The Ink We Use by Joanna Davidson Politano

I had my little brother take my author picture. He did a fabulous job, but I cringed at several of the shots. I looked uncomfortable and fake at the beginning, until he had me smiling and laughing, forgetting he was capturing the moment on (digital) film. Self-forgetfulness feels most comfortable to me, and so does listening to someone’s story rather than sharing my own.

Yet that’s what we’re doing, aren’t we? Sure, our novels are led by a made-up hero, but they’re living out our internal battles, seeking answers to our questions, achieving things we dream about. Sometimes I forget that, in my desire toward self-forgetfulness. It’s easier to teach or comfort or guide our readers, rather than peel back that perfect author shot image and reveal our own heartaches and shame beneath—the everyday sin problems and lack of makeup. It’s easier to talk at people rather than discover for ourselves, and bleed vulnerably on the page for others to see our reality.

But if you want your writing to really grab people, to mean something to them, it has to mean something to you, first. It has to cost you something to create.

We all have wounds—we cannot exist in this world without sustaining at least a few—and that is the ink we need to use to write our novels. It hurts though, doesn’t it? Poking at those wounds that are still trying to scar over, reexamining the ugliness, facing what we’d rather forget—none of that sounds fun, especially if we’re planning on making it public by publishing the result, but I cannot begin to express to you the value of writing this way. Why? Because God can use that.

I’ll tell you something from hard-earned experience. Quit trying to be impressive in your writing, your research, your pithy word choices. Don’t show off your strengths, but humbly express your scars and those raw places you’d rather not show the world. Let them come alive in your story so that Jesus, the glorious one who’s begun healing those scars, can shine through. Writing friends, God cannot shine through your armor—only through the cracks. Don’t be afraid to create stories around them and in showing your weakness, let God display His strength.

God cannot shine through your armor—only through the cracks. via @politano_joanna #SeriouslyWrite #amwriting

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Joanna Davidson Politano writes historical novels of mystery and romance, including her debut Lady Jayne Disappears. She loves tales that capture the colorful, exquisite details in ordinary lives and is eager to hear anyone’s story. She lives with her husband and their two babies in a house in the woods near Lake Michigan and you can find her at www.jdpstories.com. 

How To Only Share Your Written Gems, Not The Rough by Elizabeth Van Tassel

How To Only Share Your 

Written Gems, Not The Rough

by Elizabeth Van Tassel

How do you let your heart show through in your writing without being overly vulnerable? Here are four tips for your next writing adventure.

Tip#1 Write in the Zone

Whether you’re a morning or evening person, your best writing will develop during that time of day. I’m a morning person, so I rise with the sun to begin my creative efforts. If you work with your natural rhythm, your writing will improve and your messages will have more impact.

Tip #2 Stay on Brand

To write from a place of abundance, and not feel drained, stay true to your message. Your branding should be central to what you are called to write, and as an expert, you have a lot to say about it. When you get dragged off track, it can be tiring and your message will be less effective than if you remain on target.

Tip #3 Leave the Baggage Behind

When being vulnerable, write about events that you can share something emotionally constructive. People need your insights, so be careful about baggage. I’m able to write about losing all my possessions and about emergencies our family has been through, including my husband’s stroke, the child we lost to miscarriage, and my other son being in the hospital and almost dying because years have passed and I’ve been able to see God’s faithfulness in that timeline.

Once you’ve encountered God’s faithfulness, you may better reflect moments that are painful and life changing. You can bring that essence forward for your audience with authenticity. You can’t have lasting impact unless you’re already personally transformed, like a gem.

Tip #4 Don’t Touch If It’s Hot

If a recent experience hurts too much, consider writing for yourself at first. For example, in my fiction, I want kids to avoid traps I’ve experienced. A character in my fantasy is a double agent. I developed her after I dealt with someone who I trusted very much but turned out to be a bit poisonous, so that is part of this character. I was careful to process what had happened before inserting the lessons. Like colors on a canvas, the pain of that experience has informed my double-agent’s vibrancy, believability, intrigue, and texture.

Share Only the Gems

In the jewelry world, we use an example of an unpolished gem vs. a polished gem. An unpolished gem has great potential but might only look like a rock. Whereas when you see a polished gem, all the beauty shines through. The facets are there, it’s reflecting light, and you can see the color or colorlessness depending on the gem. The same is true for your writing. If you aren’t quite ready to offer it to the world, that’s okay. Put it in a file, save it. But don’t give anyone an unpolished gem. Give them your very best and it will reflect well on you.

Have you ever written when life’s been a bit too raw? Have you successfully incorporated difficult life-lessons into your work? What was the result?

About the Author:

Elizabeth Van Tassel

As a graduate gemologist, Elizabeth Van Tassel has the expertise to bring gem mysteries to life in kids’ imaginations. Her experience as a wildfire survivor and her perseverance through her family’s medical trials lends depth to her characters’ similar challenges. As a coach and youth enthusiast, she teaches real-life lessons to help tweens, teens, and their parents build a treasure box of tools to face the hardest parts of life. Her background selling jewelry, corporate writing experience, and love for history bring a special flair to her speaking, classes, and fiction and nonfiction writing. And she just finished the first of a fantasy series for tweens featuring an ancient Viking gem mystery with a modern twist.

You can connect with Elizabeth at www.ElizabethVanTassel.com and learn how to Live A Resilient Life!™ Sign up for weekly blogs with tips about being resilient there, and updates about her future website for kids and novels. Find her on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

Blog: https://elizabethvantassel.wordpress.com/blog/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ElizVanTassel

You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbfGSIRoGjwywnyAto0IQKA

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/evtgemgirl/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/profile/preview?vpa=pub&locale=en_US     

  

Write on Purpose by Cheryl McKay Price

Cheryl McKay Price

Hey writers, Annette here. Have you ever gotten feedback on your writing that readers couldn't relate, or couldn't feel with your characters? Screenwriter and novelist, Cheryl McKay Price, is here with some advice for making your writing relatable for readers. Enjoy!

Write on Purpose* 

by Cheryl McKay Price

There are three things I firmly believe:

First, God still speaks to us today.

Second, God uses pain and redeems what we’ve been through to help other people.

Third, God speaks through media.

As writers/authors, producers, directors, actors, and filmmakers, we have a vehicle through which to deliver God’s messages to many people who may not step foot into a church building.

As a writer, I love to welcome God into the process as my co-writer. I pray about what to write and how He wants me to write it. Sometimes I complain to God: “If You are helping me write, why do I have to rewrite?” I sense His smile with the reminder that I’m not writing Holy Scriptures. He shapes me through the rewriting process while I shape the work itself. Then, He prepares me to speak about the stories He’s led me to tell. (Can you say character development?)

God spends more time shaping my personal character with each project than I do honing the characters on the page. So often in this line of work, we don’t just get to hide behind our computer screens working on a book or script, or sit quietly in a theater as our movie plays. This medium gives us a platform to speak beyond the story itself. Those messages are just as important to God as the ones we commit to the page. The interactions we have with our audience are also very important.

One of my favorite verses is Psalm 45:1 (NIV), which says, “My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.”

We are God’s hands and feet on this earth. He uses us—when we are willing to be used—to spread His messages. Do you want Him to use you this way?

I want to encourage anyone out there who feels called to reach hearts through the medium of writing or film, to welcome God into the process. If you are a writer, be ready to write on purpose. I don’t mean writing in a way that shoves a theme down someone’s throat; however, have a point to why you are telling your story.

My best writing comes from personal experience. As hard as it can be sometimes to do this, I encourage you to be willing to put yourself on the line. Share parts of your personal life that God encourages you to share. I have found that the projects people respond to best are usually those where I’ve been willing to do just that—to take something I’ve been through and turn it into a story. A lot of the pain I’ve experienced has been redeemed because of ways I’ve seen God use it through my writing.

When I penned the screenplay for The Ultimate Gift, the story became a lot more personal to me when my father had to have open-heart surgery. One of the story’s themes is “The Gift of a Day” and how precious life is. Most recently, I’ve written about my personal life through my script (and now novel) Never the Bride. I turned my life experience, my pain, my impatience, and my communicative relationship with God into a story. (This includes our fights, by the way.)

Had God not allowed me to experience some of the pains of singleness in my life, that story would not be published. We wouldn’t be hearing from women who feel like God has restored hope to them, that He cares about them and can be intimately involved in their lives.

If my character weren’t based on me, I don’t know if the story would be as relatable as people say it is. No doubt this is sometimes embarrassing—to admit to others my character Jessie is a fictionalized version of me—but I feel called by God to be an encouragement to other single people. People out there like myself who sometimes feel God is “asleep on the job of setting up their loves stories.” God is not asleep. Never the Bride clearly depicts that just when we think He is doing nothing, He is at work behind the scenes. He’s trustworthy, and He’s the most awesome being we can ever fall in love with.

I hope you, too, will be willing to put yourself out there for the sake of other people who may really need to hear what you have to say. Share that message God has placed on your heart to share. If you aren’t a writer, I hope you will seek out stories to produce, direct, or act in that you can stand behind because of the way they can reach others, restore hearts, and inspire souls.

Invite God to co-write, co-executive produce, and lead every message.

*(Reprint of article written by Cheryl McKay for HOSFU)

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Cheryl McKay Price is a screenwriter, book author (non-fiction, children's books, and co-written novelizations of her film scripts). Married to the love of her life after a long wait to find love, she’s an advocate for the hearts of singles who are losing hope in their waiting. She’s passionate about the health of marriages.

She wrote the film, The Ultimate Gift; co-wrote Never the Bride: a novel & Greetings from the Flipside; authored Finally the Bride: Finding Hope While Waiting; Finally Fearless; and Novelizations: How to Adapt Scripts Into Novels (with Rene Gutteridge). Her novel, Spirit of Springhill, just released in August, 2014.

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Song of Springhill

From the ACFW Women's Fiction Carol Award winning co-author of Never the Bride & screenwriter of the award-winning film, The Ultimate Gift, comes a timeless love story inspired by the historical, coal mining disasters of Springhill in the 1950s. Song of Springhill is a gripping story about searching for love, family, and faith in the midst of trials.

Could you fall in love despite the great risk of losing the one you cherish most? 

Hoping for a fresh start, Hannah Wright moves to Springhill, the hometown of the father she never knew. Posing as a man, she’s hired to work in the mines where she’s placed on the team of Josh Winslow, a handsome bachelor who noticed her as soon

as she stepped into town. It doesn't take long for Josh to see through Hannah's disguise, but she convinces him there's no other way for her to help take care of her family. Understanding the pressure she's under, he agrees to keep her secret—for now.

Will Josh and Hannah be among the next miners caught in a catastrophic disaster? Does Hannah stand to lose everything she's worked so hard to rebuild?

(You can read the first chapter at Cheryl's website.)

Addicted to the Chase by Celeste Vaughan

Sometimes our writing journey takes detours we neither plan nor want. Sometimes our lives do the same. Celeste Vaughan has been kind enough to share with us her story of hardship and recovery. I hope you find it as inspiring as I did. ~ Angie

As a Southern-Baptist-raised only child, wife, mother of three, and pharmacist, I was living my American dream.

Until suddenly I wasn’t.

At the age of thirty-four, I unexpectedly hit the floor with a grand mal seizure while attending a birthday party with my children. The first seizure didn’t leave me with any physical damage, but I wasn’t so lucky the second time around.

I was in Wal-Mart in the pharmacy, when I had a seizure and fell against the shelves, clearing the “P’s” through the “S’s.” My brain had no recollection of the events, but my body did. Upon arriving at the emergency room, I was informed that my nose was broken. One glance in the mirror confirmed it. The emergency room doctor sent me home with prescriptions for Depakote (for seizures) and Lortab (for pain), a list of  “do’s and don’ts” for seizure patients, and a referral to an ear, nose and throat surgeon for my crooked nose.

And so my recovery began.

The soreness slowly dissipated from my muscles, and the bruises on my body faded away. The bruises on my soul, however, were growing. I could no longer drive, or even take a bath alone. My independence disappeared. Depression was rearing its ugly head. The ear, nose, and throat specialist informed me that sinus surgery was in my near future if I wanted to ever use my nose for breathing again. Sinus surgery it was.

Between the visits to the emergency room, neurologist, and surgeon, it took about two months for to come to the end of my nasal nightmare. Lortab, a narcotic pain medication, had become my friend to get through those months, especially during recovery from surgery. It was not pleasant to have my sinuses packed with gauze attached to small tongue depressors hanging out of my nose for a week.

When the packing was finally pulled from my nostrils, which felt like ropes being pulled from my brain, the nightmare was over. Or so I thought. It was really just the beginning. My pain was gone, so I stopped taking the Lortab.

Within a day I felt horrible. I started throwing up. My heart raced and sweat seemed to pour from everywhere. My brain felt as if it were receiving constant electric shock. The headache was unbearable. I thought I had the stomach flu. I had no idea it was the discontinuation of Lortab that was causing this, and because I was so miserable, I took another.

Soon I felt normal again.

I had no idea the trap I’d fallen into was so dangerous, so I only dug myself deeper. “I’m a pharmacist,” I thought; “I can figure this out.” I came up with a plan to wean off a little each day. The plan was that I’d begin with two every 6 hours and decrease each dose until I was off them completely. But the next morning, I would tell myself the exact same thing, and I would start over again.

And again, and again, and again.

Every time I experienced any type of pain or stress, the first thing my brain went to was Lortab. It certainly didn’t help that the Lortab was the only way for me to keep from throwing up. It was the magic drug. It was the key to my normal.

In the one short year since my first seizure, I had become a completely different person. I had transformed from a happily married, independent working mom into a completely dependent, depressed prisoner in my home, shackled and chained. Physically and mentally exhausted from trying to keep up my charade, I confessed my shameful secret to my husband. He was now married to an epileptic and depressed addict.

During the next five years of my life, I bounced between episodes of seizures, depression, and addiction. One of the three seemed to dominate me from day to day, and I threw myself into a search for my cure…for my seizures, my depression, and my addiction…my life. I was addicted to the chase, and medical doctors, nutritionists, chiropractors, acupuncturists, and massage therapists were just a few who were more than happy to take my money. My bank account and I both hit rock bottom.

After a total of seven years and eighteen seizures, I was done. I’d prayed for the rapture repeatedly, but it was obvious God wasn’t going come back early just for me.

My last seizure was on August 4, 2010. Finally I cried out to God, “I can’t do this anymore! I don’t want to live another 30 years on this earth like this. Whatever my purpose is, you’re going to have to show me!”

Then…

On Saturday morning, September 25, 2010, I woke up feeling different. Energy and joy welled up inside of me. It had been so long since I felt happiness, I didn’t recognize it. When the feeling continued, and I began to embrace it, I knew without a doubt God had given me a miracle. A real, honest-to-goodness, overnight miracle!

Since that miraculous day, God has taken the puzzle pieces of my life and put them together like a beautiful picture. I see so clearly the heavenly prescriptions he gives us in his word to guide us and pave our way to an eternity with him in heaven. Only when my desire to know His plan for my life became greater than my desire to fix myself, He healed me. When I was at my weakest, His strength came through. God knew the perfect moment to heal me in such a way that I would share my miracle story to expand the boundaries of His kingdom.

Today, I am completely free from all medications, migraines, seizures, insomnia, and depression. I had to wait seven years for my answer, but God knew how stubborn I was. After all, He created me. He wanted me to realize no matter how much I chased after a cure, He was the one, true, free way to complete healing and restoration of my body and mind…and soul.

Celeste Vaughan graduated from the South Carolina University College of Pharmacy and settled comfortably into her life as a pharmacist, wife, and mom of three children. After 14 years working as a pharmacist, she found herself on the other side of the counter and suffered for 7 years with seizures, depressions, and prescription drug addiction. On September 25, 2010, God intervened in her life and changed her forever. He has now called her into a ministry of writing and speaking, using her story to reach others for Christ by sharing Heavenly prescriptions written by the One Physician who can truly save your life.

Website: www.CelestialPrescriptions.com

Email: celestevaughan@charter.net

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001526411830

Called Together, Forced Apart by Janet Chester Bly

I started the writing craze. Then I got my husband involved. We combined as a team. Then his fiction got so prolific that it consumed us both, to keep up with the process before and promotion afterward.

Now that I’ve lost Steve, I’m so used to the team brand, I’ve lost my own. That’s not a complaint. It’s just a statement of where I’m at after losing my mate of 48 years, my partner in almost everything.

In early January 2011 Steve resolved to do three jobs by summer: prune the pines in our yard; re-roof the house; complete his contracted 106^th novel, Stuart Brannon: The Final Shot.

A few weeks later he played eighteen holes of golf. The next day, he could hardly stand for more than a few minutes, breathing hard. His almost five-year battle with prostate cancer finally took its toll. The next four months he spent more days in the hospital than out. He passed away June 9^th.

Determined to finish his list of projects, I hired a tree trimmer. I found a roofer.

Meanwhile, my sons each said to me, “Let’s get that book done.”

Steve left us 7,000 words, a synopsis and some character names. I had never written adult fiction alone, although I had authored children’s books and  co-authored adult cozy mysteries with Steve. I tore into our writing books for some quick tips and printed out excerpts for the sons.

I sensed the wisdom and God’s own purpose for including Russ, Mike and Aaron. For one thing, to incorporate Steve’s input throughout. Some of that I knew by coming alongside him all those years. But our sons possessed a part of his creative genes. They also knew about golf swings and poker hands. All three were movie buffs. They had a passion for analyzing characters and storylines. They had to be involved.

So I joined another partnership.

The Guidelines

Any suggestion could be made, but I had the power of last edit and control of the ‘send’ button.

The Challenges

I had to find my rhythm in Steve’s story. And how to write from a man’s point of view. Westerns were Steve’s genre. He knew the geography, history, facts about guns and horses, the language and the lifestyle. We had to play catch up on all fronts. This story had to read like a Stuart Brannon character and a Stephen Bly novel.

My goal had been to pour out at least 5,000 words per day, like Steve did with ease. I couldn’t do it. I had to downsize to about 2,000. That frustrated me and caused panic that we’d never get it done in time. Then I realized I self-edited as I wrote, which took more effort. When several of the boys crafted scenes of their own, the total count jumped and I knew we’d make our goal.

Our women readers would wonder if Brannon, a long-time widower, would find romance. This plagued us for some weeks until the true lovers emerged.

The last scenes Steve dictated to me in a quarantined hospital room. I wore a sweaty yellow gown and acrylic gloves, while typing as fast as I could.

When read aloud, the sons commented, “Doesn’t flow with the rest of the story.”

In order to include these vignettes, we devised dream sequences for Brannon. 

Keaton Tanglewood, a young Indian says, “The old chiefs dream many dreams.”

Brannon ponders, “Am I like an old chief? Are we getting so close to the next world that this one and the other start to blur together?”

That tied it in.

The Frustrations

With the time crunch, there wasn’t space to give the manuscript a rest, to put it aside so we could come back to it fresh one last time. Instead, we turned it in after frantic days of rewrites.

The Surprises

I didn’t get overwhelmed by the impossibility of the task or the inevitable comparisons on the quality by my peer group. I stayed steady because I knew without a doubt this must get done. Looking back, I’m astounded that we accomplished this daunting task. To God be the glory.

The Satisfaction

The most enjoyable aspect was working with my sons. We labored on behalf of someone we dearly loved and missed. In the midst of the occasional stab of tears, we grieved together. The fiction crafting process itself proved therapeutic.

The intimate look into Steve’s favorite character, this journey along the frontier of this man’s soul was like peering into Steve’s.

This stanza is adapted from one of my husband’s poems.

            The preacher was wrong years ago when he said,

            ‘It’ll last ‘til death do you part.’

            It’s an Idaho sunrise, my latté’s all gone,

            and I still got that guy in my heart.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SIDEBAR:

In a research trip to the Oregon coast, two weeks before deadline, I retraced the spots where Steve and I had gone together many times. This round I paid attention to more than the fish dinners, driving on the beach and sunsets over the ocean. After a closer perusal of the old Gearhart golf course where Steve had played, I studied the geography and history and discovered some mistakes we’d made. For instance, an island scene couldn’t happen. No islands near Oregon, only rock outcroppings. I wondered what Steve would have done. He’d never have made the error in the first place. He had a photographic mind for sensory details and facts. But I discovered Tillamook Head. Hiked it. Learned the background. Made the change. I think Steve would have been pleased. . .that we got it right.

Janet Chester Bly

Copyright©2012

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Janet Chester Bly has authored 30 nonfiction and fiction books, 18 she co-authored with Christy Award winning author, Stephen Bly. Titles include The Hidden West Series, The Carson City Chronicles, Hope Lives Here, and The Heart of a Runaway. She resides at 4200 ft. elev. on the Idaho Nez Perce Indian Reservation. Her 3 married sons, Russell, Michael and Aaron, live down the mountain with their families. 

Stuart Brannon: The Final Shot releases March, 2012 in large print, hardback and ebook. Paperback version will be available August, 2012.

Follow Janet on her website, blog, Facebook page and Twitter.