Trying to Push God Down the Road?

Think about how much time you spend in a car, whether it’s commuting to work, driving your kids to activities, or just running errands. We Americans spend vast amounts of time in our vehicles, which means we also share a lot of time on the road with other drivers.

Seattle is a fabulous place to live with the mountains, the ocean, and moderate temperatures. The area is a vast playground for outdoor enthusiasts and a cultural treasure for those who love the arts. But there is one thing that makes us all crazy. Seattle is one of the worst cities for traffic.  Not only are there numerous cars on the road . . . there is a plethora of bad drivers. 

My husband is not a patient man when following a slow driver—especially a person going below the speed limit. Even though he doesn’t tolerate people tailgating him, he can’t resist creeping up behind someone when they’re keeping him from his destination.

I try to gently remind him that pushing a person down the road isn’t the answer . . .

Okay—I’ll admit that there are times when I get a little irritated too. But getting impatient doesn’t solve anything. There are also possible ramifications for being in a hurry. Like speeding tickets. Or worse yet—accidents that cause people harm. Yet, we can’t seem to stop ourselves. We want to get there—wherever it is—as soon as we can!

We may also treat God like a slow driver who doesn’t know what he’s doing. When things don’t happen as quickly as we’d like, we may fuss and fume—rant and rave. 

In our writing life, we may try to push God down the road faster than what he knows is right—or safe for us. We may be stuck behind following, but he’s aware of the dips, holes, and debris up ahead.

We may think that our novel is ready—that we’re ready—for publication for the first time or the fifty-first time. But if God slows the journey down because a little more time is needed to avoid the ruts in the road, we need to trust that he’ll lead us to highways where we can travel at a more comfortable pace. 

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. (Ecclesiastes 3: 1 NIV)

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3: 11 NIV)

I recently learned an acronym for P.U.S.H.  Pray Until Something Happens. There is wisdom in doing our part, and then praying and relying on God’s wisdom to make things happen in due time.

After all, the goal is to reach our destination, not crash and burn on the way there.

Enjoy the journey . . .  and believe that you’ll arrive just in time.

~ Dawn

How Do I Write Meaty Scenes? Part Two

Happy Wednesday, my writing friends, 

The cheeseburger's back! Last week we started a two-part series on writing meaty scenes. We discussed the problem of a nowhere scene going leaving readers yawning, and to help, talked about two dos: Do Be Relevant and Do Create Conflict (Internal and External).  Now we move on to one more do and a don't. 

Do Move the Plot Forward

Sometimes I can tell a scene was written simply for character development. For example, the author thinks readers need to know a protagonist struggles with selfishness, so a whole scene revolves around this. I relate to this desire, but character development alone isn’t enough to carry a scene. 

It’s just more fun to weave those traits into action that moves the plot forward. Think of Star Wars (my kids are playing the Wii game at the moment). We find out about Princess Leia’s spunky, stubborn, smart character as Han and Luke rescue her. The plot plunges ahead and we learn about this new kind of princess at the same time. 

Don’t Repeat Yourself

“I already know this!” I read a book recently in which the character was described as timid and afraid of being hurt because of something in her past. Interesting. I can get behind that. 

But then throughout the book, the author told (notice I said told not showed) us this over and over again--every time the character appeared. It was too much. It's okay to introduce the character with a little introspection, but after the first time, character traits should be shown through plot-advancing action. 

I understand this desire. Particularly with traits I think vital, I'm tempted to repeat myself--beat the point into the readers' heads. But I try to remind myself that subtlety is best. I can trust readers to get it. 

I've seen tendency show up in other areas too. Sometimes it’s as simple as eye color, or a character’s favorite ice cream—anything.

I need to remember that everything I write communicates to readers. If I mention the heroine’s blue eyes in scene one, I don’t need to mention it again for a long while (as a reminder). 

Well, are you stuffed? I'm hoping you've gotten a good slab of meaty information to beef up those scenes. Let me know how these work for you or share your ideas. I'd love to hear. 

God bless and happy writing, 

Ocieanna

Pushing Through by Faith by Ruth Axtell

After fourteen years of writing but not landing a contract, I was blessed with a three-book contract! Steeple Hill Books was looking to expand its inspirational line back in 2002, and my proposal grabbed their attention.

But I’m not going to talk about that today. Fast forward to 2009. Seven years of back-to-back contracts with Steeple Hill, at times two multiple contracts (when they wanted me to write Love Inspired Historicals in addition to my single title historicals with them). But then they switched gears, deciding to end their line of single title books and focus on their Love Inspired lines. They offered me contracts, but suddenly I couldn’t seem to write what they wanted. The format was more rigid; my ideas didn’t seem to fly with my editors, who used to love my writing. The more I tried to revise something to fit their ideas, the less confident I’d become with my abilities—and the less inspired I became when I did receive a contract. The last books I wrote for them were painful experiences, eking out the words. Through this, though, I learned that I could write, whether inspired or not.

But I didn’t enjoy the experience and was at the point of throwing in the towel: if this was what a writing career meant, then I’d rather find a new career, even at fifty.

I decided to take a break and write something else: something I was inspired and motivated to write. With no safety net under me (i.e. no contract), and lots of financial pressures, I spent the summer of 2009 working in solitude on my manuscript. I also searched for a new agent. My previous agent, though good, really only knew the ABA New York publishing world. I needed to branch out into the CBA market. By the fall, I had a new agent. A month or so later, he called me with an offer for my book.

The downside: the book wouldn’t appear until spring of 2013—almost four years later! I would have long eaten up my advance before then. Although I was amazed and awed at how the Lord had opened the door to a CBA publisher, writing single titles again—what was I going to live on in the meantime?

I sat down to work on another book with the hopes my agent would be able to find me another publisher. This proved not so easy, since publishers like to invest in an author. If they know an author is already contracted with another house, they might think twice about taking her on.

But God gave me a story—very different from my first one—and when it was almost finished (again with no safety net of a contract), my agent managed to find a home for it. I had caught a brief mention of a new line of fiction being started at Moody Publishers, and mentioned it to my agent, Chip MacGregor. A few months later, we had an offer. That book would be out less than a year later!

So, now I am looking at two books less than a year apart, one in August of this year, one next March. But if I hadn’t taken that step of faith …?

My times are in thine hand … Psalm 31:15

Ruth Axtell has loved stories set in the 19th century ever since she read Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre and other 19th century classics in junior and senior high school. Like many romance writers, Ruth decided to write her own in order to read the kind of story she liked best.


It was a long road to publishing, a journey as much spiritual as dependent on learning the craft of writing. Ruth studied comparative literature at Smith College with a concentration in French and English literature, and spent her junior year in Paris. After college, she spent a year in the Canary Islands as an au pair. Shortly after coming back to the U.S., she committed her life to Christ. Fourteen years later, she committed her writing to Him. Since then she has lived in the Netherlands and on the coast of Maine.


Ruth has published 13 historical romances under the name Ruth Axtell Morren. She was a Golden Heart finalist in 1994. Her second published book, Wild Rose, was a Booklist “Top Ten Christian Fiction” selection in 2005. Her books have been translated into Dutch, Italian, Polish, Czech and Afrikaans. She is a member of ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers), RWA (Romance Writers of America) and its local Maine chapter.


Currently, Ruth lives on the downeast coast of Maine with her three children and two cats. She enjoys the challenge of vegetable and flower gardening in a cool, foggy climate, long walks, reading, watching British period dramas like Downton Abbey, and doing historical research for her novels.


Her Good Name, a historical romance set on the 1890s Maine coast, from River North/Moody Publishers will be her first book under Ruth Axtell. In March 2013, Moonlight Masquerade, a regency romance set in London, will be out with Baker/Revell Books.


About Her Good Name
In the 1890 thriving coastal town of Holliston, Maine, the leading lumber baron's son, Warren Brentwood, III, returns from his years away at college and traveling to take up his position as heir apparent to his father's business empire.

Esperanza Estrada, daughter of a Portuguese immigrant fisherman and a local woman, lives on the wrong side of town, surrounded by a brood of brothers and sisters and a careworn mother. She is unable to pretend she is anything but "one of those Estradas." When she overhears of a position to clean house at a local high school teacher's home on Elm Street, she jumps at the opportunity--to be able to run into Warren Brentwood now and again, but also to imbibe of the culture and intellectual atmosphere of the Stocktons.

When rumors about Espy and her respected employer begin to circulate, the entire church congregation and then the community pronounce judgment on her behavior. Warren believes the lie and his loss of faith in her causes Espy to give up without a fight. She leaves her family and hometown for the nearest city with little money and no acquaintances and is forced to spend the night on the street.  A man who heads a mission for the homeless finds Espy and offers her shelter. Espy finds the true love of God while working at the mission. Will she be able to forgive the townspeople and return home?

Do Violence to Your Reader, Part II: Punch ‘Em on the Way Out! by Jill Elizabeth Nelson

Happy Monday, dear writers. Annette here. Jill Elizabeth Nelson is back today with another meaty post. Last week she discussed hooking readers at the beginning of our chapters/scenes. This week, it's all about "hookouts" or hooking readers at chapter's end so they'll keep reading. She offers three key means of doing that. Read on!

Do Violence to Your Reader, Part II: 

Punch ‘Em on the Way Out!

by Jill Elizabeth Nelson

While the opening hook is vital to a story, the punch at the end of each scene and chapter plays a role of equal importance. During the editing process, our hooks and punches are among the first aspects of the story that we should inspect.

Hooks and punches can be subtle, with the action primarily mental or emotional, or they can be high action and overt. But subtle or overt, these elements must be relevant to the story and contribute to the novelist’s supreme goal—to provide the reader with an Emotionally Resonant Reading Experience.

I think of the punch as a “gasp moment.” If a writer leaves the reader sucking in his breath, naturally he must turn the page to find out what happens next—and that next thing should be a sharp, fresh hook.

How can a writer deliver that all-important closing punch?

One approach is a twist or a surprise. The reader is now knocked off balance by an unexpected, yet plausible, development and must keep on reading to find out how this turn of events affects the characters.

Another approach is “the resolution.” A scene concludes with a character forming a resolve that defies the odds, and the reader has reason to anticipate this resolve will be tested to the max. The resolution must be of the sort that keeping or not keeping it will dramatically impact the character’s well-being, as well as the lives of other characters.

Another type of punch is the cliff-hanger. The chapter or scene closes with a central character in a dire predicament, so naturally, the reader must turn the page to see how the character escapes—or not.

A more subtle and yet highly emotional punch could be called “the moment of truth.” This type of chapter or scene closing might depict the central character discovering a new realization that stuns her and sheds a different light on everything that has gone before and inevitably will impact all that is yet to come.

Here is a closing punch that does NOT work. Why not?

Tristan picked up his menu. “Let’s get some dinner. We could be here a while.”

Where is the tension and emotion? Let’s see if we can infuse these necessary elements into the mundane act of ordering dinner.

Tristan gripped his menu. Fine! If that’s the way she wanted to play it, he could be Mr. Cool-as-a-Cucumber. He unlocked his clenched jaw and sat back. “Let’s get some dinner,” he told his brother. “We could be here a while.” Tristan’s gaze cut to the elegant female seated at the corner table. He could wait her out. No sweat, right?

Now the reader has a conflict to sink their chops into. If the writer has set up the scenario properly, there will be valuable stakes involved in who waits out whom, and the reader will ache to find out who wins the contest of wills, and they will also feel Tristan’s internal conflict of determination edged with a suggestion of self-doubt.

Here is your assignment:

Pick up one of your favorite novels and find at least one scene or chapter-ending that provides the emotionally resonant experience for you. Then ask yourself why this particular punch steals your breath and compels you to turn the page.

~~~~~

Award-winning author and writing teacher, Jill Elizabeth Nelson, writes what she likes to read—tales of adventure seasoned with romance, humor, and faith. Jill is a popular speaker for conferences, writers groups, library associations, and civic and church groups. She delights to bring the “Ah-ah! Moment” to her students as they make new skills their own. Her handbook for writers, Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point of View, is now available at Amazon (see links below).

Connect with Jill:

Website: www.jillelizabethnelson.com  

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/JillElizabethNelson.Author 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/JillElizNelson.

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