Ask the Author: Eileen Rivers
Answered Questions (4)
Eileen Rivers
Hmmm. Well, I'm not sure I'm the best person to give out advice, but, the one thing I feel strongly about follows: So many people say write what you know. I say that's poppycock. Write what you feel strongly about. Use your imagination. If people only wrote what they knew, science fiction wouldn't exist, and what a loss to the world that would be! Write what you feel. Write about what calls to you. Do good research, dig deeply into your imagination and go for it! That's about all the advice I can give. I hope it's meaningful and that it helps! :-)
Eileen Rivers
I once heard someone say there's no such thing as writer's block. He said that what we think of as "writer's block" is simply an indication that we haven't done enough reporting yet. I think that's true. Once you've done enough interviews, research, reading, the content should just come pouring out (doesn't come pouring out perfectly, but the words should be itching to get on the page. After that, you have to refine it). If you ever find yourself stuck, think hard about what's making you stuck. Usually there's some question you haven't answered or some unknown element bouncing around in your head. You need more information. Do more research. Do the digging. Once you do that, the writer's block goes poof! Of course, there's a balance. You also don't want to over-report. Sometimes that can also lead to paralysis. At that point, you need to organize/outline what you've already got so you can jump in.
Eileen Rivers
I guess I'm what people call today a "creative" (though I actually tend to shy away from that term). I used to be a professional dancer (in addition to loving languages, I started studying dance -- ballet, tap, jazz and eventually modern -- when I was 7), danced in Baltimore and South Carolina and had my own dance company. I find inspiration in everything, it's just a matter of which medium (movement or writing) is the best to express it. Now, it's writing. Years ago, it was dance more than anything. I could be listening to an NPR story and come up with an idea for a book. I used to walk down the street and hear a rhythm and come up with an entire section of a ballet. Exposure to as much as possible, I find, breeds inspiration. It never happens in a vacuum. Interact with the world and you'll glean inspiration from what you see. Something will move you or spark an idea. After that, it's research, research, research. Distilling, distilling, distilling. Refining, refining, refining. Until the idea becomes more concrete.
Eileen Rivers
Hello! Thanks for the question. I'm a veteran of the U.S. Army (was an Arabic linguist who served in Kuwait and a Spanish linguist who served in Central and South America). When I left the military and started my writing career as a journalist, I was noticing that there weren't a good deal of stories that covered the wars from the perspective of the soldiers and military service members who served. I wanted to change that. I asked troops to send photos of their time on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan to USA TODAY (where I still work as an editor). Photos began pouring in. I then spoke to troops to get the stories behind the photos. When I talked to women, I started hearing more and more about female engagement teams -- small groups of women who went on combat missions with male troops. As a female who served, I was shocked that I knew nothing about them. No one was writing about this miraculous work that women were doing. They were accomplishing things in the Middle East (because of cultural barriers that barred men from talking to Muslim women) that men could not. Being a woman became the military's best weapon for tracking down the Taliban -- female soldiers were able to talk to women about insurgent groups who had been in their villages. Female troops also found evidence of insurgent plans on Afghan women (items that had been hidden by terrorists who thought that no American would search a Muslim woman). Women were also saving men in battle. I decided I wanted to tell the stories of these remarkable women. The more I dug into their work, the more fascinated, impressed and moved I became.
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