WARNING TO WRITERS. WARNING...WARNING !!!

If you want to write fiction you have to adjust to the fact that all fiction is autobiographical…to a point. You’re going to bleed emotionally on the pages. You will need plenty of hankies near your computer.   

When I first started writing 15 years ago, I understood any non-fiction I hoped to write, especially the book on my birth-mother

experience, would be autobiographical. But later when it seemed that particular true-life account might never be published, I felt the Lord urge me to put the spiritual and emotional truths I’d learned into Christian Fiction.

Whew! This means I don’t have to bare my soul. I can hide behind my “untrue” historical epics with plenty of action and romance that God-willing might help readers think about the Lord while they’re being entertained.

Ah...but here’s the real scoop.

When people read Shadowed in Silk I don’t think they have a clue that I poured my own wounded heart and soul into my "bad-guy", the enemy of my heroine Abby Fraser. Much of my emotions (from a number of years ago) are seen in Tikah the woman who kidnaps Abby’s child.

The title Shadowed in Silk shows all characters feel invisible for their own reasons. The two women feel no one sees their heartaches or hears their cries in the night. As a woman who was hurting over the relinquishment of my firstborn to adoption, I felt like invisible Abby. But I also felt like Tikah who steals Abby’s little boy, because part of my heart longed to turn the clock back so that I’d never relinquished my child in the first place. 

I took the bare truth of my soul and painted that longing into my character Tikah as she does the reprehensible.    

Shocking, I know. I’m not saying my emotions were right or honorable. Emotions are emotions, but that’s what books are, a baring of the soul. 

Of course I didn’t take back my true-life child, and the Lord helped me through my heartache. Thankfully, God also didn’t leave me in my spiritual immaturity, and my second book Captured by Moonlight shows some of that spiritual growth.  

One of my heroines, the beautiful Indian woman Eshana is imprisoned in a ruined jungle palace by her fanatical uncle. Her head is shaved, her lovely saris taken away, and she's dressed in coarse white cotton like that of a Hindu widow. In this book Eshana says the following, straight from what I hope I will say the next time I go through a real life valley of suffering...

“I will sing your praises, Lord. Though you have dressed me in funeral clothes, I will sing your praises with joy.”  

I could go on and on—how Veiled at Midnight shows what I learned the 2 years my brother lived with my husband and me, as my brother went through rehab for his alcoholism. This book breathes the message that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from the love of God.

The message of Londonderry Dreaming is to speak the truth in love, no matter how hard it hurts. And in the soon-to-be-released Sofi’s Bridge is about being true to the gifts God has placed in our souls, and to not try and save your loved ones on your own. All deep spiritual and emotional lessons that I have learned in my true life. 

God has done some amazing things for me.  Sure, I’ve suffered, who doesn’t, but I’ve experienced that scintillating feeling when 

God makes everything new. That’s why I always write happy endings.

That’s also why 15 years since I first starting writing, I’m seeing my original dream come to pass. Remember that non-fiction book on my birth-mother experience that started it all? Well, it too is soon-to-be-released. But in all honesty, there is just as much of me in my fictional novels as there is in this account.

Me and my birth-daughter Sarah. She too writes a piece for the book, including several other people from various adoption reunions.

No matter what emotional state you are currently in--hold tight to God, and believe in the ultimate happy ending for you through Jesus Christ. 

For more about Christine Lindsay and her books, go to www.ChristineLindsay.com

Journaling is Good for the Author's Heart, Soul, and Writing by Wendy L. Macdonald

A vintage shabby-chic trunk in our cozy den holds a menagerie of my fabric-covered and spiral-bound journals. Thirty-two years' worth of words lay poured onto the private pages of these notebooks. How has journaling been helpful for this author’s heart, soul, and writing?

Journaling sharpens an author’s ability to shape stories and characters. Although I’m new to writing full-length fiction manuscripts, I’ve had much experience dreaming up plot lines without even realizing it. Eighteen months ago my dear husband suggested I start a novel. He said this shaking his head in response to my vivacious imagination.

There are many examples of my exuberant mind written within the pages of my journals, such as the time I stopped my family from eating baked goods that had been given to us because I wondered about the numerous sudden deaths that had occurred in the giver’s social sphere. (I’ve sworn my family to secrecy about this crazy moment of mine.) But that incident helped shape one of my first manuscript’s characters. And I suspect other antagonists will be birthed from incidents saved within my journal.

Journaling improves deep point-of-view writing skills. A diary won’t do. A journal is for recording our inner thoughts and feelings about what has transpired rather than simply documenting events. Pathos, fear, joy, and passion are a few especially helpful emotions to take advantage of. And it’s this depth of articulation that most benefits our fiction work. How can we write effectively about our protagonist’s strengths and weaknesses if we’re not in conscious contact with our own?

Journaling helps us tap into the inner-motivations of our characters. There’s nothing new under the writer’s quill because we all share the same universal issues (love, family, faith, birth, death, and everything in between). Authors generally use the same proven story structure, yet they must still strive to create unique character arcs with one-of-a-kind plots.

The experience of keeping a journal can give our fiction writing a sharper edge when we mine treasures from our characters’ thoughts (as well as from our own). If we can write a story that pulls others into a realistic world shared from the deep recesses of the protagonist’s heart and mind, the reader won’t want to put the book down. There’s something about intimacy that draws us in, much like a campfire does. Entering one’s own thoughts into a journal makes us more self-aware and potentially more observant of our fictional characters’ desires, secrets, and vulnerabilities. And that makes for good writing.

Journaling alleviates stress through the writing pilgrimage. Recording our prayer requests, our praises, and our personal progress keeps us honest and motivated with our current manuscripts and self-care. The stress-reducing effects of journaling kick in when we write poignantly. From what I’ve been reading it’s not just a newbie, like me, who gets overwhelmed and discouraged in this ever-changing literary landscape. Authors, we know and admire, have had to rethink their strategies, too.

Journaling gives the author permission to leave their concerns within their private pages, go forth, and share their stories. Write. Read. Edit. Query (or Self-Publish). Submit. Repeat. We can trust God to answer our written requests according to his perfect timing while we’re busy doing our part as writers.

Journaling IS good for the author’s heart, soul, and writing! How has it helped you?

Wendy L. Macdonald has lived in British Columbia, Canada all her life. She postponed her writing aspirations for a decade while homeschooling her three children. Last year she dove into writing with only her experience of blogging and a love of reading to keep her afloat in the ever-changing sea of the publishing world. She has completed two mystery/romance novels and hopes to try memoir writing in the near future. Her website is http://greenlightlady.wordpress.com where she shares inspirational poetry, prose, and nature photography.

'Eek! Is that how I should have written it?'--by Jo-Anne Berthelsen

In recent weeks, I have spent many hours re-reading various books about writing. A friend had asked me about an issue she had encountered in creating her own novel and I wanted to do my best to help her. In the end, I chose some of my favourites to lend her—Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, Revision and Self-Editing and also The Art of War for Writers by James Scott Bell, as well as Writing 21^st Century Fiction by Donald Maass.

But there was a second reason for my jaunt into reading these books. During the weekend of 24-26 October, I will be presenting a workshop on memoir writing at the Christian Writers’ Conference in Victoria here in Australia. Yes, it is about writing memoir, but I also plan to include several books on novel writing in my suggested reading list. In writing my first memoir, Soul Friend, after having produced six novels, I realised how helpful it was to have already come to grips with the process involved in telling a good story. I already knew to think about such things as the structure of my book and its narrative arc, what aspects I would include in my ‘plot’, how I would portray my characters, how I would keep my readers hopefully turning those pages and so many other matters important for novelists to remember.

And, of course, I have also read or re-read books specifically on memoir writing, not only in preparation for my upcoming workshop but also to help me personally in creating my second memoir, Coming Home to Myself, which I have just completed. I love Australian author Patti Miller’s The Memoir Book, but have also enjoyed Natalie Goldberg’s book Old Friends from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir, as well as Handling the Truth by Beth Kephart.

As a result of all this reading, there is so much excellent information running around in my head. But another less positive result has been that solid dose of self-questioning and self-doubt I have experienced at times about my own ability to write well. Often, I have caught myself thinking along the lines of ‘Oh, I didn’t realise that when writing my novels’ or ‘Goodness me, I’m sure I never did that when I wrote my earlier books at least’ or ‘Eek—is that how I should have gone about my last book? How did I write Soul Friend and not know all that about memoir writing?’

Reading books about writing, I have discovered, can turn out to be informative, enjoyable, interesting, challenging and overwhelming all at the same time.  It is an essential part of the whole process for aspiring and even established authors, I believe. Yet, unless we are careful, the whole process can also be a little hazardous to our emotional health and wellbeing. How blessed we are then, as Christian authors, to know God’s reassuring presence with us, whatever we are reading, and to be able to listen the Spirit’s encouraging voice even as we discover old habits we need to get rid of and new things we need to put in their place! Yes, we might have made those mistakes in our writing—but we are learning and moving forward with God in it all. And that is what matters.

Jo-Anne Berthelsen lives in Sydney, Australia. She holds degrees in Arts and Theology and has worked as a high school teacher, editor and secretary, as well as in local church ministry. Jo-Anne is passionate about touching hearts and lives through both the written and spoken word. She is the author of six published novels and one non-fiction work, Soul Friend: the story of a shared spiritual journey. Jo-Anne is married to a retired minister and has three grown-up children and four grandchildren. For more information, please visit www.jo-anneberthelsen.com.

Learning to live with vulnerability

I remember the moment it first dawned on me what a vulnerable activity it is to write published novels. One day, I opened an email from my publisher to find an attachment featuring the proposed front cover of my first novel. As I saw my name printed there in bold letters, horror overwhelmed me. What had I done? What would people think about my writing? Had a made a huge fool of myself? But it was too late now – I couldn’t turn back.

Now, four more published novels on, I have discovered one can’t please everyone—and I think I’ve grown a slightly thicker skin too. But I can see my vulnerability levels will soon be tested out again. You see, after producing six novels, I have just completed writing the first draft of my very first full length non-fiction work. Now I am poised to tackle the many re-writes that are no doubt ahead of me as I and my manuscript readers assess it.

I never envisaged I would write non-fiction—I love the freedom of writing my novels, watching a story develop and letting it take on a life of its own. Yet I have loved my non-fiction journey as well and have benefited so much from it. You see, my book is a type of memoir—an account of a spiritual friendship I have enjoyed with a dear, older Christian friend for many years now. To write this, I have delved into my old journals where I kept a record of many of the deep conversations my friend and I have enjoyed while sitting together in her lovely, old home in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. As I read, I saw not only the richness of our relationship but also the incredible grace of God in my life during these years. My friend has met with me since my second year at theological college around fifteen years ago and seen me through many stretching experiences—including embarking on writing my first novel in my late fifties!

Given this is the type of non-fiction I have written, perhaps you can imagine how vulnerable I now feel at the thought of exposing my innermost thoughts and fears to my readers in this way. Many times in my novels I have been able to express my own feelings and opinions through the lives of my characters. But here in this non-fiction work, there is nowhere to hide! Now that I have finished writing it, am I willing, I ask myself, to allow anyone and everyone to read it? Is this even a wise thing to do?

But then I remember why I decided to write it in the first place. I wanted to show what a wonderful gift it is for someone older in the faith to come alongside a younger Christian in an encouraging, supportive relationship and hopefully challenge more mature Christians to do this. I also wanted to inspire those younger in the faith to seek out older Christians to walk with them on their journey. And finally, I wanted to be honest about my own struggles so that those going through similar experiences might feel encouraged and understood and even perhaps given a glimpse of a way forward. So for these reasons I hope this book does succeed in being published—despite my misgivings.

But for now it’s back to editing and re-writing—and then perhaps dreaming of that next novel already outlined on my computer!