A Bit of Fun While on the Journey to Publication

Welcome to Fortifying Friday, the day here at Seriously Write when we feature authors’ personal journeys to publication, as well as encouraging words to those traveling the path.

The other day I checked out some fun videos pertaining to writing on YouTube. I happened to come across this one created by James Andrew Wilson, author of All of Our Dreams, one of the books in the 7 Hours series published by Tyndale.

James captured the emotional stages that an author goes through when writing a novel in such a fun and creative way, I wanted to share the video with you. It’s healthy to laugh at ourselves—so go ahead!

To find out more about James, please visit his website at http://www.jamesandrewwilson.com   

Enjoy!

~ Dawn

It’s All On Me, Right?

Writers’ conferences can be expensive. Hey everyone, Annette here. This week many of our dear SW reader-writers are attending American Christian Fiction Writers’ annual conference. (www.acfw.com) You’ve got appointments set up, opportunities all around you. You’ve prayed and planned, brainstormed and penned, organized and traveled, sacrificed and invested. Now, you’re here! You want to “get your money’s worth” and take advantage of every possibility before you—make the right connections, exude the right impression, say the right words. Seize the day. 

After all, it’s all on you.

Right?

For years, you’ve had books burning inside you, waiting to come out. You’ve got a thriving imagination full of characters, plot gems, twists, ideas swirling in creative juices. You love words and the rhythm of good prose. You love reading. 

Question: who gave you talent? 

Remember that stirring in your heart at some point, that urge to write? What was the catalyst? There was a time you knew you were supposed to somehow begin to put words down. You studied the craft of writing, connected with others on a similar journey. You paired strong characters with intriguing plots and offered your chapters for critique. 

Question: who called you to write? 

Somewhere during your life, you’ve had to find time to write. Late hours, early hours, leftover hours after a busy day. You prioritized and sacrificed and carved out productive minutes. 

Question: who created and manages time and seasons?

While you’re there at the writers’ conference, remember God gave you the talent, God called you to write for His glory, and God is sovereign. We can’t “make something happen” just by sheer will. If we try to sidestep what God is doing, we may find ourselves unprepared and failing. But if we wait for the correct time—God’s timing—and rest in Him, consider the benefits:

Peace—we no longer have to manufacture something. We have God’s assurance. He who called you will also make a way. 

Rest—the burden to open doors is not on us. God is our Father who opens doors for us. We don’t have to strive. When it’s time, the right door will open. And by then, God will have prepared us.

Joy—we’ve demanded a lot of ourselves, even the impossible. But when we hand our burden to the Lord, He gives us joy in its place. 

Freedom—sure, we continue the writerly disciplines of learning and growing in the craft. We remain good stewards of the gift and calling. But once we release the burden, we’re free to create and grow, because we no longer have to strive. We’re free to do our part—seek God first and let Him take care of the rest. 

When you sit down with editors and agents, know they’re people just like you. They’re professionals, just like you. But keep this truth in mind: they do not dictate your future in writing. They may become a tool in God’s hand, but God is the one who determines where your writing goes from here. Leave that with Him.

Aren't you glad it's not all on you?



Photo credits:

"Stairs" image by Adam Hickmott / freedigitalphotos.net 
"Door handle" image courtesy of Nattavut / freedigitalphotos.net
"Job interview" (meeting) photo courtesy of Ambro / freedigitalphotos.net

Too Lee Do—How This Strange Term Perked Up My Descriptions

I’ve been writing for over a decade now (definitely put in my 10,000 hours!). And I’ve picked up a few tricks along the way. Have you heard of “too lee do”? It’s one of my favorites, and I found it in the first writing book I ever read, Fiction is Folks by Robert Newton Peck. Such a great book!

One of Peck’s greatest gifts to me as a newbie was his chapter on description. When describing a scene, he says, write only what you can see through a toilet paper role. (So, what’s too lee do? Remember when you were a kid and you’d stick those cardboard tubes to your mouth and trumpet “Too lee do!”)

How It Plays Out

Imagine reading this in a 1940s novel: “A woman walks into a living room and sits on the yellow sofa.”

It’s completely boring, isn’t it? Blah!

A too lee do description would look more like this. “The woman’s tightly wound victory rolls bobbed as she tripped over her business-black high heel and flopped onto the old davenport. Her bright red fingernails gripped the yellow checkerboard armrest to keep from tumbling immodestly backward.”

Do you see?

v     Victory roll—reminds us we’re in the World War II era

v     Bobbed—shows the action

v     Business-black high heel—she’s a career woman

v     Bright red fingernails—she cares about her grooming

v     Yellow checkerboard armrest—we can clearly visualize the red fingernails against the armrest

Not only does too lee do accomplish these nifty helps, using tight descriptions thrusts readers into the story. It gives them concrete images to identify with.

Sometimes the little tips add the most polish to our writing. Enjoy too lee do! I know I do. And next week, tune in for another trick I’ve learned.

How do you make your descriptions pop? I’d love to hear.

Happy writing and God bless,

Ocieanna

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/26891884@N03/3030017373/">glocalproject</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photo pin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>

“Strong Language" in Fiction, Drama, and Film by Donn Taylor

I had the opportunity to meet Donn Taylor at an ACFW banquet many years ago. Since then, I've been blessed to hear him speak at several conferences and am always impressed by his dry wit and sparkling use of the English language. 

He's just released a new action adventure, Deadly Additive, and I had the privilege to preview it before it's released. It's gritty, exciting, and suspenseful -- just what a military thriller should be. And it doesn't have one cuss word. How did he do it? Here's Donn's thoughts about "strong language." ~ Angie

© 2000, 2008, 2012, Donn Taylor
Every writer must decide whether he needs to use words that are euphemistically described as "strong language"—"cusswords" and gutter language. These "four-letter words" so dominate fictional and video conversations today that these words often are the dialogue.

I guess I've heard them all. And I've put a good bit of thought into their place, if any, in my writing. So I've come to reject the most common justifications of using these words in fiction, drama, and film.

The usual justification is a claim of "realism." First, it’s claimed that because people actually talk that way, realistic fiction must accurately report their words. Second, it’s claimed that four-letter words bring us closer to “real life” than other words.

Neither claim can withstand examination.

The first confuses "realism" with literalism. Fiction is not real life: it’s an artifice creating the illusion of real life. So if the writer must report people's words literally, what excuses him from including all other elements of life? Must every fictional day begin with the hero shaving or the heroine applying eye shadow?

Thus, if "realism" does not justify literal inclusion of other elements in fiction, it does not justify literal inclusion of specific words.

Nor can the claim that four-letter words are closer to "reality" withstand questioning. Many uses of those words are, to put it mildly, figurative. Perhaps is once was amusing to attribute bisexual reproductive capability to inanimate objects. But if so, the idea is now so clichéd that it's no longer humorous.

And on representing reality, let's consider the so-called "f-word." The early English (probably Anglo-Saxon) from which it descends was a savage language appropriate to those savage times. Then, perhaps, the word may have accurately described physical relationships between men and women. But many cultural changes have altered that reality.

One change was the twelfth-century invention of romantic (courtly) love, popularized by Eleanor of Aquitaine and Chrétien de Troyes. And in the 1590s, Edmund Spenser synthesized various love traditions into an ideal combining the romance of courtly love with the intellectuality of Platonic love and a dash of physicality from Ovid—all justified by marriage, one of the seven sacraments of the church. Spenser's synthesis held general acceptance until about 1900, when it was eroded by naturalistic philosophy and Freudian psychology.

The point for "realistic" fiction is this: if the "f-word" today accurately describes the physical relationship between a man and woman, it does so only because the couple is immune to the cultural experience the past millennium.

So if customary justifications cannot withstand examination, the real reasons for using "strong language" must lie elsewhere. Conflict is basic to all good fiction. “Strong language” helps lazy writers gain the appearance of conflict without the hard work of creating genuine conflict, which is always generated by a story’s narrative structure. In other words, "strong language" substitutes for genuine creativity.

Profligate use of such language will always be chic, of course. But as screenwriter Morrie Ryskind put it, "The chic are always wrong."

Donn Taylor led an Infantry rifle platoon in the Korean War, served with Army aviation in Vietnam, and worked with air reconnaissance in Europe and Asia. Afterwards, he completed a PhD degree at The University of Texas and taught English literature (especially Renaissance) at two liberal arts colleges. His novels The Lazarus File andRhapsody in Red have received excellent reviews, and he has also authored Dust and Diamond: Poems of Earth and Beyond. He is a frequent speaker at writers’ conferences such as Glorieta and Blue Ridge. He and his wife live near Houston, Texas, where he continues to write fiction, poetry, and articles on current topics.

Deadly Additive
To soldier-of-fortune Jeb Sledge it seems like a simple job: Rescue an heiress and her journalist friend Kristin Halvorsen from their kidnapping by Colombian guerrillas and collect a sizable paycheck. But Kristin has other plans. After stumbling onto a mass of dead bodies, she won’t leave Colombia without the proof she needs for the story of a lifetime. While she and Jeb wrangle over her obstinacy, they discover a hidden factory where the guerrillas build a new and deadly type chemical weapon for the international black market. Their discovery triggers a raid on the factory, followed by a desperate search through the Caribbean and the U.S. to prevent a catastrophic attack by weapons the factory has produced. But who is behind that attack, and what are the planned targets? Finding out brings Jeb and Kristin again into peril for their lives.