This past week, I had the opportunity to day trip with a friend and writing mentor of mine to a wonderful bookstore in Menomonie for a book signing. Dragon Tale Bookstore has all the great features of quaint bookstores: wooden floors that creak when you walk on them, all the colorful displays of featured books with beautiful covers and of course, avid readers browsing (many of them, college kids).

While there, we visited with a UW-Stout Creative Writing professor, along with one of the bookstore owners, and had some pretty insightful looks into the world of AI and its role in the literary world. You’ve probably heard the hot topic of well-known authors coming together to try to prevent AI from writing books based on their writing styles etc and then marketing them online.

So how do you get around this when AI is here to stay?

It’s an unknown frontier, but in a simple sentence: you use it. The Creative Writing teacher has gone to conferences and is implementing it into her classes. We had asked her if it’s a problem in the higher-level writing classes, the way it’s a problem many teachers currently have in correcting high school and middle school essays that weren’t written by them, but by Artificial Intelligence. Her take was that citing fake resources has always been around, but it can be tough and time-consuming for her to check every single resource on each student’s paper and many times, the source and article is actually online, but it was never actually written by the newspaper or source it had claimed. Maybe not written at all.

Instead of trying to shut down this world-wide machine, she’s teaching future writers how to use it responsibly through writing prompts and developing characters. Give the AI a character profile and background and have an actual conversation with it to trigger backstory of characters and get some insight from a new perspective. Don’t use it to do your writing assignments or even write the novel you’ve always wanted to (no shortcuts there), but use it in other ways to support your creativity.

Interesting. Fascinating. Smart.

The conversation completely shifted my mindset, not for AI necessarily, but how it can be somewhat embraced.

Connecting with the bookstore owner, he is a really great editor/editor and has also been in the writing world since college in the 80s. He’s found great new ways to use AI, from developing great photo content for blogs to actually developing a voice to translate his blogs into podcasts, which is something I’ve wanted to do, but didn’t want to be the one to actually do it (Hello AI, let me introduce myself). Of course, when I told my teenage son about all this, he was aware of all of these things (thank you Tik-Tok).

So, we’re at the ground level of Artificial Intelligence in the Literary World. What’s next? Other than Elon Musk, noone knows, but we can all agree that it’s here to stay and that students are going to be using it. It’s a freight train that’s charging forward and won’t be stopped so why not embrace it find ways to use it, responsibly, and teach future writers to do the same.

Now, to pay my teens a fee to do this for me and make sure they give me a great Podcast voice, that’s the real challenge:)!

Nothing screams summer like a captivating, can’t-turn-the-pages-fast-enough, beach read!

After spending several months researching Irish history and working out some plot lines for a future novel, I tried to write a few different times this summer and after rewriting the same sentence about twenty times, decided it wasn’t the right time.

I took it as a sign that I was meant to read instead!

Athough I only made it to the beach a few times this summer, these books were so good, I brought them with and read them on the go and yes, replaced Facebook time with reading instead:)!

I love reading all different genres so the pile includes a good mix (and FYI, The Girls Guide to Hunting & Fishing is a metaphor, in case you’re actually looking for hunting and fishing advice)!

Though summer reading was mostly leisurely, it was also productive. I love reading different author’s books and earmarking pages that can better my own writing. Whether it’s the way the author writes dialogue, sets the scene or builds tension between characters, I try to study various ways this is done so I can implement it myself. I also read several books that taught me some things I don’t want to do in my writing (those books didn’t make the picture)!

So, after a summer of sun, (breweries), gardening, (wineries), and relaxation, I’m looking forward to some fall writing in the coffee shop with a pumpkin spice latte in one hand and a pen in the other:)

When you’re riding high on the current of inspiration and massive productivity, things often seem easy and effortless. So many times when I’m at the height of producing a novel or working on a big project of any sort, I can see the end goal in sight and it is so close that I can’t help but hit it with the momentum I have behind me.

HOWEVER….

there is a sea of waiting and hoping and I admit, irritability and self-questioning that comes in all the moments before and after hitting a goal: Now what? What’s next? Can I go through this process again and do it effectively or even better this time around? What did I learn from the last experience?

It can be frustrating and kind of debilitating even to think about. You pour all of this effort and joy into your book/project and ride the high until…..???? See what I mean?

In regard to writing, there’s some things I’ve found to inspire creativity when I get the itch to write during the many sleepless nights when I’m desperate to do something productive without the risk of waking up sleeping teenagers (scary, I know). Or on the endless snow days here in Wisconsin when I’m plowed in and it is the PERFECT writing environment and the only problem is I have nothing to write about!

So what do I do? A few things specific to the craft of writing:

1. I BINGE read! What do I read? ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING! I read thrillers that I can’t put down because I have to figure them out and see if I’m the great detective I believe I am when I’m reading one (ha)! I read romance novels. This helps me more than I give it credit for. I read for fun and it inspires me. Yes, I mark pages that I really get into and break down how the author drew me into the setting, plot or character, but mostly I just read for the fun of it!
2. For every “fun” book or two that I read, I read a book on the craft of writing. A few of the best ones are from Jane Cleland (mystery author) who is AMAZING at teaching plot and characterization, setting and mood. Stephen King also has a great book and it also gives insight into how he intertwines his childhood memories into his novels. I’m currently reading a “how-to” book from one of my new favorite authors, Nancy Pickard. Not only do these books give the how-tos, but it also gives inspiration and relatability when you read about their creative struggles and frustrations and how they got through them.
3. I plug into writing conferences and writing Zooms. Jane Cleland has some excellent writing Zooms that are FREE! A fellow author and myself had plugged into many of her Zooms in between books and it has made our writing so much more effective and fun to write. She offers these almost every month and they are so good, I have plugged into many of them several times.
4. I put myself in the environment of writing (coffee shops) BUT I don’t allow myself to write. I let the creative agitation build and percolate, thinking through things as I walk my dog or bike.
5. LASTLY, I start to research. I think of events or time periods in history that interest me, but I don’t know much about. I check out books from the RF Library (love that place) and I take notes. Like notebooks full of notes. The more I research and learn, the more I want to develop characters to place in these events to teach others about them in an entertaining way:)

SO, there you have it in a nutshell! I feel like this process can work with anything. Plugging in to people who started where you have and are now successful in what they do is inspiring. To find mentors who are successful AND willing to share how they got there and how they train? They’re diamonds.

So ride the wave of self-fulfillment in whatever endeavor you are accomplishing but don’t get deflated when you finish. You’ll find it’s usually not the finish you were after all along or maybe it was, but you found it was actually the process and the training you fell in love with, which is a good thing because that does not have an end to it:)

Publishing a first book is an absolute dream come true, but publishing a second is a testament to myself that I could sit down and be patient enough to do it again (thank you Selah Vie for all the coffee and writing space!)

Thank you to everyone who helped put together this book: it takes a team, and a BIG one! Thank you to everyone who has supported my journey and taken the time to read this 273 page bundle of joy (it truly is like finally having a baby after feeling like being pregnant for years)!

I’m humbled and honored for this opportunity and for all of the support I’ve been blessed with by our community and local journalists (see below): THANK YOU!

https://www.riverfallsjournal.com/news/local-award-winning-author-published-second-book-under-the-dirt-sky-available-now/article_33074c0c-5c59-11ed-8bd5-57cba1ee81ad.html

The modernization of farming techniques and the availability of land draw’s Carrie Lexington’s family from Minnesota to the promised fields of winter wheat and riches in Kansas. They soon find out that massive production from farm factories and advancements in technology often comes with a price and the land is ready to retaliate.

When Percy James is hired on her family farm, Carrie is intrigued by his upbringing. He represents everything she imagines about the city so far from her rural life. But the more she gets to know him, the more he pulls away, leaving her to question his past and herself.

MEET PERCY JAMES: a teenage mobster whom gets caught up in the glamour of bootleggers, flappers and fast money during the height of Prohibition in Chicago but soon realizes the biggest threat of all doesn’t lie within the city, but in the revolting fields of Kansas.

Pre-orders for Under the Dirt Sky available through writtendreams.com or under “books” on this site.

One of my favorite author topics is characterization: who your characters are and how they view their world. There are many books I’ve read and movies I’ve seen in which I don’t remember the plot line or conflicts years later, but I still remember the character and it feels like someone I know personally.

So how do we get to know characters when we are reading a book or watching a movie?

There are several ways: dialogue, inner thoughts, showing their response to an event through their mannerisms and reactions, to name a few.

But another way is by showing how your character notices his/her surroundings. For example, imagine your character has just learned that his girlfriend has died. What details in the desert scene above would he notice? How could you show your reader he is lonely and feeling desolate and defeated, without telling them “he feels lonely, desolate & defeated?”

Now, let’s say your character is on vacation with his friends or family and they are hiking in this desert. How would this character describe his surroundings differently than the prior one?

Setting not only sets mood, but also shares an emotional connection with your reader and helps them to understand where your character is at emotionally.

How would a character who likes to surf describe the wave in the second picture above as opposed to a character who can’t swim well? How can this character show readers the sheer panic he is feeling by how he describes the wave? As a recent young author described it at a recent conference: the waves were fingers on a hand, reaching out to grip me and hold me under as I struggled for air.

What feeling do you get when you look at the details of the first flower? Maybe feelings of reflection, relaxation or time slowed down? Would a soldier about to fight a battle, notice the details of this flower or would he/she be too busy using other heightened senses to notice and describe it if he/she is straining to hear whispers of the enemy in the grass or through the thick fog? Maybe the person does notice while reflecting on past memories as time slows down and death could be near. Or maybe they don’t. Maybe the field of flowers would look more like the blurred second picture, if commented on at all as the soldier is running and focused on staying alive.

Which words come to mind when you hear the descriptive details of delicate petals on cold granite? Lonely? Grieving? Desolate? Reflective?

How your character notices their surroundings will quicken or slow the pace of your book to how you want it. It will also build trust between your characters and your readers, turning your characters into breathing entities whom readers can identify with and relate to.

As a personal example, I had the amazing opportunity to stay at the Four Seasons Resort in Pembine, Wisconsin this past weekend. Upon checking in, I had no idea it had been rumored to be a popular hot spot for Prohibition mobsters, which is what my most recent book is about (https://writtendreams.com/store/Pre-order-Under-the-Dirt-Sky-by-Callie-Trautmiller-p448257504). After talking to some of the locals and bartenders and hearing about its haunting (vintage cars starting by themselves during the night, a deceased bride whom roams the hallways), new feelings arose in me every time I had to get up to go to the bathroom or walk the hallway alone during the night. I viewed the place in a much different way (even as it made me love it even more): feeling of paranoia and edginess, but fascination as well.

So how do you view the world?

How does your character handle major feelings of grief, loneliness, being in love? SHOW your readers through their descriptions and reactions to their surroundings and you will create life long friendships;)

Kindness matters. Humility matters.

How do you foster gratitude? Every night, list three things you are grateful for from that day. Some days are tougher than others. Some days, it might just be getting through the day. Other days, there might be too many to count.

Every morning, list three things you’re going to do to make a positive impact in the world. Who are three people you are going to compliment or smile at in the hallway at school? Maybe you’ll be kind and talkative to someone at the drive-through window.

My daughter is complimented all the time on her smile when she is working. In fact, there’s been people who have told her they look forward to seeing her at the drive- through because she takes the time to talk to them and remembers their names.

THE LITTLE THINGS MAKE A BIG IMPACT!

Help others.

When you are in a position to help others, whether with your insight, your knowledge, your connections; help others. Don’t confuse pride and accomplishment with ego and vanity. Someone (probably many people), helped you along the way: pay the favor forward.

When I spoke with the middle-schoolers recently, I asked them: How do you want your classmates to remember you? What is your legacy statement before graduation? In your sport, in the classroom, in your activity? How do you want to be known?

Kindness matters. Effort matters.

Do you bring your team average up or down with your attitude & effort? There is a BIG difference between being an athlete and being a great teammate. I’ve seen some of the most gifted athletes plummet and never play on teams because guess what? Coaches didn’t want to work with their bad attitudes. They brought the entire team down.

Be the light.

Be the person people want to be around because you are positive and inspire others & because you make them feel good about themselves. Ask yourself: who do you know who makes you want to play to a higher level?

Figure out a way to get that person on your team or as a mentor and then make it your goal to someday become that person to others.

We all have it within us:)

I can sugarcoat it, I can fluff it up, but I think everyone can relate to facing some sort of rejection in life and can agree that rejection sucks.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with the River Falls Middle School students on how to push through rejection to hit Mount Everest Goals. As I mentioned to them, in my journey to publication, I had emailed my query letter out to 50 big agents before waiting for the bidding wars to start.

And waited.

And waited.

And then, I got my first response, that went something like this: Dear Ms. Trautmiller, Thank you for the opportunity to consider your work. I am sorry to say that it is not for us…

That’s okay! I still had 49 more agents to hear from. But then, I got email #49,48,47, so on and so forth.

Being rejected by 50 agents is like being turned down to go to the prom by 50 people. It’s like aiming and missing 50 big bucks during hunting. I still get rejection letters and my book has been published for 2 YEARS!

So how do you push through rejection?

By keeping your “why” in front of you! WHY are you going after this very big goal? How is it important to you?

Your goal has to be BIGGER than your fear of rejection. Rejection is there to test your commitment level. CRITICS are there to test your commitment level.

Keep pictures of your goal in front of you: on your mirrors, as your screensaver, in your car. IMAGINE how amazing it will feel to hit your goal. IMAGINE the crowd cheering while you’re on the court. IMAGINE standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower with your family by your side, taking in the view of Paris after incrementally saving money and working extra hours to reach this goal. HOW GREAT WILL THAT BE? Will you care about the critics then, when you’re winning and you did it?

Imagine if I brought you to a field of rocks and told you that in this field of rocks, if you flipped them all over, two are painted green on the bottom side and are worth $1 million each. How quickly would you get through the field of rocks to find the two? Would you give up after you had a small pile of plain rocks or keep going? Some people might have a bigger pile of rocks before finding the green ones. Some might have only a few. But in the end, who cares if you found the green rocks?!

You must get through your rejections to find your winning rocks.

How do you talk to yourself?

The voice inside your head has to POSITIVE and LOUDER than your critics. I had to tell myself “I’m a published author because I love to write, I’m persistent and I won’t give up,” every day, several times before I thought of myself as an author. I identified as a mom, as a financial representative, but not as a legitimate author. I struggled with thoughts such as who am I to write a book? I didn’t even go to school for writing.

HERE’S A REMINDER: YOU CAN BE MORE THAN ONE THING!

You can be a football player and in the drama club. You can be in the Math Club and a basketball star. I told the students the story of Fifty Cent (the rapper for you older folks) and how he became a billionaire with one idea: to make vitamin water. You think people didn’t laugh at him? Did that stop him? How many of you drink vitamin water today? You can thank Fifty Cent.

YOU CAN BE DIFFERENT THINGS: rapper, inventor, entrepreneur.

I had to get my belief level up and see myself as more than the titles I had put on myself.

I read the founder of Starbucks was turned down by banks 242 times. As I told the students, if he had quit, imagine the horror of drinking gas station coffee or worse yet, having to make your own in your kitchen?!?

Hitting goals can be summed up in two words: PERSEVERANCE & PERSISTENCE. It’s making the decision to not quit, NO MATTER WHAT. To believe in yourself, when no one else does. And if you don’t believe in yourself, convince yourself until it becomes believable.

Because what’s the alternative?

Shrink your goals and dreams to match what other people think you should be doing?

Who wants to live life like that?