Tag: Writing

“As God Wills”

by atozmom, posted in Book Reviews, Faith, Writing

Finding kids books these days with God even mentioned is a challenge.  Finding good kids books with God mentioned is an even bigger challenge.

I’m reading Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, an adaptation of the original by Miguel de Cervantes by Margaret Hodges for kids.

In chapter two, Don Quixote famously takes on the windmills, thinking they are giants.  Sancho, his faithful companion who thinks Don Quixote is crazy but goes along with him anyways, being promised a kingdom as his reward.  He’s the king so his wife would be the queen.

“My wife wouldn’t be worth two cents as a queen,” replied Sancho.  “She would do better as a countess, and even then, God help her.”

“Leave it in God’s hands,” said the knight, “but don’t be satisfied with any title less than governor.”

After his fight with the windmills:

Don Quixote:  “In the end, my good sword will prevail over his (the magician who turned the giants into windmills) evil arts.”

“As God wills,” Sancho replies.

Later, Don Quixote tells Sancho to not defend him against knights he fights as it’s against the laws of chivalry.

“I promise,” said Sancho.  “I will keep that law as strictly as I keep the Sabbath.”

I wish every book I read that these truths in it.  I wish I had some of these responses in my life’s situations.

How many times have I wished I said or even had the attitude or belief in challenging situations of “As God wills”?  Or “Leave it in God’s hands and don’t be satisfied with any less”?  How many times should I have responded “But God knows me, and that is enough” to a situation instead of with anger, resentment, and hostility?

This is great stuff for me.  I recognize it when I read it but my kids only absorb it subconsciously, storing it later for future use.

This book has constant references to God:

“May God guide you”, “God be with you”, “God speed you”, “May God preserve you”, “But God knows me, and that’s enough”, “Liberty is one of heaven’s best gifts.  A man should risk even his life for liberty”, “In God’s hands be it”

Don Quixote gives advice to Sancho:

“First, fear God.  Second, remember  who you are…”

“Remember that you have not earned this favor by your own merit”

“Don’t speak harshly to the man you have to punish; the pain of the punishment is enough…” [I substituted kids for man here.]  “Show mercy, for the mercy of God shines more brightly in our eyes than His justice.”

Why do we have to go back 400 years old to get such rich stories filled with God-fearing characters as memorable as Don Quixote and Sancho?  Characters who live out “As God wills”.  Characters who everyone else thinks are wacko but they themselves have the strength and conviction to stick to their beliefs.  Neither care what others think of them.  They are the butt of practical jokes but both adhere to their beliefs better than superglue.  They follow their true North.

They live their lives following their hearts and God is in their hearts.

I pray I can write such stories; ones that will reflect God’s will yet make an impact in young people’s hearts. My goal is to make Him known, subtly, through my character’s struggles and responses to life situations and live out “As God wills.”

It’s Great to Be Writing BUT…

by atozmom, posted in Writing

I’ve spent the last few days concentrating on editing my novel.  Today was especially good because I finished reviewing the whole text again for the sixth or seventh time.

But, now I’m finding my excitement waning as I know the hard part is still ahead.

I got a critique back on my previous novel, basically ripping me for numerous things including character characterization contradictions, passive tense, telling not showing, and much more.

So, now I have to review my novel with these things in mind, looking for each specific problem–one at a time.  Which is fine but I’d rather be writing instead of editing.  This is where the real tediousness begins…

But I’m determined not to rush this one and make it as good as I can.

So, I’m going to have to take my list of edits from the top and work my way down (cringing the whole way). But until I am Stephenie Meyers and can pay someone to do this for me this is what will get me an agent and a publishing deal.

So as much as I hate it, I’m gonna suck it up and get to work.  What are my other options?  This is my passion, my purpose.  No one said it would be easy.

Finally–A Writing Related Post

by atozmom, posted in Writing

I’m feeling immensely unsatisfied right now; down on everything–BSF, my family, my Bunko group, unanswered questions and uncertainties in terms of moving, my husband’s job, and schooling.

So, I started writing again.

I began re-reading for the umpteenth time the draft of my latest YA novel and am working on that.  I think it’s my best work yet but I always think that.  I’m sure others will think it utter crap.

Bored at editing (many of you know I HATE editing), I began to surf the internet.  Curious as to what genre my novel falls into, I began researching science fiction, fantasy, and the like.  I decided to see what Twilight is classified as since it’s just about everything and has a lot of my same elements.  It’s considered all over the board:  YA, romance, fantasy, etc.

Then I visited Stephenie Meyer’s website and found this nugget:  “With writing, the way you feel changes everything.”

She is speaking in regards to Midnight Sun being leaked on the internet.

But I couldn’t agree more.  I write when I feel like it.  I don’t write when I don’t feel like it.  It definitely takes a certain mindset you have to be in.  It’s not like a job with your hands or repetitive.  It involves emotion–and for me, a lot of it since I throw myself into it tooth and nail.  When I’m down, my characters are down. When I’m up, so are they.

I’m resolved to get this project wrapped up in the next couple of weeks.  I’m dying to begin the query process and see if this thing is any good or not or if it will be relegated to just another file on my computer as I move on to my next project.  But, I’m taking my time this time, making this as good as I can and then see where it takes me.  I’m itching to get started on my next project but I know this one is not finished.  I don’t like to multi-task; I have to bring my characters to fruition and then move on to something else.

Excitement Regained

by atozmom, posted in Writing

I spent a lot of yesterday editing my book and am quite enjoying it for once.  I am finding my mistakes are a lot more prevalent to my eye and I feel with each stroke of my keyboard it is only getting better.

This is what gives me hope.  I believe my destiny does have more for me in this world and this is the means God has given me to achieve it.  Admittedly, I feel happier–better–when my writing is progressing.  Otherwise, life quickly drags me under with the monotony of kid-life:  breakfast, school, errands, bills, diapers, doctor appointments, permission slips, parent/teacher conferences, homework, shuttle to soccer practices, dinner, bed time, and on and on and on…

So, here I am, typing again, molding my work before my eye, wondering all the while if this will be it, if the fourth time is the charm (this is my fourth book), if I am finally speaking what the world needs to hear.

Why I DON’T Want a Writing “Job”

by atozmom, posted in Faith, Writing

My mother-in-law mentioned to me last night that Craigslist has tons of blog writer positions or copywriter or writer in general and I should look into those.  Immediately, without thinking, I said, “I don’t want to write for other people.  I want to write what I want to write, not what others tell me to write.”

I started mulling this over this morning.  I searched Craigslist and everything sounded about as exciting as a 8:00 AM Economics lecture.  Then I thought about my answer last night and seconded it.

I don’t want to write for others.  I write for myself and what my heart (and I believe God) tells me to write about.  I don’t want to have to do research on some mind-numbing topic and turn in a report about it.  Lord knows I did enough of that in college to last me a life time.  I don’t want to blog for others when I can blog about whatever I want to.

Call this selfish or whatever but to me, this is what makes writing fun and if writing is not fun for me, I won’t do it.  I’m old enough in life to realize I’m through doing monotonous stuff if I don’t have to.  Praise God I don’t have to write for a living.  My husband does all of that.

I also mentioned to my mother-in-law that I write books for me and I am going to try my hardest to get published.  But if I don’t succeed, if God doesn’t will it, I will still keep on doing it.

This is passion.  This is where I stand.

I Write What I Can

by atozmom, posted in Writing

And I never think about what I’m doing until afterwards.  I write the stories I can write.  This is paraphrasing Katherine Paterson again.

This makes me feel so much better.  I often think how writers infuse deep meaning into their works but I just can’t ever seem to sit down and do it.  I just write and follow the thread of my characters and see where it leads me.  There is really no planning to it.  Then I wonder if I’ve said anything at all relevant.

Now I know I will write my stories how I see them.  Someone else will write something completely different.  That’s what makes us unique.  The meaning will come of itself.  No one can steal your novel from you–you can only write yours.

Time after time, writers stumble blindly upon the very secrets that will serve to unlock the story they are currently struggling with.  (Katherine Paterson).  This is true for me.  I get ideas that just pop out and end up right where they need to be.

If you let living people into a story, they will move each other.  If you put in constructed characters, you’ll have to do the moving yourself.  The reader won’t be fooled. (Katherine Paterson)

Writing is a form of self-judgment.  See truth that cannot be observed directly.

My job is to write.  Your job is to get meaning out of it.

What is there in the psyche that prevents you from writing something for years, and then suddenly, without any warning, tells you that the time is ripe?  A writer must write about what impinges on her own life, not try to guess what will be important.

The gift I have been given is a limited one.  We must be true to the gift God has given.  We must try to give back something of what we’ve been given.  And a writer has no life to give but her own. (Paraphrasing Katherine Paterson again)

Bogged Down in the Details

by atozmom, posted in Writing

I’m wondering if other writers do the same thing I do:  write at a frantic pace on their main points and then get bogged down in the details.

For the last week or so, I’ve been writing at every possible free moment.  Now, I’m forcing myself because I’m entering into boring explanatory details.  If it’s boring me, then it’s probably boring others.  I’m finding every other possible thing to do right now.  Sad really.

This happens to me every time though.  I hate editing because it’s detail work.  I’m more of a big picture, high action thinker.  Yet, I know how critical the details are.  I guess this is just not the fun part of writing for me.  I like to get my point/theme across and be done with it.

Whew!  Who know writing to be such a high demanding job?  Yet so rewarding at the same time.

Letting Go of a Work

by atozmom, posted in Writing

Always when I begin a new project, it becomes my sole focus.  So much so that my other works drop off into oblivion and I could care not if they were published or even picked up.

I can’t shut my mind off from writing.  Just now, I closed my computer and am back at it not 5 minutes later.  Sleep is my only rest but even then I have strange, listless dreams.  New projects consume me.  They take hold of me like a polar bear to its prey, determined not to let go until the deed is done.

I kind of wish a literary agent would be a polar bear in terms of my work.  Or even better: maybe an audience?

Pshaw!  I’m writing again and feeling alive again as I create.  I wonder if all artists feel this way when they are emerged in their medium?

My projects are not forgotten, just on the back burner.  Their time will come when my new project winds down (as most of you know, I hate editing so I’m sure I will resurrect these as a procrastination technique).

Time to get back to work!

Seven at One Blow

by atozmom, posted in Book Reviews

Ever since I started homeschooling, I have read hundreds of books to my kids (this is just since November) and have really gotten into the great kids books and stories out there, most of which I’ve never read since my mom didn’t have the time as a single mother to read to us.  I’ve even had to restrain myself from putting books on hold at the library because there are just so many good ones out there (I now have a running list of hold books–sad isn’t it?).

Anyways, one story that we’ve read lately has really grabbed my kids’ attention.  It’s “Seven at One Blow” by the Brothers Grimm.  I love classics and love reading the classics to my kids but this one was just one I grabbed off the shelf at the library.

It’s about a common tailor who kills seven flies at one blow and that becomes his mantra.  He decides he’s better than a common tailor and sets out on adventures using his seven at one blow mantra to prop him up.  Most people think he’s killed seven men or giants at one blow and not flies.

The version we are reading is by Eric Kimmel who writes in his intro:  “The tailor is one of the most appealing characters in Grimm.  There is nothing heroic about him, but because he possesses such supreme self-confidence he inevitably becomes the hero he pretends to be.  As the saying goes: whether you say you can or can’t, you’re right.”

I love this.  The guy so believes in himself and his ability to accomplish even the most daunting task, that it happens.  He does it.  He finds a way.

So, I’m going to begin believing I am a writer and a published writer at that and soon enough, the Universe will open up, God will step in, and it will happen.

Good Writing Quotes for Inspiration

by atozmom, posted in Writing

Occasionally, I like to post good writing quotes for inspiration for those of us who often need it as we try to break into the publishing industry.

Here’s one from Katherine Paterson, author of Bridge to Terabithia:

“The challenge for those of us who care about our faith and about a hurting world is to tell stories which will carry the words of grace and hope in their bones and sinews and not wear them like fancy dress.”