Tipful Tuesday: Emily Dickinson

The spoken word is more powerful than we might ever hope for at times, and it is a tool for change and healing in the most powerful of ways. To consider it dead as it hits the listener, is definitely something I cannot align with, just like Miss Dickinson.  Our words can destroy, lift up, empower, motivate...the list goes on. Words are the life between us and around us.

But...how might this relate to our written words? Is it so for those FIRST words of a first draft? Do we write them as if they are dead and will be slashed in the end? Or do we write them as if they are the very cells of an organism of grand potential?

Sometimes we forget that our words are the first sign of life in our characters, in our stories, in our purpose. I see authors struggle with writing that perfect first line, or that satisfying last line. But what if we looked at each word as a living thing, a breathing thing that is the root for the next one and the next one and we just keep writing until we have poured life onto the pages? What if we don't look at our words as something as dead and boring as count (sorry...I am all right-brained...numbers=boring to me), but as new life for that next growth?

Just a thought.

But. Hmmmm. I went back and read and reread my 92,000 words in my last story before sending it off. And, while I deleted bunches, as if they were just boring numbers needing to be wiped off the blackboard, the ones that stuck--ESPECIALLY the ones that I figured would die with the first draft--those that still made it on the page--can I just say...WHOA...? Those words took on life and purpose in my story like I never imagined them to do.

Consider your words bringing life about. See how much of your life you can breathe into their first day of existence. Write that first draft without too much weight on it all sticking, but write that first draft as if you are CRAFTING. There's power in that, there's art in that.

Happy Birthday, all you words!

Tipful Tuesday: Words and Reality, Edgar Allan Poe

I am here, right now, in my manuscript, with Mr. Poe whispering these words in my ear. Writing, editing, dissecting the deepest, darkest wanderings of my heroine's heart, and terrified that I might fail at writing words that are reality yet fiction. 

Perhaps I've chosen a quote by the grim Mr. Poe that sends us down the darker path on this #tipfultuesday, but it has struck me as a powerful truth that is close to describing what I must do for my story to thrive.

 I would like to suggest that, no matter how made up our story worlds are, we should always strive for words that explore the reality of the human condition...whether it be in describing something as sweet as a lover's first kiss, or as heart-wrenching as the grief of losing someone dear...

Let us as authors tap into powerful writing so that we leave readers with meaningful, truth-filled words that not only end when they close the book, but power their minds to experience life to the full.

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Angie Dicken credits her love of story to reading British literature during life as a military kid in Cambridgeshire, England. Now living in the U.S., she's an ACFW member, a blog contributor to the Writer's Alley, a baseball mom, and a self-proclaimed foodie. Two of her historical romance novels comprise her Fall 2017 debut: The Outlaw’s Second Chance, Love Inspired Historical, and My Heart Belongs in Castle Gate, Utah, Barbour. 

A Season Full of Words

I don't have much energy to frame up a perfectly structured post.

Life has been too full of words.

I feel hoarse in a way.

Words--My characters constantly whisper in my ear and challenge my interpretation of their story as I barrel toward a deadline.

Words--"Characters" in the media shout them loud and ugly, my newsfeed is covered in hurtful ones, joyous ones, deceiving ones, tormented ones. And I am a contributor.

Words--My kids use them as weapons against each other, and I throw out angry word OR manipulative, encouraging words to trick them to kindness.

Words.

My ears are tired of hearing, my eyes are leery of what they'll see at every click I make, my heart is heavy with the use of words. The unbecoming words of the world out there push down my hope and peace. And my ever-opinion-forming brain wants to retaliate with too many words of my own.

Words. Such magnificent, terrible things. I mean, we writers LOVE words...I LOVE WORDS! But they are my biggest foe in many ways. If only they were all lovely and life-giving. If only I controlled all of mine like I control the words of my stories.

As I slash and splash words on my manuscript pages, I wonder at my process. It's one of digging deep into the heart of my characters, stepping into their world, understanding their point-of-view and circumstance, and realizing their journey--as fictional as it may be. I learn from their heart's cry and discover truth and ideas that I'd never have found if I kept my words within my own reality.

Is that something I can begin to do, not just as a writer, but as a real-time 21st century human being?

Before finalizing my actual words--status updates, blog posts, comments, arguments, conversations--shouldn't I look at the heart of those I'm tending to, the "characters" in my very non-fiction life?

I can explore their world, take a peek from their point-of-view, discover their own circumstances and realize their actual journey. I can allow God to change my heart about my own biases and judgement, before I jump into spewing words of my own.

Maybe then, my words would't be a burden, but a reflection of THE Word, making way for an uncluttered newsfeed and room for something God-breathed. My words would bring life and love in an authentic, compassionate way--the same end I hope to share in a brilliant story description, or a tender moment between a hero and heroine.

Words are powerful, wonderful things--if they are used wisely and with deep, sought-out intention. Same as the written word. Same as fiction words.

I write this. And I'll forget. Just like I forget grammar and spelling and showing vs. telling. But I'll try. Try to be different. Try to craft my real-time words as heartfelt and empathetic as I craft my fiction.

Yep. That's all I have. Sorry for all the...words. But, I think I've hashed out what I needed to say.

Word.

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Angie Dicken is a mom of four, an adult ministry staff member at her church, and is married to her Texas Aggie sweetheart. An ACFW member since 2010, Angie currently has two novels under contract. Her first full-length novel by Barbour Publishing comes out in November 2017, followed by her winning entry for Harlequin's Manuscript Matchmakers Contest, a Love Inspired Historical novel. Angie is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of The Steve Laube Agency. Connect with Angie at:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/dicken.angie, 

Twitter: @angiedicken
Pinterest: pinterest.com/agdicken

The Beauty of Words

I've always loved words. I have loved books since I was a teeny little girl. I love to read and am always amazed when writers string ordinary words together in a way that sings to my soul. There is beauty in the structure and flow of words.

But I love the beauty of the artistic written word.

My father is an artist and author. While I was growing up, his main source of income was from art. He designed book covers, entered art fairs, and did calligraphy for huge companies like IBM (This was before computers could do calligraphy for award certificates!). I loved to watch his pen glide across the paper, forming a letter so fantastic it fair took my breath away.

So I begged my dad to teach me. And teach me he did. I learned the basics and then I had to practice. And practice. And practice.

Then I started using my skills to make gifts for friends. Handmade cards. Canvases. Fun stuff. I branched out into more freestyle lettering; trying different fonts, sometimes making up my own. And you know what? It became more and more fun! Experimenting with different mediums, trying different tools...it has made the journey exciting in ways I never dreamed.

I think writing for publication is a similar journey. We learn the rules of writing. We learn the structure of a story. We write and write. We practice and practice. We write book after book, learning new things with each and every one. And then we loosen up and begin to break the rules. We allow the passion...our very soul to emerge within our stories. They begin to breathe life and become a part of who we are.


Writing is an exciting journey. Spinning tales, weaving stories... it's the beauty of words for the world to see.

If you are a writer, what is it about writing that nurtures your soul? Are you creative in other areas? 

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This post is brought to you by

 Sherrinda Ketchersid

Sherrinda is a minister's wife and mother to three giant sons and one gorgeous daughter. A born and bred Texan, she writes historical romance filled with fun, faith, and forever love.

Self-Editing Checklist: Word Choices

Would you believe this is the final installment of our self-editing checklist series?! Whew, we've crammed a lot into our brains, but hopefully our manuscripts are sparkling clean as a result.

Today we're getting down to the nitty gritty details--our word choices. This is the very last step in self-editing, after we've taken care of the big-picture items like plot and structure and medium-picture items like setting details and dialogue.

Specifically, we want to analyze our word choices in the following ways.

1) Do we use words that are understandable? Would the average reader understand them, or would they have to keep a dictionary handy? For more on this topic, including some exercises to strengthen your word choices, check out this post.

2) Do we use words that are vibrant? Do our word choices sparkle with our unique voice and create clear images in the reader's mind? Have we used strong verbs and nouns rather than relying on excessive adjectives and adverbs? For more exercises and tips, visit this post.

3) Have we avoided cliche phrases and descriptions? Hopefully we've eliminated cliche characters and plot lines, but now we want to look at each sentence and eliminate anything that even hints at a cliche, putting our own unique twist on it.

4) Have we eliminated unnecessary words? Rachelle Gardner wrote a blog post a few years ago where she listed actual words to search for and eliminate. Here's the link.

5) Have we read our scenes aloud? Doing this enables us to catch awkward phrasing and word choices, and it helps us create a beautiful flow of words.

Your homework, should you choose to accept it: Analyze each sentence and word choice, weighing their value. Check out Rachelle's blog post, and do a search in your document for certain words that can be eliminated. And finally, read it aloud and listen for those breaks in flow.

So that's it! You've survived the self-editing checklist. Congratulations! :) If you need to go back and revisit certain points, you can find them all together here.

Do you ever read your scenes aloud? What word choices do you tend to get stuck on? Have I missed any important points in my self-editing checklist that you'd like to add?

*Book photo by vichie81 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
**Reading photo by Graur Codrin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

On Being Mentored-Words

You may not have realized when the first time a significant individual mentored your reading/writing career.

Brace yourself.  You may not want to hear this.

The answer: 

**First mentor:  your parent/guardian. Good or bad, this/these individual/s introduced you to the world of language: Mama, Dada, please, thank you, bottle, juice, etc.

Words, sounds, connections, and meanings blossomed before you could walk.

**Fast forward a time. Your next mentor, possibly the same individual, put a book in your hand, probably made of plastic to endure your drooles and sticky fingers.  The specific title didn't matter. You devoured the book, flipped a couple of pages at a time, threw it at the dog, then retrieved it at a later time. Soon you would realize the book had greater importance.

Language could be preserved, to enjoy again later.

**Time clicked. Your next mentor, perhaps a Kindergarten teacher, showed you ink embedded in paper in specific ways. Lines and circles had names called letters and those names never changed. She/he then taught you a sound/s to make when you saw the letter/s.

Lines and circle=letters. Letters represented sounds. Sounds could be squished together to form words. Do you remember the day you truly recognized a word--with no help?

**Birth of mastery:  Your next mentor/s surrounded you. You called for more. Babysitters, grandpas, grandmas, uncles, aunts, cousins, anyone who would sit by you and endure yet another reading of your favorite book. "Read it," you said.


Each time someone read the book new doors to meaning opened for you. Colors on the page, characters, why you even knew when the reader skipped a word (or two!). 


**Revelation: Your next mentor could have been a 1st or 2nd grade teacher, perhaps a parent or friend. They asked you to write something--more than your name. You grasped a fat pencil in your hand, pressed it to the paper and wrote.  You watched the lead marks form on the paper and realized, for the first  time in your life--YOU COULD WRITE.

Trial and error is a learning process.


**Development: Your next mentors probably didn't need to ask you to read or write. Their job focused on encouragement. Your history probably included reading Newberry Winners, non fiction, fiction, and of course, comic books at night with a flashlight, in the car during boring trips, or when you should have been doing chores. You may have written a few chapters of your first book in fifth grade, (I hope you kept it). Journaling seemed as important to you as brushing your teeth, no, I suppose more important.


Without being asked, you practiced because you wanted to.

Who are your mentors now?  

Here's a challenge: try to communicate with the mentors listed above and tell them thank you.

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This is my new series: mentors.  In two weeks: Mentors: First sentence key components/ Learning from master writers. 


*photos used by permission and courtesy of our Alley Cat, Angie, Tim's son and father, our Alley Cat Mary Vee's family, and our Alley Cat, Casey

The Blank Page: Making a Mess

Guest post by Christin Taylor

Let's begin with what's terrifying about the blank page: it holds all of our ideas and none of our ideas at the same time. When we look at that beautiful white expanse, we see possibilities. We imagine a work of art.

Yet when we sit down to write, our hands turn to cement and the words come out ugly and lethargic and lazy and we are mortified. So we put down our pens, or we stop typing, and we push ourselves away from the desk thinking, "Next time. It has to be better next time."

But all the while we're haunted by this fear that perhaps it won't. Perhaps next time will be just as bad as this time and we will be what we have feared all along - "failures" and "wannabes".

Here is the cruel irony of the blank page: While it lures us with its pristine landscape, we must first cover it with mud. There is simply no other way to write. It is a brutal act of faith. In writing, we must unleash a mess onto the page and then reach inward and grab hold of every last thread of trust, believing without sight that: "It will be beautiful. You'll see. Just don't walk away."

And here is where we have to unravel the voices in our heads, telling us not to mark on the white walls with crayons, not to scribble over the white couches with markers. Everything white must stay white or be complemented by something as beautiful and perfect as its elegant planes.

But with the blank page we must give ourselves permission to make it messy. Not just visually messy with black scrawls wiggling across the page. But also mentally messy, audibly messy. We must allow ourselves to write terrible, humiliating prose.

Because here's the other irony: Beauty follows ashes. That which is lovely does not rise out of the pristine hollows of the universe, but out of the roiling, disjointed substance of our lives. That is the act of creation: redemption. God can create something out of nothing, but we create something out of the grit of our lives.

So the blank page cannot stay blank for long. You will not magically create beauty without ever messing up, or falling out of the lines, or scratching across the margins. It just won't happen.

But there is a final image that presses itself against my mind: a rusty spigot, with a lever handle. You crank and crank the handle and the spigot sucks water out of the earth. The first sprays are nasty and muddy and rusty, but you do not stop pumping because you know what is coming. If you stopped, the water would stop, and you'd never get to where you're heading. The more you pump, the faster the water flows, and soon the particles and dirt are dispersing, the water is getting clearer and colder and soon you are clasping diamond water in your hands, slurping up big satisfying gulps.

Writing is the same way. Sometimes when we look at the blank page, we carry the conviction that we can only spill the cleanest, most satisfying water on it, but this is not true. You are a rusty spigot, and the water will not come unless you pump the handle. And you pump the handle by picking up your pen and writing, or moving your fingers heavily across the keys. And though the thoughts and words that come out may be murky and rusty and dirty, don't quit. Clear water is coming soon.

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Christin Taylor lives in Bellingham, Washington, with her husband Dwayne, their 3-year-old daughter Noelle, and their new Taylor Tot expected in July of 2011. In addition to being Noelle's personal chef, chauffeur, laundress, and playmate, Christin runs the Blank Page Writing Workshops online. Her work has appeared in Brain World Magazine, Ungrind, as well as other online and print publications. She is currently finishing her first book-length manuscript about the metaphorical shipwreck many young adults face after graduating from college. If you'd like to learn more about The Blank Page online writing workshops as well as Christin's writing, go to www.christintaylor.com.

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What scares you most about the blank page? Any comments or questions for Christin?

*Notebook photo by nuttakit / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
**Paint photo by Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
***Water photo by africa / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This Mama's Writing Habits

During an over-excited attempt to get my wip out of my head onto paper (10,000 words in a weekend), I  noticed some habits adding to my wrestling match towards success.
It makes me laugh to see my same habits as a writer, appear in my other passion in life, motherhood.

The Mom: I can talk myself blue in the face as I reason with my little 8 year old lawyer when he is in trouble, and threaten him with consequences. I feel like a poorly educated psychologist sometimes. Instead of the long debate, I could just show him my stance- give him his consequence. I am the grown-up...right?
The Writer: The poorly educated psychologist creeps into my writing when I overly explain my character's motives. Instead, I could just show it in an active way. When I dissect their motive and their many possible thoughts, I find my head spin!
The Mom: “Why do you ALWAYS...”, “I have never...” and my most ashamed saying of all, “Gosh Almighty!”( Seriously how is that not the same as what it implies??)
 My effectiveness goes out the window...and worse off, my words get in the way of  my purpose as their mother, to let God's light shine through! I will say though, there are some things worth repeating... "Do unto others," "Keep your hands to yourself", "Don't sit on your brother's head..."

The Writer: 
My, my, I use the same sentence structure, adverbs (dun-dun-duuunn), and boring verbs an AWFUL lot! My writing's effectiveness decreases with one too many "howevers".
 Some words that give me fits are:

Just, really, seemed, surely, often...

Just as I thought it seemed necessary, my poor writing surely proved to hinder me, and I often found myself editing instead of really getting ahead in my wip.
Okay, for my own reputation...I never (ha) get this bad, but sometimes I find “just” at the beginning of too many sentences, I use “really” to emphasize a little too often, and “seemed” creeps its way in, especially when I write in first person and have to describe her view of other characters.

Now, I am not saying that all these things are necessarily bad, but if they aren't noticed by me, the writer, and I allow them to flood my story, the main theme and most importantly, the inspiration God gave me in the first place, would be diluted.

My boys and me...The crazy sunglass styles...what was I thinking?

And as a mother, if I also don't choose my words carefully, and limit my psycho-babble, I lose my children's respect and ultimately give them a poor impression of the God I am suppose to be representing in their lives!
Do you have any writing habits that are a constant challenge as you move forward in your wip?