The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a story that has withstood the test of time, and I think one of the main reasons is the Pevensie children, who are memorable on so many fronts. As Christian writers, we want our fiction to have a similar lasting impact. Through the experiences of our characters, we hope that readers will grow in their faith.
Have you ever wished you could skip to publication? Waiting can be discouraging, especially when a dream is involved. Writers at all stages have felt that their stories would never appear in a bookstore.
Unproductiveness is a nasty little dragon that grows ginormous at the most inconvenient times. For instance, during the last week of NaNoWriMo, I was stuck on my story, so I decided to type up the portion I had handwritten and try to fix some of the problems. I hoped to complete the task before November 30th so I could still hit 50,000 words.
“I started a project a few years ago and wrote a chunk…but I never finished it. What should I do now?” I’ve heard this tale from every writer ever. We’ve all had a project sputter and die at some point in our journey. When we take a break for too long, restarting the engine can be difficult. The abandoned story probably bores us, and we may have trouble remembering the timeline and the different character motivations that propelled it.
At intervals throughout your journey, you’ve probably wondered whether you’re a good writer. Unfortunately, I can’t sympathize because that thought hasn’t occasionally crossed my mind.
Villains make or break a story. Without Voldemort, no one would know Harry Potter. If the White Witch hadn’t ruled Narnia, Aslan and the Pevensies would have had a cute but shallow adventure.
Sometimes characters come to us in pieces. A whisper of dialogue, a murmur of a dream, or even a feeling can ignite a glimmer of inspiration that demands to become a person. But a character is more than a rushed scribble inside our notebooks.
Hooray! You dashed off at least 50,000 words in one month. Maybe you even finished a full novel. But once the mad rush is over, how can you salvage the mess you created?
During my first few months as an author, I despaired over the book I was writing. How will I reach people and convince them to read this? Could I pay a publisher to print my book and market it?
I’ve read several romance novels, both Christian and “clean,” and made two main observations: many of the stories are unrealistic and follow the same basic plotline.
