Breathe

I can't imagine life without writing. Actually, that's something of a lie. I've gone through dry non-writing spells several times. My life is so much brighter, more joyful when I write.

For a writer, to write is to breathe.

You Might Be a Writer...

if you notice people eyeing you at the grocery store and realize that you were running through dialogue again, out loud.

Literary Vain Repetition

The term vain repetition is often used in certain religious circles, typically in reference to repetitive, ritualistic prayer, based on a comment Jesus made in Matthew 6:7. I’ve decided, though, that vain repetition is the perfect term for a common mistake in writing. Brace yourselves for another of my writing pet peeves.

There are literary techniques that utilize repetition, such as anaphora or alliteration. That's not what this blog entry is about. No, I’m talking about those instances—typically in flowery, poetic prose, though every writer does it, and I have been so very guilty of it myself—where the writer is so enamoured with their own ability to turn a phrase that they can't decide which way they want to say it. So they say it both ways. Or all three.


*Yawn*

(Watch for my example in this paragraph.) Seriously. Do us all a favor and pick one way to say it. I realize all three sentences might be lovely, and your mother or best friend or spouse is highly impressed with your prose prowess, but by the end of your literary muscle flex, your reader is no longer impressed. They're possibly annoyed that you’ve wasted their time repeating yourself, or just amused at what came across as self-absorption. Instead of expecting your reader to plow through your repetition, save your other clever versions of the same sentence for another time. Don't beat a dead horse with your re-invented phrases. Please.

Did you count them? I made the same point at least four different ways in that previous paragraph. Weren’t you impressed? I did feel a bit of pride about the alliteration in that little “prose prowess” ditty. Wasn’t that clever of me?

That is why I call it vain repetition. But you got my point, didn't you? So don't do to your readers what I just did to you. And please, please, heaven-have-mercy please don’t do it in fiction.

Dialogue

Here's a useful tip for my fellow fiction writers, one you probably already know, but let's share it anyway. You never know when you might learn something.

Tip:

Don't dump information on the reader through dialogue. It causes your dialogue to feel sophomoric—forced and unnatural.

Example:

Mary walked into the living room and tossed her keys to her son. "Danny, you can take my black Toyota Camry. But don't wreck it. And I expect you to be home by ten o'clock tonight. And stay away from Mark, the preacher's son. He's a troublemaker."

Here's an improvement:

Mary walked into the living room and tossed her keys to her son. "Danny, you can take my car, but don't wreck it. I expect you to be home by ten o'clock. And stay away from Mark. He's a troublemaker."

Granted, my example won't win any prizes for cleverness, but you get the idea. Put yourself in your character's place. Basically, if the character your character is talking to already knows the information, don't include it. Danny obviously knows the color and make of his mom's car. Undoubtedly, he also knows that Mark is the preacher's son. Find some other way of weaving that information into the story, if it's pertinent.

And while we're on dialogue, take the time to read it out loud. When you think you've got it right, take the next step and read it to your spouse, best friend or, ideally, a critique partner. If you're really brave (or masochistic) have that person read it while you listen.

A Remedy for Writer's Block

A few weeks ago, writer's block flared up. I just couldn't find the core from which I needed to write an emotionally charged scene. So I procrastinated. And then I procrastinated a little more.

Then a woman hired me to make some flower arrangements for her. As with my cakes, when I work with flowers, I throw all of my creative energy into it. That got my imagination flowing again, and the words that had evaded me for weeks presented themselves in abundance. Of course, they came in the middle of a project that had a looming deadline, so I could only make quick notes from which to draw later. Surprisingly, that limitation also fed the creativity. Since I couldn't take the time to put the words into type, there was a great deal of room for my mind to further twist and turn and play with the edits.

Long story short, if you have writer's block, pick up something completely unrelated. Finish a scrapbooking or photography project. Paint a room. Finish piecing together a quilt. So something else creative, something that will occupy one part of the mind so the imagination can get moving again. Soon the words will come.

At least, they did for me.

When Do You Write?

A fellow blogger and writer, Roxanne Sherwood, posted a fantastic entry about writing when you're away from the computer.
I "write" in the shower, while cleaning the kitchen, and while doing laundry. My favorite place to mentally write is in the grocery store. Be forewarned, this can sometimes trigger strange looks from fellow shoppers. When that happens, I realize (too late, of course) that I'm muttering a dialogue sequence under my breath. But you absolutely must read dialogue aloud to make sure it sounds natural and has the correct rhythm. So looking like a crazy lady is the price you pay for writing while shopping, I suppose.
The point is that you should write, even when you're not at your desk, fingers on the keyboard.
If you'd like a great list of ideas for when you can ponder your current work in progress, Roxanne provides it in her blog post, A Time to Ponder. Check it out, and you might realize you have more writing time available than you first realized.

A Long Journey

Last Wednesday our women's prayer group at church discussed how God answers prayer. Of course, we were asked to share a personal example. There are many instances when Father came through for me miraculously, His timing perfect, His provision above and beyond what I could have hoped for. Still other times when He said no, and for years I struggled with accepting His answer, petitioning Him again and again, then years later coming back to His feet to rejoice and thank Him for opening my eyes to see His great mercy and wisdom in saying no. But the example He prompted me to share is one I'm living right now, one where He said wait.
For more than fifteen years, I've been writing a novel. So long, in fact, that I also have written a sequel and scenes, notes and story archs for at least three others. It's turned into an entire series. It's been revised and edited and critiqued so many times I've lost count. Still, in the dark recessess of my back-up hard drive, I have no doubt that the original copy lurks somewhere in all its raw glory. And I've been praying since shortly after its inception about getting this book published.
Umpteen years ago, a writer would submit a manuscript to a publisher, who would then decide whether or not to publish it. Sounds like a simple process, right? Yeah, well, those days are gone. The literary agent has become a clearing house of sorts for publishers that have become inundated with unsolicited manuscripts. Rare is the book that makes it to print without a great agent's representation. In fact, finding an agent has become as daunting, perhaps more so, as finding a publisher was a decade ago.
I don't have the typical novelist's journey. I haven't queried five hundred agents. I don't have an entire room wallpapered with rejection letters. Don't get me wrong. I didn't just pen a novel and put it on a shelf. I majored in English, took college-level creative writing and book editing classes, interned for a local publisher, joined writers' groups and critique groups, and recently attended some writer's conferences. I've been a diligent worker bee (most of the time). But the Lord made it clear to me that the writing was really all that I could control. The rest was in His hands.
At a recent conference I was blessed to meet Jonathan Clements, one of those truly genuine people you meet only once in a while. It was a divine appointment. That's the only way I can explain it. I walked away from that meeting with an amended prayer...not even a prayer so much as a conviction: Lord, that's my agent. That's the one. Jonathan asked for the first three chapters, and I sent them. A few weeks later, his partner, Cari Foulk, asked for the rest of the manuscript.
In the meantime, I ran into discouragement from some surprising places. But the Lord kept speaking wait. That's His favorite four-letter word, by the way. He also said trust Me a lot. It helped that my husband and my best friend echoed Him.
Then last week, I received validation unlike any I've ever received before. I had a phone call with Cari. She liked my manuscript! Just as with my writing journey, I won't put everything she said here because some nuggets are meant for me only. But to cut this short, today they offered me a contract.
I am now represented by Tribe Literary Agency, part of Wheelhouse Literary Group! God's goodness and mercy never cease to amaze me. Why am I always so surprised when He does what He says He'll do? Perhaps it's the waiting.
So tonight at my women's prayer fellowship, I get to share with them an answered part of a fifteen-year-long prayer. One where God said wait, and bit by bit has said yes.

Word of Knowledge

Have you ever had someone "read your mail"? I mean, have you ever been talking about someone and they said something so profound that it struck a chord in you, and you knew they were talking to you on a totally different level, addressing something more spiritual than you expected. It's like God uses their words to minister to you.
That's a spiritual gift. Some call it a word of knowledge. I experienced it again tonight. I was sharing with my home group about the writers conference I attended a few weeks ago. I told them that it was a great experience, that it was discouraging in some ways, because the publishing world is so difficult to break into, especially when you're talking about fiction. But I couldn't really share any of the discouraging experiences from the conference. The divine appointments were so much more exciting and beautiful...His goodness is always more deserving of our attention than anything else. And when you can see His goodness in even the discouraging moments, that's when you realize He is there.
One of the men in my small group turned to me and said, "Wait a minute. You started off saying it was discouraging in some ways, but everything you've told us is great." I smiled. He said, "Trust. Trust Him." Trust Him to do it, to work it out, to bring about everything that He gave me. To use the things He has placed in my heart.
Wow. I needed to hear that. And the man who said it had no idea just how much. But then again, it wasn't really him saying it anyway...he was just the messenger.

Intro

Hi there. My name is Renee, and I'm a writer. A novelist, actually. I'm also a Messianic Christian, a wife, and a mother. And I guess some might say I'm an artist, although my artistic talents are limited to combinations of paint and silk.

My husband and I recently started attending a great church in our area. I love this church. It's nondenominational, and seems to be spirit-filled. The praise and worship is energetic, and most importantly, the pastor's teachings are biblically grounded and usually hit home for me. We're probably going to join this church soon. It's the first place that has felt like a church home to me in several years. Right now the entire church is participating in this program that they developed, called Building Our Legacy. It's a 40-day period in which each member spends time with God in reflection, prayer, and daily devotions, guided by a book that was written by members of the church. It's a really neat program, and I've already been blessed and challenged, and I'm only in the first week.

I normally read a lot. A whole lot. And I read a lot of secular fiction. But right now God has put me in a time-out, so I'm not allowed to read any secular fiction for a 40-day period, which conveniently coincides with this church program.

It's for the best, I know. I mean, I read so much some days that I can't stop thinking about it and can't fall asleep at night. Hello, that's not healthy, you know? And not all of what I've been reading lately is Christ-centered, to say the least. So I'm not reading anything except my bible and devotional. For 40 days. And I may read my own novels, which are still works in progress and are definitely not secular in nature.

Now, some folks out there probably wouldn't believe that God would speak to an individual today, much less that He would tell me to fast something as bizarre as secular fiction. But there it is. And He did. He didn't tell me to cut it out entirely, just for 40 days. I can do that. I mean, when the Creator of the universe is sitting in your living room, in His white robe and sandals, it's pretty easy to do what He says. He has a great smile, by the way.

And no, I'm not delusional. I'm just honest. Some might say that I have an unusual relationship with God. Part of it, I'm pretty sure, is the creative imagination that He gave me when He shaped and molded me in my mother's womb 30-some years ago. But it's also Him, and it's also real. Keep in mind that we're talking about a thing called faith here. Let's keep that in perspective.

You know, I never thought I'd create a blog. I've usually been the one person on the sidelines who made fun of blogs and refused to read them (well, okay, that's a lie...I read Anderson Cooper's blog sometimes, and I stumbled on this one blog by a Muslim-American woman that fascinated me). And I certainly never thought I'd write anything like what I just wrote in the paragraphs above and put it on a blog for the entire internet to read. Wow. Freaky. But there it is, so let's go with it. Maybe I'll write about divine creativity and imagination. Maybe I'll write about Hebrew Roots of Christianity and Torah. Maybe I'll even talk about my journey as an author. Or maybe I'll just brag about my kids. This is kind of fun, after all.