Dried white roses, pressed after being photographed as part of my investigation for the cover of my first WIP White Rose of Promise. I find it interesting that the white petals have turned brown. The first batch of flowers were thrown out, because I feared I had made a mistake.
“We all have stories to tell, of joy and pain, of hope and suffering and of the way we have found Christ in them. They should be told.” John Grayston, WordLive, 27/9/2018. Click here
The past week has been filled with some personal drama, and in between the unusual events, I have stitched together manuscript two When Promises Are Broken. There is still a lot of work ahead before I am ready to call for beta readers. Comment below if you would like to be on the team.
This month is Inktober, and I have been taking part in the online drawing challenge. The aim is to draw something every day and share on social media. I have created a separate page to share my progress. Click on WROPWRITINGCHALLENGE To go with Inktober2018, I have added a 200-word writing challenge. Each little story will contain some of the backstories for the first manuscript, but there are no spoilers. I hope my readers enjoy the opportunity to get to know my heroine prior to her first published adventure. )i(
“I write my characters with a need for God’s intervention and then wait for them to recognise His presence as their story unfolds.” from Butterfly Prayer House, Facebook, October 1 2018.
Making Each Word Count
“You write long,” my editor said. I looked closely at her more detailed comments. I had only sent her the first 20 pages. At that time, my first manuscript White Rose of Promise was at 120,000 words and still growing.
I went back to my Work In Progress (WIP) and cut, cut, cut.
There were scenes where I told the same story from three different viewpoints. It was easy to choose one and then describe the responses of the other characters.
I had mountains of backstory details to deal with, and I turned them instead into little speedbumps on the journey of discovery.
By the time I finished, I had brought the manuscript back to 63,000 words. My manuscript has been away with the editor preparing to be Copy Edited.
I am waiting to see how much more the editor found to trim.
When God chooses the theme
I am following lots of ‘how to be a successful author’ Blogs. They tell me to start thinking about my branding, about what message I want my readers to gain from the different platforms where I share my voice.
Somewhere I read that I should pick five or six key points and stick to them.
For someone who took 139,000 digital photos for a single four-day exhibition, finding only five or six points is a monumental challenge.
one of thousands from blueskies 2017
Am I listening?
Into my overflowing email inbox came the following treasure:
Flash Fiction I had never heard the term before. It refers to a writing challenge where the whole story, beginning, middle and end are all accomplished in a tiny word count.
Definitely not something that I could possibly consider – remember I multiply everything I touch, words, photos, everything.
If this new direction was from God, then I should keep my eyes open.
Here is the official list for Inktober.
For the past 2 years, I have participated in a drawing challenge Inktober. The aim is to draw something each day in October and share on social media.
I downloaded the 2018 list of official words to be used for inspiration, then prayed about what I should draw. I have been so steeped in my creative writing, only ideas from my two WIP came to mind.
These ideas wouldn’t go away.
On Day 1, a story idea – not a drawing idea – came to me for the first word: poisonous. It was an unknown detail from the heroine’s backstory (remember I had cut all of that out of White Rose ofPromise). The tiny story poured onto the blank page, and I worked on it for an hour. It came in at 200 words. Now I knew I had a new challenge, a theme and very specific guidance to take me through Inktober.
I was amazed and delighted. The accompanying drawing was easy to accomplish. I moved on to the next drawing, without writing a Flash Fiction story, and the difference in style and execution is remarkable. #inktober #inktober2018 #WRoPwritingChallenge
Day 1: poisonous
The door slammed. Maria Evangelina collapsed onto the single bed. The room was tiny, the curtains drawn. Her past life was over, and even the solo flight from Melbourne to Sydney was fading from memory. Zietta Maria’s poisonous words had found fertile ground. The teenager cried herself to sleep. Too soon it was morning. That door opened again. “It’s time to go to Mass. Nonna is waiting.” Maria Evangelina obeyed. Now she sat in the Cathedral, overwhelmed by doubt and fear. The weight of her sin was heavy on her soul. The priest approached. Her aunt broke the silence with the younger Maria’s shameful story. The devastated teenager looked away. Morning light streamed through a stained-glass window. The brightness shone directly in her face. She gasped in astonishment. It was as if she had stepped from this trouble into God’s presence. Her heart fluttered in her chest. God knew it all, and she still lived. Father Finnegan placed his hand on her head. Did he know what had happened? He smiled. He asked her to receive God’s forgiveness in return for her promise to be obedient. The teenager nodded. Hope blossomed and the darkness fled. So began her new life.
Day 2: tranquil
Would you like to take the Inktober challenge with me? Add your drawings to the comments section, or visit me on facebook
What is the worst thing that could happen? This author is good at catastrophising.
This image was taken at my April 2018 Red Skies Mini-Exhibition. Do you focus on the tangles, the balloons, or the artist trapped in the middle?
Never Boring
Some people long for a simple life, while others find a way to enjoy the drama and excitement that is part of the contemporary culture in the twenty-first century.
Writing complications into the lives of my fictional characters seems to be an easy task for me because I am good at catastrophising.
I wasn’t sure if that was a real word, but am delighted to say that it is. It refers to the habit of looking at some ordinary event and thinking about the worst complications.
While I was verifying my facts I came across some helpful information.
How to stop Catastrophising (Tanya Peisley, The SANE Blog, Sane Australia, 31st May 2017) Click HERE
Pinch Points
I have joined a few reader/writer discussion groups recently and discovered that there is a whole new language I need to learn. Pinch Points are the little dramas (aka catastrophes) that I build into my narrative. For example, in White Rose of Promise, my heroine goes for a job interview. She is feeling anxious and worrying about all the things that could go wrong. What would be the worst thing that could happen? She might get lost on the way? She might arrive late? She might get run over crossing the road? *Please add your suggestions to the comments below. If you come close to my own ideas, I will send you a copy when WRoP is ready.
Everything she thinks of comes nowhere near the possibilities that I throw into the mix once she enters the door. By the time I have added some new details to the working environment, she begins to think the worst outcome might be getting the job.
How close to publication?
Book 1: White Rose of Promise – is still away at the Copy Editor. Another author’s project pushed back my return date
Book 2: When Promises Are Broken – first draft complete, halfway through the second edit, with 20 chapters sent to my alpha reader, and 8 to my first beta reader. Initial feedback indicates there may be a quicker turn around for this one.
Book 3 and 4: Untitled – Preliminary research has begun, and the plot outline under development.
There are lots of possibilities. Which one will be the rising star that takes my story beyond the ordinary and makes it shine?
Thanks for reading )i( Please add your suggested catastrophes for my heroine as she goes to her job interview. Perhaps you have had a real catastrophe of your own that you would like to share?
Making choices is a central theme in my series of unpublished manuscripts. It is also significant to my own journey towards being a published author.
Make a better choice.
That has become my mantra when I am working with the children in the real world
I find it applies to my young friends, both at school or here at the KTL Church House in Sorell, Tasmania, Australia.
Children often need reminding about the choices that they make. They can choose to argue with their friends or they can find a way forward that brings them more enjoyment. They can choose to continue their current behaviour which has poor consequences, or they can make a change. They can choose to sit there feeling bored, or they can look around for something interesting to do. The list of scenarios seems endless…
Making better choices is also one of my goals for the characters in my current series of unpublished manuscripts. In Book 1 “White Rose of Promise” the heroine has to choose between the plans her family have made for her life, and the promises that God gave her for a romantic future. In Book 2 “When Promises Are Broken” the new heroine faces choices that will have significant impact on her future. In Book 3, untitled as it only exists as a paragraph outline, my third heroine has to wrestle with past choices that are bringing her an evil harvest.
But it took an evening of sickness to remind me that this command applies equally to me. This morning, I could choose to stay in bed and let the one dedicated day of writing drift away. Or I could get up and make a start on the list of tasks I set myself.
Which brings me here. I have to remember that this writing journey is like preparing for a race. Each day I miss out of my training schedule puts me further from my prize. If I really want to wear the status of being a published author like a crown, then I have to put in the time.
I am a visual learner. Here is one of my inspirational images that helps me get up and keep going. This floral coronet was a gift for my double celebration in April 2018: graduation and my 40th Wedding Anniversary.
1 Corinthians 9:24 (NIV) Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
All week, I sneak moments to think about my writing projects and look ahead to this day where I can devote a solid block of time to writing. I have chapters from Book 2 to print for my alpha reader, and changes to implement in preparation for sending that manuscript out to my beta readers*.
*I am seeking more beta readers, so if you are interested in having a say about character development, and getting a sneak peak at my Christian Romantic Suspense series of manuscripts, please visit my Facebook page and leave me a comment. There is also a secret discussion group where you can contribute to research and planning.
The rest of my list includes looking at cover design options for Book 1, writing advance posts for my daily prayer blog, and praying over the other stories that haven’t made it from my heart to the typed page yet.
I also try to catch up on reading all the subscriptions that are sent directly to my personal email address.
And take the time to meet up with a friend and work colleague to keep myself anchored in the real world.
This is Ezra Teeb-O’Malley. One of his real-world followers made him his own Facebook page
Click here to follow Ezra. Sometimes I think he has a more exciting life than I do 🙂
Here are a couple of inspirational quotes that have been helpful this week.
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time.” Maria Popova, Brainpickings
“The Dos of Blogging – End every blog post with an open-ended question.” Edie Melson, The Write Conversation, Monday September 10 2018.
A final word for this week – and I am taking the advice of Edie Melson, and leaving you a question.
My first book has a heroine who has the makings of a saint, the second book has a heroine who stands up for herself and readily admits she is a sinner. The third book has a central character who changes her name as easily as changes her clothes. She steps onto a plane as Jezebel and gets off as Delilah. When she tires of this identity she chooses another one, leaving behind broken hearts and shattered lives, but she has no regrets.
Matthew 6:21 (NIV) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
I have finally fallen under the influence of my first winter illness – as I work primarily with children, and in two different communities, my previous immunity is a miracle in itself. While I have been unwell, the calendar has turned and officially it is Spring.
Finding the mental stamina to write has been a struggle and I spent the recent weekend in bed, only surfacing long enough to go to Church. I have been praying about how I would meet the vows I made to write regularly.
When I turned on my computer up popped this reminder to read a post from my Facebook page Butterfly Prayer House, which was written a while ago, and published to a schedule that allows me some breathing space. The post was published on September 2nd 2018. Here is an excerpt from that post:
Today I am wrestling with a couple of challenges. Firstly, I want to fulfil the vow I made to God and set aside enough time to write more posts in preparation for another busy week of life. One day a week is my dedicated writing day…
I turn to God in prayer, frustrated that all my attempts to bring him the ‘consecrated things’ and to fulfil my vows have taken me to this place of emotional upheaval. My sense of failure overshadows the truth that it is God who has brought me here.
“Many can write about God and live a fairly righteous life by all appearances. Fewer can write from within an experience, portraying lessons learned from the battlefields of life as they worked out their faith in relationships and service to the Creator.” This quote came from a blog post:
* Here is a second one from the same blog: “So, next time you open up a Word document and start to write about something, ask yourself how deep you are embedded in the topic, whether you are writing from deep within it…or whether this is just a surface connection.”
* The most exciting resource to land in my email Inbox this week was from a renowned author Ted Dekker. I had only spoken to some children the evening before about how they would enjoy his work, but I knew that the adult format would be difficult for them to manage. He is self-publishing a four book series for children. I was disappointed to find Australia wasn’t on the current pre-order list, but it is very encouraging to find that an author with many published works to his credit is making a similar journey. Here is the link to the pre-order information: Ted Dekker’s Dream Travellers
I have spent my sick days writing about storms and floods. One of my characters escapes their difficult situation by returning to memories of summer at the beach. Do you enjoy building sandcastles? I have many happy memories, both from my own childhood and from summers since. The delight of standing back and viewing the creation. Then comes the reality, the tide turns and the waves come crashing in. There were times when we worked to try and protect our creations, but more often we acted to speed up the process, to build channels that would entice the waves to come further forward and flood the moats we had dug.
My final topic for today is to tell you about my Works In Progress (WIP). I have received advice from my Copy Editor that White Rose of Promise will return to me on the 24th of September. The first draft of my second manuscript When Promises Are Broken is almost complete. All the dramatic scenes have been written and now I need to wrap up the story to satisfy the readers who want a Happy Ever After ending. This week I discovered that 21st-century readers are sometimes content with Happy For Now endings, which is where I am at the moment, but I am looking for that special something that will transform the heroine’s situation into something filled with more hope )i(
It is time for my weekly update. So soon? What happened to the past week? Time seems to be passing much faster than it used to! I only have to look at how my morning has gone so far to find evidence of that.
I have spent the past hour working through the backlog of emails in my personal account. There are now only 15 unread messages, and they fit in the opening screen. No more having to search down through hundreds of messages looking for the start of an important conversation. I even found a 2017 newsletter from a missionary family I have promised to pray for. It sat there in the inbox opened, so the habit of marking things as important and then letting them disappear off the first page of notifications is nothing new… Welcome to my confession about procrastination.
Why was I looking at emails in what should be my dedicated Devotional Time? I have been checking for new messages at too frequent intervals for days, as I am awaiting a quote for a cover design from a local graphic artist. The five I have already received through an international referral service were alarmingly above my budget. My editor thought I could use my Fine Arts skills to design my own covers, but I had an attack of self-doubt and wanted some professional advice. I am also waiting for news from my editor about the Copy Edit progress. No news is good news, right?
Here are four experiments for one idea from my own amateur attempts to discover what I might want for the cover of Book 1: White Rose of Promise
Let me know what you think by leaving me a comment.
A year ago, this waiting period would have frozen me in place. Then, I was in the final stages of writing the graduating project assignments for my BA in Fine Arts and Visual Culture. The exhibition was over, and I had to write two reports: one covering the key influences from a year’s research and the other presenting the final images for the artistic work I wanted to be assessed towards my degree. The race was on but every day the designated tasks seemed to be taking so long. Procrastination became my new normal. I found out from my fellow students that this was a very common problem for them too.
Each time I sent off a request to my faithful study buddies I seemed unable to make any more progress until I received their feedback. At one stage, I realised I was spending more time looking for their responses than I was devoting to actually writing my report. I had to learn how to push myself to work on other tasks while I waited. That learning opportunity has served me well in my current ‘assignment’.
Here is my 2017 Artist Statement Here is a link to my Bookworms To Butterflies facebook album for the exhibition. I took more than 139,000 and still have to make time to look at some of them (I had timed cameras set up all around the room).
So what have I been doing this week? Revising the first ten chapters of the sequel – it still feels strange working on the NEXT book while the first one is still in the preparation stage. I have added the main characters to the Series Outline so I can cross-reference their details each time they appear in the story, and I have been looking at how each one expresses themselves in their scenes. It is easy (at the moment) to remember all the central characters from both books, as they are familiar to me, but already I have too many secondary characters to juggle. I need one person to secretly be an enemy, so I went back through conversations looking for clues to that ultimate betrayal. It is also essential to start leaving clues (and add these details to the Series Outline) for future manuscripts so that my readers already have a good understanding of the new heroes’ and heroines’ motivations before those characters get to speak for themselves.
Last night was the first time I experienced confidence in my ability to generate a marked difference in tone between the new story and the first. The heroine of the first book is a devoted Christian, and everything that happens is filtered through her prayer life. But her unbelieving sister is the central character of the second book, and when this sister reaches her breaking point, there is no filter for her pain. Spending so much time describing her emotional turmoil flowed out into my own life. My long-suffering husband decided I am currently overly-sensitive to criticism, which has sent me running to my prayer closet on more than one occasion recently.
As I become more engaged in my fictional world, I have increased the time I spend in prayer and meditation. I don’t want to become lost and irrelevant to the real world opportunities that God has given me. Last week, someone in my family had a real accident that could have been disastrous. As a writer, I can see the different narrative possibilities that would lead me into a valley of shadows (Psalm 23:4). I am thankful God was merciful and saved my loved one from suffering a long-term disability. They are still very sore and unable to function to their maximum potential and have succumbed to a viral illness while their immune system was weakened by the pain and extra medication. Another topic to add to my prayer list.
Here is an image I created using the text from Psalm 23:4 superimposed over one of my own digital drawings. I have a long-term project underway to create a digital image for as many inspirational texts as possible. These are shared on my Butterfly Prayer House facebook page, where I publish a personal reflection (almost) every day )i(
Research fills any gaps in my spare time, as I have been subscribing to newsletters and reading as much as I can about how to become a published author. Somehow I have ended up on a couple of mailing lists that now go straight to the bin, but otherwise, my email inbox is flooding with useful information. I have had to make the hard decision to let go of some of my other interests and to learn how to quickly assess whether an article contains treasure, or is irrelevant to my situation.
I have decided I WON’T be writing my own newsletter. My once a week contribution to this page, and sharing on my different facebook pages will be more than enough. If I were to add any more writing commitments to my schedule and this will be the ultimate procrastination towards getting my novels published. )i(
My first manuscript, White Rose of Promise (WRoP) is away at the Copy Editor, but there seems to be a growing a mountain of tasks to continue with.
One of the first challenges seems to be the contemporary trend to constantly update and improve everything. Last week, I managed to combine text and images on this Blog without too many problems. Today, I come to my page to discover that I am ‘trialling’ new software. It has taken me a few attempts just to work out how to get started (again).
Time to add a peaceful little image here to restore my peace, which is accompanied by some quiet prayer.
I wanted a small image, with text beside it, like I did last week, but this is the best I can manage )i(
Now that I have had my little panic for the day, I will get to the reason I am writing. I am currently halfway through writing the second book in the series. This one picks up the story of a Secondary Character from the first book and there is some overlap in the timeline. It has been a reasonably easy task to make sure that the concurrent events match up.
But as I already know some of the following unwritten stories will overlap both White Rose of Promise and When Promises Are Broken I begin to see the complicated web I am weaving for myself.
Blue Skies: Chasing Away The Blues Exhibition 2017. Mixed media, site-specific installation. Photo credit Bookworms To Butterflies.
This immediately reminds me of the artistic process involved in creating my mixed media artwork. For my final Fine Arts university project, I invited participants to make a room weaving installation as the central performance piece. At first, it was easy to see how each of the participants wove their way around the community hall where the performance took place. But after a few hours, the tangle of connections was almost impossible to follow.
Three days later, and the tangled web had become a canopy and the child participants took up habitation for creative play.
In a similar way, my characters are weaving themselves a creative world where their adventures are played out. I started with a simple story, a tale of a lonely woman in search of family and love. As she navigated the challenges before her, she drew other people into her story. Her life became entangled with theirs in such a way that I found myself wanting to give them a story too.
My creative writing time has been devoted to placing the major events from White Rose of Promise into a timeline so that each character, as they come to tell their story, has a connection with all the other characters. This has raised some important questions about how much detail my readers will need in each story about what has happened before.
Another important task in becoming a published writer is to seek out advice from people who have already walked this journey. This includes subscribing to newsletters and following other writers’ Blog posts. I have been praying for specific direction, and this treasure appeared in my inbox this morning.
Thanks for taking the time to read my post. I pray you will move forward with your own social connections, weaving strength and success as you make your way forward )i( Happy reading (and writing)
Confession time. There are more steps to becoming a published author than I ever imagined. This is a learning journey of great proportions. You, my intrepid readers, play an important role. When I feel like I want to sit down and give up, I am reminded that people are waiting for an update, waiting for the next instalment, waiting to see the finished book…
For me the process of writing is easy. Taking my creation and working towards getting it published is not. Some essential tasks seem almost impossible!
Problem #1 Setting up a webpage is much harder than it looks. I made what I thought was a good start and then hit a brick wall I wasn’t able to get around. I tried many different ways and then I gave up. A few weeks later I am ready to revisit the how-to videos and make another attempt. Watch this page for updates in the coming weeks – I hope to have more links for you to click on!
Problem #2 I hit a snag with my email account and accidentally unsubscribed because I kept getting pop-up boxes asking for information that seemed irrelevant. So if anyone has emailed in the few days and is waiting for a reply, please accept my apology… and send the email again. The server deleted everything. That problem has now been fixed – happy dance here!
One of my rose drawings
My first manuscript moves closer towards publication. White Rose of Promise fits in the Christian Romantic Suspense genre.
The goal of having a happy-ever-after ending seemed elusive, but the heroine arrives at the final chapter with joy in her heart and her faith made stronger by the adversity. The man she falls in love with remains a work in progress right to the end.
There are 26 chapters in the novel, one for each letter of the alphabet. If you guessed that each chapter starts with a letter of the alphabet from a-z you know me too well already!
The first chapter title: Anticipation – A Promise Given. The companion text is Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NIV)
Chapter 1 image
To go with White Rose of Promise I am planning a colouring book and a devotional book based on the Bible reference texts that guided me through the chapter development. This image is a work in progress. I am still playing with design ideas.
White Rose of Promise is currently away from home, enjoying time with my Copy Editor. It will be a few weeks before I get it back. What happens after that is still unknown! I am hoping to self-publish so another learning opportunity is looming. Hopefully, it won’t be as tricky as setting up this webpage!
The manuscript left me at various stages to spend time with my amazing beta-readers (those brave friends who agreed to listen to my ideas and took the time to give me feedback). I keep in regular contact with my beta-readers, asking them random questions, and keeping them informed about the day to day challenges. If you would like more information about being part of the day to day discussion, please email me, or message me on facebook.
