How Structure Can Make First Drafts Fun to Write by Christa MacDonald

Christa MacDonald

 How Structure Can Make First Drafts Fun to Write 

by Christa MacDonald

There’s a voice we all hear as we write a first draft. It’s like someone reading over our shoulder, pointing at the words on the page and whispering, "That’s garbage. You should delete this whole page." This isn’t the voice of doubt. It is your internal editor piping up at the wrong stage, and it needs to shut up.

There is nothing like an internal editor to ruin a first draft. I remember when I wrote my first book. Back then, my internal editor didn’t know enough so she didn’t really bother me. Writing that draft was a positive experience. Now I have a few books under my belt, and she’s louder. She knows more too. Often she’ll pester me about repeated words, weak dialogue, over-used gestures in my characters, "you’ve already had him shake his head in this scene." Helpful advice, but not on a first draft. 

I started off my writing career as a pantser, but a struggle with a draft made me a plotter. I had heard that book two (the book you write after selling your first) was legendarily hard to write. Three months into writing mine, I had learned this was all too true. I struggled long and hard over that book and in the end I decided that half the battle was that little voice in my head questioning every choice I made. My internal editor sabotaged me at every stage, leeching the joy out of writing a scene, sapping my motivation. In the end, the plot flailed around and if not for the help of a content editor, that book would never have seen the light of day.

For book three, I turned to the Snowflake Method from Randy Ingermanson. I found it easier to produce a first draft when I had a roadmap. My internal editor had a whole lot less to say when I had the bones of the book already in place. I could ignore her fussing because I knew the structure was solid, and I could fix the rest of it in editing. It was still ugly, but it didn’t take me a year to write it and more importantly, I actually enjoyed the process this time. If slogging through the second book had made me hate writing, silencing my internal editor with some structure made me love it again.

Even if you’re a die-hard pantser, I still recommend getting a rough idea down. And I definitely recommend muzzling your internal editor. Let your first draft be ugly. Give yourself room to write some terrible stuff. Editing will fix what needs fixing. Let the first draft be the giddy, mad, creative stage where you entertain all possibilities.

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The Redemption Road

It’s redemption that he needs, and she’ll pay any price to help him find it.

As the new game warden in Sweet River, Alex Moretti is focused on enforcing Maine’s wildlife laws and little else. Moving from tragedy to a fresh start, all he wants is a way to fix his life in the tranquility of the north woods. Until he meets Annie Caldwell at Coffee by the Book. But his own bitter, dark life is a threat to Annie’s sweetness and light. It’s better for him to stay away.

Annie doesn’t know how to label her relationship with Alex, but she is determined to figure it out.  After a few false starts and a kiss under the Christmas lights, their romance goes from fiction to fact. Annie has fallen hard. Then trouble shows up. Someone is stalking Alex, seeking to punish him for a mistake which ended in deadly consequences. When Annie becomes a target, he tries to push her away, but she won’t abandon him. Alex is desperate to keep Annie safe while he attempts to reconcile the past, but what he really needs is redemption. And she will risk her life to help him find it.

~~~~~

Christa MacDonald began her writing career at the age of eleven, filling a sketchbook with poems and short stories. While at Gordon College she traded the sketchbooks for floppy discs, publishing short personal narratives in the literary journal The Idiom. After graduation and traveling cross-country she settled down to focus first on her career in operations management and then her growing family. When her children reached grade school Christa returned to her love of writing, finding the time between conference calls, dance lessons, and baseball games. This November Mountain Brook Ink will be publishing her first novel, The Broken Trail. When not at her desk working or writing, Christa can be found curled up in her favorite chair reading, out and about with her husband and kids, or in the garden. She lives with her family along the coast of Massachusetts in the converted barn they share with a dog and two formerly-feral cats.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Christa-MacDonald/e/B01GGIU8D8
Website: https://christamacdonald.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CricketMacD
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristaMacDonaldAuthor/
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/christa-macdonald

Why Do You Write? By Melinda Viergever Inman

Melinda Viergever Inman

Why Do You Write?

Why do you write? Your answer determines all the rest. Most of us might respond that we don’t even know how we feel or think about a matter until we’ve written our way around and through it. That would be true of most writers. But that’s not what I’m asking.

Why do you feel that writing is your mission? Why are you pursuing the serious writing life? What is your purpose in writing for the public eye? Is writing your calling?

Think about that a moment, for writing is one of the most challenging, underpaid, “white-collar” occupations around. Is it worth it? Your reason must be significant because this job will cost you. You may not even break even.

We share a unique calling, we who gather here. We take our writing seriously, for we write in a world that ingests words twenty-four hours a day. Our words constantly pour out upon gadgets, phones, tablets, and computers all over the world. This is where God has placed us in history. We were born for such a time as this.

Why do we write? Because the Lord has called us to write for him.

We seek to promote his ways and his words. We long to reveal his story, his work, and his transformation of human lives. We proclaim his praise and herald his character and goodness.

The book of Ecclesiastes ends with advice that looks back on a life, admonition to remember our Creator in our youth, before the days of trouble come when our eyes, our ears, our brains, and our bodies will wear out. Then, we may not be able to write the words that proclaim God’s truth. Then, our eyesight may fail, and our ability to record his words to uplift others may dim.

If God has called you to write, I urge you to seize each day now as a gift from God and to write with all your might, whether you make any money or not. This is our ministry. Do not lose heart! Use your gift to the best of your ability to proclaim our Savior’s character, love, grace, and salvation to others. This is our only opportunity.

The words recorded within the pages of Scripture and exposited to us in sermons and teaching - these words goad us onward, impelling us to write, inspiring us to pen words that tell stories unveiling our Savior.

Lest we veer a little too far this way or that, we write with precision, guarding our words with care, preventing them from adding beyond what God has said. God’s words are nailed down. We must not deviate into false teaching.

Our task is exhausting. We often wonder how we can keep going.

The conclusion, the motivator, is the knowledge that we will one day stand before God and give a verbal account for our words. We answer to him now and will answer to him in the future for how we use the gift and the calling he has given us. Will we press on when the money is low, the body is weary, and the discouragement is high?

I say, “Be certain of your calling, and then, dear writer, press on!”

May we heed these words of wisdom, written by one who made many mistakes along the way:

“The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one shepherd. Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body. Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:11-14 NIV).

Melinda V Inman, Author of: Refuge; Fallen; and No Longer Alone

Raised on the Oklahoma plains in a storytelling family, Melinda Viergever Inman now spins tales from her writer’s cave in the Midwest. Her faith-filled fiction illustrates our human story, wrestling with our brokenness and the storms that wreak havoc in our lives. Find her weekly at http://MelindaInman.com/blog/. To find her work and to be notified of future published novels, follow her at http://bit.ly/MelindasBooks/.

Connections:

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melinda-V-Inman/189731601076470

Website: http://melindainman.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelindaVInman

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/melindavinman/

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MelindaViergeverInman/posts/p/pub

Five Factors by Carrie Stuart Parks

Next month, September, I’ll be joining my mentor, Frank Peretti, at the ACFW conference in Nashville. We’ll be presenting the Early Bird portion called “On Writing.” This has been an amazing ride—to go from writing how-to art books to becoming an award-winning, best-selling author in just a few short years. Maybe I should more accurately call it an adventure. Adventures have a lot of pitfalls, wicked witches, and setbacks along the way. So let me present five factors to success.

1. A mentor. I’ll have to admit having “the Dean of Christian Fiction” as my mentor was huge. Frank and his lovely wife, Barb, had been friends for years. We met through Frank’s and my husband, Rick’s, mutual love of the banjo and all things bluegrass. When I wrote a short story for Barb for Christmas one year, Frank saw potential in my efforts. It was his choice to mentor me. For eight years. I’m a slow learner. I listened to everything he said and did it. I’d show up with post-it notes, highlighters, red pens, paper clips, and the writing I’d done the day before (or re-writing as the case may be.) If he said I had to fix something, I fixed it. A good mentor is priceless, but you have to …

2. Listen. If your friend, mom, beta reader, critique partner, mentor, or 1st cousin once removed on your mother’s side said that a sentence was strongly phrased, they got lost, they couldn’t figure something out… fix it. Don’t argue that it was your sheer genius at work. If one person doesn’t get it, multiply that by hundreds—your reading public. This is because you’re…

3. Too close. You are too close to your work. In your head, you have that scene clearly in front of you, the sounds, dialog, action, smells, where you are going…but that doesn’t mean you’ve actually written it on the manuscript. This can be frustrating because you’ve worked on this story for so long you hate it, yet it’s still your baby. The good news about writing is there’s always . . .

4. More to learn. I estimated I read over eighty books on writing, went to countless conferences, took numerous on-line classes, entered competitions, and studied the craft from every angle. I still do. Never accept something as “good enough.” If you have to, put it aside and work on something else, then come back to it. Because you need to be . . .

5. Persistent. I had fourteen proposals go out on my original book. Fourteen “no’s.” Each time I got rejected I’d mope a bit, then get back to work.

Of course, there’s so much more, but we’ll start with these five. God bless you as you write.

An artist hiding from an escaped killer uncovers one of World War II’s most dangerous secrets—a secret that desperate men will do anything to keep hidden.

 

After the murder of her twin sister, Murphy Anderson changed her name and appearance and moved to Kodiak, Alaska, to avoid the press and publicity. But when local authorities discover she’s an artist and request her help in drawing a dying man’s memories, she unintentionally ends up in the limelight again—and back in the killer’s crosshairs.

The deathbed confessions of an Alaskan hunter have Murphy drawing the five bodies he discovered on remote Ruuwaq Island ten years ago. But what investigators find has them mystified. Evidence suggests that the bodies were deliberately destroyed, and what they uncover in an abandoned Quonset hut from World War II only brings more questions.

As one by one the investigators who were at the hut die, Murphy knows there is something much darker at stake. What happened on this island during the war? And who is willing to kill to keep its secrets buried?

Amazon Buy Link - Formula of Deception

Carrie Stuart Parks is an award-winning, internationally known forensic artist. Over the past thirty-six years, she has worked on major criminal cases for such agencies as the FBI and ATF as well as numerous police and sheriff’s departments throughout the US. She is the author of over twenty books, both fiction and non-fiction.

Along with her artist-husband, Rick, a former visual information specialist for the FBI in Washington DC, they travel across the US and Canada teaching forensic art courses. They are the foremost instructor of forensic art in the world.

She has won numerous awards for career excellence. Carrie is a popular platform speaker, presenting a variety of topics from crime to creativity.
Connect with Carrie at: www.CarrieStuartParks.com; Facebook: Carrie Stuart Parks, Author; twitter: @CarrieParks

Art of Writing Through by Kimberley Woodhouse

In the movie Finding Nemo, Dory is my favorite. But I’ll come back to her in a minute.

I’m going to say it out loud. “Sometimes life just stinks.”

Let’s face it. We all have junk in our lives. Even if we’re good at keeping up the façade of having everything under control. We need to be honest and admit that life is hard.

Everyone has trials. Mountains and valleys, the roller-coaster ride, falling-on-your-face-in-the-mud-puddle moments. It’s part of life. The Lord never told us it would be easy. In fact, He’s pretty good at letting us know through His Word that there will be suffering and lots of it. But He’s also pretty amazing at instructing us how to deal with the suffering.

Now, this is not meant to be a negative post. I’m not encouraging you to whine and complain. So, if you thought you could do the “woe is me” because I brought up the stinkage of life thing here, turn your brain around into the direction of positivity and say this with me, “It’s my choice to grab onto joy.”

I teach at several writing conferences and there’s one particular question that jumps out at me the most. It’s not on the craft or on marketing or social media.

The basic question is: “How do you write through __________?” I’ve heard a bunch of different questions. How do you write through raising kids, how do you write through raising teens, how do you write through medical crises and emergencies, how do you write through family crises, how do you write through life exploding, how do you write through life when it overwhelms you… the list goes on and on.

Apparently, life’s propensity to stink is common. To young and old, rich and poor, experienced and newbie, men and women, etc. It touches us all.

But I think the real question is this: how do we continue to write—to stoke the creative embers—during the storms of life when a figurative gully-washer tries to quench the flame?

I know you know what I’m talking about. Those times when life overwhelms you and you want to quit. Personally, I’ve been through the wringer. But you have too. My trials aren’t any more difficult than the trials you face. And my purpose here is to encourage you.

So back to the question. How do you write through (fill in the blank)?

There’s not a magical formula or list of what to do. But I do believe that with lots of prayer and laying down our writing as a sacrifice of praise, there is comfort and relief. And yes, joy. It’s our job to grab onto it. Daily. Not just when things are going well. In First Peter we’re encouraged to rejoice greatly even though we are distressed by various trials!

That’s a high bar. And quite a challenge, but yes, it is possible.

By giving our talents back over to the One who gave us the gift of story in the first place. By praising through the junk. And by grabbing onto His joy.

It’s not easy. Sometimes it takes a lot of time and effort. Sometimes it takes a period of rest. Sometimes it’s picking ourselves up by our boot straps—out of the muck and mire and snorting through the mud that’s up our nose.

Sometimes we just need the reminder to keep going. To keep writing. Like Dory encourages her pal in the movie. Maybe we need to sing along with her silly little ditty and just keep swimming.

If you need encouragement, shoot me an email through my website. I don’t have all the answers, and I might be swimming through the mud myself, but I can encourage you to keep going.

I choose joy. How about you?

~~~~~~~

Kimberley Woodhouse is a CBA and ECPA best-selling author of more than fifteen books which have earned her many accolades including Christian Retailing’s Top Pick and Publisher’s Weekly starred review. A popular speaker and teacher, she’s shared her theme of “Joy through Trials” with more than 800,000 people across the country at more than 2,000 events. Kim and her incredible husband of twenty-five-plus years have two adult children. She’s passionate about music, cooking, and loves the gift of story. You can connect with Kimberley at:

www.kimberleywoodhouse.com and www.facebook.com/KimberleyWoodhouseAuthor