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
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(
