Heroes With Heavenly Inspiration

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For the next two weeks The Writers Alley is celebrating the 10 Days of Christmas. Each AlleyCat is putting her own spin on a Christmasy-themed post.

So…. I was trying to figure out what to do with mine.

As a romance writer I wondered what made Christmas such a romantic time of year? The cold gives us a reason to snuggle closer? The family time warms our hearts, and the mistletoe? Well….you know how much THAT inspires our romance J

All those things contribute to the warm-cuddly feelings associated with Christmas, but I think the biggest reason is because we celebrate love coming down to Earth.

As Christian authors, how do we express this love in our writing?

I think the basic love of Christmas is what we, as Christians, remain (or should remain) in awe over for the rest of our lives. God gave himself as a gift to the world and that type of love permeates our lives and spills over into our writing.

Awe.
Wonder.
And the overwhelming beauty of unconditional love.
It’s why romance writers LOVE heroes.

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This time of year there is a verse in Isaiah that is quoted a lot. Isaiah 9:6:

For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given
And the government shall be upon his shoulders
And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.

Okay, okay…so what does Isaiah have to do with writing romance? And in particular, writing heroes?

If this weekend has taught us anything, it’s that our world has a lot of darkness in it. Few people go out to destroy other lives, but there are plenty so caught up in themselves, they cannot see (as Mary Poppins put it) “past the end of (their) own noses”.

There are broken families, broken lives, dark hearts and minds, so we are looking for HEROES!

God knew it!

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He sent One. The ONLY one who could get at the very ‘heart’ of our trouble and shine the light of His love.

I think that’s why Christmas inspires romance all the more. The greatest love and perfect hero.

And those verses? I think we all write heroes who will bring some element of this ‘perfection’ into our worlds. From a Christian standpoint, nobody can measure up to Jesus. He is perfect!

But His love inspires our creations J

So how do we try to write heroes with Heavenly characteristics?

Counselors? – Yep, we try to write smart guys.

Mighty? – Of course, actually, the Hebrew translation here resembles the idea of ‘heroic’. We want our guys to be heroic and strong!

‘Everlasting?” – Yes, we write Heroes who give an ‘everlasting’ love. Our heroines fall in love with them because they exhibit an ‘everlasting’- faithful love.

‘Peace’? – Despite the male-female banter than comes along in many fun books, there is an element of ‘peace’ that the hero brings into the life of the heroine. An idea of completion.

As created beings who are never fully complete until our hearts beat with the love of our Creator, we use our Calling as writers to create a human example of a divine love. Isn’t that cool?

Christmas inspires love? Sure it does, because the greatest gift of love was given.
And a little mistletoe and fireside snuggles make our writing jobs all the more exciting!
So…..

How does YOUR faith and your thoughts of Christmas inspire your writing?

Self-Editing Checklist: Voice and Viewpoint

If you've been following along in this series, hopefully your scenes are taking shape with purpose and consistency. This week we'll take a look at voice and viewpoint. So without further ado, here are Points 4 & 5 of my self-editing checklist.

#4 - Is my own voice coming through, or is it contrived? Yes, this is the ever-elusive issue of voice. Everyone says it's the first thing editors or agents notice in a manuscript. I'll admit I was skeptical of this until I became a contest judge this year. The unique voices really did stand out above the floundering ones. But how do we know if our own voice is unique?

While it can often be an intangible thing, a good test is this. Have a friend read your work and tell you if they can hear you saying it. I've noticed this phenomenon with my blogging buddies. Ever since I met them at the ACFW Conference last year, I can hear them speaking the things I read on their blogs. That means it's true to their voice.

For more ideas on developing your voice, check out Cindy's post from a couple weeks ago, as well as these posts on Katie Ganshert's blog. (Awesome stuff there!)

#5 - Analyze the viewpoint. Are the characters too perfect? Are you portraying them as real human beings with real-life struggles? For those who write Christian fiction, is there any Christian lingo or jargon that could be confusing?

This point could spark a whole debate of how much "Christian" a Christian novelist should put in their books, but that's a discussion for another day. The key to this point is knowing where you stand on the spectrum, knowing where your target publisher stands on the spectrum, and then staying within it.

Your homework for the next two weeks, should you choose to accept it: Work through some of the voice exercises in Cindy's post and on Katie's blog, then read your scene and listen for your authentic voice. Analyze the viewpoint in your scene and make sure it falls within your target publisher's viewpoint (and yours too!).

Have you discovered your voice? What are some tricks you've used to discover it? How closely do you pay attention to the viewpoint of your novel?

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**Glasses photo by dan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net