Each Day’s Task

Sometimes as I face a day of work, the list of things needing to be done feels overwhelming.

For while I consider myself a novelist first, writing fiction is hardly the only task on my itinerary. Books wait for reading, my shelf almost always stacked ten deep. I compose book reviews and blog posts. I vendor at homeschool conferences, which takes far more time and brainpower than most would imagine. Critique groups, writing meetings, and conferences need attending to sharpen my skills. And right now, I am preparing from scratch a weekly two-hour lesson on discernment in fiction.

And these are only my writing-related activities.

So how do I survive? It’s very discouraging to look back at a week and realize fiction writing accounts for less than a quarter of my writing work. Time feels so scrunched.

I don’t have all the answers. I wish I did. I struggle with whether I’m wasting time, and no is a word I’m sure needs employment more often.

Yet, I wonder if my solution might be simpler: Just focus on the task at hand.

Instead of worrying about the lack of progress on my novel, for which there is no immediate deadline, I should concentrate on the class I’m teaching. And maybe I need to take off a day here or there more often from blogging to address a pressing project.

Perhaps tasks come in seasons too.

Crash Course on Craft: Hero’s Journey, Part 5

“Smile. Things could be worse.”

So sure enough, the hero smiles—usually with gritted teeth—and things get worse. Much worse.

Welcome to the second act of story.

Often the First Threshold decision is a protagonist’s desperate attempt to right his world. But often it does anything but right the world. In fact, it usually throws the characters head long into deeper trouble—and now they can’t go back for they’ve crossed the Point of No Return.

Instead they find themselves in the throes of circumstances that chip away at their confidence and erode their competence (the stage of Tests), often in a set of three. Then another Y in the road will emerge, forcing the character to make another life-changing—and plot-driving—decision.

Will he give up, turn back, losing everything he has worked so hard to attain and all hope of fulfilling the desire that drove him here? Or will he plunge ahead to confront what stands in his way?

To the reader, the choice is obvious—no plunge, no story. But the characters must be given the chance to decide. They must have no one to blame but themselves. They must have the chance, now knowing the cost, to walk away. But if the author has done his job, the desire—and the cost of forever losing that desire—must override the cost of going on, thrusting the characters straight into the heart of enemy territory (Approach to the Cave).

Worlds Unseen

Title: Worlds Unseen

Series: The Seventh World Trilogy

Author: Rachel Starr Thomson

Genre: YA (13-16) Fantasy

Excerpt from “Prologue” of Worlds Unseen:

The house was full of the little noises of life. A bright fire crackled in the hearth, and over it the contents of a small iron pot hissed and bubbled. Mary’s rocking chair creaked as her deft fingers wove a world in cross-stitch, visions of sunset and starlight. A mourning dove, tucked away in a nest in the corner of the stone window ledge, cooed softly.

Mary did not look up when a shadow fell across the picture in her hand. Through her eyelashes she saw a tall, dark-cloaked form with a gleaming knife in its hand. For a tenth of a second Mary’s fingers faltered; she regained herself, and continued to sew. She bent her head closer to the cross-stitch and her chestnut hair fell over her shoulder.

“So you’ve come,” she said, her voice perfectly level.

The cloaked figure’s voice dripped with venom. “You expected me?”

The creak of the rocking chair filled the momentary silence, and the fire crackled. The pot was near to boiling over.

“I knew you would keep your promise,” Mary said. “Though you have been much longer than I expected. And even now you are waiting.”

The tall figure sneered. “Where is your fool of a husband?”

Mary said faintly, “He is coming.”

Outside, the cooing of the dove had ceased.

The Craft: Worlds Unseen is definitely a mixed bag when it comes to the craft.

At the macro level, the world is unique without overwhelming detail, while colorful and likeable characters fill the stage. The pacing overall builds and releases at all the right places. The premise mixes allegory, mythology, and fairy-tale elements in a style reminiscent of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, without trying to duplicate his work.

However, at the scene level, trouble brews. Long sections of character monologues and the tendency to tell rather than show diffuse the tension the plot works so hard to build. Point of view jumps and short scenes (or longer scenes largely padded with backstory and internal monologues) chop up the rhythm. Certain subplots and actions with Maggie (the protagonist) felt out-of-place, especially for the force for motivation given them, from a failure of proper set up.

The result is a story that I long to dig into, but where traction is hard to find.

The Content: The content of Worlds Unseen is the greater strength. While there are allegorical elements, this is not an allegory and those elements never overwhelm the story. Rather, they give us a glimpse into the unseen of this world and a fresh view of the relationship between God and man, while intertwining themes of courage, God’s Sovereignty, identity, and risk-taking against terrible odds.

Other content notes—There is the typical violence level for this type of story, such as in sword fights and other combat. They are described, but with minimum detail. No language problems, and the romance elements are kept very chaste. Minimal amounts of magical elements, most on the side of evil; the supernatural on good’s side are seen as gifts and are not controllable by the ones who have them, like those supernaturally gifted by God in the Bible.

Summary: If Mrs. Thomson could have mastered the craft at scene level, this story would have improved three times over. As it is, Worlds Unseen is a gem in the rough. Though not worth everyone’s time, avid readers of Christian fantasy may find this a delightful tale to indulge in.

Rating: Craft—2, Content—4, Overall—3.4 out of 5 stars

Find Worlds Unseen and other safe fantasy & science-fiction at my Amazon affilate bookstore, Words of Whimsy.

5 Unexpected Things Characters Do to the Author

1. They lie. Despite what readers might think, I do not know everything there is to know about a character. That means they sometimes have secrets I don’t know about, secrets they are willing to lie about to protect. After all, I am an author. They tell me, and it’ll probably end up on the page for the world to see.

2. They insist on their own way. For some odd reason, the characters believe they know the outcome better than I do. Never mind that they haven’t seen the story’s end yet.

3. They don’t listen. Like in #2, they claim to know more than me. So I can tell them Route A is better, but they will take Route B (sometimes just because I said Route A, I think). However, to my amusement, they often circle back to my way sooner or later in the story.

4. They interrupt. I can be engaged in a serious conversation with a real person, and they’ll poke their head through the backdoor of my mind to toss out some unrelated comment or oddball observation. So if I start to laugh for no apparent reason, now you know why.

5. They act like real people. Yes, that’s shocking, I know. But they quarrel and throw tantrums, tease and pout, tickle my funny bone and surprise me with their insights into life. It is one of the greatest frustrations and the best joys of being a novelist.

Crash Course on Craft: The Hero’s Journey Part 4

Decisions: The axis upon which story turns.

Sure things can happen to the protagonists, but their decisions (preferably the kind that makes things worse) are ultimately what drive a story. After all, we were created with a will. We want the freedom to choose. Characters need the same, or they won’t seem real.

That’s where the First Threshold comes in. If the storyteller has done his job properly, the disturbance to the character’s world (the Call) has grown so major that, by the end of the first quarter of the story, the character must deal with the problem. He cannot go with the flow any longer or simply be acted upon. He must choose and act.

Ideally, whatever he chooses must forever alter his life, which is why this stage is also known as the Point of No Return. There will be no going back to what was before without devastating consequences and shattered dreams—if he can go back at all.

So what will the hero choose? Is he in or out? Will she tackle the problem head-on or run? Who cares? Just as long as the hero makes the choice! Then things really start hopping.

Sir Kendrick

Title: Sir Kendrick and the Castle of Bel Lione

Series: The Knights of Arrethtrae #1

Author: Chuck Black

Genre: Tween (10-14) Allegory

Excerpt from “A Glint of the Dark,” Chapter 1 of Sir Kendrick and the Castle of Bel Lione:

The tip of the bright silver blade split the air as it plunged toward Sir Kendrick’s chest. But the thrust was ill timed and too committed, considering the advantage Kendrick had over his opponent. Kendrick parried the thrust and countered with a crosscut that threw his opponent into retreat. This seemed to perturb the broad-shouldered young man, who unleashed a wild volley of cuts and slices. Cheers rose from the dozen or so onlookers, each of whom brandished a sword and a look of anticipation.

Kendrick found himself working hard to deflect the young knight’s clumsy but powerful blows. A slice came close to striking Kendrick’s shoulder, and he fought the urge to counter with the mastery that was available to him. He parried another cut, then held up his left hand and commanded, “Stand down!”

A knight and his mentee search for the base of a dark knight.

The Craft: Allegory is one of the writer’s hardest tools to master. Yet when handled well, allegory can add color and depth to a story, making it worth reading again and again.

Unfortunately allegory seems rarely applied with the skill it requires, and this is why I tend to dislike allegorical books. Sir Kendrick and the Castle of Bel Lione is a prime example why.

It is not that Sir Kendrick is poorly written. The story itself is well-paced. The narrator voice is entertaining, even if it tends to tell us what happened instead of showing. There’s some great humor and even some pretty exciting action. But the allegory of Sir Kendrick turned a decent novel into a morality tale, burying the story beneath the message.

The desire to teach is noble. Most Christian authors, no matter their genre or style, hope to convey God’s truth to their audience. But fiction is for storytelling first and foremost—otherwise we would write nonfiction. Therefore, when teaching a lesson overrides telling a story, the balance is upset.

Yet Mr. Black, by his own admission, wrote the story to teach: “…the Knights of Arrethtrae Series present biblical principles allegorically. Each book teaches about virtues and vices conveyed through the truth of God’s word.” (Author Commentary, emphasis mine.) Again, teaching is an honorable desire, even in fiction. But when the message dominates the story, the point is hammered into the reader’s head: “Did you get it? Did you really? Well, in case you didn’t, here it is again.” The result is an unintentional assumption that the readers aren’t smart enough to figure it out themselves, and the story is drained of its power to impact.

And this is why I dislike many Christian allegories: So much potential, so much power lost.

The Content: All the craft problems aside, the content is decent. We have heroic heroes, evil villains, and couple balanced mixed characters—good stuff for a book which will cross over into much younger ages than the preteen group I assigned it. And while the story often feels contrived to get the point across, the messages of hope midst darkness, the unseen battles, discernment, forgiveness, and loyalty are worth hearing.

The book does contain many sword fight and mention of torture. But the fights rarely end in injury or death, and when they do, it is not graphic.

Summary: The overdone allegory drains much of the entertainment value and the story’s power. However, the clear message, heroic heroes, and the appropriate consequence might make this story a good bridge for kids struggling to develop discernment in fiction.

Rating: Craft—1, Content—4, Overall—2.9 out of 5 stars

Find Sir Kendrick and other "safe" speculative for kids and adults at my Amazon affliate bookstore, Words of Whimsy.

(An affliate bookstore is a place where I receive a small percentage of a kickback of a sale resulting from my recommendation.)

The Best Writing Days

Nature’s colors changing,
Crazy squirrels saving,
Stashed acorns accruing:

These are pumpkin-custard days.

Autumn foliage fleeing,
Fearsome winds whipping,
Winter storms stewing:

These are turkey-dinner days.

Sweet corn cooking,
Carmel balls biting,
Bitter days dawning:

These are apple-cider days.

Dark eves enveloping,
Electric heaters humming,
Hot drinks downing:

These are novel-writing days.