Gray clouds press upon my windows. The day droops, heavy and weary. Not a day a strong cup of coffee can cure. The weariness is deeper. Physical, but more.
Still, there is grace. Grace to serve. Grace to love. Grace to wait for the sunshine.
When I was a little girl my aunt had a poem hanging above her big claw-footed bathtub. I read it over and over. Loved it. Held it to my heart:
People are like stained-glass windows
They glow and sparkle when it's sunny and bright
But when the sun goes down
Their true beauty is revealed
Only if there is a light from within.
In 2008 when my husband almost died from a serious heart blockage and a bunch of other stuff hit our family, I struggled. I so wanted people to see Jesus in me. I wanted to show the world that even though life was hard, I still loved my Lord and thought Him beautiful.
Today I feel the same. Watching the pain my children have been through this month (major surgery, a broken bone, two painful break-ups, the lists goes on) and caring around the clock for my eldest boy whose independence has been stripped away as he relies upon us to even get in or out of bed, has taken its toll. I struggle.
And yet I want to be my Father's daughter. I want His light within me to shine and draw others to faith.
The problem is I'm so . . . HUMAN. I never seem to handle these things the way I wish I did. The creative melancholy within me plumbs the depths of the pain. After several nights of little sleep I'm not always a nice person. And I find it's been hard to write encouraging spiritual words when I'm drained of energy.
I want to be superhero Paula, woman of God who leaps past life's storms with a single bound. Instead I'm just plain ole me. Paula who cries out to the Lord to make her faithful no matter what.
And maybe in that tiny little thing, some light leaks out. Just when I think I'm not shining at all something happens to show me He is still being seen. The other day my son said his dad and I were his latest heroes. You don't hear that from a seventeen-year-old too often. Maybe all that lifting his injured leg, bringing him food, and commiserating with him is showing Jesus after all.
When writing the spiritual thread in our novel, perhaps this is the key to reach out and massage the hearts of our readers. Instead of superheroes, we write real people who don't always react the way they want to. Instead of faces set like flint, mouths that spout "hallelujah," and emotions that never seem raw, we write characters who are human, yet whose light leaks out even when they don't think is.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
My Take on the Spiritual Thread
This is a hard topic for me but not because it isn’t important to me. I don’t think I could write a book without a spiritual thread even if I wanted to.
The problem is, I live in mortal dread of . . . I’m gonna whisper it so it doesn’t sound so scary . . . preaching.
Ack! Run away! Run away!
Seriously, I think preaching should be afforded the same status as telling in our critique groups. That is, whenever it crops up in a manuscript, critiquers should circle it, highlight it, cross it out, draw skulls and crossbones in the margins, and otherwise call attention to its horribleness.
Sometimes I lie awake at night, torturing myself by reliving instances of preaching in my own writing. Inevitably my wincing and cringing leads to dramatic vows never to smack my reader in the forehead with a . . . wait for it . . . Important Lesson.
But how do we avoid the detested P-word in our writing?
My critique group suggestion was not completely insincere. I’m blessed to be in two fabulous critique groups, and members of those groups have called me out on preachiness. One critiquer in particular—whose authenticity as a Christ follower I find compelling—won’t hesitate to raise the red flag when I lapse into Christianese. He seems to have a radar for it, so I highly respect his opinion. As with other bad habits in our writing, sometimes another reader can see it more clearly than we can.
If we’d like to stop extraneous preaching in our manuscript before we get to critique group, I suggest applying Jeff Gerke’s formula for when to use exposition. You can find this in his book The Art and Craft of Writing Christian Fiction.
“. . . your reader can tolerate telling to the degree that she is interested in what is being told and to the degree that the story can’t advance without the information.” (The Art and Craft of Writing Christian Fiction, 185)
To me this means that if I’m going to include an outright reference to God, Scripture, or Christian doctrine, I better have earned that moment by making my readers care enough about my character and story to tolerate an undisguised message and by making that principle integral to the plot.
In case you’re wondering how I choose to weave a spiritual thread into my writing—I try to let it happen organically. Is that an oxymoron? TRY to LET it happen. As I brainstorm a novel, a spiritual theme presents itself. For the last novel I wrote, the theme was ‘to love is to serve.’ For the novel I’m working on now, the theme is forgiveness. As I write, opportunities arise for my characters to experience events that relate to those themes.
As my characters move through their arcs, I seek to develop my theme and hopefully leave my readers with a glimpse of one small aspect of the character of God or a deeper understanding of our continual need for Jesus.
That’s my approach. Sometimes I’m too subtle. Sometimes I need the megaphone wrested from my hands.
Evangeline Denmark has storytelling on her heart and in her blood. The daughter of novelist, Donita K. Paul, Evangeline grew up living and breathing good stories. She has co-authored two children’s books which are under contract with Waterbrook Press and also writes adult fiction. Evangeline is an active member of American Christian Fiction Writers, serving as chapter secretary.
The problem is, I live in mortal dread of . . . I’m gonna whisper it so it doesn’t sound so scary . . . preaching.
Ack! Run away! Run away!
Seriously, I think preaching should be afforded the same status as telling in our critique groups. That is, whenever it crops up in a manuscript, critiquers should circle it, highlight it, cross it out, draw skulls and crossbones in the margins, and otherwise call attention to its horribleness.
Sometimes I lie awake at night, torturing myself by reliving instances of preaching in my own writing. Inevitably my wincing and cringing leads to dramatic vows never to smack my reader in the forehead with a . . . wait for it . . . Important Lesson.
But how do we avoid the detested P-word in our writing?
My critique group suggestion was not completely insincere. I’m blessed to be in two fabulous critique groups, and members of those groups have called me out on preachiness. One critiquer in particular—whose authenticity as a Christ follower I find compelling—won’t hesitate to raise the red flag when I lapse into Christianese. He seems to have a radar for it, so I highly respect his opinion. As with other bad habits in our writing, sometimes another reader can see it more clearly than we can.
If we’d like to stop extraneous preaching in our manuscript before we get to critique group, I suggest applying Jeff Gerke’s formula for when to use exposition. You can find this in his book The Art and Craft of Writing Christian Fiction.
“. . . your reader can tolerate telling to the degree that she is interested in what is being told and to the degree that the story can’t advance without the information.” (The Art and Craft of Writing Christian Fiction, 185)
To me this means that if I’m going to include an outright reference to God, Scripture, or Christian doctrine, I better have earned that moment by making my readers care enough about my character and story to tolerate an undisguised message and by making that principle integral to the plot.
In case you’re wondering how I choose to weave a spiritual thread into my writing—I try to let it happen organically. Is that an oxymoron? TRY to LET it happen. As I brainstorm a novel, a spiritual theme presents itself. For the last novel I wrote, the theme was ‘to love is to serve.’ For the novel I’m working on now, the theme is forgiveness. As I write, opportunities arise for my characters to experience events that relate to those themes.
As my characters move through their arcs, I seek to develop my theme and hopefully leave my readers with a glimpse of one small aspect of the character of God or a deeper understanding of our continual need for Jesus.
That’s my approach. Sometimes I’m too subtle. Sometimes I need the megaphone wrested from my hands.
Evangeline Denmark has storytelling on her heart and in her blood. The daughter of novelist, Donita K. Paul, Evangeline grew up living and breathing good stories. She has co-authored two children’s books which are under contract with Waterbrook Press and also writes adult fiction. Evangeline is an active member of American Christian Fiction Writers, serving as chapter secretary.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
What encourages you?
So, I just spent the last half hour writing a blog, and I tried to post it for Wednesday, but I had the wrong date, and it posted it today. Then, I copied it, deleted the original, and tried to paste it, and poof! It was gone.
So I guess whatever I said wasn't that important. I'll try again :)
I was going to give you an idea of what encourages me, but that's gone into cyberspace. I was going to encourage you to deepen your relationship with God so that He will shine forth in your writing -- zapped.
Instead, I'm going to ask for feedback.
Now, my husband asks for feedback when he doesn't have a clue what to do -- "Honey, if you could do anything at all for your birthday, what would you want to do?" or something to that effect. I figured his ploy out quickly, especially when my answers showed up on my birthday.
However, in this case, I really want to know what encourages you to keep on writing. What keeps you going through the rejections, the re-writes, the long tedious hours of writing? Where do you get your ideas? How do you reconcile your writing with your faith? How do you weave faith into your writing without sounding like a sermon?
I'll share my answers to the above questions:
1. The story is in there and it has to come out.
2. I understand rejection just means I haven't found the right editor yet.
3. Re-writes always make the story better.
4. I'd rather write than work a regular job. Now, that's tedious.
5. I get the ideas from where ever I can find them -- the newspaper, conversations, television shows, books I've read.
6. My writing mirrors my faith life, I think -- most often my characters are not always nice people, are confused about their future, pained by their past, and wish their present belonged to someone else.
7. Now, that one I struggle with. I want the reader to get it right away, so I'm not always subtle. Kind of like I am in real life. I hate getting hit over the head with a two-by-four when I've made a mistake, and so I'm really working on not doing that to my characters.
Now, it's your turn. I really do want to hear. And if your answer turns up in the mouth of one of my characters somewhere down the road, well -- thanks.
So I guess whatever I said wasn't that important. I'll try again :)
I was going to give you an idea of what encourages me, but that's gone into cyberspace. I was going to encourage you to deepen your relationship with God so that He will shine forth in your writing -- zapped.
Instead, I'm going to ask for feedback.
Now, my husband asks for feedback when he doesn't have a clue what to do -- "Honey, if you could do anything at all for your birthday, what would you want to do?" or something to that effect. I figured his ploy out quickly, especially when my answers showed up on my birthday.
However, in this case, I really want to know what encourages you to keep on writing. What keeps you going through the rejections, the re-writes, the long tedious hours of writing? Where do you get your ideas? How do you reconcile your writing with your faith? How do you weave faith into your writing without sounding like a sermon?
I'll share my answers to the above questions:
1. The story is in there and it has to come out.
2. I understand rejection just means I haven't found the right editor yet.
3. Re-writes always make the story better.
4. I'd rather write than work a regular job. Now, that's tedious.
5. I get the ideas from where ever I can find them -- the newspaper, conversations, television shows, books I've read.
6. My writing mirrors my faith life, I think -- most often my characters are not always nice people, are confused about their future, pained by their past, and wish their present belonged to someone else.
7. Now, that one I struggle with. I want the reader to get it right away, so I'm not always subtle. Kind of like I am in real life. I hate getting hit over the head with a two-by-four when I've made a mistake, and so I'm really working on not doing that to my characters.
Now, it's your turn. I really do want to hear. And if your answer turns up in the mouth of one of my characters somewhere down the road, well -- thanks.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Is Your Spiritual Walk Important to Your Writing?
When I first starting writing fiction, my stories were what would be described today as "run-of-the-mill" or "generic." Nothing about them really set them apart from any other story out there. Even once I ventured into the Christian fiction field, my stories were still rather plain. I fell into the stereotypical plots with no real unique twists or contest. Now, 6 years into my professional career, I know better. :)So often, you hear that you must "write a good story" in order to sell it. But there is so much more to the challenge than that. And in Christian fiction, you get to add that third element combined with physical and emotional. The spiritual thread.
Like Kathy Kovach, my books so far have been published through Barbour's Heartsong Presents line. They not only require a Scripture verse that embodies the story, but when you write the synopsis, the spiritual thread must be obvious and show progression/resolution. For some, that might sound easy, but for me, it's not always the case.
See, I grew up in a Christian home, going to church every week, memorizing Bible verses and learning what it meant to be a "good Christian girl." Unfortunately, I relied too much on the status quo and became complacent in my faith. As a result, the stories I wrote fell into that pit too. My characters were only two-dimensional, and their experiences didn't resonate with readers. My books needed a major overhaul. But what could I do?
The answer? Get back to the basics and find the real source of my joy and faith again.
Let me tell you, it's humbling to admit that you've been saved your entire life and been a follower of Christ for over 25 years, yet you have trouble defining your spirituality in a way that makes it easy to see from an outside perspective. And since I had pretty much become detached from that part of my life, everything I wrote showed it.
But there IS a good ending to this story. I promise. :) Just when I needed it most, my church was beginning a study on "Back to the Basics." It wasn't only a sermon series, but also adult Bible studies, small groups and special classes offered. So, I took advantage of what I could and committed myself to digging deeper and discovering the true passion of my heart. As a result, I not only connected again with God in a more personal manner, but I became aware of my own spiritual highs and lows. And that allowed me to see them in my characters.
Of course, now I had to go back and revise my books to add that spiritual thread. Once I did, the characters fairly jumped off the page at me with realism. The true proof in the pudding didn't come until the book was published, though. So, I waited with baited breath for the first reviews to come back once the book released. And when the first one came, I almost didn't click on it to read it. But curiosity won out, and I did.
And I was blown away.
I'll share it with you here:"Amber is truly one of the strongest historical romance writers I've read in years. I just finished this book, and I'm thrilled with it! I told a friend, "It's the perfect blend of story, history and spiritual truth" and it's beautifully written, to boot! Sometimes historicals (as a whole) don't hold my attention, or the reader tries too hard to impress with historical lingo/tidbits. But in this case, I found myself caught up in the action right away and also found the story very believable. I could relate to both the hero and the heroine. And I love the way Amber presents the spiritual elements. She uses analogies. Great symbolism. Very subtle, and yet very effective. The heroine is led (quite gently)to the Lord by the hero. It's not at all manipulative. Believable. Real. And poignant. I can't say enough about Amber! Wow! This is her first book? Pretty amazing, when you think about it. Some of us write for years to get to this quality. Kudos, Amber! I can't wait to read the next one. And the next. And the next!" ~Janice Thompson, Double-Booked Reviews
And there you have it! Mission: Success. Lesson learned.
My writing has become ten times stronger, and the spiritual truths have only deepened my stories and added that bonus third element to help them resonate with readers. It's a good thing God is patient and forgiving and keeps teaching us the lessons we need to learn. Otherwise, we'd all be up a creek without a paddle. :)
Tiffany Amber Stockton has been crafting and embellishing stories since she was a child. Today, she is an author, online marketing specialist and freelance web site designer who lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart. They have 1 daughter and a border collie. She has sold eight books so far to Barbour Publishing, is a columnist for the ACFW e-zine and writes other articles as well. Read more about her at her web site: http://www.amberstockton.com/.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Sermons Belong in Church
When I started submitted my manuscripts to agents and editors a couple of years ago, I collected a relatively large pile of rejection e-mails. While they stung, these rejections also gave me a gift: they offered me enough information to figure out what was lacking in my stories. See if you can determine what they were trying to tell me: “Your writing is not emotive enough.” “Needs more emotion.” “The story lacks depth.”
I couldn’t argue. They were right. I had been trained as a journalist—taught to remain objective and unbiased. Because of this, my characters’ spiritual journeys— their quests to fulfill their hidden needs—felt stilted, predictable, and … I hate to say it … preachy.
I love to hear my pastor preach a good sermon in church, but I don’t enjoy reading sermons in novels. And yet there I was, writing mini sermons every time my characters happened to get themselves into difficult situations. The common thread in my proud collection of rejections inspired me to buy a book so I could learn how to create compelling emotion in a story while weaving a faith element into the plot and characters. Writing for Emotional Impact by Karl Iglesias was actually written for screenwriters, but I highly recommend that every storyteller read it in order to learn the art of conveying emotion.
One of the most important things I learned from this book was that we don’t need to explain faith or God or salvation to our readers. We need to show them examples in a character with whom they’re connected. Our characters’ purpose is not to preach to our readers, their purpose is to build a relationship with our readers and invite them to participate in an experience.
As Iglesias says in his book, “Preaching is frowned upon in dramatic writing because it’s telling. Most writers know that they should ‘show, not tell.’ Show your theme in action, and make the reader feel instead of telling him. You do this by dramatizing your deepest beliefs about human beings and the best way to live their lives” (39).
This concept changed the way I write. I realized I could let my characters live their lives. I could let them mess up. I could let them make the wrong decision. No. Let me rephrase that. I had to let them. If I had not made so many mistakes in my past, if I had not experienced darkness and pain, I would not know the pure joy and freedom that is found in redemption. And the same is true for our characters. Instead of fighting those things in my writing, I started to embrace them. I’m learning how to get emotionally involved in my stories.
“We learn best when we’re emotionally involved, not when we’re lectured. Great movies teach us about life while moving us emotionally. The more meaningful the theme, the deeper the emotions.” (40).
As writers who are also Christians, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to write stories with meaning. For me, developing a spiritual thread in my novels has been about learning how to deepen my characters’ emotions and invite the reader into their experience. This means leaving out a lot of jargon. It means reliving some of my own pain through their struggles. It means showing the darkness so our readers can walk with our characters into the light.
A lifelong storyteller, Sara Richardson is passionate about communicating reasons for hope. Previously she has been an advertising copywriter, an Internet communications manager, and a whitewater rafting guide. In addition to writing fiction, Sara has published nonfiction articles in parenting and family magazines. As a member of MOPS International, Sara enjoys speaking to moms’ groups. She earned a master’s degree in journalism from Regent University. Visit her at www.momstories.org.
I couldn’t argue. They were right. I had been trained as a journalist—taught to remain objective and unbiased. Because of this, my characters’ spiritual journeys— their quests to fulfill their hidden needs—felt stilted, predictable, and … I hate to say it … preachy.
I love to hear my pastor preach a good sermon in church, but I don’t enjoy reading sermons in novels. And yet there I was, writing mini sermons every time my characters happened to get themselves into difficult situations. The common thread in my proud collection of rejections inspired me to buy a book so I could learn how to create compelling emotion in a story while weaving a faith element into the plot and characters. Writing for Emotional Impact by Karl Iglesias was actually written for screenwriters, but I highly recommend that every storyteller read it in order to learn the art of conveying emotion.
One of the most important things I learned from this book was that we don’t need to explain faith or God or salvation to our readers. We need to show them examples in a character with whom they’re connected. Our characters’ purpose is not to preach to our readers, their purpose is to build a relationship with our readers and invite them to participate in an experience.
As Iglesias says in his book, “Preaching is frowned upon in dramatic writing because it’s telling. Most writers know that they should ‘show, not tell.’ Show your theme in action, and make the reader feel instead of telling him. You do this by dramatizing your deepest beliefs about human beings and the best way to live their lives” (39).
This concept changed the way I write. I realized I could let my characters live their lives. I could let them mess up. I could let them make the wrong decision. No. Let me rephrase that. I had to let them. If I had not made so many mistakes in my past, if I had not experienced darkness and pain, I would not know the pure joy and freedom that is found in redemption. And the same is true for our characters. Instead of fighting those things in my writing, I started to embrace them. I’m learning how to get emotionally involved in my stories.
“We learn best when we’re emotionally involved, not when we’re lectured. Great movies teach us about life while moving us emotionally. The more meaningful the theme, the deeper the emotions.” (40).
As writers who are also Christians, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to write stories with meaning. For me, developing a spiritual thread in my novels has been about learning how to deepen my characters’ emotions and invite the reader into their experience. This means leaving out a lot of jargon. It means reliving some of my own pain through their struggles. It means showing the darkness so our readers can walk with our characters into the light.
A lifelong storyteller, Sara Richardson is passionate about communicating reasons for hope. Previously she has been an advertising copywriter, an Internet communications manager, and a whitewater rafting guide. In addition to writing fiction, Sara has published nonfiction articles in parenting and family magazines. As a member of MOPS International, Sara enjoys speaking to moms’ groups. She earned a master’s degree in journalism from Regent University. Visit her at www.momstories.org.
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