Love your editor

Photo courtesy of radnatt/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It was finally finished. I’d just typed “The End.” Now what do I do?

September 2003. Yes all those years ago. I’d set out on a mission to write that novel the I was always going to write. The previous December I’d read Stephen King’s “On Writing” (it’s excellent BTW – part memoir, part lessons on writing). One of the key takeaways for me was King wrote 2,000 words a day, rain, hail or shine. Being new to all this then I best follow the master’s advice.

Surprisingly, I managed to do this on many of my writing days. I’d offered myself up in a company-wide redundancy program and my amazing wife encouraged me to take a sabbatical to “write that novel I’d been talking to her about all those years.”

I started with two words: “It’s time!” and a story about angels and demons. Then I wrote and wrote. Wrote some more. Didn’t really spend any time studying the craft as I took the view that I wanted to see if I had a story in me.

Lessons in Writing

And there I was. A manuscript. 250,000 words and 707 pages. Can you believe it?

Hey, I was a newbie. Didn’t know what to leave out. Makes me laugh now.

I then re-read it. Made a lot of changes but only reduced the pages by about 100.

I didn’t know any Christian authors and only had limited understanding of the American Christian market. But I knew I needed to find myself an editor. That’s the next step isn’t it? Write it, and then get it edited.

Yes, I’m in awe of those authors who write one draft, hand it to their editor and before long it’s on the bookshelves. Maybe that’ll be me one day, maybe not.

So I googled and discovered Clare on the south coast who edited Christian novels. Before too long I’d sent the entire manuscript to Clare (snail mail) and she did an “Editorial Review” for me.

And then Clare taught me to write.

Editing and more editing

Years passed. Angelguard had been re-written, put in the bottom drawer for five years, and then one of those God-moments occurred when it was clear it was time to dust it off and see how time had improved my storytelling and craft.

So I pulled out Clare’s notes (that I still refer to today) and rewrote Angelguard.

Lion Fiction took a chance on me. Thank you Tony Collins. Tony introduced me to Jan who overlaid even more editorial wisdom to the manuscript. Once we handed it back to Tony who did his own edit to arrive at the final publishable MS: 110,000 words and 323 pages.

Phew. I believe over five or six significant re-writes I wrote more than 500,000 words. But the final version still started where it did all those years ago with “It’s time!”

On Angelguard being published I looked up Clare to thank her for all she did in setting me up. Clare had passed away and I was fortunate to be able to locate her son who lives in England. I sent him a copy acknowledging the significant role his mum played. He hadn’t known much about his mum’s editing work and appreciated receiving the acknowledgment.  

Always Learning

Last week I received some feedback from an editor friend who had generously offered to read some of my latest WIP. Besides the fact I was blown away by her encouragement and detailed response, she provided me with confirmation of a number of areas I was concerned about.

Once again, I received a lesson in how to craft a great story. Further, as often happens, she proposed to kill off a scene that I would consider a darling. Yes, I squirmed at that but sometimes we need to let that scene or character go especially when it will improve the end product.

It gave me such a pickmeup even though I have more work to do.

So here’s to all the editors out there. Yes, I know you get well acknowledged in every book you edit and no doubt your authors love you to death.

To any newbie authors who perhaps have a ready manuscript and/or are in the publishing cycle, love your editor. It may take you a little time to find the right 'fit' and certainly there will be times when you disagree with your editor. Don’t be surprised if they suggest you kill some of your darlings, some of those scenes or characters that you’ve agonized over. Hey, there’ll be other manuscripts where you may find those darlings slot in just perfectly. But after your editor has finished with your MS, you’ll be a better author.

What’s a story you can recall of a particular time your editor helped you improve your manuscript. Was there a darling involved?

Ian Acheson is an author and strategy consultant based in Sydney. Ian's first novel of speculative fiction, Angelguard, is now available in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. Angelguard was recognised at the 2014 Selah Awards for Best Speculative Fiction. You can find more about Angelguard at Ian's website, on his author Facebook page and Twitter

The Challenge of Writing Different Types of Characters

Three weeks ago I pushed send on my second book to my editor. I've spent the time since holding my breath. 

When I signed my two-book contract my publishing team had read my debut novel, Close To You, and loved it. But there was no second book. Not a single word on a page. My contract stipulated five things I had to deliver - a genre, a location, a general theme, a word count and a due date. That was it. Everything else was up to me. My editor had pretty much no idea what was coming her way. Which was crazy brave on her part and a whole lot of scary on mine.

It would be fair to say a lot of these have been consumed in the last ten months...

I'm a character driven writer which means the main characters are always the first things that show up in my head. In Close To You it was a failed entrepreneur and a disgraced academic. In Book#2 it was an injured elite rower and a disillusioned journalist.

They could not be more different sets of people.

In Close To You, Jackson and Allie are both strong personalities. They aren't afraid to say exactly what they think, thrive on sparring with each other, and have a strong mutual dislike from their first meeting. Their chemistry fills the page as they constantly clash.

In my second book, Peter and Emelia are very different to Jackson and Allie. Both play their cards close to their chests, are guarded, polite, and go out of their way to avoid conflict. Their chemistry is more subtle, slipping through the cracks in their walls, simmering under the surface. 

I feel protective of them. The way a mother might when a firstborn outgoing, gregarious, social child is followed by an introverted, quiet, shy one. What if readers don't like them as much as the first two? What if my editor doesn't? What if I'm actually rubbish at this and can only write one type of character well? What if the manuscript gets rejected and I have to come up with a whole new story (yes, this does happen!).

A deaf person probably could have heard my sigh of relief when I got an email from my editor that she was in the process of reading it and enjoying it. Here's hoping readers do too once a whole lot of rewrites and edits get it shape (out of the five things in my contract, I failed at one right off the start - it's got to lose at least 5,000 words!).

So let's talk about different types of characters. Who are your favourite book characters who could not be more different from each other? 

Kara Isaac lives in Wellington, New Zealand. Her debut romantic comedy, Close To You, is about a disillusioned academic-turned-tour-guide and an entrepreneur who knows nothing about Tolkien who fall in love on a Tolkien themed tour of New Zealand. It will be an April 2016 release from Howard Books. When she's not working her day job as a public servant, chasing around a ninja preschooler and his feisty toddler sister, she spends her time writing horribly bad first drafts and wishing you could get Double Stuf Oreos in New Zealand. She loves to connnect on Facebook at Kara Isaac - Writer and Twitter @KaraIsaac

The Land of Sprinkles, Fairy Dust and Happily Ever After - Kara Isaac

I'll be honest. Most of the time when I'm writing a new story I feel like I'm stumbling around in the dark. Characters that don't do what I want them to, scenes that don't fit, subplots that end up going nowhere, random snippets of dialogue that just show up in my head, having no clue what to put in the middle to get my characters from the beginning to the end, the days (okay, weeks) when it's all just too hard, that's pretty much what the first six months looks like.

It's ugly. I always have to get talked off the ledge a few times. I have been known to yell at my characters. Because, you know, they can hear me out there in imaginary land.

But once I (and my family!) survives all that. The magic starts to happen. Scenes get moved around. Characters tell me why they're being so stubborn. The random snippets bouncing around in my head find their home. Occasionally you break out into song (that's probably just me).

I started my current manuscript last October and so that happy magical place is where I am now residing. There are sparkles and fairy dust and, after months of wanting to throttle my main characters, I love them again. I read parts of their story that make me laugh and I'm all "Hey, I wrote that!"

Nine months, 89,000 words, one real baby, seven rounds of edits (with one more to go) five rewrites (with another to go), four amazing critique partners, two beta readers and a whole lot of chocolate later, the light is blazing at the end of the tunnel.

This will be my third complete manuscript in under three years (the first one took six - three years to write and another three to let go and start something else!) and, I have to admit, as much as I love writing, I'm ready for a break.

It's time to catch up on my ridiculous "to read" pile, to enjoy watching TV without the nagging sense that I'm a slacker who should be writing and to not have Jackson and Allie taking up way more mind space than fictional characters should be allowed to!

This story has been a new adventure for me, in that the starting premise wasn't my idea. It came from a conversation I had with an editor when I was at a writer's conference last September and is the first time I've tried to write on "spec" as it were. I didn't even know if I could do it. Turns out I can :)

Whether my own idea or someone else's, there are a few things I've learnt over the course of the last few years as I've pursued publication seriously:

• I will always worry that I won't love my new characters as much as my old ones. But I always do (though sometimes it takes longer than others!);
• There will always be many points in the process where I'm convinced the whole thing is terrible, rubbish, duller than the phone directory and doesn't deserve to see the light of day but;
• It's never as bad as I think;
• There will also be many points where I will think "I can't actually do this. I don't have another book in me.";
• But I can and I do;
• At some point I will want to kill one (or both) or my main characters;
• Critique partners are worth more than their weight in gold and I couldn't do this without them. They cheer you on, they talk you off the ledge(s) when you want to throw it all in, they make you smile by writing things like "Squeeeeeeee!" in the margins of your manuscript when they love something.
• The feeling when you finish and really like it is one of the best things in the world :)

So tell me, since I'm taking recommendations for my reading break. What have you read recently that you enjoyed? What's on your TBR pile?

Kara Isaac lives in Wellington, New Zealand. When she's not being trying to coerce non-existent people to fall in love, she spends her days being double-teamed by her ninja toddler and his baby sister. You can also find her in Twitter @KaraIsaac and Facebook at Kara Isaac - Writer.

This is her TBR shelf that she is very much looking forward to spending some quality time with in July.

When Josh Met Paige: The Joys of Writing Main Characters from Different Countries

On Monday I sent my latest manuscript to my agent. It's a bit of a fingernail biting, stress inducing, experience sending your agent the manuscript after the one they signed you for. What if they don't like it? What if I'm a one story wonder? What if they come back and say "Um, try again." What if it's really really bad and you just happen to have critique partners who can't quite bring themselves to tell you?

However, I've had a lot of fun with this story. It's set in Sydney, Australia and features an American heroine and an Australian hero who really really don't get along.

One of the most fun to write components to write has been the differences in language. Yes, they both speak English but you don't realize how different some of our words, phrases and sayings are until you have an American critique partner going "Um what is that?" and "What does this mean?"

For example, Josh sits at a bench at eats his chips with tomato sauce. Paige sits at a counter and eats her fries with ketchup. Josh puts things in a rubbish bin, Paige in a trash can. Josh eats biscuits and drinks soft drink, Paige eats cookies and drinks soda.

Paige doesn't know what it means to prang a car, bring a plate or why someone would be knee-high to a grasshopper. She has to learn how to drive on the left hand side of the road, deal with kilometers per hour instead of miles, celsius instead of fahrenheit and all the seasons being reversed. It all contributes to landing her in some very entertaining predicaments.

Where you really find yourself getting into trouble is when it comes to insult. Words that down here in New Zealand and Australia people wouldn't even blink at I discover are VERY inappropriate to be calling someone in America. Which can create some writing challenges when your hero and heroine do not get on at all initially and there's only so many times you can reuse the very short list of acceptable words that mean the same thing in both countries!

How about you? What things about other English speaking countries cause you to do mental gymnastics? I have to admit whenever I travel to the USA the "tax not included in the price" thing gets me every time :)

If you're an American reader do stories in different countries appeal or are you happier staying close to home? (As a promo for an author and book I have absolutely no connection - if you like contemporary romance and would like to dip your toe in international waters Five Days in Skye by Carla Laureano which is based in Scotland is brilliant!)

 Kara Isaac lives in New Zealand where she is a pastor's wife, toddler mum (or mom), cheesecake lover and Bachelorette fan (please don't tell you Desiree chose!). She has found her happy place writing contemporary romance with sass and is represented by Chip MacGregor or MacGregor Literary Inc.

She loves connecting with people on Facebook at Kara Isaac - Writer or on Twitter @KaraIsaac

When Everything Changes

This time next week, I will be unemployed.

I haven't been unemployed since I was 14. Today I'm, well let's just say the number has not started with a 1 for a long time!

I didn't set out to not have a job. I haven't not had a job in such a long time, I don't even remember what it's like. Late last year we bought a new house, that came with a very large mortgage. I planned on having a job well into the foreseeable future. Then at the beginning of this year some things happened on that front that found me at a crossroads. And after much prayer, angsting and God answering in some pretty miraculous ways to my Gideon fleece moments of "God, if you want me to quit, then please do X, Y and Z" it became crystal clear that His time for me where I am is done.

And so with no safety net, no irons in the fire, no clamoring job offers, I'm walking into the unknown.

And it feels good.

The last few months have been a limbo land. Firstly with coming to terms with quitting with nowhere to go and then watching the doors to various opportunities either close resoundingly shut or sense that they are not doors He has for me to walk through.

This time in a week, I will wake up, send my husband off to work and my toddler off to daycare and I will write. For all of July, I am going to be a fulltime writer until I finish the first draft of my current project.

No more excuses. No more hiding behind, "I'm work full-time and am a pastor's wife and a toddler mom and my house looks like something exploded, so it's a miracle I can scratch out the few thousand words a week that I do" whining. My butt is going to be planted in a chair for hours at a time, day after day. Until it is done.

I am excited. I am grateful. I am terrified.

What if I can't do it? What if I show up and the words don't? What if I do it, but my agent hates the result? What if I spend all this time writing when I could be looking for a new job and no one wants it? What if I've had this dream of being a writer for all these years, and then when I get the opportunity, I discover that I hate it? Why do I get this opportunity, when there are real writers out there, with real contracts, and actual published books, who would give their left leg for this?

A friend text me recently. Psalm 62: My soul finds rest in God alone.

Teetering on the brink of the unknown. My soul finds rest in God alone. I don't know what this new life will look like. No suits. No 24/7 Blackberry. No opening the weekend papers and getting angry. No days where I leave home before my son wakes up and get back after he is asleep. No knowing if the next book I write will find favor with publishers. No knowing when I might return to my profession, or if a whole new one lies around the next turn. My soul finds rest in God alone.

 Because when everything changes, one thing doesn't. The One who holds it all.

Kara Isaac lives in Wellington, New Zealand with her pastor husband and ninja toddler. Her husband holds out great hopes that her "time-out" will also mean cleaning the bathroom every now and then.

Writing contemporary romance, she is proudly represented by Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary Inc. and loves to be found on Facebook and Twitter.

When Good Plans Go Bad - Kara Isaac

At the moment I’m currently working madly on my current work in progress, hoping to have it ready to pitch to agents and editors at a big writing conference in Dallas in September.

After my very unexpected semi-final in the Genesis Contest, I set off on a mission to go from blank page to 95,000 word completed manuscript in under nine months.

My first manuscript took two years. And that was pre husband, mortgage, or baby. So this time there was a plan. Five thousand words a week would see me finish a first draft by August, giving me two months to rewrite, edit and polish.

The plan had one flaw. Knowing that the real word has a way of taking over and there were destined to be a number of weeks when 5,000 words didn’t happen, I had a Plan B. This revolved around the fact that I was going overseas for work for two weeks in late June and would be shut in speeding tin cans for sixty plus hours. Sure enough real life happened, I feel behind and I set myself the task of 25,000 words to be written while I was away to make up on lost time.

I mean I had four flights over ten hours each. If one couldn’t manage to get some decent writing done trapped in a tin can with no meals to prepare, job to show up for or husband or child to worry about, all was lost.

I didn’t count on one thing. Food poisoning. The day before we left for Russia, I was plastered to my bathroom floor only able to lift my head when it was strictly necessary. The day we left I crawled onto the plane and survived the following five flights and two days in transit thanks to the wonder of some seriously powerful modern pharmaceuticals. Not a single word got typed.

I spent the first few days of the trip still unwell and when that finally passed, the jetlag kicked in. The free nights I had set aside to write while the boss graced various functions with his presence? Disappeared into an ether of bad room service and sleep.

Finally, on the first flight home, I finally managed to dust off the laptop, reacquaint myself with my long lost manuscript and start writing. By the time I landed, I’d managed to make up 6,000 words.

So blog world here’s the situation. I have 38,000 words written and need to come up with another 60,000 in the next two months. Preferably less, so I have some time to rewrite, edit etc. before jumping in a plane to the USA mid-September!

What is your advice for someone with a full-time job, a husband and a nine month old ninja on how to carve out time to write at least 1,000 words a day without being an absentee wife, mother or employee?

My limitations are:

• Can’t write during lunch hour due to system security precautions at my workplace;

• Solely responsible for my son on Sundays as my husband is in ministry so a work day for him;

• I already do the bare minimum of housework required!

• From 24 July – 1 August I’ll be overseas again and unlikely to be able to manage 1,000 words a day for most of that time

Help!!

Kara Isaac is a public servant, terrible non-laundry-doing wife and bewildered mum to a ninja by day and contemporary romance writer by crack or dawn / late night. She aspires to one day rediscover what it's like to have more than five hours sleep in a row. You can find her (usually) very random tweets at https://twitter.com/KaraIsaac

Is Your Soup Staring at You?

A young Brazilian friend, filling up on
rice and beans at lunch.

There was a chicken head in my soup.   Between the grains of rice and bits of tomato and parsley floating in the yellow broth, his unblinking eye looked up at me. While a chicken staring from the soup was no doubt perfectly normal to the Brazilian family at the next table, it was somewhat disconcerting to me, an American missionary. (My husband across the table pushed aside the clawed foot that reached for the sky from his own bowl.)

What do your characters eat? People in different places enjoy different foods. A hard boiled egg, aged to a mottled purple, brought back delightful childhood memories to my Chinese friend while I made it a point to breathe through my mouth. My friend assured me that what gets called “century eggs” these days weren’t really that old.  “Probably no more than forty.”

Century eggs

Foods are always an important part of culture.  If you are writing about another country, researching local foods is important. Within a country as large as the US, regional differences may give your writing authenticity or make it obvious to the reader that this writer doesn’t really know and thus invalidate your whole story.

For those of you living outside the US, making us smell and taste your foods in your writing (and creating the same emotional response you would have to it), is a good way to draw an American audience into your character’s world.  There is nothing like a Christmas cookout/braai/barbie at the beach to let your readers know they are not in Kansas.

Food preparation plays an important role in women’s socialization in many cultures. I once watched a Mozambican woman glide gracefully across our churchyard with a five-gallon kerosene can of water balanced on her head. Her arms swung easily at her sides, and she never spilled a drop. A little girl of about eight followed with a restaurant-size butter tin of water on her head, held with one hand. Behind the little girl came a toddler, clutching a soup can to her head with both hands. Water sloshed out at every step.

Me, trying my hand stamping grain in tandem
with the ladies at a church conference

Mozambican women spend hours stamping, winnowing and grinding grain to prepare the staple mealie porridge (hard corn meal mush to my Southern US friends). It is a daily activity for traditional Africans. Clusters of women gather in back yards to chat while they work. And if it is a conference, there will be a dozen women or more sharing tasks around several wood fires that give the food that smoky flavor I can’t replicate on the kitchen stove. An urban African woman with a fulltime job outside the home may well grab a bag of dry mealie flour at the supermarket, but she will undoubtedly lament that although it is quick, it doesn’t taste as good. And she will miss the socializing around the huge log mortars that she remembers from her childhood.

Food preparation can provide a background activity while your characters carry on a conversation that reveals character or moves your plot forward.  The preparation itself will give readers insights into the setting. The way a character wields a knife, pounds a chicken breast, or responds to a spilled glass of milk can demonstrate aspects of your characterization. (I once heard a lecture that defined spiritual gifts based on response to spilled milk. The giver says, “Don’t worry; there’s plenty more,” and jumps up to refill the glass. The helper grabs a cloth and mops up the spill. The encourager says, “That’s all right; I know you didn’t mean to spill it.” A teacher like me irritates her kids by saying, “Next time set your glass further back from the edge so you don’t bump it with your elbow.”)

Brazilian "salgadinhos" ready for a party

My teen novel Between Two Worlds includes a scene of food preparation for Brazilian-born Cristina’s longed-for fifteenth birthday party. In that scene I show the different reactions of characters to such a non-American event.  I was also able to bring out differences and similarities (pizza!) to a typical American teen party in a natural way.

So how have you used food in your writing?

If I were to write about your region, what are some foods or food-related activities I should mention to make my story sound authentic?

___

LeAnne Hardy has lived in six countries on four continents. Her books for young people come out of her cross-cultural experiences and her passion to use story to convey spiritual truths in a form that will impact lives. You can find out more about her books and travel adventures on her website and blog.

NELSON and EDDY --- by Christine Lindsay

Today I tried to share a joke with the cash-out girl at the grocery store. A picture on the front cover of a magazine caught my eye, and I chuckled at the names Celine Dion had chosen for her baby boys. She called them Nelson and Eddy.

I started to laugh. Not at the babies—they’re beautiful.

“Look at that, Nelson and Eddy,” I said to the clerk. “You know, he acted the part of the Canadian Mounted Policeman way back . . .”

She gave me a blank look. This woman was in her late 30’s, and she had no idea who the Nelson Eddy had been.

Now I realize that this week I’m turning 53, but I’m not that old. However, it was a little disconcerting, because this is the third time this week that TV and movie figures from my youth have brought me the same response when I mentioned them to passersby.

It created a culture shock as wide as if we came from different sides of the globe.

A similar thing happened at the dentist. I was looking up at the TV on the ceiling while the hygienist worked on my teeth, and she asked what I was watching. I told her it was an old black and white movie from the 60’s starring Sidney Poitier.

“Sydney who?”she said.

“Sidney Poitier,” I stammered, “You don’t know that wonderful Bahamian American actor of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” fame with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn?”

“Nope.”

Then my husband and I were watching a TV show, and 2 of my favourites from the 70’s were in starring guest roles. I got a little sad when I saw an old heart-throb, Paul Michael Glaser, who used to be Starsky of Starsky and Hutch fame. He’s still handsome, but he was looking a little portly. Not the svelte young thing he was when he had a part in the movie Fiddler on the Roof.

Then I saw Henry Winkler of Fonzie fame. He too was looking gray and a little thicker in the middle.

I had to admit it. I was getting old.

There’s a lot to complain about as we get old. But as a writer, there’s a reward.

When I’m writing, often a question will pop up in my mind---didn’t I use to know something about such and such. And I’ll do some research on it. Having a wealth of too much trivial information can come in handy in this instance. In fact many---or even most---writers don’t get published until they’re in their middle years. It’s that wealth of just plain living that helps smooth out those plots and characters.

And as for Nelson Eddy, one of his biggest roles was as that RCMP officer in a very popular movie from the 30’s called Rose Marie. That movie showcased Jimmy Stewart in one of his very first roles.

Celine Dion, being a Canadian would know all about the great Nelson Eddy. By the way, Celine, cute names for the boys.

Now if someone out there says, Jimmy Stewart who? Well I’ll . . . I’ll . . . well I don’t know what I’ll do.

WISHING A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL THE WORLD AND TO ALL GENERATIONS.

If you'd like to read more from Christine Lindsay, drop by my blog www.christinelindsay.com I'm excited about 2011 as my novel SHADOWED IN SILK makes its debut.

TITHING THE GIFT OF WRITING

Does God care about the stories on our hearts?

Like many who read this blog, I’ve been seriously writing for ten years. Although some of my writing has been published in places that has blessed others spiritually, I’m still waiting for that contract with a traditional house that will actually pay me in cold, hard cash. Will the day ever come when I experience the thrill of seeing the glossy cover of my first novel in print? Steady on, oh beating heart.

But each time I think—the pursuit of a writing career isn’t meant for me. I should just hang up my proverbial ‘writing’ skates—the Lord does something to say, “No way, kiddo, I never said stop writing.”

Last November, events triangulated in my life so that I felt financially I could afford to take a year off from the dratted day job. I gleefully rubbed my hands, pumped to work solely on that oh-so-marketable novel that was going to BREAK IN.

Then…gasp…I felt the Lord say, I want you to put aside that fictional work that means so much to you, and write a story that is on my heart. And then His still small voice said, “Will you trust me enough, child?”

A very worthy but young Christian organization needed someone to write their story, but did not have the funds to pay for it. Would I trust the Lord enough to provide for my household’s need’s while I completed this assignment non-gratis? In other words, would I trust God to pay my wages? But perhaps deeper in the sinews of my heart I felt the yank—would I trust God with the desire of my writer’s heart?

The tug of this ministry’s story was too strong to ignore. How could any writer resist the adventures of modern-day missionaries, the testing of God’s power, fulfilling feats of faith? I sure couldn’t. I threw my financial needs into the lap of my heavenly father and set hard to work. Besides, what’s more important than helping people preach the gospel of Christ to the world? Life is too short to worry about building greater metaphorical barns and houses for myself…or even writing the Great American Christian Novel.

Seven months later, I’m 2/3rd’s of the way through this non-fictional work. Oh there are days I chomp at the bit to get back to my fictional world that glimmers on the horizon. My writer’s hunger gnaws when I see my peers signing a publishing contract. I massage those aching twinges of jealousy when another peer receives an award. I fight back that jealousy, and with God’s love clap my hands loudly, and yell out—online of course—“Author, Author”.

But as I tithe my writing gift by prioritizing this non-fictional work, God has taken my breath way with His provision. Someone once said you can never out-give God.

And folks, I do not share this with pride but humility, because I know many of you tithe your writing gift too. But from one writer to another, I’m wearing my heart of my sleeve to encourage that someone that may fret now and then—should I give up.

It doesn’t make any logical sense that while I’m not bringing in a ‘proper’ wage, that God in these last few months has eliminated ALL my household debt, lowered my monthly household expenses by the intricate transaction of our house sale. And from the office window in my new house, I look out on rolling pastures, mountains, and trees that couldn’t be more conducive to a writer’s imagination. I sit in my new office and sense the Lord has placed me in a setting so that I can fulfill the desires of my heart.

I took great care last November to not make any bargains with God as I committed to this task. I’ve been through enough life to know the Lord doesn’t barter for our faithfulness. He asks, and waits for our obedience. All I knew at the time was that He would provide what I needed...if I trusted.

Only thing is, He is such a wonderful father, and has given me more than I ever dreamed. How can I not continue to trust Him with the desires of my writer’s heart?

To read more about my writing journey, and the non-fictional book I'm currently writing, drop by and visit me at www.christinelindsay.com

Yay! Criticism

Hello again! Ufuoma here and I have a quick question for you:
Show of hands? Who likes to be criticized? Anyone? No one? Surprise, surprise.

I recently joined a writers' critique group. Critiquing the work of others was a pleasant experience and much easier to do than receiving critiques of my work. The first ones were not so bad, but after a few days I almost began to dread checking my email for fear of what other criticism I might find.

One critic only read the first sentence in my chapter and sent me a note telling me that she gives harsh critiques so she would only continue if I could assure her that I was thick-skinned. My pride wouldn't let me admit that I'm not as thick-skinned as I would like to be, so I gave her the go-ahead to critique my work. The truth is that I haven't worked up the courage to open her emails since.

This got me thinking. There are so many possible responses to a not-so-glowing critique. You could internalize every negative comment and feel like giving up, believing that you got it wrong, and God didn't call you to write. Or, you could totally disregard any negative comments, believing that you know best; after all what do 'they' know? But I think most people fall somewhere in the middle - appreciating the feedback, pondering on the comments made and making decisions on what to implement and what to ignore.

I found that even though it's hard looking at a sea of red or lines crossed out of the work I put my heart in to, I was glad for the chance to be able to answer some questions or defend my reasoning for putting certain scenes in my manuscript. I was also sometimes thrilled at the new ideas I got from reading other people's suggestions.

Much of life is about finding the right balance and I've had to pick and choose what to pay attention to and what expend energy on. But to make the best of this gift (and indeed it is a gift of other people's time, thoughts and creativity), one must be open, totally honest with one's self, willing to learn and over all, love your story enough to want to make it the best story it can be, all the while maintaining it's integrity.

On the other hand, when critiquing someone else's work, let's not forget to be pepper our honesty with kindness. And be open minded about the story you're critiquing. It's not yours. What I'm trying to say is, offer constructive criticism, but don't knock someone else's story. You may not like it, but God may have given them the raw materials to eventually bring a beautifully crafted story to fruition and you could be a wonderful (not painful) part of the process.

I end this post with the awareness that I have much to learn and I'm grateful for the brilliant critics (teachers and encouragers) that God had placed in my path. I trust God that I am a stronger writer for them.

God bless you.

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Ufuoma Daniella Ojo is a technical writer, working very hard to finish editing her first novel and trusting God for it's subsequent publication.

The Emotion of Writing

I've been working on my making major changes to my first novel for a few months. As far as I was concerned the manuscript was complete and perfect as at September last year. But I re-learned that there is always more to learn and a story can always be improved at the last ACFW conference.
I also learned that (for me anyway)the creative process of writing is far more enjoyable than the technical business of editing. What could have taken me a few months is now taking a lot longer. One of the big changes I've had to make is to make a secondary male character female. Not easy. Especially since I'd grown to love this character for the man he was. So it's been painstaking, slow work - changing motivations, desires, character, looks and language.

One of the things that helped me get focused was a comment my fiance made in passing. He said something to the effect of me not writing as much and not being motivated. That made me think, "I'll show him who's not motivated." Yes, I know not very Christian, but it lit a fire under me and the more I wrote, the more I started to fall in love with my revised story. But as sometimes happens in life, I got a bad blow a few weeks later.

A very important relationship was severed (thank God it was only temporarily, but I didn't know this at the time). I completely lost the zeal to do anything, let alone write. I spent my days just trying to breathe. I would go from hope to despair in a matter of minutes. For days I couldn't write. Praise God, the relationship was restored, but this led me to reflect on the effect of our emotions on our craft.

The following is a quote from the National Writing Project website that describes three typical situations that arise from the struggle between feelings and professionalism: when strong emotions interfere with balance and clarity; when writers leave their personal experience out of their writing; and when unresolved feelings cause a writer to lose sight of audience and purpose." Hmm.

As Christians sometimes we get so 'spiritual' that we lose sight of the truth that God gave us emotions. Obviously they are not supposed to lead us, but to help us get a sense of where we are in relation to the circumstances surrounding us. So how can our emotions help us with our writing? I cant say that I have 'the' answer or that there is even 'an' answer, but I did ask myself the following questions:
-Have you ever been so angry that you kill of a character because they remind you of some one who's hurt you even though that was not originally part of your story?
-Have you found yourself disliking a character you previously loved because of something that did that was recently done to you?
-Have you given a happy ending to a story just because things were going brilliantly in your life?

There are so many more questions we could possibly ask, but what I realised is that I have a choice. I can either channel my emotions into creativity without making impulsive and unnecessary changes to my story outline or I can let my emotions rule me and have me going back and forth based on how fickle they are. God help me!
I'm going to go over what I've written over the past month with a critical eye and see how my emotions affected my work.

The Journey So Far...

From January through December 2008 I focused on writing and completing the story I believe the Lord had given me - The Sower, which is loosely based on the parable of the sower. It was a such a period of awakening for me. Having characters come to life and tell me in the wee hours of the night the things they wanted to do next and the things that I had already written that they disagreed with. Sounds crazy, I know. I definitely didn't expect that but I can assure you that most fiction writers experience the same thing. Oh, it was such fun. At the time I was living alone, but these characters were so real to me that I felt I was sharing my flat (apartment) with a whole bunch of people (although none of them contributed towards the rent ;-)).

I was luxuriating in and getting such a charge out of the creative process of writing that I didn't even think about the publishing side. I typed the last period in my manuscript before even considering the next steps in the process. I got a group of readers together to critique my story and for the most part got extremely encouraging feedback. I was on my way. I then read through a manual on the publishing process and browsed through Sally E. Stuart's Christian Writers Guide 2009. I truly believed that as soon as an agent reads my query letter they would be sure to snap me up. Surprise, surprise that didn't happen. After getting a few knock backs I remembered one of Roxanne Henke's books where the main character was a writer and attended a writers' conference. Aah, maybe attending one would be a good idea, I thought. I did some research and then joined ACFW and planned to attend the next conference which was scheduled for September. I'd never been to Denver and the place looked like it could be fun.

There were many highs and lows and many nerve wracking moments for me. I met some truly special people, heard some extraordinary stories and learnt the tools of the trade from amazing teachers. As the time for my agent and publisher appointments drew nearer I went from hope to fear based on what I was hearing from other attendees. Discouragement set in immediately after my paid critique, which made me so nervous for the next set of appointments. The lessons I learnt at the early bird workshop buoyed me, after all I'd applied most of the tips the instructor shared but that lift was quickly dashed when an agent told me that "readers don't easily identify with a male protagonist, so either change it or make one of the female characters a co-protagonist." I was crushed because making those changes would completely change my story.

I came back to London a stronger writer for the lessons I'd learned, but also solemn as I realised that writing is not for the faint of heart. The months that followed included some big changes in my personal life so I was not as focused on my writing as I should have been, but by the same token I've needed this space to re-group and get that quiet assurance within my spirit that this is what I'm supposed to be doing at this point in my life. God has a journey mapped out for me and the fact that things have not all gone as expected does not mean that I'm not exactly where I'm supposed to be. Here's to knuckling down and letting God speak as He wills through me. Cheers.