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Craft of Writing

Reading
06/292020

Reading: The Creative Center of a Writer’s Life

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Above is a concept that Stephen King discussed in his excellent book On Writing, and it’s true as true can be. So in this blog, we’re going to look at the importance of writers reading.

Reading novels is often a more effective method of learning to write than any college course you might take. Of course, classes and courses are helpful to learn method, craft, and to get critiques. So are writer’s conferences like our WriterCon! But it’s in reading great books that we learn how to craft a scene, the shape of a plot, the pacing of our work, and how to build characters. When we read, we’re exposed to other styles, genres, and voices. We’re inspired by writers better than we are, and our imaginations are expanded. Our vocabulary is widened, and in the process, we learn the trends and happenings in the publishing world.

You may be thinking, “I don’t have time to read! I’m just trying to carve out time to write my book in the midst of my busy life.” And what about the time we need to spend reading breaking news on our Smart phones, watching TV movies and series, seeing the latest Youtube cat or baby videos, and reading Social Media posts?

Nevertheless, taking time to read is vital for writers. Although this may sound harsh, Stephen King said, “Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” But don’t just consider reading as a chore or assignment–think of the pleasures of reading a great story or a compelling, suspenseful mystery. I’ve been an avid reader all my life. And one of the ways I’ve happily gotten through coronavirus season, especially the rather long shelter-at-home time, is reading. I’ve read Louise Penny’s mysteries, JoJo Moyes’ The Horse Dancer, Lisa Wingate’s Before We Were Yours, Gabriel Zevin’s The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, several biographies, and numerous Charles Martin’s books, to name a few.

However, don’t think I was laying around all day eating bonbons and wrapped in an 18th century romance. I still worked each day at my home office on the sunporch while doing the considerable work of executive director of a nonprofit organization. But in the evening…I couldn’t wait to get back to my current novel.

Let me encourage you to read, read, read! Read print books and e-books on your Kindle or tablet. Listen to audio books when you take walks, drive to work, or take road trips. Read when you’re waiting at the doctor’s office or before you go to sleep at night. Read fiction and nonfiction. Read biographies, the classics and modern fiction. In doing so, you’ll discover your favorite authors and meet unforgettable characters. And you’ll find your reading will have long-term benefits and make you a much better writer.

As William Faulkner said, “Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the window.”

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Blessings of Writing
06/082020

The Blessings of Being a Writer

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Yes, dear writer, hard as it is to believe sometimes, there are blessings to being a writer. And they go beyond multi-book deals, beyond making the bestseller list, beyond movie deals. Few writers attain these lofty heights.

But all authors can experience the blessings of being a writer.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned more about writing as a craft and as a means to express all God has put on my heart. It’s been a blessing to learn all I have learned. And it’s been an eye-opener to realize all I still need to discover, even at my age. God never stops working on us, so why should we stop working on ourselves?

One of the more generic blessings of being a writer is the difference between “have to” and “get to.” In my younger days, I frequently said, and sometimes lamented, “I have to go to work” even though my job was often fulfilling. My words have changed. Writing is my vocation. Now I say, “I get” to write. When I think I have to write it’s because a story idea is burning so strong, I need to get down on screen or paper before it flits away like a butterfly.

Some other blessings of being a writer are:

Learning

And not just learning a new skill such as the craft of writing. Though this is crucial. It’s also learning about who we are as individuals. It’s learning patience and determination and perseverance. It’s learning to constructively receive feedback, especially when it’s not what we want to hear. Writing has revealed parts of me I hadn’t seen before. Some of them make me feel good about myself. Others, not so much. But incorporating these lessons has made me not only a better writer but also a better person. In other words, a lot of what I’ve learned about being a writer applies to other areas of my life. I pray for the wisdom to recognize this and the courage to apply it.

Community

The act of writing is usually done alone, but it does not occur in a vacuum. As we strive and struggle in the craft, we meet and form relationships with a myriad of people who share this journey with us. Non-writers can’t relate to this as well as writers can. It’s like we have a non-verbal language for communicating with each other. And we have a jargon which sounds like a foreign language to non-writers but opens the door with other writers in just a few words. These relationships can become deep and meaningful friendships with people who “get us.” People who share our frustrations, our rejections, and our successes. I value my close writer friends who refuse to let me wallow in my self-pity at my self-perceived lack of success. They pray with me, challenge me, and won’t let me quit.

Readers

Whether we write fiction or nonfiction, devotionals or inspirational books, blogs, articles, newsletters or anything else, we touch readers. And we may never know who we touch or in what way. Some readers have thanked me because my novels brought them closer to God. Others thank me for creating characters who give them hope that they, too, can change their circumstances.

The Call

Many writers will say they are called to write. And not just writers in the Christian market. Writing fulfills a deep purpose in our lives, more profound than just working to put food on the table. For many, writing is more than a job. I know God has called me to write for this season of my life. So I write. I pray over ideas and manuscripts. I pray over characters and plots. I get to paint pictures with words, not a brush. I get to use words to reveal Jesus to my readers through the characters who tell my stories. I need to respect his calling and honor it through what I write and how I write it.

What blessings has being a writer brought you?

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Never Alone
05/042020

Never Alone

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Like most writers, I spend a lot of time alone applying my craft to the stories calling to me.

And, like many people, I can lose myself in my aloneness. This is a good thing when I’m creating.

But there are times when it’s not a good thing. I tend to be a loner, private and keep-to-myselfer. I tell people I’m such an introvert, I won’t even talk to myself. When the creative juices are flowing, I can stay in my writing cave for hours, churning out word after word.

Unfortunately, when the creative juices aren’t flowing, I can still stay in my writing cave for hours. Or bury myself in a book, calling it research. It’s not research. It’s escapism. I’d rather be in the imaginary world of a story than in the real world with its hurt and rejection.

I suspect one reason I write stories is to escape that real world and live vicariously through my characters. I haven’t wanted to examine it until recently. Now that I have, I know it’s true. Admitting it means doing something about it. Keeping the status quo is not an option.

The real world is where God placed me. It’s where he wants me to live and to be in relationship with him and with others. The other day I read in one of my devotions that he chose to create me. That rocked me. I know he created me, and I know he has a plan and purpose for me. But this phrasing opened me to a deeper personal level. He CHOSE to create ME! He could have created someone—anyone—else. But he purposely decided to create me.

When I create a character in a story, I create that character for a specific purpose: to be the hero, the sidekick, the comic relief, the villain. God did the same when he created each of us.

Despite what my past, my self-talk, or the devil try to tell me, I am not a random creation. He created me to be in relationship with him, to praise and worship him, to love him and receive his love.

He also created me to serve him and to serve his people in specific ways, ways no one else can do. It may be to preach to thousands from the pulpit. It may be to minister to one person at one specific time and place, to perhaps save them physically and spiritually. Many of us serve unnoticed as parents and spouses, volunteers at church or in the community, in a particular vocation or career.

For many of you reading this, you’re part of the group he created to be writers. Whether that’s devotionals, memoirs, teaching books or inspirational books, or fiction. He created us with unique gifts and the ability to reach certain people in ways no one else can.

When I completed my first novel, I sent the draft to what I call beta readers or first readers. I wanted honest feedback from people I trusted. One reader commented about a particular scene. She said, “whatever you do, don’t take this scene out of the book because it brought me closer to God.” When I read that, God said, “If this book never gets published, it has still accomplished my purpose. It brought her closer to me.”

I know there are times when we feel alone, especially in times like now. But we’re not. Even in times of social distancing and restrictions on travel, etc., we are never alone. God is with us and working in us to fulfill the reasons he created us.

Rejoice in his love and purpose for you! Even when it seems he’s not there, have faith he’s working. Rejoice and trust.

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Voice
04/062020

The Voice of You

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Writing is a craft, a tool that has helped us translate the human soul and communicate with one another since the beginning of time. Writing itself is such an important gift that we need to embrace and practice daily, for our own sakes. What if the world never had the means to write? What if we could only communicate through the mouth. What words would be lost in mid-air as we spoke? That’s terrifying to think about. The truth and lies would interlace and fight for dominance. With writing, we are given a surface to record and validate the truth, or cement lies even deeper into our consciousness. Writing is a mold that can be used for good or evil.

Whenever you think of it that way, it makes the stakes even higher. There’s a sense of adventure, peril, and moral responsibility for the people around us. I know that whenever I begin to write, my soul spills onto the page, and it’s like a bleed that never stops. The words I have harbored in my heart is fleshed out and made more real. Once I get to the core of what I’m experiencing before and during my writing, there is no stopping. By the time I am finished, I am drained yet empowered. It is a cathartic experience that my heart and soul needs daily. However, I do not always write daily. If anything, I avoid it because I know how drained I will be, and how the muscles in my hand will be screaming, “Why did you do this to us?! You know that keyboards exist, right?”

“I know, but it seems more old-fashioned and more dramatic when I physically write it out on a page,” my inner dialogue replies with a fiendish smile as I write by lamplight.

I believe that we often feel that we have to stage an atmosphere that will bring our creative juices to a boil. Because that’s only when our creativity and our words are threaded into existence, right? It is ridiculous to even dare think that we can write at any time, at any place, in any mind space? We have this image of ourselves where we are time-travelers, and we are writing table side in a cafe with Ernest Hemingway, or walking alongside with C.S. Lewis and his infamous walks that sparks the deepest conversations and ideas. I admit that I am guilty of romanticizing what I think it should be like every time I write. On the contrary, writing, whether it be based on emotions or from a literary, clinical point of view, it can be ugly and it can be messy.

Have you ever had days where you have ended a writing session, where you are just swelling with pride, and are so excited to read and unfurl what you have written? But as you are peeling through the pages, it reeks with disorderliness and you feel like a child recklessly wrote it? You feel what I’m saying? Yeah, me too. I felt that blow, and I’m the one that dealt the blow. But you know what? It’s actually in the mess that you have actually laid the foundation and fleshed out the beginning of the life of your idea, whether it be a blog post, short story, novel or film script, to name a few.

I once read somewhere that your first draft is telling yourself the story. With this kind of frame of mind, I want to think of this as writing unapologetically, knowing you are going to make mistakes; it’s a given. Once you have written your first draft, remember what it exactly is: a first draft. Don’t expect that what you’ve written is Nobel Peace Prize material or start drafting your Academy Awards Speech for “Best Original Screenplay.” You have to work toward the good, earn the good, by being open to the possibility of altering your story, so it can achieve the greatest possible potential. I took a painting class in college, and my professor once told me, “You know you are a real artist whenever you can destroy your work and start over, and end up creating something even better than the last.”

When I was growing up, I felt that the more flowery language and elaborate vocabulary I used, the better my writing was. But I was hit with reality harder and harder as I’ve gotten older. Don’t get me wrong, I still love to express myself through such flowery language because I believe at that instant or circumstance, that is the best word that understands what I’m saying. Human language is beautiful, and it deserves our respect in how we use it.

 

I have been working on my writing voice for the good part of my life. If I had to describe my voice as a person, she would be best described as a “ Storyteller with a curious appetite for why we’re here, and to translate the human mind, heart, and experience, with the intention to heal.” One quote I have taken to heart is one from the critically acclaimed author, Stephen King: “One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up your vocabulary, looking for long words because you’re maybe a little ashamed of your short ones.”

As you include writing more and more into your daily diet for your soul, you will begin to give your writing a character, a voice. It could be a voice that mirrors you, or it can become the voice you’ve always wanted to have, but you were scared to even utter. And what is one of the key things of this “writing diet”? Life experiences.

I have mentioned in previous blog posts that life experience is what brings us all together. Despite the differences in our life paths, the themes of life appear in all of our lives, themes of Joy, Despair, Life, Death, Triumph, Devastation, Hope, and countless more. When we begin the journey to make our voices bolder, we are placing ourselves in the middle of innumerable life paths whenever we share with the world. God gave you this gift. May He stir your heart to pursue the craft of writing, and may it minister to you as He speaks to you, and minister to people that you may only indirectly meet through a screen or paper as they read the voice of you.

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Unity
03/022020

What Happens When Writers Get Together

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Recently I remembered a pivotal moment that occurred at a small writer’s gathering I attended in my early, fledgling writing career. I was a few chapters into my first book entitled HOMELIFE: The Key to Your Child’s Success in School. I didn’t have an agent or any connections in the publishing industry, nor even a writer friend to help me edit. So when I heard about a writer’s retreat, I signed up and was excited to attend.

There I met a quiet young woman with straight brown hair and brown glasses who looked very serious. When I went to her breakout session, she sounded like she knew what she was talking about—and she worked for a publisher! So after her session on editing, I introduced myself and asked if she would be willing to read my first chapter and give me some feedback.

“Any feedback, either negative or positive, would be helpful. I feel like I’m writing in a. vacuum,” I said.

Fortunately, this was a small enough gathering that she could sit down over a break and read my first 10 pages. I went into the kitchen and got her a cup of tea and then waited in another part of the room until she was finished.

After a while, she called me over to the table and I sat down across from her.

“Cheri, you have some very good ideas for parents,” she told me. “But here is what I advise you to do with every page and chapter you write: As you work in your office, picture a mom right across from you having coffee. And then share your ideas with her in a conversational way, not like the formal written English style you used when writing your graduate thesis. Not like you’re talking down to her since you know all about the subject, but horizontally in a warm, familiar tone.”

“You mean my style is pretty stiff?” I asked her. (Ha. Such an understatement, I learned!)

“It certainly is. And unless you can learn to talk to your reader like she’s a friend you’re meeting at a coffee shop, I think you’re going to lose her on page one. And any editor who reads your manuscript as well.”

Since she was an editor, I asked if she had any other tips for how to achieve this conversational style of writing.

“Well, first, write the way you talk. Avoid writing sentences or paragraphs that are too long. Use contractions whenever you can. Know who you’re writing for, what audience you’re hoping to speak to, and what her situation is. If that’s a mother, does she have five little children around her and she only has time to read a short paragraph at a time? Or if it’s a working mom who comes home exhausted, will she be able to engage in your content?

In either case, they’d appreciate seeing your tips on helping kids learn in bullet points she can apply right away. That will affect your style and you’ll discover your voice.  Always read your chapter aloud when you finish it to see how it flows.

And most of all, become more of a storyteller!”

As I flew back home and started revising chapters and writing new ones, I kept in mind what she told me. It didn’t happen overnight; it was a learning process. I attended a semester-long storytelling course on Saturdays at a nearby college (one of the best classes I ever took) and included more stories in my book. I even found it helpful to read a chapter to my husband or a mom next door.

What I learned in two short days at a writer’s gathering proved to be one of the most valuable things I ever did—and learning to write in a warm, conversational style became a hallmark of my future books. You never know who you’re going to meet or a key tool you’ll discover for your writing arsenal.

See you at the next WWSW retreat!

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