On Writing
Questions, Answers, Resources
How long have you been writing?
For over forty years. I was the weird kid in school who loved reports and research papers. I wrote poetry in junior high and through college and even some song lyrics a long time ago. I was also the adult child who wrote long letters home back in the days before e-mail. Novel writing was never part of my career plan.
So if novel writing wasn't part of a career plan, how did you end up being a full time writer?
When I was home-schooling my four children and we got to our state history unit, my children were like many students--bored with the text book. So, out the door we went to a small pioneer cemetery where we began to learn what life was like for the people buried there. As we all found a new interest in Nebraska history, I began "playing with an imaginary friend"--a women who crossed Nebraska on the Oregon Trail and got "stuck" here. We were running a home based business back then and it was growing so rapidly I couldn't justify spending time on that story. So I sent a query letter to three publishers expecting the rejection letter that would be God saying, "stop playing around and get back to work." Much to my amazement, instead of a rejection letter I was offered a three book contract by Thomas Nelson Publishers. (Hindsight has shown me why that happened. God was providing a career for a woman who was going to have to support her family as a widow beginning in 2001.)
But you must have had some training. . . a degree in creative writing?
I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in French with minors in English and Music. The only formal writing training I had had at the time the first book contract was offered was one class in creative writing at our local community college.
So where did you learn to write?
I don't know. I've always written a lot and I've always read a lot. James Scott Bell says this about the training required for a career in writing: "Mostly it is SELF training. You must teach yourself to write. You can read good books on writing, take courses, go to writing conferences, etc. But the most important thing you must do is WRITE, each day if possible, and APPLY what you are learning. You learn by writing, trying, seeing where you need to improve, and writing some more. There is no shortcut."
Where do you get ideas?
My first novel idea came from wandering a cemetery with my children. A Garden in Paris was inspired by a Mary Engelbreit drawing with the caption "You're never too late to be what you might have been." The idea for the Dakota Moons series came from researching the life of a minor character in another book and reading a related biography. Sometimes a conversation will spawn a "what if?" question in my mind that eventually becomes a book. That's how Jacob's List happened.
I love history. I'm the driver who has to stop at the historical marker on the side of the road. I'm the one reading all the detailed cards in the museum. I'm the one reading the book about some obscure historical event. I never know when something will stop me in my tracks and make me think wow--what would that have been like? Most of my historical fiction books are answers to that very question.
How do you think up your characters?
Usually my characters are rather "vague" in my mind until I flesh them out by putting them into action. I start with a generic character like "18 year old self-willed girl," and then watch that character grow as I put them in challenging situations.
Sometimes a photograph inspires a character. I have boxes of old photographs. . . you know the ones. You see them all the time at antique malls and flea markets. I'm the person who buys them.
How detailed is the outline you work from?
Outline? What outline? I'm what is called an "intuitive" writer, which is a fancy way of saying I'm an unregenerate SOTP (seat of the pants) writer/plotter. While I don't outline my stories before I write them, I usually know the ending and what propels the main action forward. Beyond that the process for me is simple. Notice I didn't say it was easy. But it is simple: plant posterior in chair and fill blank screen with words. Go back the next day and re-read the words from yesterday. Make them better. Add more words.
What advice do you have for an aspiring writer?
Read a lot and write a lot. (I stole that advice from Stephen King's book On Writing).
What's your greatest challenge as a writer?
Time management. Since I take my primary career as a homemaker very seriously, it's difficult for me to close the door on the dust bunnies and face the empty screen. It's much easier and more immediately satisfying to clean the kitchen counter or design a new quilt than it is to write something that is just going to have to be rewritten and rewritten and rewritten and reworked over and over again. I'm also one of those people with multiple interests beyond writing, so if I don't write on a given day I have no trouble filling up the time with worthwhile activities.
So how DO you organize your writing life?
If a 100,000 word manuscript (about the length of my books--I think in terms of words not pages) is due to my publisher on a given date, I count backwards from that date (allowing a few weeks for the first draft to "sit and soak" and then to be rewritten at least once) and assign a daily word count which I write on my calendar. That daily word count is my FIRST priority for the work day. It should happen before I check e-mail, before I answer fan mail, before I update my web page. . . . but, honestly, it doesn't always work that way. As I said, self-discipline is difficult for me. But having the "daily requirement" written on my calendar is the best motivator I've found.
You said you like to read. . .and that reading "a lot" is good training for becoming a writer.
How do you find the time?
First of all realize that my children are grown so my time management issues are very different today than they were even five years ago. That being said, I still read a lot even when my children were young. I love to read, and finding time for reading has never been as big a challenge as putting someone else's book down so I could cook supper. . . or go write my own book. I always have a book with me. When I'm waiting at the doctors office, waiting in line, etc. . . I can read. Another huge "time-finder" was our decision not to have a television in our home. The evenings most people would fill with television we fill with reading.
What are some of your favorite books?
Favorite authors?
Since I count many fine authors among my dear friends, I'm going to resist the "favorite" moniker in favor of sharing some of the writers who's books got "good reviews" in the reading diary I've kept over the last year. Hannah Alexander, Tamera Alexander, Jane Austen, James Scott Bell, Kristin Billerbeck, Colleen Coble, Dale Cramer, Athol Dickson, Angela Hunt, Charles Martin, Susan Meissner, Nancy Moser, Elizabeth Musser, Eugenia Price, Lisa Samson, and Brad Whittington.
In the last year I have also been challenged by the non-fiction writings of Linda Eaton, David McCullough, Barack Obama, and Sidney Poitier.
What advice would you give someone who wants to be a novelist?
- Learn to accept criticism of your work without taking it personally.
- Be a student of life. Live fully. Try new things. Observe people. And take notes. Never be without a pen and paper.
- Realize that writing is HARD WORK. Most writers do not go on book tours. They do not talk to Oprah. And Johnny Depp will NOT be starring in the movie.
- It's not about talent. It's about persistence. (Donald Maas)
I have great story ideas but I don't know all the rules of grammar. Is that OK? I mean, doesn't your editor fix that stuff for you?
How can I sell my book?
First, find an agent. Sally Stuart's Christian Writers' Market Guide lists reputable agents who are accepting new clients. Stuart's book also provides information on conferences where writers can meet with editors and publishers to pitch their books. Caution: Anyone representing themselves to you as a literary agent but who wants money in advance to sell you work is not someone you want to work with.
What's the most important thing for a writer to remember?
That success in light of eternity has nothing to do with numbers of books sold and everything to do with obedience to the Audience of One. In a hundred million years it will not matter if I was published, if my name appeared on any best seller lists, if I received any writing awards. In a hundred million years, what will matter is my obedience to the One who died for me. If He says "well done," then whatever happened here below was good and I achieved success in the truest sense of that word.
On-line resources:
www.acfw.com
American Christian Fiction Writers. Conferences, online courses, critique
groups, etc.