What We Bring To A Story by Heidi Chiavaroli

Last weekend, after the kids were snuggled in their beds, my husband and I settled down to watch Titanic. I was a sophomore in high school when the movie first came out and I watched it several times as a sixteen-year-old, completely engrossed in Jack and Rose's love story.

Last Saturday night, when I made the suggestion to dear hubby that we watch the movie, I looked forward to reliving the romance and adventure.

But I was in for a surprise. One scene (really a snip of a scene) shook me to the core and had tears pouring down my cheeks. And strangely enough, it had nothing to do with Jack and Rose. In fact, I had barely noticed the scene when watching Titanic as a starry-eyed teenager. So why the emotions? Twelve years later, I am a different person. I brought something different to this story: my experience of motherhood.

The scene that grabbed my thoughts wasn't the one I latched onto years earlier—that of Rose releasing Jack to the cold ocean depths at the end of the movie. I was prepared for that. I knew the inevitable. Rather, the scene that took me by surprise was of an underprivileged mother and her two children. They'd been locked beneath the ship to die. Water pooled around them. The mother leaned over her little ones cuddled on a bottom bunk, stroked their foreheads, and told them a story. Calmly. As if this night were like all the others.

The scene was but five seconds, but it tugged at my heartstrings in a deeply personal way and sent my imagination flying. How would I react in such a circumstance? Could I be so brave? What stories would I tell my children? What sweet words of Jesus would I whisper in their little ears?

And why did the scene barely impact me all those times I'd seen it years earlier? Had my heart been cold? Did I not value children?

I don't think any of these were the case. In fact, it was what I now brought with me to the story. My children are the same age as those in the movie. I could relate to this poor mother's predicament in a way I couldn't as a sophomore in high school.

A good story is one that evokes emotion from a reader. A skilled author creates characters and situations that draw on our own emotional experiences. Love, protection, fear, hopelessness. We all know these feelings. It's a writer's job to tap into them, and it’s a writer’s job to know the audience they are writing for so that they can accomplish this well.

How do you go about relating to your audience in your stories?

Heidi Chiavaroli is a writer, runner, wife, mother, and grace-clinger—not necessarily in that order. Ever since taking her first trip to Plimoth Plantation with her sister, mother, and grandmother at the age of nine, she has been fascinated with history and its significance to today’s people and culture. Heidi is the winner of ACFW’s 2014 Genesis Contest, Historical Category. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, two sons, and Howie, her standard poodle. Learn more about Heidi on her website: www.heidichiavaroli.com.

Heidi will join us on the third Thursday each month.

Snow Shoveling by Peter Leavell

Peter Leavell

If you've already peeked at the title of today's post, you're probably wondering what snow shoveling has to do with writing. Peter Leavell is back this week with more relatable thoughts on the writing life. I think you'll find yourself nodding your head in agreement. Enjoy! ~ Annette

Snow Shoveling 

by Peter Leavell

I just finished shoveling the snow on the sidewalks of a seventeen-acre apartment complex today. Twice.

You know, for a successful debut novelist who dreamed of writing full time, working apartments isn’t a dream job. In fact, it’s not fun at all. It barely pays the bills.

So why do I still have a smile on my face?

Because I keep in mind three very important items.

Reality and the Writer

The first is reality. Writers don’t make money. They write. If you’re in this for the money, then do something else. But maybe that’s good. What if Charles Dickens hadn’t seen utter poverty before turning to writing? Or Jack London’s wandering from job to job hadn't given him the experience to write brilliant stories? What if Louisa May Alcott’s job resume wasn't as long as London’s? Could she meet the reader at his or her level? When Mark Twain traveled the Mississippi River, did he know he would be the most influential writer America ever produced, because he knew the river so well?

Secondly, these men and women lived by working first. Observing the world. And then incorporating what they saw, learned, and most intriguing, felt physically and emotionally.

While few of us write at the level of these authors (speak for yourself, Mr. Leavell!), I keep in mind that I must have a job to write. Not simply to make money, although it’s a necessity, but to really live. Shovel snow, because characters shovel snow. Paint houses, drive all night, eat peas (yuck!), and just generally observe, because that’s what our characters do.

Keeping that in mind makes it easier to get through my day and to my computer at night when I can plink out a few words.

The God Factor

And thirdly, and most importantly, you’re in God’s hands. Jeremiah 29:11 “’For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘Plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.’” NASB

Oh, come now. Is anything better that to know that you can cling to hope? And that you have a future? Controlled by God?

What a relief to know that this snow-shoveling writer’s future isn’t entirely up to him. Because he would have chosen to write full time. But he can’t, because he has to make a living. But it gives me something to write about.

And that puts a smile on my face.

~~~~~

Gideon's Call

Author Peter Leavell forges an unprecedented tale of tragedy and triumph amid the backdrop of the Civil War through the story of Tad, a very clever slave boy who comes of age as America’s war reaches the sea islands of South Carolina. Tad’s desire to better himself is obstructed by the color of his skin, until Northern soldiers force the evacuation of white plantation owners, setting 10,000 slaves free in a single day. These circumstances seem like a dream, except that the newly freed slaves have no money, no education, and little hope for the future—unless someone rises up to lead them. Based on true events, Gideon’s Callis the dramatic tale of a young man who battles the shame of his past and faces the horrors of war and unimaginable prejudice to become the deliverer of thousands of freed slaves.

Peter Leavell, a 2007 graduate of Boise State University with a degree in history, was the 2011 winner of Christian Writers Guild's Operation First Novel contest. Peter and his family live in Boise, Idaho. For entertainment, he reads historical books, where he finds ideas for new novels. Whenever he has a chance, he takes his wife and two homeschooled children on crazy but fun research trips. Learn more about Peter's books, research, and family adventures at www.peterleavell.com and on his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PeterLeavell.

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