My hubby and I love to travel. We’ve gone everywhere – well, not South America, but Europe and Asia and Alaska….and we’ve discovered that we travel in different ways. I like a map. And a destination. And the knowledge that I get to eat something normal on the way. He likes to set out and see where the road takes him. The difference isn’t our destinations – eventually we get where we want to go. It’s the HOW. How are you going to move your hero along on his spiritual journey? Here’s a few travel tips I’ve learned on my journeys: In plotting my stories, I often start with a story question – and the same thing goes for the spiritual thread. Whether is it a story about a man […]
Read the RestTag Archives | fiction editing services
How deep should you go?
Hey all! I’m bleary eyed today because I was up late reading “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” by the author of the Kite Runner. I loved the Kite Runner – powerful story, evocative writing. And, although it was a secular book, it still contained themes of redemption, forgiveness, grace….everything that makes a book resonant. He did the same with Splendid Suns, weaving in themes of purpose and destiny, and love. What I liked about the Kite Runner and Splendid Suns, is that they make the reader ponder these spiritual issues, regardless of their religion (they’re written from a Muslim perspective). As a reader, I don’t want the spiritual plot to be so thick that it strangles me – and as a writer, I don’t want to strangle my reader. I want […]
Read the RestGrappling with the uglies
Dear Susan, “Wow you’ve done it again! That book was fantastic. You have a way of developing believable characters that suck you into the story as if you where there. I don’t know why or how, but your books have stirred in me a new sense of faith. Your messages have hit home and I am seeking my place with God, and how I fit into the picture in his eyes.” I love those kind of letters! People often ask me what I write – my answer (because I’m all over the place in genre!) is – I write Novels with a Christian World View. But inside, I’m really wanting to say – I write 4 dimensional stories. I believe that with Christian fiction, because it deals with not only […]
Read the RestTension Toolbox
I meant to post yesterday, Friday, but the day got away from me. Sorry, team. This is our final post on tension for now. No promises about the future. What mechanical ways can we show tension in our writing? Word choice. Short sentences. Entering the scene late, exiting early. Let’s try a scene: The wind blowing over the prairie was hot and dry as Mikaila urge her horse forward, scraping her fingers through her long blonde hair. Her cornflower blue eyes caught sight of a billowing cloud of dust rising from the horizon line, a mushroom from the earth, she thought. Wonder who it might be? She let her mind drift toward Cole who waited for her back at the ranch. They’d fought, about nothing. But she speed away on […]
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