Laboring Through the Birth Pains

In Youngblood Hawke, author Herman Wouk, chooses to speak (quite cleverly through his protagonist) about his own experience of being an author:

"No man can know what it is like to be a woman taking her firstborn in her arms for the first time, but a writer who holds a freshly printed copy of his first book must have a fair idea of what the woman feels. It lies rectangular and spotless in his hands, with his name on the jacket. It is his pass to the company of the great. Fielding, Stendhal, Melville, Tolstoy wrote books. Now he has written one... The exultation does not last. It cannot. It is too piercing. It has gone before he has drawn twenty breaths. But in that twenty breaths he has smelled the sweetest of all savors, the savor of total fulfillment. After that, no matter what success he may achieve, he is just another writer, with a writer's trials and pleasures. That joy never comes again in all its first purity."

My editing continues slowly, as I am now working full-time too. Soon I may be holding a completed work and as Mr. Wouk suggests here regard it as "my baby" too.

Delicious Advice

Just finished reading (or should I say devouring) James Scott Bell's Revision and Self-Editing for Publication - Techniques for Transforming Your First draft into a Novel that Sells. What a wonderful tool this is to assist writers in the revision of their work in an organized and systematic manner. They say that writing is rewriting and I agree. I now feel confident (with this in hand) to begin cutting into my baby. For whatever it's worth, coming from a new writer like myself, I highly recommend this book to anyone contemplating the task of writing and editing a novel.

Stumbling towards Nineveh

The idea behind my novel A Sacrifice of Time was to attempt to create a modern-day Christian hero, a fully-fleshed-out character that readers could understand. Jake Justus, like the rest of us real people, would be flawed with his own personal struggles to meander through, but would be both approachable and believable. I found, right or wrong, that adjusting level of transparency in his internal dialogue was the key to achieving both goals.

Of course, my success in accomplishing this is left to the reader to judge. To the reader he would need to become as transparent as a ghost and therefore be approachable. To other characters in the story - those he encountered in his adventure, he would, like so many of us, remain guarded somewhat, enough to be believable. During this writing journey of mine, it has occurred to me that if these qualities are valuable traits for my protagonist, perhaps they are valuable for me as an author as well.

Transparency is a quality I have always respected in others and have, over the years, found liberating in my own life as well. With that said, I need to come clean regarding my own struggles to edit my novel over the last six months. I have mentioned in previous posts that the task of editing my own work feels like performing open heart surgery on one of my own children. It’s not fun and I find I am easily distracted from the chore.

Jonah perhaps felt a similar weight when told by God -

 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come before Me.”

Perhaps he too struggled with distractions that were seen as preferred alternatives to the work at hand. We read that he rose up alright, but decided to flee to Tarshish instead of obeying God. God went on in the story to use great lengths to see to it that Jonah completed the work he was given, despite his willful disobedience.

Please understand, I do not mean to suggest that my editorial work rises to the importance of Jonah’s calling. But I think it is reasonable to assume that Jonah’s story is given to us to help us realize that disobedience to God’s plan for our lives is fool hardy. If I really believe that God has given me a story to share with the world, then I need to share it and that means I need to do the work. And in the spirit of transparency, I need to share the burden and joy of getting to the finish.

I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of a book by James Scott Bell entitled: Revision and Self Editing for Publication: Techniques for Transforming Your First Draft into a Novel that Sells. It is my hope that this highly recommended book will help me get across the finish line. The last thing I want, as I stumble towards Nineveh, is God to send a whale after me!

Do you too struggle with finishing? If so please share your comments below 

I Hate the Term - Homophobic

I hate the term Homophobic. I hate being told that if I do not accept and affirm those that live a homosexual lifestyle, I’m a bigot. I disapprove of a number of life style choices. The recent life choice made by young Adam Lanza comes to mind. Yes, he lived in a free country, where he was presented many opportunities, many choices and paths to follow. To quote the third installment to the Indiana Jones Trilogy “The Last Crusade”, he chose unwisely.

To a similar degree many other life style choices are unwise and carry dangerous associated consequences. Those who worship idols, real or imagined, soon discover their energies wasted. Those who cheat on their spouses find themselves alone and abandoned. The abusive often find themselves behind bars. Liars find themselves lost in a world where nothing is true and certain anymore.

Yet we do not hear terms like idol-phobic, cheater-phobic, abuse-phobic or liar-phobic.

Sin is sin and has been identified by our creator as our greatest struggle, the fulcrum point upon which the status of not only our eternity pivots, but our here and now as well. We can embrace the Free gift of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf and in so doing defeat sin through His strength – or we can continue to be ruled by the Sin of the World.

I am under no delusions – I sin everyday – but He that I call my Lord and Savior stands in the gap and covers my sin as if it is as pure white as the driven snow. His strength can accomplish what I cannot. And because of His great mercy I do what I can to remain His. To remain in His flock and in His keeping is my duty. To be and make Disciples of Christ is my greatest goal

That cannot be accomplished by sweeping what God says about the homosexual lifestyle under a rug. Loving the sinner while hating the sin is hard to accomplish, because people are defined by what they do – how they act. I pray that I may act in a loving manner to all people (sinners one and all) so that God’s love can be seen first and foremost. But I refuse to accept and affirm that which God calls an abomination.   

Journey Worth Taking

Its not the destination, it's the journey. That's what they say...

Recently in a small gathering with my Aspiring writer friends I proclaimed, "If writing a novel is synonymous with conceiving a child, then surely editing that same work is like performing open-heart surgery on him or her" This observation of mine received a good chuckle, but the truth it held haunts me today as I ponder the work ahead of me.

My beta readers (those that read my finished manuscript) have all been wonderfully helpful in pointing out many ways my novel can be improved. From character names and development, to plot structure and cadence, each of them have made me see that this work of fiction can be more than it currently is. Each of them seemed to be telling me that it has potential to be much more. To each of them I'll be eternally grateful for their time and encouragement as I continue down this road.

So, you ask...Why am I haunted by the process?

If I was a painter, that painted portraits or grand landscapes, I could stand back from the canvas and take it all in at once. Then I could lean in and make the smallest of corrections, bringing forth the important details that separate the Mona Lisa from my old Aunt Sally. I don't have an Aunt Sally, but my point is that I find it easy to get overwhelmed by my own work. It is difficult to hold that scalpel and know where to begin to cut into a body of 73,000+ words.

The recent crash of my home computer has not made this task easier either. But just the week before the crash, my entire computer had been back-up to an external hard drive I had purchased  - just in time. I must admit I too easily slip into the mindset of the bottle being half empty. In fact I often want to find the person who drank from my bottle and wring their neck.

I need to remember that this process is building not just a good novel, but a good writer I hope as well. And, if it was easy everyone would be doing it...right? So...with good friends to advise and encourage me in this process and God orchestrating it in His timing, now I too am saying...

It's not the destination, it's the journey. And I must press on!

Show Me the Business Model

HAVE WE GOT A DEAL FOR YOU!

This morning I was awakened by a phone call. Richard Robertson, publishing consultant for Westbow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishing was on the other end of the phone and he wanted to talk to me.

     This is the same Thomas Nelson Publishing founded in 1798 in Edinburgh, Scotland and began in a building located at 7 West Bow Street, publishing early editions of many top fiction titles, including Pilgrim's Progress and Robinson Crusoe and later releasing books by such authors as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle. 

     Needless to say I was unprepared for this call. As I shook the cobwebs from my head (I hadn’t had my coffee yet and I’ve been feeling ill recently) and listened to Richard’s voice in my ear, I began to understand his reason for calling me. At the mention of the Thomas Nelson Name, I began paying attention. I also realized I had added my contact information, only the night before to their website, indicating I was contemplating the idea of self-publishing my novel.

     After hearing that agents and publishing houses take months and years to reply to query letters, if they even ever bothered to, I was surprised by his quick response a mere 8 hours later. Like quite a number of publishers these days, struggling to stay afloat in the changing world of publishing, Thomas Nelson has created their own self-publishing division – Westbow Press, named after their original Scotland street address.

     Richard spoke at some length about the advantages of Westbow Press and their affiliation (of course) with their famous parent company. We had a very pleasant conversation wherein he informed me of the many famous authors (Steven King and John Grisham included) that began charting their course to success via the self-publishing model. He also forwarded several e-mails detailing their services and company information.

     While he spoke I was reminded that there are two very distinct business models regarding publishing. One model (traditional) has always made its money from READERS. Readers pay their twenty bucks for a tangible product – a book and an intangible product – a reading experience. They’ll either like a book or they won’t. Either way, they’re only out their $20.

        

     But self-publishing is a much different model. It is designed to make money from WRITERS. It is no longer about a mere $20. And it’s no longer about simply purchasing a product, knowing you might like it or you might not. Instead it’s about a writer’s lifetime of hopes and dreams. It’s about expectations that are often unrealistic. And it’s about laying down anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars for a product.  Not much different from selling me a computer to write my novel with.

     To me the difference between these two is HUGE. If the publisher has already made their money (from you following their model) why would they be motivated to expend more energy (to market your book - think time and money here) to sell more copies of your book?

     I can certainly see how a self-published book that does well in today’s world can help market you (as the author) to a traditional publishing house. Proving your worth as a viable and proven author with a built in platform (read audience base).

     I intend to pursue the traditional publishing model at this point in time and I believe that this distinction between the two models is important to grasp. I may change my mind about this, but if I do I will go into the arrangement knowing full well that my publisher will only be motivated to sell copies of my book if that’s how they make money.

Writing Real Dialogue

While continually working on my own manuscript and edits I have tried to be a voracious reader of other works. The idea being that the more often and varied my exposure to well written work, the better my own writing will become.

One of the things that I am noticing in reading from the stack of books by my bed and from dialogue contained in the variety of movies I watch is the importance of what I call “un-answered” dialogue. When real people talk, questions go un-answered. They answer questions with questions or even ignore them altogether. The best authors can thinly thread these INCOMPLETE conversations together so that the motivation of each evasive speaker remains apparent to the reader, even if undisclosed to other characters in the story.

Such dialogue scripting can reveal a great deal about the characters themselves, the status and depth of the relationship of those speaking, the importance each places on the subject matter and it also helps to create a backdrop to the drama being told. As readers, reason tells us that these characters must have cause or motivation for being evasive and avoiding disclosure.

An element of mystery creeps in through a backdoor and helps to sink that all important ‘hook’ that we authors desire to set with each and every paragraph, page, chapter and work, as we ratchet the tension and keep our readers turning to the next page.