Category Archives: Writing

Carol Daniels, Heroine

If you called Carol a hero, she’d laugh. One of her friends calls her a survivor, and she’s not even sure how to take that. Sure, she’s taken a lot of pain and she’s still standing, but for how much longer?

Carol’s a single mom, starting over in Toronto after some anonymous creep threatened her son, Paul. She didn’t tell Paul that’s why they left Calgary—why she dyed her dark hair honey ash and cut it short, why she started wearing glasses with non-corrective lenses. Why she’s so “controlling,” to use his word for it.

Paul is sixteen and pushing the limits she sets. He’s a good kid, does well enough in school, but she can’t stop worrying that he’ll end up like his father: a loser musician who loved the spotlight—and the female fans—more than he loved his wife and sons.

I say “sons” because Carol and Skip had two, after she miscarried a daughter as a teen. Carol would tell you life got easier once Skip died in a car wreck, but losing her other son nearly killed her. Keith was only twelve when he died of a drug overdose. If she hadn’t still had Paul to care for, and Keith’s dog, she’d never have kept her sanity.

No wonder a threat on Paul’s life sent her fleeing half-way across the country.

Why would someone threaten an innocent teen? Technically, the guy threatened them both, but he did suggest that her son was an easier target. As for why? Carol has a brother who’s a dangerous offender: Harry Silver. You may have read about him in Heaven’s Prey. Harry’s enemies can’t touch him directly, but his family are walking around unprotected.

That’s what the note said, and that’s why Carol and Paul relocated with no forwarding address.

These days Carol works at the Sticky Fingers Café, baking desserts and waiting tables. She’s trying to keep anonymous in this new city, and outside of work she hasn’t met many people. Is it sad that speed dial #1 on her phone is the late-night deejay on the local oldies station? And #2 is a friend in Calgary?

Carol loves to bake, especially with chocolate. When the nightmares wake her, she’ll often whip up a pan of brownies or a batch of cookies. She’ll make herself a cup of tea—peppermint is her favourite—and ask for a Billy Joel song on the all-request oldies show. The deejay, Joey, is easy to talk to. And he doesn’t know who—or where—she is, so she’s safe.

What else do I need to tell you about Carol? She’s not as safe as she thinks she is. What’s coming is more than she can handle on her own. And she’s determined not to pray for help, not after what happened the last time she tried prayer.

You can meet Carol, Paul, Joey and a few others this November in Secrets and Lies, Redemption’s Edge Book 2.

Today’s introduction is part of Ruth Snyder‘s biweekly writers’ blog hop series, the assignment being “a character sketch of your hero.” To see the other posts in this thread, click on the blog hop image.

Writing Tools I Use

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Why did I abandon mechanical pencils for pens?

When I first started writing, I had a thing for mechanical pencils (only the .5mm ones… I was a purist). And I learned to print very small, to cram all the words I could onto a bit of scrap paper.

Perhaps you’ve figured out why I don’t do that anymore… something about trying to see those faint pencil-scratchings while using both hands to type what I’ve written.

Miniscule pen-scratchings, however, are still visible, progressive lenses notwithstanding.

These days, even my first draft is usually done at the keyboard, but devotional notes often come during my morning quiet time with God, and sometimes I write reviews or other blog posts in waiting rooms and such.

On to today’s post: Writing tools. Not resources, because that’s a different post altogether.

Fiction tools, to be specific, because I need more of those.

Pen and paper. I don’t leave home without it 🙂
Computer, printer, internet, email, Google etc. And backup. Flash drives, dvds, Dropbox for off-site storage.
How to Find Your Story and Character Creation for the Plot-First Novelist, both from Jeff Gerke. These are interactive worksheets, so I call them tools instead of resources. I bought them together in the Writer’s Foundation Bundle. What I like about these is they walk me through the discovery process and help me think deeper than I might otherwise go.
Microsoft OneNote. Those closest to me have heard me rave about the features of this amazing product. I have a OneNote “binder” for online writing and one for each of my novels including the works-in-progress.
Scrivener. I’m new to this tool, using it as I revise Secrets and Lies, but as soon as I saw the first video tutorial I was a fan. (Find Scrivener here)
Microsoft Excel. I confess I forgot this one until I read NJ Lindquist’s post on writing tools. I don’t use Excel a lot, but as well as keeping track of writing expenses and income for Revenue Canada, I keep a master list of character names in an Excel file. I can sort by first name, last name and by story. That saves me from having too many names beginning with the same letter. Doesn’t help with the more subtle similarities… part of my revisions to Secrets and Lies will be the re-naming of a few individuals. At present there are characters named Hill, Stairs, LaMontagne (the mountain) and Cliff. Wonder what my subconscious was up to with all that!
Highlighters, pens and binder. Margie Lawson’s online course, Empowering Character Emotions, taught me the basics of her EDITS system, so when it’s final-draft time I print the manuscript and colour-code it to see what still needs work.
A program called Klok (I use the free version) that lets me track my time. It helps keep me accountable to actually work, and it lets me see where I’m putting my time. (Find Klok here)

pry bar
These are the tools I use. If you’re a writer, what about you?

Bonus tool: my absolute favourite non-writerly tool, which I am now honour-bound to include in a novel (and I think I know where… she rubs her hands and cackles with glee) → → →

Reader or writer, if you’re interested in writerly tools, click the blog hop image and you’ll find other posts on the same topic.

2014 Writing Goals

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Do or do not. There is no try. ~Yoda

Master Yoda is my favourite Little Green Man, but I disagree with him on the subject of trying. I think his context uses try in the sense of “maybe, I wish I could, we’ll see.”

Sometimes we try honestly and in our full strength—and we fail. Because of ourselves or because of things outside our control. We have tried. Our best. But it wasn’t enough.

I’m learning to hold my plans lightly, knowing God reserves the right to redirect my schedule. As such, I keep it fluid (sounds better than vague) because otherwise I’ll find myself defending The Plan instead of adjusting when life throws something unexpected my way.

But I’ve found a fun-looking blog hop for writers, and post #1 is to be on our goals for 2014. And we do need to know our targets or we’re unlikely to hit them. So here goes:

Fiction:

Early 2014: revisions and editing of Secrets and Lies, the next novel in my Redemption’s Edge series, releasing this year (date TBA) from Choose NOW Publishing.
April and ongoing: first draft of Redemption’s Edge #3, title TBA

Blogging:

weekly book reviews, devotionals and features

Networking:

keep connected with my writing communities and with friends and readers, for encouragement and for fun

Learning:

working with the Choose Now editing team is like a personal writing course
go back through the To Write a Story course emails I signed up for in the fall but didn’t have time to assimilate
continue learning the wonderful writers’ tool that is Scrivener
read books on marketing and apply what I learn

Click the button below to read what other writers are setting as their goals for the year… or if you’re a writer, click over and add a link to your own writing goals.

Tenacity: 5 links and a photo

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It seems I’m not the only one thinking about tenacity lately (Wednesday’s post was The Tenacity of God). Here are five links worth following:

Mary Waind writes “If a tiny creature refuses to give up when he’s all but done for, Father, help me to seize the thing that’s come against me and fight in faith.” (Beech Croft Tales: Never Give Up)

Author Dan Walsh describes how we gain strength in the “wonderful exchange that happens whenever God’s children turn to Him in times of trouble, instead of turning to other things.” (Dan Walsh Books: The God Who is There)

Reba J. Hoffman reminds us that “Sometimes I won’t see His plan but when I can’t see His hand, I can trust His heart.” (Magellan Life Coaching: When You Can’t See His Hand, Trust His Heart)

Jenny Svetec looks at some of the hardships we face and gives us this encouragement: “Cheer Up, Jesus says. I have overcome and so will you.” ( Jael’s Peg: Look Again)

And Marcia Lee Laycock shares some ideas to strengthen the perseverance of those of us who write. (Writer-lee: Of Muse Jars and Other Essential Things)

What better example of tenacity than a turtle?

What Do Writers Need?

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To be a successful author (define that how you will) a writer needs talent, experience, perseverance, opportunity, readers, etc.

Writers also need friends.

We may do the actual writing alone, even if we do it best amid the background chatter of the local coffee hangout, but it’s the writing community that lets us thrive.

Another writer will get it if you scribble notes in the emergency room because “I might need this for a story.” Or if you’re crying because you just had to kill someone in your fiction. Or if your editor’s comments are right, but “it’s too hard and I’ll never be able to do all this!”

Other writers understand the struggles. They understand the “unusual” mindset, too, because they share it.

Writing groups, workshops and conferences let us cultivate positive acquaintances, and some of those turn into deep friendships. Even at the acquaintance level, we can learn from one another, encourage, keep one another accountable, and build one another up.

We can be that “second pair of eyes” that sees what’s missing, confusing, or out of perspective in an article or story. Or we can spot the typo or punctuation error before it reaches an acquisitions editor.

We can cheer for one another. I love it when someone I know gets published or wins an award. If their work was chosen over mine, the rejection still hurts, but it doesn’t cut as deeply. There’s a positive aspect to focus on instead of dwelling on the negative.

After all, a friend’s good news is a lot better than no news or bad news, and sometimes if I had to wait for my own reason to celebrate it would be a long time coming. Now that a celebration’s on the calendar for me this November with the release of my novel, Heaven’s Prey, I’m glad to have writer friends who’ll share it with me and help spread the word.

Writers can encourage one another. We can share market opportunities, recommend helpful resources, warn others about scams. We can talk up one another’s blogs, articles, poetry or books. It’s a lot easier for me to tell you how great my friend’s writing is than to promote my own.

I don’t know if I’d still be writing without a network of writer friends. They’re mostly online, but I’m glad to have a few face-to-face writing friends too. In the early days, my local critique group not only encouraged my tentative start, they were my unofficial accountability group. I hated admitting I hadn’t written anything in the past month.

Then I found InScribe Christian Writers’ Fellowship and connected online with other writers who shared my faith. Looking back, that was the moment “the lights went on, colour flooded black-and-white, and I was connected.”

The place I’m most active these days is The Word Guild, and I’m enjoying our new Facebook group that lets us put faces to names. Wherever we find them, writers need writing friends.

Writers: where do you most like hanging out to connect with your writing friends?

Non-writers: do you have friends who write? How do you best support them?

On Writing Groups… (meghanmcgreevy.wordpress.com)
The Joy of a Writer’s Group (karenstiller.com)
Get thee to a writing group!!!! (spellboundscribes.wordpress.com)

Writing Stick-to-it-ive-ness!

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Valerie Comer

Writing Stick-to-it-ive-ness! (Guest post by Valerie Comer)

Have you ever wanted something so much that you spent a decade learning how to do it with no guarantee you’d ever be successful. . . whatever that means?

Janet’s theme on this site is “tenacity.” It’s vital in so many areas of life. Sometimes we call it stubbornness, but tenacity and diligence sound so much more positive. Either way, it’s the ability to set a goal and dig your heels in until you’ve achieved it.

In 2002 I decided to learn to write fiction. Hours every day had suddenly opened up with nothing to fill them. I’d always toyed with the idea of writing a novel “someday,” and knew this was a God-given opportunity to take the next step. Actually the first step.

Only, I had no idea what that step was. How-to-write books from the library were of little help, but the relatively new Internet pointed to some sites where I could learn. And learn I did. I averaged one novel a year for nine years before I finally sold a novella (ironically unwritten at time of sale), and I’ve written two more since. Over half of these are unsalvageable drafts with huge problems.

The biggest hurdles for me were two-fold.

1. I had no concept of the over-all process. I couldn’t see the steps. You know the cliché “can’t see the forest for the trees?” Well, I couldn’t even see the trees for the twigs. I got bogged down in the minutiae of writing and struggled to find the horizon.

2. I thought writers were either seat-of-the-pants writers (pantsers) or plotters. It took me a long time to “get” that there was a large middle ground in which most writers live. Thus it took me about ten too many novels to find the best practices for me. Now I know better than to tell anyone “this is the way it must be done.”

This spring it seemed the time had come to pay forward and help other, newer writers develop their craft, so I opened a website, To Write a Story, dedicated to teaching fiction from beginning to end. It seems to me that there are six stages in writing: planning, plotting, writing, editing, publishing, and marketing. My goal is to provide an overview of each stage so that writers can keep the forest in mind while they’re focused on those twigs.

I’ve chosen a two-prong approach:

1. It’s a blog. I post a helpful article every Thursday on one of the six stages. Most of them are written by me, but I accept a small number of guest posts, too.

2. It’s a course. Writers can sign up in the sidebar for my FREE writing course via email. You’ll get a new lesson every week for the better part of a year, walking you through the process from beginning to end.

If you’ve ever wondered just what all is involved in writing fiction, I invite you to subscribe to the course (and/or the blog) and join the 70+ people (about one a day since I opened the course) who are already enrolled. We’re having a lot of fun and I think you will, too!

Want to learn To Write a Story? Then join in!

◊◊◊

Valerie Comer’s life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local foods movement as well as their creation-care-centric church. She only hopes her characters enjoy their happily ever afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughters.

Valerie writes Farm Lit with the voice of experience laced with humor. Raspberries and Vinegar, first in her series A Farm Fresh Romance, releases August 1, 2013, from Choose NOW Publishing.

Writer’s Block

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Thoughts on faith and fiction.

That’s what I write here, in non-fiction form, and it matters to me. But I love writing fiction. I’ve had some short stories published and hope someday to introduce you to some of my imaginary friends in a novel.

One Christmas, my characters “bought” me one of the novelty shirts from Signals.com:

My youngest son, who shares my fiction habit, wrapped it on their behalf. This is the tag he wrote:

(If you can’t make that out, it says “Yours, from the voices.” With a heart.)

Conferences for Christians who Write

Three strangers walk into a bar…

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Okay, two of them know one another, but they’re all strangers to me.

And it’s not really a bar (I think).

And they’re outside of it.

This week I made my annual “birthday” cake for my fictional friends, and it’s got me reminiscing. Some of these folks have been in my head for 19 years now. We have a fair bit of history.

Today, though, I’m thinking of my newest imaginary friends, hence the three strangers outside the local watering hole.

It’s a rough-ish, small building that sells some manner of food and drink. I think it’s wooden. It’s on a backwater-type planet somewhere.

I don’t know their names yet, nor their genders. I think two are female. For now, my notes read:

T = travelling character
D = disappointed character
W= wonder character

T is a stranger to this planet and needs to get to another one. S/he needs D and W to provide transportation. D refuses, and for W to return to that planet could mean death.

It’s possible that D is actually my old friend Sera, in which case I know she’s a former assassin, a crack shot, and the sort of person you want guarding your back. W is an older character and some manner of mentor to D/Sera. I have a special fondness for W and a few inklings into his/her past. W hasn’t had an easy life.

T, main character, isn’t talking to me yet.

I am so looking forward to this! Discovery is the best part.

Updates will be slow and sporadic, because I’m concentrating on fine-tuning the story of Carol, Paul, Joey and Patrick, another crew of my imaginary friends.

March is birthday month here at Tenacity. If you haven’t entered the draw yet for a copy of A Second Cup of Hot Apple Cider, follow the link to the blog birthday page. [Edited: draw is closed now.]

Blogging Book Reviews: Benefits and Tips

Janet Sketchley

Writing Christian Mysteries & Suspense