. But the characters are basically the same from book to book. Jada Jones, Ivy and Bean, Jasmine Taguchi, even my own Roosevelt banks. They are basically the same from book to book. It's just that they are facing a new problem.

Sara Gentry: Yeah, well, what's interesting about chapter books with the series as you're talking about is your character has to be strong enough to actually sustain more than one book as well. Like, they have to be interesting enough to keep the writer invested for all those books.

Laurie Calkhoven: That's true. The writer and the reader.

Sara Gentry: Yeah.

Laurie Calkhoven: You think of some characters like Fancy Nancy. You know she's in picture books. She's an early reader. She's in chapter books. I wouldn't be surprised if one day she becomes a middle grade star. You know. But there, yeah, there are some character characters that just capture kids’ attention, and they just want to keep reading about them. And that's, I don't know how you set out to do that. I mean writers. I know who've done that. It's almost like it's magic. It's Kismet. It's you know. It happens. And they don't quite know how, but they're, you know, they're along for the ride. So yeah, that's the hope that our characters would take on those larger than life roles and kids’ lives. And of course those characters are all larger than life when you think about it. 

Sara Gentry: So when writers get feedback on their stories, it's not uncommon for the feedback to be, “This character is underdeveloped, or it needs to be stronger in, you know, certain ways.” But it's not uncommon for that feedback to be based around the character. So it's a common problem for writers of all experience levels and all genres and categories. So what might be some warning signs if I'm working on a book here and I'm thinking how do I know if my character, if I've done enough work to develop this character. What might be some warning signs in my writing that maybe I've left some things open that shouldn't be open.

Laurie Calkhoven: Right. I know it's hard to tell. I mean, I think it's hard for us to tell reading our own stories. It's easier to have other people look at them and give us that feedback. And I was one of those writers who got back when editors and agents used to send rejection letters, and of course they don't anymore. That was always the feedback I got that my plots were really good, but my characters weren't, and I wasn't quite sure what to do about it. But I think your character needs to be 3 dimensional both for you and the reader. They can't be 3 dimensional for the reader if they're not for you. So if you can't imagine sitting down across the breakfast table with your character. If you can't imagine going on a trip to a museum or a park with them, and just off the record. I mean, as an aside, it can be really fun to go on a field trip with your characters. Just it's best not to talk to them out loud, but you know people will look at you funny. But then, who cares if you wanna talk to your characters, talk to your characters. But if you can't imagine doing those things with your character, then your reader can’t either, so they need to be 3 dimensional for you before they're 3 dimensional for the reader. And I always thought I was doing that, and of course I wasn't and I was in a class, and I was meditating, and I was thinking about my character, and I had just gotten another rejection where I was told my characters were wooden, and my plot was great. And I was meditating, and the thought just kept coming in that I couldn't do this, and I was gonna fail. I was never gonna be good enough to do this. And here I've been working and publishing and reading books for all these years, and I still couldn't write one. And what's going on here. And somehow, in that, in that meditation, I've really connected with my characters in security, my own insecurity, you know. And I realized that was a connection. Me and my character, and I sat down, and I started to write, and I really got me in touch with a different part of him that I didn't already know. If I had been in a cartoon a light bulb would have gone off over my head cause, I thought, Wow. I need to be meditating about my characters. I took my first meditation class in high school. I took a transcendental meditation class and I had been meditating off and on for many years. And I live in New York City, so I was lucky enough to have lots of like the New York open center and the Omega center are here. And just prior to Covid, little meditation centers popped up in my neighborhood. So I've had access to a lot of different kinds of meditation. And I've tried a lot of different things. And I realized I needed to be meditating to get to know my characters. I made some notes before I started, and of course I've lost my place.

Sara Gentry: Oh, that's okay. It's fascinating.

Laurie Calkhoven: I created a series of writing prompts that I could use in meditation to get to know my characters in a deeper way, and some of them came from writing craft books. Some of them came from just my reading. I was reading John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars the first time. And there's that beautiful scene between Hazel, Grace and Augustus where they're talking about the swing set of tears. And I got a writing prompt out of that. So I've just sort of over the years collected a lot of different writing prompts and I use them to get to know my characters, and not just my main character, but all of my characters. I do a lot of that kind of work before I sit down to write my first draft, or if you're an Author Accelerator client or coach, before I sit down to do the Blueprint. I do a lot of work on my character to get to know them in that way, and I do believe that these meditations have led me from being an unpublished writer to published. I'm always going to be better at plot than I am at character. It's just the way my brain works. But it really has helped me a great deal.

Sara Gentry: No, I love that. You're sharing your own transformation in this, because everybody can't be strong in everything. You're right. So in another conversation I've already spoken with our friend Erin Radniecki, and she's very good about nature and things like, you know, incorporating nature and stories, and that is not something that I am good at. And so, you know, working with someone like Erin would be a good way to complement my own strengths. And here you are, realizing that this is a need you have. And so you've developed a solution to overcome that. And I love that. So, writers, Laurie is going to be very gracious with us here for a minute. Laurie, teaches classes about the character development, and she will often lead meditation workshops, either independently through her own coaching site, or sometimes with other writing organizations, and Laurie's gonna give us a little taste here of the kind of prompts that she uses to help to develop her characters. And we realize that some of you might be in a situation right now where you're listening to this conversation or watching this conversation, and you might not literally be able to pull out a pen and paper to jot down your ideas. So with that in mind, Laurie's gonna give us some prompts and then she'll let us know, like you can pause the recording here if you want to continue working on that prompt. Did I get it right, Laurie?

Laurie Calkhoven: Yes, yes, I'm gonna lead a meditation and give you a writing prompt. But we will pause twice for you to.

Sara Gentry: Okay.

Laurie Calkhoven: So yeah, and then we'll come back. I think it will make sense as we do it.

Sara Gentry: Awesome alright. Well, I will turn it over to you then.

Laurie Calkhoven: Okay? So what I normally do is I normally meditate for 10 or 15 minutes, and then I do a visualization in which I bring my character to me. This will make sense when I do it, and then because I think it's important to be surprised by the writing prompt. I have writing prompts written down on index cards, and I put them face down on my desk, and when it's time to write I turn one over and start to write, and I do find that this kind of writing works best. If I'm writing by hand. There's something about the connection between your subconscious and your hand that's different than your subconscious and the keyboard. So I find it's better if it's uncomfortable for you to write by hand. Then, by all means, use your keyboard.

Sara Gentry: Laurie, can I ask a quick follow up to that, too? Is it, have you had people, maybe verbally process like, if there are people who sort of talk it out? Or do you find it's helpful, like the literal act of writing?

Laurie Calkhoven: I personally find the literal act of writing helpful, but if someone is more verbal... And yeah, I mean, as long as they're not in a group setting where everyone's meditating with them. There's no reason why they can't just turn on the record button on their phone and start talking. Yeah, that would work, too. But that's a good thought. Thank you.

Laurie Calkhoven: Okay, so we are going to meditate now, and I will tell you to pause the video while we continue. But for right now just get comfortable on your chair and rest your hands lightly in your lap. Palms up if you can and close your eyes. And just breathe in and breathe out, and allow your breath to find a comfortable rhythm. Just connect with your body for a moment, and notice if you're holding tension anywhere in your body, and either try and breathe into that spot, or wiggle that spot, to to release that tension, and just invite your body to relieve any stress as you inhale and exhale, allow yourself to become more and more relaxed. And whenever you find yourself distracted by thoughts, body, sensations, noises just simply let that go and come back to your breath. And we're going to do this for 10 min and this would be the place where you pause the video

Laurie Calkhoven: And welcome back. Keep your eyes closed and keep up your deep, meditative breathing. And I want you to envision a warm, relaxing light over the top of your head. And on your next deep breath in, allow that light to come down and reach the crown of your head. And as you inhale and exhale this warm, relaxing, soothing light, it's going to come down over your forehead. It's going to reach the top of your ears, then your mouth, and then your chin. If you're feeling at all claustrophobic, this light can be as big as you need it to be on your next deep breath in. Allow that light to come down and reach your shoulders. Just allow yourself to be soothed by this warm, relaxing light, as that cascades down over your body and reaches your hips, and your knees, and your ankles, and your feet. Just allow yourself to enjoy this for a moment, just being soothed by this light. And notice in the distance your character walking toward you. And as they come closer and closer you'll notice more details about them. The clothes they're wearing, maybe the way they swing their arms when they walk. Are they holding something in their hand? Just notice more and more details. You'll notice their facial expression or something in their pockets. Allow your character to come to you. And they're 10 feet away. And then 5. And now allow the character to step into the light with you and come and stand by your side. And if it's comfortable for you, your character can step into your body. If that isn't comfortable, they can just stay at your side. Your character's gonna tell you something about themselves that you didn't already know. Your character has a really important memory about a parent. It might be their father or their mother or a parental figure. But your parent has a really strong memory, I mean, your character has a really strong memory about this parent, this parent. It could be a good memory or a bad memory, but it's something that divided their lives into a before and an after. It's something that changed the way they think about themselves. And what is this memory? When you're ready, you can open your eyes and begin writing. And this is where again you would pause the video.

Laurie Calkhoven: Okay, welcome back. I hope that worked for you.

Sara Gentry: It's so interesting how you approach this and how you could use this. I assume, then, you would continue with additional types of questions, whether it's you pulling you mentioned you have cards sometimes that are available for you to use as prompts.

Laurie Calkhoven: I do, If I'm on a roll, I might turn over another card and start writing again. I do actually find it very helpful to meditate in between the different writing props. Because it helps to come to stillness and sort of let that one meditation go and come back to a new one. So when I'm working on a new story with new characters, I might meditate 3 or 4 times a day, and these meditations are like the the parent meditation in that they're designed to teach me something new about their character, to add to their texture and their richness, but not necessarily to end up in the book. I mean often meditations I do don't end up in my books at all, although that one parent one did. I wrote a novel set in World War 2 called Michael at the invasion of France, and his parent memory actually turned out to be his inner journey. It turned out to be really important for the entire novel, but often it's just adding texture to the character, and I have a couple of different ways. To bring my character to me. And also I've created scene meditations now, and when I was leading meditations for the Highlights Foundation during the pandemic we had a regular Monday meditation and after a while, after, like 6 or 8 months, people started coming to me and asking for, Can you create a meditation for this or that. So I have a whole list of meditations now that I use for different work.

Sara Gentry: That's amazing. So you've mentioned using it as a way to like pre plan while you are developing a story idea, do you also use it if you're in progress with a story. But maybe you're in a place where you're stuck.

Laurie Calkhoven: I do. I do use it often when I'm stuck. I use it sometimes on the secondary characters. I don't do as many meditations to get to know them as I do from my main character, and sometimes I, if I don't understand how a secondary character would behave in a scene I might do some meditations around them. I've also, I have a couple of different scene meditations that I use, and I usually use before writing the big scenes. You know, the big, you know, keynote, the plot points and the climax. So I use them often before writing a big scene, and also I have a revision meditation. I do

Sara Gentry: Fantastic. Yeah.

Laurie Calkhoven: So I just keep finding reasons to meditate.

Sara Gentry: And writers, we just wanted to let you know. So, Laurie, maybe you could talk a bit about your website. I mean, you are a book coach, you are a writer, and you are a teacher. If writers are interested in learning more about how you do these meditation? Whether it's prompts or classes, or those kinds of things that you offer. Could you tell us a bit about that?

Laurie Calkhoven: Yes, if you go to my website, which is lauriecalkhoven.com. You can send me an email, and I will send you an audio of it of another character meditation, a different one than the one we did today. I am gearing up to start a newsletter which will include information about meditation. So you can again, send me your email and I will include you on that list, and I do leave the occasional at-home free Zoom writing retreat day, which includes meditation. So we we just did one. That went really well. So I'm looking forward to doing more. So again, go to my website, send me an email, and I will add you to my meditation list, and you can read about my coaching there. You can read about my books there, my writing. And see, baby picture of me lots of things you can do on my website. 

Sara Gentry: That's fun, and we will have a link to that in this show notes, so it won't be a problem for people to find you. So, Laurie. Thank you so much for sharing this with us, and it's a different aspects of writing that we probably don't hear about from a lot of different people. I think it's one of the things that makes you unique as a writing teacher. And I just wanna thank you for sharing it with us.

Laurie Calkhoven: Oh, it's my pleasure. I love this. I love teaching this. It's my favorite thing to teach. I also lead meditations for writing groups.

Sara Gentry: Oh, good idea, yeah. Like a critique group or something.

Laurie Calkhoven: Yes, they can.

Sara Gentry: Fantastic. Well, thanks again, Laurie. And, writers, thank you for joining us, and we'll see you next time.

Laurie Calkhoven: Bye, bye.