Why Writers Should Read-Taking Risks

I went on a hike to Sioux Charley Lake located in the Rocky Mountains this last week. What a blast. What a challenge. 

Sometimes...somethings are worth the risk.

Back at home, with a tall glass of ice tea, I read House of Secrets by Tracie Peterson. The lesson I learned from her well crafted book: don't be afraid to take risks.

There are few fiction authors who have successfully tackled deep topics like mental health, child abuse, and etc. House of Secret by Tracie Peterson, Daisy Chain by Mary DeMuth, and Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers are excellent examples.

Tips for Taking Risks

1. Always have a plan: In House of Secrets, three sisters lives have been affected by a schizophrenic mother. Peterson throws the reader into the sister's shaken twenty-year-old world to experience affect and healing.

The book could have focused on the sisters as children, as Mary DeMuth did in Daisy Chain. This presentation had an equally powerful impact.

Or the book could have touched the young life, expanded the in-between-years then settled in the life of a twenty-year-old as Francine Rivers did in Redeeming Love for a riviting presentation.

Tender topics need a plan of action. I am a Pantster not a Plotter. However, my current work is about the homeless. Tough stuff. I am definitely plotting my way through this book.

2. Present information about the issue in subtle ways. This is not nonfiction! Grocery lists and pages of information are not allowed. Readers want to walk with someone on their journey not sit in a classroom.

In House of Secrets, Peterson used conversation between the sisters to help the reader understand basics of schizophrenia. Action throughout the story helps readers feel the emotions with the sisters as the present is explained with unveiled past.

In Daisy Chain, DeMuth weaves the destruction of alcoholism, and child abuse with fine, gentle threads heralding a truth.

In Redeeming Love, Francine Rivers, also weaves her topic throughout the story but with a thick, strong thread...mighty like Samson.

Key: progressive unraveling of the issue and its impact

3. Don't shy from a risky topic.  Your work may help someone suffering or watching a person suffering from the issue. Research the topic. Make sure you're an expert. Tracie Peterson's dedication reads: With thanks to Angie B for her willingness to share. Tracie not only researched the topic but spoke with those who had experiences to share. DeMuth pulled from her own life experiences, and Rivers pulled from the Bible. All three also insured vocabulary, expressions, and medical terms aligned with the topic presented.

4. Provide resources for the readers. Include discussion questions for groups, places to find more information, organizations that can help those in need.  Information and organizations need to be easily accessible for anyone in the US or readership domain.

Can I say again, don't shy from these topics? There are a lot of non fiction books covering these issues, but a fiction book gently says, Yes, there are others who have walked in your shoes. You are not alone. Here is what we did. Here is where you can go for help. Someone cares about you.

Has a book you've read dealt with a risky topic? Which topic did it address? 
Do you have a difficult topic to present in the fiction format? 

Once again I am looking for reading partners for another two week challenge. Will you commit with me to read one book in two weeks?

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This blog post is by Mary Vee
Mary lives in Montana with her husband and loves to hear from her three college kids. She writes contemporary Christian fiction and loves to pen missionary and Bible adventure stories.

Come Step into Someone Else's World with Mary's writing

To learn more about Mary, visit her new blog launches 7/1/12
www.maryvee.com
Or her ministry blog to families: God Loves Kids:
http://www.mimaryvee.blogspot.com/
Or email her at mimary_vee@yahoo.com

Getting Published: An Interview with Mary DeMuth with Book Review

I have listened to audio recordings of Mary DeMuth speaking at Mount Hermon and I have noticed she stuffs a plethora of information in a single session. After reading 11 Secrets to Getting Published, I can tell you every paragraph is worthy of notetaking. DeMuth's ebook will join my "resource" file so I can reread and continue to glean from it. For instance, here's some advice from Mary I intend to follow:

Be nekkid.

OK, pick your jaw off the floor.  This is still a family friendly blog.

This is some of the most authentic advice DeMuth has to offer and she strives to live it out through her fiction. The philosophy of writing true, reflecting our own journey in our fiction has transformed my writing life. DeMuth shows the reader how she develops a mission statement for her own writing. 

The wealth of practical tips DeMuth provides are invaluable. I am still fighting the old single space after a period rule after learning to type on an electric typewriter. It was worth the price of the book alone to know there is an easy way to fix this error in Microsoft Word.

Here are a few of the questions Mary DeMuth answers:

*How do you use independent clauses?

*Are you guilty of cliche abuse?

*How do you reduce your interruptions? (Mary DeMuth's words on self-discipline need to be posted on THIS homeschooling mama's refrigerator to keep them in memory).

*What do I need to massacre in order to make my fiction better (Or perhaps who in the case of mysteries)....

*What can I learn about writing from U2?

*Why is finding an agent like dating? (OK, this brings back nightmares about high school prom, bad hairdos, and dates who wouldn't pay their own way)...

In the appendixes, DeMuth provides feedback on reader questions, tackling some of the biggest fears head-on.  Eleven Secrets to Getting Published is a great resource I can highly recommend for writers from beginner to novice.

I enjoyed interviewing Mary to share some of her insights about the publishing world.  Leave a comment including your email address if you are interested in Mary DeMuth's latest fiction release, The Muir House.  Casey would like to offer a copy to an interested reader.

What are your thoughts on epublishing in general?  Do you think this is the way the market is moving?

I used to think of it negatively until my hubby bought me a Kindle. Now I love ebooks. I do think that ebooks and epublishing are becoming very common. I’ve even heard that folks with reading devices read more, so this is good news for the writer.

How did you make the decision to epublish your writing books?

I knew the niche was very small, so a publisher wouldn’t be likely to pick up the book.

Would you recommend epublishing for those who aren't yet published?

Yes, but with a caveat. Don’t just put any old words out there. Be sure it’s your very best. Have the book edited by a professional. I know it’s cliché, but you only have one chance to make a first impression. You don’t want to live with regret or be embarrassed about what you’ve written.

Did you hire a publicist for marketing?

It depends on the book I’m promoting. I am mostly traditionally published, so the publishing houses often assign my book to an in-house publicist. Sometimes they hire out. With The Muir House (novel, Zondervan), I hired a publicist to help me advertise the book in my hometown, since it is set there.

What is your marketing plan for selling your ebooks?  Does it differ greatly from your marketing plan for your print books?

I have given away several hundred, which is also the same for print books. Books sell by buzz, so it’s good to have people read them, and let them decide how they’ll buzz about your book.

How do you balance marketing time with writing time?

Not an easy thing at all. I had no idea marketing would take so much time.

Many writers here have recently dealt with rejection.  Do you have any words of encouragement?

Rejoice! Rejection means you’re brave and gutsy, that you’re trying. If you don’t risk, you don’t get rejected. I’ve been rejected a lot. So much. A ton. And here’s the sad truth: rejection gets HARDER the longer you’re in this writing career, so you need to settle the issue of your identity now. You are not worthy because you write. You are worthy because you are loved.

How did you choose your tagline?  Do you have any tips for writers on choosing a tagline?

I asked my email distribution list, my facebook page, and my twitter friends what they thought of when they thought of me. After gathering that feedback, Live Uncaged just happened. It’s perfect, but it took about a month of processing to get there.

Is there anything else you would like to share about your recent release, The 11 Secrets of Getting Published?

It’s everything I know about writing and publishing downloaded into a 60,000+ word book. Over 300 pages. I’m raising the cost to $4.99 on August 15th so if you’d like it for $2.99, order now. Here’s a link that tells you more: http://www.marydemuth.com/store/the-11-secrets-of-getting-published-2-99-ebook/

We would love to hear your thoughts.  And don't forget to add your email address if you are interested in entering for a copy of The Muir House.

Becoming a Word Artisan

"The Riverbank" by Henri Matisse

“My vision blurs. 

My lungs beg for oxygen.

His hands don’t relent.                                                       

And in this moment, I cradle a delicious thought.  Maybe this is it.  Maybe it’s finally over.  He can take my life from me.  He’s taken everything else.  Why not my heartbeat? I fight to remember Sissy and Jed.  In the struggle, I finger Elijah’s bracelet under my sleeve, touching the boy and girl charms, hoping they’ll forgive me for giving up so easily.  But as light halos my vision, and I sense the warmth of a love I’ve only tasted, I give myself to it, rest in it, feel its warmth.  I hear the Voice, beckoning, whispering the kind of words I’ve longed to understand my entire life.  Such beautiful, beautiful words.”

This is taken from page 192 of Life in Defiance by Mary DeMuth, the third book in a trilogy I highly enjoyed.    There are numerous places in this novel where I could feel my heart quickening and knew I couldn’t put it down until I felt a sense of “safety.” Through several scenes I noticed the quick intake of breath that lets you know a suspense reader has really hooked you.

I’ve been reading Rebecca McClanahan’s Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively in my quest to develop my own language usage.  I would recommend this primer if this is an area you would like to improve in your own writing and I especially appreciate the exercises included at the end of each chapter.

Aristotle in The Rhetoric of Aristotle tells the reader that good description should include four primary elements:

1)      It should be “appropriate in sound and sense.”  It should be worded well and place precise images in our mind.

2)      The reader should be able to “see” things.  We should include concrete and very specific description.

3)      As writers we should be “using expressions that represent things in a state of activity.”  Did you create a moving picture?

4)      Metaphor or other figurative language is often used.

(Word Painting, 9-10)

Let’s look at a classic example from Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (p.53):

Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies’ eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde’s hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde’s door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.

OK, first we have to discount the fact that Montgomery has written one honking run-on sentence here breaking many of today’s literary mores.  She is too wordy by today’s standards, yet still I love this description and I believe it follows many of Aristotle’s standards here.

The reader can very precisely see the stream in their mind.  We also quickly have a clear picture of Mrs. Lynde, after which even the landscape is viewed through new eyes.

“Rahab felt her stomach drop.  What was her father scheming? Their voices grew too soft to overhear. Frustrated, she strode to the end of the garden. In a dilapidated pen, two skinny goats gnawed on the tips of a withered shrub, already stripped to bare wood.  With the men and Rahab working the fields every day, no one had cleaned the pen. A putrid stench assaulted her senses—an apt background for her roiling emotions, she thought…But the knot in her stomach tightened with each passing second.”

(Pearl in the Sand by Tessa Afshar, 14)

Wow, this descriptor catches me early on, bringing me into Rahab’s emotional world and Afshar uses smell, sight, sound and physical body movement aptly.  The reader feels the physical revulsion.

Who are some of your favorite "word artisans?"

You've Got the Manuscript...

...And you don't know how to take it to that next level.

You're swamped with options for freelance editors, classes and the "next best thing" to happen to you and your writing. Every time you turn around you see MORE information!

You need to know what is the best option for YOU and your writing.

I have a list of freelance editors I have used (and many more I haven't) and classes you can take to further your writing. But first a short list of tips...

**I have not used all of these editors or taken all of these classes. Most of this information you will have to decide for yourself. Which is the proper protocol anyway, considering that each of us have different talents and abilities that are better combined with different editors.**

One: If you go with a freelance editor that has been published, read their work. Do you like it? Is it along the same lines as what you are writing? You're going to want to find someone who not only is GOOD at what they do (and you often won't know until you try), but also there is no point asking a speculative author to edit your womens' fiction.

Two: Don't jump at the first chance. Chat with the editor, even ask if they would be willing to read one to two pages before you commit. Most freelance editors are fairly inexpensive, but don't spend money until you're sure. Read their recommendations. Talk to others who have worked with that person. It'll be time worth spent.

Three: Be willing to take instruction. Don't go into such a working relationship with the idea that your work is perfect and you are expecting a pat on the back. Look at the editor is saying. Does it make sense? Do you see the validity in what he/she is saying? Then make the changes. DO be aware of completely changing your work until it doesn't sound like you. If you see this happening, the editor is probably not for you.

Christian Freelance Editors:

Tiffany Colter (freelance editor)

Gina Holmes (published author/ freelance editor)

Kaye Dacus (published author/ freelance editor)

Christina Berry (published author/ freelance editor)

Mary DeMuth (published author/ freelance editor)

Rachel Hauck (published author/ freelance editor)

Susan May Warren (published author / freelance editor)

Tracy Ruckman (freelance editor)

Camy Tang (published author / freelance editor)

WIES Editing Service

Meredith Efken (published author / freelance editor)

Writer's Online Classes

My Book Therapy Chat sessions (every Monday)

Margie Lawson (HIGHLY recommended! I can't TELL you how wonderful she has been for my writing)

ACFW member's only monthly classes

WIES Workshops (taught by different Christian authors in different months)

Christian Industry Help Sites

Literay Agent Rachelle Gardner  (blog)

Literay Agent Chip MacGregor (blog- no longer active, but archive posts are up for review)

Literary Agent Steve Laube (blog)

Author Jody Hedlund (blog)

Seekerville (blog)

Author Camy Tang (blog)

Author Mary DeMuth (blog)

My Book Therapy Blog

What sites or editors do you have to share that have been helpful?

**In honor of our chat about editing and making our work STRONGER, leave a comment for a chance to win a 5 page critique.**

Writing Through the Tough Seasons

Today's been one of those days.  Oh, I'm sure you know exactly what I mean.  In this case it involved missing kitties.  After finding them, we had to find the trail of...well, never mind...that they left around the house.  The dishes are overflowing the sink (and the counters).  My son put some food items into his diaper.  Everyone's been a bit on edge today.

We've all had those days.

On those days writing can be our refuge.  Or at worst we throw a few words on paper and call it a day.

But what about the other kinds of days.  These days last weeks or months.

disability
         job loss
                   grieving
                            an accident
                                           news that turns your world upside down.

The most difficult season of my own life was when my father died eight years ago.  I could go on and on about the spiritual lessons I have learned.  Yet I believe trials and deep losses can strengthen our writing in several ways.

1) Adds to the believability of your characters: 


Its no secret that the best fiction kicks it up a notch continually in terms of drama.  Each of our characters faces some sort of trial or loss.  As I go through difficult things, I believe it adds new dimensions to my characters as they go through losses.  The characters that stick with us have a depth that is only added to by what we go through in our own life.

Mary DeMuth has a series on her blog where readers share their "thin places" something Mary has done masterfully through her own novels.  Consider journaling at a personal level during these rough seasons and allow God to use it for something more.  The times when I am most real and vulnerable are often the times when God uses my writing the most.  In my brokenness, His strength is most revealed.

2) Gives us a greater understanding of our characters and a greater sympathy for their plight.


As you meet others down the road who have gone through similar circumstances, don't you find yourself feeling a closeness with them?  I am a private person, but when I hear about someone who is going through the death of a parent, I feel led to reach out and send them a note.

Empathy led to my current story idea as I sobbed my way through a documentary on those in a cult.  As we plummet the depths of our character's emotions, all the trials we have gone through can bubble up through the character as we empathize with their plight as a writer.  If we cannot feel deeply for our character's struggles, who will?

3) Trials leave us famished in our own flesh.  These times cause us to crawl on our knees to the God who sees all.  They leave us with a gnawing hunger to feast on God's every word.  


As he fills us as only He can through these difficult seasons, we have more to pour out for our brothers and sisters.  This overflows into our fiction allowing our words to be used to minister to someone else's heart.

Have you ever read a book where the words seemed to leap off the page?  You felt that it was written just for you, to encourage, to teach, to convict?


In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  Though you have not seen Him, you love Him.  Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. -1 Peter 1:6-9 (ESV)  


Do you feel the difficult times you have gone through have helped your writing?