4 Disciplines of the Christian Novelist: The Spiritual Side of Creating Fiction by Janet Chester Bly

Janet Chester Bly

For the Christian fiction writer, the spiritual dynamic impels the process of creating a novel. Whatever the outcome, the whole project involves a walk with God. The work is done in tandem with a heavenly Father who a) provides the idea, b) enables the writing gift, and c) empowers with ability to start and complete the project.

4 Disciplines of Creating Fiction

1. You pray. The act of creating a story with impact begins with God providing the kernel of an idea. Then talk through with Him the development, the follow through of crafting story and scenes. Prayer means depending on Him each step of the way.
   
   A sample writer’s prayer: “Heavenly Father, make this a story created by You. Bring it to life for Your purpose. Work through my mind. Challenge my heart. Give voice to the characters to reveal something You want to say to readers. Minister to me, through me, and in spite of me. Keep me going as life happens. Produce a story for Your glory. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”
   
2. They pray. Ask others to intercede. A savvy writer realizes he or she can’t do it alone. A team is needed. Sure, the daily discipline of the hard sweat and strain of actual writing is up to you. Part of the process of creating is discovering what the book is about. Partners who pray you through to the end are a precious gift. Send out reports on your progress. And the setbacks. Let them share in the results of God’s work through you.
   
   “As you help (me) by your prayers … then many will give thanks on (my) behalf for the gracious favor granted me in answer to the prayers of many” (1 Corinthians 1:11 NIV).
   
3. Wrestle a theme. In my recently released novel Wind in the Wires the characters thoughts and actions and the evolving story line little by little revealed recurring issues. On the negative side: deceit, lies, and bitterness. On the positive end: confession, truth, and forgiveness. Staying with that thread with each scene throughout helped me find the place to begin, what defined the middle, and how to reach the conclusion.
   
4. Borrow the Bible. Whether you list it or not, be inspired by at least one Scripture passage that conveys the essence of what’s happening in your story. Early on in the process I envisioned the main characters in Wind in the Wires on a journey to the desert. They were headed to the region around Goldfield, Nevada. One day reading the minor prophet Hosea, these verses popped out for me as describing protagonist Reba Mae Cahill.
   
   “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope” (Hosea 2:14,15 NIV)

Question for Writer: How do you make sure you keep God as part of your work?
Question for Reader: What was the spiritual message of the last novel you read?

About the Author

Wind in the Wires
by Janet Chester Bly

Janet Chester Bly is a city girl with a country heart. She doesn’t corral horses or mow her own lawn. “I’m no womba woman,” she says. But she followed her late husband award-winning western author Stephen Bly to the Idaho mountain top village of Winchester to write books and minister to a small church. When she lost him, she stayed. She manages the online Bly Books bookstore, rakes lots of Ponderosa pine needles and cones, and survives the long winter snows.

Janet Chester Bly has authored and co-authored with Stephen 32 contemporary and historical fiction and inspirational and family-themed nonfiction books. She and her three sons—Russell, Michael and Aaron--completed her late husband’s last novel, Stuart Brannon’s Final Shot. The story of that family project can be find on her website blog under the series topic “Finishing Dad’s Novel”: http://www.BlyBooks.com/blog/.

Her recently released novel Wind in the Wires is Book 1, Trails of Reba Cahill. It’s a Contemporary Western Mystery. It’s a road adventure with a touch of romance. A cowgirl searches for love and family. An old man seeks justice. Their Ford Model T journey to Goldfield, Nevada exposes lies and betrayal. And two cold case murders. Will the truth be too hard for either to bear?

It’s 1991. Reba Cahill loves ranching with her grandmother on the Camas Prairie of north-central Idaho. But there’s a lot of work for the two of them. She figures a rancher husband would ease the load. But she finds few prospects in the fictional small town of Road’s End.

Get Wind in the Wires paperback or download on Kindle here: http://amzn.to/1p1YJYZ
Goodreads giveaway: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/127625-wind-in-the-wires
Download a sample chapter here: http://www.blybooks.com/books/cowgirl-lit/

Website: http://BlyBooks.com
Sign up for the Almost Monthly Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1i82Kah
Keep up with the Wind in the Wires 4-month blog tour & giveaways here: http://www.blybooks.com/2014/11/new-novel-release-2014/

A Sentimental Journey: Research for Stuart Brannon's Final Shot

Janet Bly is here on this research day to give us a sense of how she and her sons finished a novel begun by her husband, the renowned western author Stephen Bly.

"When your husband passed away in 2011, you took on a project he had begun. How did you go about gathering the necessary research to complete this novel?" - Sandy


Janet: To write a story set in 1905, there’s context and conflicts, places and people, a whole lot of detail accuracy to grasp. That’s part of the fun. . .and frustration. . .of writing fiction.

When my three sons and I set out to finish the novel hubby Stephen Bly began, we scrambled to do the groundwork of playing major catch-up on what he knew from long years of immersion in his genre and the times. He left us 7,000 words, a one-page story synopsis, and a long list of character names.

         

We had four months to do the research, craft the rest of the story, and turn in the final manuscript of 77,000 words. So, part of the plan included passing out  assignments. I went on location to the Oregon coast.

I had gone there the year before with hubby, but I came along for the ride that time. He did the work. I enjoyed sunsets over the beach, grilled salmon dinners, digging in the sand and leisurely walks hugged by sea breezes. This time I had to be alert to the specifics of the flora and fauna, the history and smells, and making careful recordings in my notebook and with my camera. I forced myself to ignore romantic memories and the urge to run barefoot along the shore. A very different kind of 'going to the beach' trip.

  

The Places

I did interviews in Astoria, Oregon, the seat of Clatsop County and sought details at Fort Clatsop, where explorers Lewis and Clark wintered in 1805 and was later the site of the William Smith home where a violent conflict takes place.

I stayed in Gearhart, Oregon, with its razor clams, golf course and infamous Ridgeway Path. I studied about beached gray whales and local snakes, wild horses and cougars. At night I read about general info like horse behavior and control when they're in foreign (to them) landscapes. A short jaunt to Seaside, Oregon, revealed a museum where I could find out about its early twentieth century law enforcement, the layout of the town site and the Salt Works Lewis & Clark memorial.

I searched out what it was like at the Portland, Oregon depot in 1905 and the layout of the Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition.

Then there was the late addition of the Tillamook Head promontory for one of the major novel scenes, to substitute for the deserted island that we discovered didn’t exist. No islands at all, only rock outcroppings, off the Oregon coast. Did not realize that. Found out in time not to make a critical mistake.

The People

After settling on the local Clatsop tribe for our Indian characters, gathered biographies on famous golfers and historical persons, such as Theodore Roosevelt, Wyatt Earp, Buffalo Bill Cody and W.C. Fields. Read up on the orphan trains and Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. Later we did a sort of casting audition of all former characters in Stuart Brannon novels to determine who made the cut in this last one.

The Products and Inventions

Ads in old newspapers revealed brands of cigars and cigarettes, clothing styles and golf equipment. Then there's the weapons of the era, as well as various gadgets such as flashlights and lawnmowers, telephones and walking sticks to consider. And the wardrobe, of course. In a search of Oregon trains, came across railroad land controversies that worked well with the plot. Loved finding out about the transportation, the motor cars and boats, bicycles and fire trucks.

More Story World Emersion

Narcissa Kinney passed away before this story opens, but she's a real-life character that provides a lot of background for the novel. She made Gearhart a dry town. The stipulation of no liquor bought or sold within the city remained more than seventy years after her death.

Narcissa also brought culture in the form of a 200-acre Gearhart Park that included an auditorium for traveling circuit speakers and entertainment, part of the Chautauqua movement. Gearhart residents and visitors enjoyed classic plays, Broadway hits, opera stars, glee clubs and bands such as John Philip Sousa’s. Fiery orators and activists, crusaders and preachers took advantage of this forum. More than four hundred cities across the country sponsored these same events. President Theodore Roosevelt called them, “the most American thing in America.”

Narcissa’s husband, Marshall Kinney, instigated the links golf course on the north side of Gearhart. My husband loved playing on the narrow ridges, rolls and dips of the grass-covered dunes. We could hear and feel the ocean, though it’s out of sight. Gearhart Golf Links opened circa 1892 and ranks the second oldest course in the west. There’s not a straight trunk along any fairway, only twisted, wind-sculptured trees. A breezy adventure.

In the shadows of the backdrop of the story, one hundred years earlier the waves swell and roll over the empty sea. No supply ship on the horizon as Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark end their cross-country expedition at the Pacific Ocean. They winter at Fort Clatsop, then the long journey home. All this necessitated a scan of their journals because their adventures spill over into this one.

Creating a story begins with objective facts, the truth in fiction. But I also included the landscape of my own emotions, to partially transfer to the widower, Stuart Brannon. Nothing in life's ever wasted for the writer.

~~~

Janet Chester Bly has authored 31 nonfiction and fiction books, 19 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. 

I admire Janet and her sons for being able to complete that novel (on time) so soon after Stephen Bly's death. 

What has been your most difficult research project, or your most rewarding?

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

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

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.

Writing for a Grandmother's Heart by Janet Chester Bly

We've come to the final installment of Janet Chester Bly's great series on Writing For A Woman's Heart. Today's focus is writing for a grandmother's heart. Don't miss her tips on article topics. Read on!

Writing For a Grandmother's Heart*
by Janet Chester Bly

They don’t make grandmas like they used to. No more black orthopedic shoes. No Kleenex® tucked under her sleeve. No hats and gloves, fried chicken and dumplings every Sunday. And few grandmas provide homemade cookies fresh out of the oven or jam from berries picked out of her backyard.

Today’s grandmothers tend to wear sweatbands and tennies, hike the malls or run the levies, a cell phone to her ear. She nukes popcorn in the microwave and fills her cookie jar with store-bought ginger thins and Almond Roca®.

Grandkids are different too. They live in a jazzed out, juiced-up, high tech world.

The Power of a Godly Nana

Paul said Timothy had a sincere, rich faith that lived first in his grandma, Lois, then caught fire in his mom, Eunice, then in himself (2 Timothy 1:5).

Kids need grandparents as much as ever. Grandmas awaken grandkids sense of a full-flung family. They fill in the blanks of family history. They pass on tidbits of how to cope with life. Grandmas explain the world from a vantage point that no one else can.

Writers can help grandma enjoy and maintain her critical, venerable role in the midst of a stormy sea of unsettling social changes.

Who Is Your Grandma Reader?

Grandmas come in all ages. My mother was 34. She still raised four children at home. She was a hands-off grandma. My sister-in-law was 63 and a retired elementary school principal. She’s a very up close and personal, involved grandma.
Who is your reader?
She may be a step-grandparent.
She may be a foster grandparent.
She may be the mother of a son who fears losing the grandkids if daughter-in-law turns away.
She may be raising the grandkids herself.
She may be a grandma dating again, after death of a spouse or divorce.

Your articles or book ideas should be focused to her specific life situation, such as. . .
*the pros and cons of re-marriage for her, her children, the grandchildren.
*finding her inner this-season-of-life self
*forgiving herself if her kids aren’t terrific adults
*financial plans to last to retirement & beyond
*now that the kids are grown and gone, “What’s next?”
*mixing care of her own mother with full-time job
*protecting her health—the physical challenges
*learning the lingo—catching up on today’s language
*how she can still be useful, an active part of society with her own creativity.
*computer skills for dummy grammies

Some article topics that have been done and will always be needed:
*Fun, Food, and Fashions For Old Fogies
*Very Merry Un-birthday Celebrations
*Easy Does It Aerobics
*Finding Balance and Flexibility or How To Get Up in the Morning
*Brain Aerobics—ways to boost her memory
*How to Take 10 Years off Your Face in Ten Minutes
*How To Avoid ID theft

Find your own slant. Fill in with true anecdotes and stories from your world. Flavor with your style.

If you’re writing for grandmas, you got to know her needs, understand her heart.

~~~~~

Janet Chester Bly has authored 12 books & co-authored 18 others with her husband, Stephen Bly, including The Power of a Godly Grandparent, available at www.Amazon.com or http://BlyBooks.com/store.htm. Check out her blog: http://BlyBooks.blogspot.com

* copyright 2006, 2011

Writing for a Wife's Heart by Janet Chester Bly

Today we welcome Janet Chester Bly again as she continues her series on writing for a woman's heart. All month, I've appreciated how open Janet is and how her advice will help writers minister to our readers. Read on!

Writing for a Wife's Heart*
by Janet Chester Bly

Married four years with two sons, I didn’t have a clue how to be a mother or wife. That inadequacy drove me to seek God. Did He exist? If He did, would He would help me in these, my most critical life needs? What I and hubby Stephen learned about our relationship after coming to Christ became part of our book: Be Your Mate’s Best Friend.**

How do you write for a wife’s heart?

First, tally your writer’s template.
What are your marriage experiences? Much has already been written. You must find fresh slants on doing marriage, the ultimate invasion of privacy. What unique insight have you learned that will touch a reader’s heart and catch an editor’s eye?

Second, who is your reader?
Do a profile. What does your reader feel desperate about? Determine her season of life. What’s the status of her marriage? How old is she? What are her prime issues?

What will you say to her?
Tackle her passions. What needs can you address?
According to a poll done by CNN/Time, the following challenges dominate women in general, in order of importance—equal pay, day care, rape, maternity leave at work, job discrimination, abortion, sexual freedom.

Other problems include. . .
Aging and its many facets. Staying sexually attractive. Handling temptations.
Dealing with anger, jealousy, money, food, or pride.

Touch Up Your Style
Sublime versus earthy. Pithy or complex. Serious or comedic. Determine the approach for how you’ll handle the tough and touchy stuff. Check your attitude–-do you recognize every couple’s different? Are you leaving space for grace?

Keep up with social change. Discern the changing moods of our society. Now, interface the real world with the eternal truth of the Bible in a way your reader will respond to. That’s your biggest challenge.

~~~~~

Janet Chester Bly has authored 12 books, plus co-authored 18 more with husband Stephen, including two husband & wife cozy mystery series, The Hidden West Series and The Carson City Chronicles, available at http://BlyBooks.com/store.htm/

*Copyright 2005, 2011
* Check out free article downloads, adapted from Be Your Mate’s Best Friend, at http://BlyBooks.com/articles.htm/