Tag: become a writer

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My Writing Journey

Sometimes You Need a Story

My life is divided into before and after. I’m in the after now.

Eight years ago, this coming April, my world turned upside down. Eight years ago, this coming April, I began the slow journey back. I hadn’t written a book then. Since that time, I have finished penning three.

When I got sick, my daughter became frightened. Who wouldn’t be? It was the summer before her freshman year of high school, and she spent her vacation taking care of her mother who needed assistance walking and bathing. It didn’t matter what I told her, or how many reassurances were held out, she was terrified. All the soft gentle words and reassurances never made it past her fear wrapped worry.

Sometimes you need a story.

I wrote her a book about a girl who was afraid her mother would die and leave her alone. In the book, the mother does die. The girl is not left alone, however. She has family and unlikely heroes to depend on. I wrote my daughter a book to make her laugh and cry, but most of all to help her see she was not alone and it wasn’t up to her to save the world. I think maybe it was both comforting and uncomfortable for her to discover how much I understood her.

She’s not a character in a book, and she is not this character. But young girls everywhere get angry with their mothers, at times think they’ve been abandoned, and generally feel treated unfairly by life. They’re often surprised when they discover their mothers were once girls and understand all of these deeply held, secret feelings.

Among the pages of this made up place filled with pretend people my daughter finally understood what I was trying to tell her. She wasn’t alone.

Sometimes you need a story.

A funny thing happened. Out of the story, two more grew. Each of these novels stand alone, and while they don’t lean on each other, they do rub shoulders, exploring the lives of the various characters in the same fictional small Texas town.

It’s quite a surprise to find at the end of these eight years I have three complete novels. I’d freelanced in my former writing life, and even written a novella, which resides in the dark recesses of my computer files, but I’d never attempted a novel length work.

As my health improved and my responsibilities shifted, I had more time to write books. With each novel, I learned better and went back, refining and polishing. I hunted down critique partners and entered contests. I was quite pleased with the feedback I got. Now I’m ready to start querying agents.

I’m telling you this tale because, as with all of my stories, I want to encourage and bring hope to the reader. Because sometimes you need a story.

Donna Jo Stone writes YA contemporary novels about tough issues but always ends the stories with a note of hope. She blogs at donnajostone.com.

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My Writing Journey

Still Scribbling

I loved books before I could read and scribbled thoughts before I could write. Throughout my childhood, crayons, pens, and pencils provided some of my favorite entertainment.

My senior year in high school, the local newspaper published a Christmas story I wrote as a class assignment. I thought little more about publication until after college graduation. One of my professors suggested I send writing samples to a church bulletin service. Lifeway published those articles, but my attention soon shifted to work, family, and church obligations. Although I wrote for each of those, I published nothing else until 2005.

Once again I wrote for church bulletins. In addition, I tweaked and submitted monologues and poems I had shared in church services, backyard Bible clubs, and mission trips. Those appeared in several program books.

Online resources, books on writing, bookstores, and the work of other writers became my go-to for training. Although my publications list grew, writing remained nothing more than a hobby.

One day I ran across an advertisement for the 2008 Kentucky Christian Writers Conference (KCWC). I walked into that conference with fear and trepidation. I knew I didn’t belong with real writers. However, I decided to listen and learn. What a game changer.

Along with encouragement, information, and lasting friendships, I discovered the definition of a writer: A writer is a person who writes. That’s it, plain and simple.

I was a writer.

That conference also taught me to expect rejections – lots of rejections. However, as I honed my craft, I could also expect a growing number of acceptance letters.

The more I wrote, the more I loved to write. Some people stick with one genre. I remain all over the board. From children’s work to senior adults, drama to devotions, magazine and newspaper articles to planning guides, Bible studies, and poetry, I love it all. I do prefer nonfiction over fiction.

My scribbling has been accepted more than 800 times by 40-plus publications. I write mostly for the Christian market, such as The Upper Room, The Secret Place, Missions Mosaic, Clubhouse, Seek, devozine, The Christian Communicator, and The Lookout. Secular publications include Chicken Soup for the Soul, Country, Kentucky Monthly, and Kentucky Living. I also write radio drama for Christ to the World Ministries and am a contributing author to several anthologies. My poetry has received first prize awards twice from the Kentucky State Poetry Society.

The first time an editor initiated contact to request my services, I did a happy dance. When a publisher offered a book contract on dramas I originally submitted for a multi-author compilation, I happy danced again. Although I’m working on a few book proposals, I loved becoming an accidental author with Beyond Bethlehem and Calvary: 12 Dramas for Christmas, Easter, and More!

An international student’s request for a new slang expression and its definition every day led to my blog, Words, Wit, and Wisdom: Life Lessons from English Expressions. It helps people with a non-English background understand the meaning of unusual English expressions. It also offers a brief respite for people who share my love for word play. Everyone who subscribes to my blog receives a free copy of my “Words of Hope for Days that Hurt” with the first email. Many of those “Words of Hope” grew out of our family’s “Days that Hurt” in recent years.

I can’t imagine life without writing, and I thank God for this incredible privilege,

“Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.” (Psalm 142:8 NIV)

 

Diana Derringer’s adventures as a social worker, adjunct professor, youth Sunday school teacher, and friendship family for international university students supply a constant flow of writing ideas. She enjoys traveling with her husband, singing in her church choir, and taking long walks in the country. Visit her at dianaderringer.com. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

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History in the Making

How the Author of Winnie-the-Pooh Inspired Me

The Complete Tales of Winnie The Pooh - Author's photo

by Sandra Merville Hart

I’ve always loved Winnie-the-Pooh.

The honey-loving bear captured my heart instantly as a child. I also fell in love with Eeyore, Piglet, Rabbit, and Christopher Robin in stories shown on TV.

I recently began reading The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne. It delighted me to find the same whimsical manner in the book because the shows remained relatively true to the writing.

Milne so captivates readers ninety years after he published the stories because he created lovable, believable characters with childlike innocence and allowed a young boy to be the hero.

Pooh describes himself as a “Bear of Very Little Brain” yet he often sits to think about things. His friend, Rabbit, worries about everything. Eeyore, a gray donkey, sees every event through the gloomiest possible lens. Piglet tries to be brave until scary circumstances bring out his timidity.

[bctt tweet=”Lovable, believable characters with childlike innocence make A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh a classic. #Author #Writers ” username=”via @Sandra_M_Hart”]

All Milne’s characters are credible. Children quickly spot some of their own characteristics in the different personalities. For example, children are often afraid of things they don’t understand and may be drawn to Piglet.

And what child doesn’t have a favorite food or snack? They relate to Pooh’s desire for honey.

Another facet of Winnie-the-Pooh is the story’s hero. Pooh and his friends often get into difficulties, which children understand. Christopher Robin, a young boy around the reader’s age, always knows exactly how to save his little friends. This begins to build confidence in young readers (or listeners!) that they can help, too.

Milne released Winnie-the-Pooh in 1926. The book brought recognition as a children’s author, but the path leading to his fame held a rocky beginning.

After he finished studying at Cambridge, he traveled to London in 1903. The talented writer wrote but earned little that first year.

He didn’t give up.

He continued to write. His earnings increased the following year, enough to support himself.

Milne’s lovable characters with believable traits and their friend, Christopher Robin, teach us the importance of authenticity. The author’s perseverance paid off. Had he given up when difficult times struck, the world would never know a lovable little bear named Pooh, a tragedy indeed.

What novel will you write? What lovable characters will you create? The world will never know if you give up.

 

Categories
Magazine and Freelance

HOW TO DRIVE EDITORS CRAZY- part 2

How to Drive an Editor Crazy, Part 2

By Lori Hatcher

I’m a magazine editor. Every day I receive submissions from writers. Some are stellar and others, not so much. While there are many factors that determine whether I accept a submission, writers who follow a few simple guidelines are much more likely to see their writing in print. In Part 1 of this series, (How to Drive an Editor Crazy, Part 1) I shared two things that drive editors crazy. This time, in case you’re considering career suicide, I’ll share a few more. If you’re a smart writer and avoid these pitfalls, you’ll be well on your way to making your editor smile AND seeing your work in a magazine.

How to Drive an Editor Crazy, Part 2

  1. Quote facts without attribution.

If you say, “Haiti is spiritually and economically depressed because its citizens signed a pact with the devil,” you’d better have a credible source to back this up. Publications will differ on how they want you to document your sources. Some prefer insource notation, others want footnotes or end notes, but they all agree—undocumented facts are a sign of sloppy journalism. And please don’t begin a sentence with “According to . . .” Recast the sentence if necessary, but figure out a less formulaic way of quoting your source.

  1. Use the word that

 

That in some sentences is a relative pronoun that introduces an adjective clause. Other times, that is superfluous. A good test to determine whether the word is necessary is to delete it and see if the sentence still makes sense.

Example: The first sight that I saw was a dog running toward me.

Example: I went to the store that had the birthday cake in the window.

In the first example, I can remove the word that without changing the meaning of the sentence. In the second, I cannot.

 

  1. Use the plural pronoun they with a singular subject.

 

Example: When a student doesn’t want to go to gym class it’s usually because they hate dressing out in front of others.

 

Writers do this because they don’t want to use the dreaded and awkward he/she. As noble as their motive is, however, it’s never OK. One way to avoid this is to pick a gender and use it throughout, knowing your readers will understand that your thoughts apply to both genders.

 

Example: When a student doesn’t want to go to gym class, it’s usually because he hates dressing out in front of others.

 

Another way to avoid this is to use the plural in both cases.

Example: When students don’t want to go to gym class, it’s usually because they hate dressing out in front of others.

Professional writers take note of incorrect grammar and usage and provide proper attribution whenever they quote sources. Watching for these errors and correcting them before we submit our work will ensure we never, ever, ever drive our editors crazy.

 

 

Lori Hatcher is the editor of Reach Out, Columbia magazine and the author of the devotional book Hungry for God…Starving for Time, 5-Minute Devotions for Busy Women. A blogger, writing instructor, and women’s ministry speaker, her goal is to help women connect with God in the craziness of life. You’ll find her pondering the marvelous and the mundane on her blog, Hungry for God…Starving for Time. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter (@LoriHatcher2), or Pinterest (Hungry for God).

Lori HatcherHeadshot

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Guest post archive

Writer, Do You Have Any Idea What You’re Really Doing? – Lori Roeleveld

 

Don’t say “I work with words.”

Rather say, “I handle hazardous material so combustible it has destroyed careers and incited revolutions.”

Don’t say, “All I can do is write.”

Rather say, “All I can do is create life-infused dispatches from behind enemy lines using the same compound that sparked what the uninformed refer to as the Big-Bang. “

Don’t say “I write.”

Rather say, “I apprentice in my Father’s business, following in His footsteps, and modeling His every move as He is the Master Craftsman. His words produced entire solar systems, the greatest thinkers of our time, and the curve of a woman’s thigh. There is this potential, also, in what I scribble. It may not be evident today but I have endless days to perfect my craft, to create new worlds, to breathe life into the souls I dream.”

Don’t say, “I hope my words are read.”

Rather say, “My desire is that through my art, you will hear the cylinders click into position and know I have unlocked the priceless potential of words. That you will stand and tremble realizing I have unleashed the junkyard dogs of the building blocks of existence containing a force beyond that of a thousand nuclear warheads and that you will not be able to outrun the snarling revelation overtaking you like a truth unchained.”

Don’t say, “I hope to be published.”

Rather say, “I hope the blast effects that occur when I combine words in my laptop laboratory will illuminate the heavens so that they cannot be ignored or denied. I hope the radiance of the detonation will inspire the illiterate to learn to read just so they can enter deeper into the experience of the Glorious God my words seek to describe.

I hope the masses fall silent as they stare, open-mouthed and weeping, at the realization that what they thought was only possible in their private dreams is accessible to all and that they grasp my dangling participles to rise above their own shattered stories, their feet lifting from the unforgiving earth, their lungs emptied of the noxious gas of deception, and their victorious laughter fired by the helium of freedom as my words carry them closer to the great God-heart they now know beats also for them. “

Don’t say, “I am a writer.”

Rather say, “I am my Father’s child.”

[author title=”Lori Stanley Roeleveld” image=”http://www.almostanauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Roeleveld-Headshot.jpeg”]Lori Stanley Roeleveld is a disturber of hobbits who enjoys making comfortable Christians late for dinner. She’s authored an unsettling blog since 2009; a pursuit that eventually resulted in her first book, Running from a Crazy Man (and other adventures traveling with Jesus). Though she has degrees in Psychology and Biblical Studies, Lori learned the most important things from studying her Bible in life’s trenches. You’ll find her at her website www.loriroeleveld.com. If not, know she’s off somewhere slaying dragons. Not available for children’s parties.[/author]