How important is following the rules?

Nick Harrison posted an excellent blog on "Five Rules About Writing I (Sorta) Disagree With." Check it out. Is one of them never ending a sentence (or title) with a preposition, Nick?

Keep writing,
Michele

Why do I write?

Yesterday, Jerry B. Jenkins, author of the bestselling Left Behind series, posed the following question on his Facebook page: "Fill in the blank with ONE word: I write to __________."

"Scratch an itch," I responded.

"ONE WORD," he wrote back.

Oops. If all else fails, read the directions, right?

The problem is, I can't condense into one word the reason why I write. 

There are many reasons, hence many words. 

Why I write depends on what I'm writing.

If I'm writing an article, I write to inform or instruct.

If I'm writing my column, God, Me & a Cup of Tea, it's to inspire and encourage.

If I'm writing this blog, I write to inform, instruct, inspire, and give insight into the world of the writer. 

If I'm posting on my daily blog, God, Me & a Cup of Tea Daily for 2014, it's to encourage and inspire.

If I'm writing fiction . . . now, this is a whole new ballgame. I write to scratch an itch. I don't write fiction because I have an agenda, a message to get across. I want my readers to enjoy reading as much as I do and for the same purpose: simply to lose themselves in a fictional world and enjoy it. 

But, when it comes down to it, I don't really write for the reader. Oh, my! A cardinal sin when it comes to writing! Shouldn't we writers write for the reader? 

Yes.

And no.

Yes, we should keep the reader in mind as we write. Make sure the story makes sense, the characters and dialogue realistic. 

But, no. I don't sit down and say, "I think I'll write a novel so someone could read it."

It's not like that at all.

It's more like, well, scratching an itch. And if I don't scratch it, it's going to drive me crazy.

An idea will pop into my mind. And wiggle and niggle and grow. 

When I finally give in to it, I struggle to wring the story out, to understand the characters. 

Writing isn't always easy. It's like an itch in a place that's hard to get to, like in the middle of my back.
 .
But when the story takes over, when the characters finally take on lives and personalities of their own, and the fiction world becomes as real as the tangible world around me, the itch is satisfied.

I'm getting the itch to finish Getaway Mountain. Only four or five more chapters to go.

Time to get scratching.

Why do you write? How would you complete the sentence, "I write to __________. "

Post your answers in a comment below. Remember, ONE WORD! ;-)

Keep writing,

Michele

BREAKING NEWS!

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; 

bind them around your neck, 

write them on the tablet of your heart. 

~ Proverbs 3:3 (NIV)

 


Forty years after meeting, falling in love with, and marrying Dust Off pilot Seth Martin, then losing him when he’s declared MIA during the Vietnam War, Evangeline “Vangie” Martin decides it’s time to move on. After having him declared dead, she heads to a mountain resort for her fortieth high school reunion, hoping to reconnect with her high school sweetheart. But fate has other plans. The resort caretaker is none other than her Seth, but with no memory of his life before being shot down. When he refuses to acknowledge his true identity, Vangie must make a decision: If she is to have the love she’s waited for so long, she must forget the past and accept Seth as he is now. But can she?

***

At long last, my novel, The Heart Remembers, has found a publishing home! Helping Hands Press will  publish it as an e-book first, then later as a print book. 

I'll let you know when it's available. So keep checking back! 

If you want me to email you when it's available, please email me at michelehuey@yahoo.com .

Keep writing,

Michele

One word

Welcome to 2014!

Eight days into the New Year, and I'm feeling overwhelmed -- and I didn't even officially set any resolutions or goals for the year.

Oh, I made a mental list: eat right, exercise regularly, lose weight, be prompt in sending cards, keep my blogs up-to-date, write daily, finish my novel, write a memoir, find a way to make about $500 more a month, declutter my writing room, my email accounts, my house, my mind . . .

See? I have goals and resolutions. I just don't like writing them down. Looking at them everyday through the lenses of yesterday and reality, is just too overwhelming.

So I'm taking it one day at a time, one activity at a time.

Which of the above are the most important? What are my priorities?

Health.

Family.

Ministry (writing, speaking, mentoring).

Then I read Rachelle Gardner's blog, "The Year in a Word."  She writes that choosing one word as a focal point for the year helps her to "distill the theme of all [her] goals into one simple expression."

Boiling all those goals and resolutions down to one word.

ONE WORD?

YIKES!

"Come on!" I thought. "Me? Choose one word to focus on in 2014? Yeah, right."

That was too much for my brain to process.

Then, out of the blue, it came - my one word: STEADFAST.

Dictionary.com defines STEADFAST as

1. fixed in direction; steadily directed: a steadfast gaze.

2. firm in purpose, resolution, faith, attachment, etc., as a person: a steadfast friend.

 

3. unwavering, as resolution, faith, adherence, etc.

4. firmly established, as an institution or a state of affairs.

 

5. firmly fixed in place or position.

I think that pretty well sums it up:

I need to be steadfast in making healthy choices, such as eating the right foods and exercising regularly (my exercise of choice is walking).

I need to be steadfast in spending time with my loved ones.

I need to be steadfast in getting my work done, which includes my writing, my mentoring, my blogs, and my household duties.

I need to be steadfast in caring for the needs of others.

I need to be steadfast in spending time with God, setting aside time daily for Bible reading, study, and prayer.

I need to be steadfast in praying for others.

The list could go on and on and on.

But if I just focus on that one word - steadfast - in all I do, from the time my feet hit the floor in the morning until the time I slip between the sheets at night, one activity at a time - I won't feel so overwhelmed.

Steadfast doesn't mean I'm not flexible. Life demands flexibility.

It means that I'm focused on the things I need to do to work with God as He "fulfills His purpose for me" ((Psalm 138:8).

What about you? What is your one word for 2014?

Keep writing,
Michele

How good is your grammar?

I confess to being OCD when it comes to grammar. I tend to ignore the apostrophes on name rocks outside people's homes: e.g., The Smith's, because I bristle when I see such glaring errors set in stone. No! No! No! It should read The Smiths. No apostrophe is used to make a noun, even a proper noun, plural. An apostrophe is used for a contraction, e.g., can't for cannot and to show possession, e.g., The Smiths' dog ate my homework. A sign outside a town's civic center especially has me bristling: Mayors Office.  How many mayors does the town have? It should read Mayor's Office.

How good is your grammar? Take this simple quiz and find out: Have You Got a Grasp of Grammar?  (Which should correctly read "Do You Have a Grasp of Grammar?")

The questions address some of the most common errors I see and hear. I especially like the explanation of the why the correct answers are correct.

Happy quiz-taking!

And . . .

Keep writing,
Michele

A MUST-READ

Do take the time and read Kristen Lamb's excellent blog on "What Ebenezer Scrooge Can Teach Us About Great Writing." 

All I can say is, "Wow!"

Keep writing,
Michele

The E-Factor

One of my favorite movies of all time is The Sound of Music, starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. So when NBC aired a live stage production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic last night, I tuned in.

And tuned out 30 bored minutes later.

It wasn't that this was the stage version, not the movie version, and the stage version came before the movie version.

It wasn't that events and songs were out of the order I was familiar with, and the script didn't exactly follow what I practically know by heart. (The movie came out in 1965, when I was in high school, and I watched it on TV every year when it was aired, and then bought my own.)

That this wasn't The Sound of Music I know and love wasn't what made me tune out.

What made me change the station was that I wasn't, and was unable to become, emotionally involved. And being emotionally involved in the story is what makes it, for me, a good story. I tend to watch over and over and over the movies that make me cry (good tears) at the end. And I cry at the end every time.

I couldn't get emotionally involved because the characters, the actors, weren't emotionally involved. They were, well, acting, and it showed. They didn't seem, to me, to be investing their emotions, their very hearts and souls, into the roles they played. And so what resulted was a performance. A lackluster performance.

I call it "The E-Factor."

The E-Factor ("emotion factor") is important for our writing, too. Readers won't become emotionally involved in your story if you, as the author, weren't emotionally involved in it when you wrote it. Without the investment of your emotions, your story - plot, characters, dialogue - will fall flat. And even if you finish the manuscript and it gets published, readers will stop turning pages.

When I wrote Before I Die and The Heart Remembers, I invested so much emotion, I was exhausted at the end of a particularly emotional scene. I cried and laughed with my characters. I cared about them. A lot. So much that even now, years after I typed "The End," I still feel the emotion I experienced when I first wrote them. And I will not give up in my quest to have them published.

The E-Factor, or should I say the lack of it, was the problem with my current work-in-progress. For the longest time, I couldn't get a feel for Melody, the main character. Oh, I knew the facts about her, but I couldn't get into her heart and mind and soul. As a character, she fell flat. I didn't care about her, and I didn't want to write about her.

But I'd already invested 23,191 words when I began this year's NaNoWriMo. So I plunged forward, following the advice of many a writer: Just write. Write even when you don't feel like writing and the words won't come.

Somewhere along the way, Melody found her tune and came to life. I got so into the writing that when I wrote the scenes where she was extremely ill with the flu, I almost felt sick myself. For days.

I'm all better now.

If you're struggling with the E-Factor, don't despair. Keep writing. Keep probing. Keep plumbing the depths of your characters to find the spark that drives them, the spark that will make you care, and the spark that will make the reader care.

Keep writing,
Michele

NaNoWriMo Day 30 (and final day)

GETAWAY MOUNTAIN UPDATE:

• 50, 485 words written in November

• 69,896 total words written

•  20,104 words to write to finish first draft

When I signed up for NaNoWriMo 2013, I hoped I could finish. There were times along the way that I doubted it. I was discouraged and the words wouldn't come. I had days on which I didn't write at all. I wanted to toss the whole thing. Forget I ever even thought I could be a fiction writer.

It's true.

About reporting for work even when you don't feel like working.

About writing even when you don't feel like writing.

In his NaNo pep talk on Nov. 26, Ralph Peters spoke to where I was when he wrote:


"But if you need inspiration, try perspiration. If you’re meant to write, you’ll write. Sure, we’re all stymied from time to time, struggling over how best to shape a character or how to bring a crucial scene to life. But the best way to confront such problems is to sit down and start typing. Things happen when you make them happen. . . . 

"Better to type up slop, throw it away, and start again the next morning, than to duck your daily battle with the keyboard. . . .

"Writing is wretched, discouraging, physically unhealthy, infinitely frustrating work. And when it all comes together it’s utterly glorious.

"In these last days of NaNoWriMo, get to work "


I did. And it did (came together).

At this point, the plot is cooking pretty good. Boiling, in fact. My husband advises me to "finish it. You're on a roll."

And so I will.

See you on the other side of "The End."

Keep writing,

Michele