The Lost Writer

"Could not a book with just a masterful sliver of God in it carry the fullness of His message to the mind [. . .]?" My dear friend Latayne asked this question on a blog post in Novel Matters. I'm reposting my response to this excellent question here.

My biggest mistakes as a writer have happened in the moments after I decided

I knew the whole story. When I thought I understood where the story must go and why. In those moments I relaxed into cliched phrases, pat answers, short cuts, and the easy way out. When I believed I knew what the story was "about", it was as if I had set a pot on the stove and simmered the contents to reduction. And in the dense mix there was no longer room for characters to speak and act their own truth. There was only slavish devotion to the singular point of my positive message. My desire to impart truth strangled the art of story, drained the mystery out of faith, and delivered a stillborn idea.

I'm learning to approach my writing with fear and trembling. I am a writer with faith, but I do not know the fullness of His mystery. Jesus came to earth, but I have no idea what it is like for God to slip into skin which sweats and burns and callouses. He was betrayed, but what is it to look into the eyes of the man who will sell you yet love him so intensely you will die for him? Jesus sweated blood in Gethsemane, but what is it like to teeter on the edge of spiritual and physical no-man's-land, to forge with your life a trail no one has walked before?

I'm learning to stop fooling myself into believing the life of faith is easily explained. That is can be summed up with a happy ending. That victory looks anything like we think it must.

I'm learning that the moment I believe I know the whole story - novel, or faith - is the moment I need to repent, and go a different way. The way where victory is not easily recognized, where success looks like losing your life, and the happy ending is no longer the point. I must abandon my pot of reductionist ideas, and embrace the vast wilderness of a love that costs us everything.

Let us get so lost as writers, as people, that we are willing to be led through the wilderness.

I bid you good writing.

There is no Down Time

Waiting for something? That call from and agent or editor? The go-ahead from a publisher? Are you waiting to hear from a writing client? Waiting. No one likes waiting.

Here is a secret: You should never truly be waiting for anyone. You should be writing.

I hate waiting. I'm very good at it, being forced into it so many times, I've learned to deal. But I still hate it. I hate the feeling that someone else is in control of my choices - of my future yes or no. That I have to wait for an answer before I know if I can move ahead or not. Then I realized I had it all wrong. I shouldn't be waiting. I should be writing.

Publishing revolves around careful decision making. Your brilliant novel (and mine) is no exception. This takes time. Barrels of time. Which leaves you and me - waiting.

So, what's a writer to do with all this built in down time awaiting decision? The answer of course, is WRITE.

Well, says the skeptical writer to herself. Why should I write and write and later find out that my project has been rejected? Or that they are asking for substantial changes? I will have wasted all that time and effort.

Not so. Writing "blind" without expressed direction from an agent, publisher, or editor, is the best way to perfect your voice, craft, and writing vision. You won't get tangled up in another persons suggestions. You'll be blazing your own trail. This is a time to push yourself, challenge yourself to reach the next step. Improve your novel. Tighten your prose. Study novel structure. Take a class on writing. Revise your work. Take a stab at substantive edits. Rethink your ending. You're not waiting - you're working. You're readying yourself. You're improving.

And, when the call comes with all its shock and awe, all its giddy WOO HOOs! and all its provisos, you'll be ready. More ready than you were when you submitted your project.

And what if that call is a no? You're ready for that, too. Because you'll know you've become a better writer, you'll feel only slightly the sting of rejection, and it won't stop you. Not for one minute.

I bid you good writing.

Guest Blogger - Gail Gaymer Martin - From Idea to Novel

Everyone has a process - a way of looking at the world, translating it in his or her mind and then articulating the experience to others. Writers are always looking for inspiration, but they also know its rare for a singular incident to give rise to an idea rich enough to become a book. Often, the writer pulls together various bits of information and knits them into a whole.

I love the way today's guest blogger, Gail Gaymer Martin explains how her process works.

Gail is a multi-award-winning novelist and author of Writers Digest, Writing the Christian Romance, she writes women˙s fiction, including romance and romantic suspense. She has 42 published novels with 3 million books in print.

Gail is a full-time novelist, popular keynote speaker and workshop presenter across the United States and abroad. Visit her website at www.gailmartin.com and her Writing Fiction Right blog at www.writingright-martin.blogspot.com, and look for DAD IN TRAINING in stores the month of September, 2009 and MONTEREY MEMORIES released in November, 2009.

Let's dig into the mind of this hugely popular author:

HOLES IN MY HEAD
I have holes in my head. I like to call them niches. When something triggers a story nugget, often not even an idea, it lands in one of these holes. What causes the nugget can be many things---an article in a newspaper, song lyrics, a Bible verse, observing a person, hearing someone's adventure or experience, a location, a photograph. I'm stimulated by many things so this becomes the beginning. These niches in my mind have little "magnets" and when I have another thought or experience and realize it might fit with the another nugget, it filters into the right niche. These ideas are like a jigsaw puzzle that finally begin to pull together and I begin to see an image or a picture. As the nugget grows to an idea, then scenes, a movie runs in my mind and I continue to add scenes and more nuggets. Eventually, the story fills my mind. My "hole runneth over" and I know this is a story that needs to be told.

*****

I can picture it, can't you? Reaching into the niches in her mind, examining the contents. Love the images.

How about you? Do you have holes in your head? I'd love to hear about them.

I bid you good writing.

How to: From Idea to Novel

A common question about Talking to the Dead is "where did you come up with the idea for the book?"

My answer is usually something like this:

"My inspiration for Talking to the Dead is difficult to nail down. The novel came in bits and pieces – I’d love to say I was so smart and savvy I had it all planned out, but that’s simply not what happened. In part, the story came out of my experiences as a counselor, sitting with people who were attempting to articulate their pain and distress. It occurred to me that many of the things these people were doing (the behaviors I saw) were often an attempt to accomplish something very different that what they were doing – in other words, behavior didn’t match intentions. It caused me to truly see why Jesus commanded us not to judge others. We simply don’t know what’s going on under the surface.

The second inspiration for the novel came from watching how God was always present in the messy lives of these people who were hurting. He mingles with our humanity. And that is the story I wanted to tell; God in the midst of our messy lives."

(This is the answer that appears on Susan Meissner's blog Edgewise)

It's a good answer in that it is true, and it signifies the genesis of my "ah-ha!" moment that led to the beginning of the book.
What it doesn't answer is: how does inspiration translate into a novel? How do you transform ideas (themes, concepts, messages) into storyline? The answer to THAT is far more complex.

The writing of a novel has a lifespan of it's own. From conception to making the book available for purchase, a book moves from infancy to adulthood in stages. You've heard it said that writing a book is like having a baby - I don't agree. I have two kids and they don't look anything like my books - and writing isn't anywhere near as painful as labor! But there is an analogy that can be drawn on in terms of maturing ideas into words, and words into a manuscript and a manuscript into a book.

The conception comes when singular ideas meld together to become something multi-faceted. This is when your idea about wanting to write a book about redemption and love meets with your "what if?" idea, which then buddy up with ideas for a plot (a what happens idea), and then bump into some characters that can help make the story happen. All great stuff roiling around - but a far cry from a book. One thing I've noticed when I look at new writer's work is they attempt to write a book based solely on this stage of the process. They believe they have all the raw materials they need to write a book, when all they really have is a loose association of potentially good ideas. They try to go from conception to birth - missing critial steps inbetween.

The incubation period of development comes next and it looks a great deal like writing a book - but it isn't. It is a time of growing ideas, concepts, plot, characters, story arch, message, and meaning together. You're writing it out - getting your thoughts down on paper in the form of descprition, dialogue, characterization, movement, plot points, and subtext. In time, the ideas merge, then grow, the seperate into the multi-celled creature that, if done right, will become a book. Some people call this the first draft - and it's here most beginner writers get stuck. Why? Two reasons - lack of understanding of the process of writing, and lack of patience with themselves as artists. A third reason could be that the person isn't really a novelist - that writing for them is best carried out in another format, another medium (non-fiction, articles, newpaper, acedemic, and on and on - there are many, many ways to express yourself through writing).

The incubation period always seems to last forever - it's a time when the singular ideas and themes you had grow toghether to become a very different thing. A solid ball of something substaintial, a story you can tell. You write and re-write, cut scenes, add new ones, revise plot points, develop characters, become surprized by twists even you didn't see coming. This is the making of the story you will tell. It should take time - lots of time. But a word of caution: if you have been working on the same book for the past ten years, you're stuck and it is likely that novel writing isn't going to become more than a hobby for you.

Fattening up the book is the next stage. We're growing now! Filling out the story by making sure we are simply telling they story. This is important no matter what sort of fiction you are writing but is doubly important for those of us writing Christian fiction. We need to ensure that the power of the story is what shines, not the didactic of our message. In this stage we are writing the book for real. We are taking all of our ideas and weaving them skillfully throughout the story - making our message implicit in the story. Not hiding it, but telling it through narrative. This is where we really pull out our tool box and sharpen every skill we have as a writer. This is where we have faith in our story and our ability to tell it. We self-edit, weed out flat language, economize our words, tighten the narrative, fix holes in the plot, speed the pace of the book. We do this all before it goes to the hands of our editor.

The stage that holds the most fasination for writers is the next one - labor, bringing the book to fruition. This is where the book we've incubated and crafted moves to the hands of the editor and the solitary creation becomes a full partnership. This baby isn't coming to term without the steady help of a skilled editor. And there is pain involved which comes in waves called substansive, copy, and proof. Every book is different, and every editoral experience is different (even when an author is working with the same editor - it's a whole new ballgame for every book), but it will always involve changes. Developing underdeveloped aspects of the book, toning down other aspects (melodrama? too much emotion? author agenda? - time to cut them out, tone them down, or pull them out by the roots!), and perfecting story arch, pacing, character development (espcially on secondary and tertiary characters), and fine tuning aspects such as marketability, likeability, uniqueness, and sparkling language.

After substantive editing the pain decreases - the editing is smaller, the choices less likely to cause bleeding. But this is still intensive and requires skilled attention. Word choice, language, spelling, grammar, and other close up issues are addressed in detail at this point. This is done in partnership as well - which is a good thing because it's likely that by now the author has lost most of her perspective about the book. These last steps are important, but are often done in fast succession in order to get the book toghether and meet production timelines.

There are additional steps that happen simultaneously with the writing, editing, and overall crafting of the book - cover, back matter, marketing (yes, you begin marketing your book well before it becomes a fully formed book), bio, endorsements, the list goes on! But it was my intention to focus on the steps of the writing itself in this post.

The learning curve is steep, and the effort at times feels Hurculean, but in time, and with patience and understand of the process on top of mad skills - a book is "born".

I bid you good writing.

Human's Writing about Humans

In a previous post, I talked about how all fiction is an exploration of the human experience, regardless of genre or plot. I realize this can feel like a stretch when we begin to look into the plot driven quick reads from writers like Clive Cussler, or maybe the endless Star Wars saga books (sorry, Steve!) - but even these require more than cardboard cutouts of human beings to make them readable. (I am not anti-action books, really I'm not!)

I've been thinking a great deal about my favorite books lately. The ones I re-read, the one's I won't lend out to friends (or buy more than one copy of so that when I lend it out I'll still have a copy around the house), the ones I think about and day dream about. I suppose it's because I'm on the edge of beginning a new book - one that is, frankly, taking more than a few chances in terms of structure. What I've discovered is that my absolute favorites are all strongly character driven books that simply zing with lyrical, beautiful writing. I'm not stunned by this, I mean, these are the sorts of books I strive to achieve, I hope to write. Still, I'm looking more deeply at what makes my heart melt when I think about certain books. Here are just a few examples:

The Time Traveler's Wife: I'm re-reading this before the movie comes out, August 14th. I read it about six years ago, a loaner from the library, but I bought a copy to live on my shelves. There are things about this book that should bother me - cursing bothers me even when it is "realistic". To me it is a red flag: Lazy writer, falling back on obscenity as a substitute for maturity! And while Niffenegger doesn't throw curses out like rose petals at a wedding, they are in there - jarringly so. Such rich characters don't need the crutch of foul language. But I can simply overlook this because Niffenegger's writing - sparse, clean, uncluttered, but some how beautiful - redeem any faults. A simple love story set in an extraordinary circumstance paired with smart, lovely prose and I'm so hooked on this story. The book is crammed with little moments that resonate. And I love how it is a story about loving no matter what. It's earned a place on my shelf.

Cold Sassy Tree: I've read this book several times, and I know I will read it again. It's a standout - a family memoir that cares more about the truth of the story (and therefore the reader) than it does anything else. Olive Ann Burns' exhaustive attention to details of dialect, setting, and era are so well done they blend into the background and allow the story to take center stage. Told from the POV of a young boy, the story is rich with characters who say and do the most amazing things - and the boy's sense of wonder, confusion, and young love is pitch perfect.

Redeeming Love: This is a book I read over a decade ago and I still find myself thinking about it the way one would think about an old friend. I've read it several times and I know I'll read it again. It's painfully good, unflinching, rich, and daring (for Christian fiction). What made this book so wonderful was Francine Rivers' writing style - descriptives that hit the mark, then left it alone and went on with the story, excellent pacing (trouble, more trouble, compounded with trouble - all within a few chapters), and a spiritual thread that wove itself into the story rather than sitting on top as a "sermon of the week" masquerading as a novel.

As a writer, I still enjoy jumping into a great novel and simply getting lost in the story, but I also need to read like a writer - researching what I love about specific books, the craft involved in creating the success, and then finding ways to incorporate those lessons into my own writing. I'd love it if you would share some of your favorite books that you read over and over again - and what aspects about them bring you back for more.

I bid you good writing.

Winner!! And Some Thoughts From a Writer's Conference

Beth E - you are the winner of your brand spanking new copy of Talking to the Dead! You can e-mail me at bcg@bonniegrove.com with your snail mail. Congrats!
~
I'm recently returned from a writer's conference - the second of three for me this year. This one was smaller than the first I attended (Mount Hermon, in California) and the focus was more on beginner writers.

I met with many fine folks at the conference and, after some time, certain themes appeared. I found myself giving the same advice over and over to different people. I'd like to share those words of advice here as a reminder and encouragement for new writers.

1. Read. Most people I met with didn't read broadly - those who did, didn't read like a writer. The first step to becoming a writer is to understand literature. This holds true regardless of the genre, fiction or non-fiction. Reading broadly expands your understanding of how literature works, the purposes it serves, and the nearly endlessly creative ways you can approach story telling once you understand it better. Novelist Jim Harrison gives this important advice: "Be totally familiar with the entirety of the western literary tradition. How can you write well unless you know what passes for the best; in the last three or four hundred years?"
Your creative worlds will open wider, and you will find more sure footing when you take the time (a lifetime, really) to understand the shoulders on which you stand.

2. Bones. This ties into the first point. Whenever I suggested to a new writer they should read inside their genre, I often heard a derivative of this response, "I don't like those books, that's why I want to write mine - it will actually be good!" Ouch.
Whether or not you "like" the contents of the books in your genre isn't the point. To read inside your genre should be a no-brainer, but, apparently, it isn't. So here is my advice - read inside your genre! It's not about content as much as it is about structure. I spoke to many people about their hopeful projects who didn't understand the mechanics of the genre they wanted to write in. This is getting to know the bones of a book. The scaffolding that holds up the content. How ideas are organized, focused, and layered. That sort of thing. Maybe you think the latest bestseller on parenting can't hold a candle to your project, but it's a good idea to study how it was put together - like it or not, it's selling well. Go find out why.

3. Be creative. The publishing world seems filled with rules. How to write a query letter. How to write a synopsis. How to hook your audience. How to explain your premise. How to craft your elevator pitch. How to approach an editor or agent. I met with many anxious writer-wannabes who were tied in knots over getting all the rules correct. So anxious, in fact, it dammed off their creative funkiness. They were so preoccupied with getting it "right" they forgot about great writing, amazing premise, and bang on creativity. While it is important to understand the language of ideas within publishing (proposals), it is even more important to fully unleash your creative talents and abilities in order to craft irresistible fiction. Being amazing is better than being technically correct.

4. Message driven fiction is boring. All fiction is spiritual in nature. It all points to something bigger than ourselves. When writing Christian fiction, it's important to focus on the story - not the moral of the story. Don't write a novel about redemption. Write a novel about characters who live and breath and experience redemption in a powerful way. Get out of the way of your story. Take your message and put it where it belongs - implicitly inside the movement of the story. This is the truest meaning of "show, don't tell". Show me a novel about redemption by taking me on a journey that highlights the complexity of humans in contact with grace. Plumb the unreasonable depths of humanity with your story. Let that be your focus.

5. All fiction is about the human condition. Several people I spoke to were interested in writing sci-fi and fantasy. Each felt that because the genres are "other worldly" it was impossible to focus the books on the human experience. They weren't writing about humans, after all. One dear soul said, "I'm writing about faeries - and the worlds they inhabit." My response is, "Faeries don't buy books." I am not a ravenous fantasy/sci-fi reader, but I've read enough to know that these genres arent' just about the human experience, but the best ones are the human experience stripped to it's barest elements.

6. Being a writer presupposes self-understanding. We don't have to be Carl Rogers. We don't have to have "self-actualized" - but writers have a good grasp of their own identity, and empathy for the human condition. Writers need to be about to understand the human condition through the kaleidoscope of experience. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Writers look on all of it with unblinking, caring eyes. We listen long and hard to the voices that are different from our own, to the cultures and sub-cultures that we don't understand and are not a part of in order to add to our knowledge and compassion for people.

Time, dedication, and respect for the craft work together to make you a wonderful writer. I hope these reminders encourage you today.

I bid you good writing.

Voice

Have you ever read the first chapter of a book and thought, "Oooo, what a voice this author has!"?

What were you saying when you thought that? What, exactly, were you noticing about the chapter?

You might answer, "Well, I was hooked into the story right away, and I could feel the book was going to be ____________ (fill in the blank: scary, funny, lighthearted, serious, a romp, ethereal, etc.)


If you answered that, I would say to you, "No. That's the tone. Tell me about the voice."

Many writers get these things confused. So, what is the difference between the tone of a novel and the voice of a novel?


Some would tell you that voice has more to do with how your characters speak, the things they say, the way they react to one another. But no, that is characterization - and it is not at all necessary (or even recommended) for all your characters to flow with the voice of the novel. It's interesting to have at least one character rub the voice the wrong way, stand out, or sound contrary to the overriding voice of the novel.

If you are writing in first person POV (point of view), your characterization and voice are more tightly connected, that's true, because you use your protagonist as the main vehicle of explaining the world to the reader. But, more tightly connected or not, there is still a difference between them.


Voice is the METHOD of conveying tone in a novel.


For example, let's say you are writing a scary book (tone). It is full of suspense (tone), and your characters don't even realize how much trouble they are in until it's too late (characterization).

There are a million different ways to convey suspense (voice).

You might use short, choppy sentences peppered with excitable words. Then sandwich them between long, meandering sentences that take the reader on a brief trip and also build questions in the mind of the reader. Before you pop out more short sentences.

Just like I just did in the previous three sentences.

Voice isn't so much what you say, as how you say it.

It's just so all about the how. Let's do a for instance.



We have a scene - a coffee shop. And a character: a woman. We need to tell the reader that the woman enters the coffee shop, makes a phone call from the payphone, then sits at the counter and orders a coffee. That's the what.

Here's the first example of conveying the what using voice.

1) Joe wiped the counters, swiping in long ovals across the blue tiled counter. He didn't bother to move the napkin dispenser, the salt, the pepper, the sugar containers, the menu stand. Let Mable do it. She'd be out here in a minute re-wiping the whole counter anyway, just like always, just like she enjoyed doing twice what could be done once.

Joe looked up just as a woman appeared at the door. He squinted at her and kept wiping up the long counter. He didn't know her, which made her a stranger to town, that was for sure. Bobby Parker always said, "Joe don't know you, then you ain't known at all." That was true, sure as he stood on two feet. She'll head for a booth, he thought. Strangers always do. He snorted when she moved toward the pay phone, lifted the receiver, listened for a dial tone, deposited a coin and pushed seven buttons. Local call. She spoke all of five seconds, then moved to the counter, sat right in front of Joe and said, "Coffee, black." And you could have knocked Joe over with a feather.

*****
Same scene - a different tone, created by the use of voice:

2) Joe swiped at the counters. "Mable's job," he muttered. He shoved the cloth here and there, hit and miss.

The door opened and a woman appeared. Joe watched her scan the diner with two huge eyes like scared birds. He poked at the counter with his damp cloth, but he wasn't paying any attention to it now. Booth, he thought. Strange women always sit in booths. He was surprised when she lurched toward the phone. He squinted hard, like it would improve his hearing, as she spoke into the receiver. She hung up fast, spun around and caught him staring. She marched to the counter and sat in the stool right in front of Joe. "Coffee. Black." Joe could only nod.

*****
Okay, same scene, different tones. How I'm accomplishing the two tones is by use of voice. POV stays the same. The action stays the same - but my word choice, sentence structure and the way I stack the paragraphs changes. I use a different voice. In scene 1 I used a relaxed voice, a swatting flies sort of voice, a passing the time of day voice which let the reader know this story was going to sound like a warm day in May. Things would happen, in their own time.

In scene 2, I used shorter sentences, stiff details, and clipped words to let the reader know this was a snappy, possibly mysterious story about a woman who may or may not be in trouble.

While this is hardly the definitive example of voice, I hope it prods some thoughts, and encourages a discussion about this slippery concept called Voice.

I bid you good writing.