How to Write a Story

A common question at book signings and writing conferences is, “How do you write a story, a book, a novel?” And through the years I’ve heard a variety of answers.

Some answers have included the importance of reading books in your genre or magazines on your craft. Some have emphasized the attendance of writing classes, critique groups, and conferences. Still others tout the need to hone preplanning or editing skills.

Yet while each of these things is valuable, none equate a story. Reading may expand your knowledge of methods, but that’s not writing. Conferences, critique groups, and classes may sharpen your skills, but they can’t guarantee you can write a story. And preplanning isn’t a book, and you can’t edit a story that doesn’t exist.

Rather, the answer is much simpler: you write a story one word at a time.

For if you keep adding more word, you will soon have a sentence. Put a few sentences together, and you have a paragraph. A string of paragraphs fill a page, pages make up a chapter, and chapters form a book.

But it all begins
With one
Word.

Four Levels of Maturity: Adulthood, Part 1

Physical Adults

Today we’ve reached the final and deepest level of maturity: adulthood. It is also possibly the hardest one to describe, since it has more diversity than the other levels in many ways.

For whereas the other levels carry common factors like physical development that affect the methods of learning, adulthood is mostly complete in growth and what remains is mostly specialized growth that will vary from person to person.

Yet those are the very things that characterize adulthood: diversity, choices, and an emphasis on maintenance more than growth. No longer do adults depend on others for their knowledge as much as others now depend on them.

Spiritual Adults

Although learning is a life-long process which no one outgrows, the mature Christian is now looked upon as the teacher and mentor rather than the student.

This brings both new choices and extra responsibilities. Mature Christians know their limitations and are no longer completely dependent on others’ instructions/advice. However, others now depend on them for guidance.

The result?

A widely diversified group of servants—discerning people mature enough to serve as Christ served, rather than demanding to be served. And ultimately, is this not the best—and only—true test of maturity?

Going to UTCH

I like a good book. I like Christian fiction. I like science-fiction and fantasy. Put them together—a good Christian science-fiction or fantasy novel—and you’ve found a topic I can talk on for hours, as this blog amply demonstrates.

But now this passion has propelled me to try something different than my normal, an experiment if you like. In two-and-a-half weeks, I will be working as a vendor at UTCH (a Christian home-schooling conference in Utah) under the same name as this blog, Imagination Investigation. There I hope to promote some of the books I’m passionate about while raising awareness of the genre I love.

Will it work? I don’t know. Maybe it’ll be a smash. Maybe it’ll be a flop. But this way I can at least say I gave it a try.

Of course, if any of you will be I attendance, stop on by! I’d love to chat with you.

CSFF Blog Tour: The Shadow and Night

Title: The Shadow and Night

Series: The Lamb Among the Stars #1

Author: Chris Walley

Genre: Futuristic/Apocalyptic Science-fiction

Excerpt from Chapter 1 of The Shadow and Night:

Merral Stefan D’Avanos crested the snow-flecked ridge in the northeastern corner of Menaya, the vast northern continent of Farholme, and reined in his mount. The winter’s sun had just set in a great stained sphere of orange gold. He stared at the expanse of gray hills and darker, mist-filled valleys stretching northward to the ice-edged needles of the ramparts of the Lannar Crater.

Above the Rim Ranges, layer upon layer of cloud strands gleamed every shade between yellow and purple in the dying sunlight. Merral tried to absorb all he could of the sights, sounds, and smells of dusk. Down below the ridge, away to his right, crows preparing to roost were wheeling noisily around a pine tree. Far to his left, there was a moving, snuffling grayness under the edges of the birch forests that he knew was a herd of deer. Hanging in the cold fresh air was the smell of winter, new trees, and a new earth.

The beauty of it moved Merral’s heart, and he raised his head and cried out with joy, “To the Lord of all worlds be praise and honor and glory and power!”

The words echoed briefly and a gust of wind out of the north dragged them away, down through the trees and bare rocks.

A young forester on a “newly” settled planet faces an invasion by a force not seen in thousands of years: evil.

The Writing: The Shadow and Night is a finely crafted novel.

The characters are well-rounded, each with unique personalities, quirks, and flaws. The settings are breath-taking. The detailed descriptions will delight readers who crave specifics. And the plot—well-paced with continually tension.

I especially appreciated that last one. Mr. Walley didn’t jerk you around from adrenaline spike to adrenaline spike, as some page-turners do. Instead he built the tension slowly, stretching to the maximum without exceeding the reader’s attention span or suspension of disbelief most of the time.

The one main exception might be the very beginning. I didn’t care for the prologue at all (I’d recommend skipping it), and for a long time it prevented me from diving fully into the story. There were no characters and no conflict. Only a lot of information, most of which is provided in later text, and a spoiler of Merral’s discovery and mystery in the opening chapters, which of course automatically diffuses some of the tension.

The second problem I had with the beginning is the lateness of the point of no return. That point is where the characters can no longer return to the way things were, and it’s crucial to storytelling because as long as the characters can go back, there’s no stakes—a character can simply return to “normal” if things go wrong or they fail. While this point was technically breached in Chapter One, Merral doesn’t reach it until the end of Chapter Seven (which is unusually late for a book), because he is unaware of the problem’s depth.

Beyond this, the flaws in the writing are minimal: a few overlong descriptions, some “as you know” conversations (characters discussing what they already know for the benefit of the reader), and a couple slow spots in the tension. But most of these detract little from the story’s flow.

The Story: Whatever ground The Shadow and Night lost in the craft, it more than made up for in content. As long as you’re willing to accept the premise (a 12,000-year millennia reign of Christ, if I’m reading it correctly), this vividly demonstrates the darkness of evil and the brilliance of God’s grace: no theological conversations on the problem of evil here! It’s made real and tangible in a way I’ve seen few Christian books do, because Mr. Walley shows us these things. No preachiness, few spiritual internal monologues, soliloquies, or conversations.

And perhaps more amazing—or at least rare—Mr. Walley does all this without the graphic. He demonstrates the darkness of evil and the brilliance of God’s grace without the blood, gore, murders, bedroom scenes, or torture that many books seem to rely on. (Although there are a couple battles, the violence is kept to a minimal in description and aren’t the primary force behind the conflict and tension, but more the result of them.)

In short, this story may center on characters in their twenties, but the content is clean enough for even kids in their early teens, maybe even younger depending on parental restrictions.

Summary: While The Shadow and Night scores moderate points for its craft, the content ranks in the top five of books I’ve read. Therefore, my recommendation for The Shadow and Night is one I rarely give: This book is a must-read for most readers of Christian fiction, whether or not they normally like science-fiction. The story contained within is well-worth the time and any work to push past the technical stuff.

Rating: 4.6 out of 5

Can't wait to read this great book? Order here.

(Book 2, The Dark Foundations, reviewed here, and the review for book 3, Infinite Day, here.)

Starring Chris Walley!

The Christian Science-Fiction and Fantasy tour has returned, and February is highlighting Chris Walley’s novel, The Shadow and Night. Originally published as two books (The Shadow at Evening and The Power of the Night), this futuristic sci-fi novel is a tension-builder with some fascinating insights into evil and the grace of God. It also ranks as one of the best novels in Christian science-fiction and fantasy that I’ve read in the past two years. But more on that with my review tomorrow.

In the meantime, check out Mr. Walley’s website or blog and the posts by fellow bloggers:

Brandon Barr, Jim Black, Justin Boyer, Grace Bridges, Jackie Castle, Carol Bruce Collett , Valerie Comer, CSFF Blog Tour, Gene Curtis, D. G. D. Davidson, Chris Deanne, Janey DeMeo, Jeff Draper, April Erwin, Marcus Goodyear, Rebecca Grabill , Jill Hart, Katie Hart, Michael Heald, Timothy Hicks, Christopher Hopper, Heather R. Hunt, Jason Joyner, Kait, Carol Keen, Mike Lynch, Margaret, Rachel Marks, Shannon McNear, Melissa Meeks, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Mirtika or Mir's Here, Pamela Morrisson, Eve Nielsen, John W. Otte, John Ottinger, Deena Peterson, Rachelle, Steve Rice, Ashley Rutherford, James Somers, Rachelle Sperling, Donna Swanson, Steve Trower, Speculative Faith, Robert Treskillard, Jason Waguespac, Laura Williams, and Timothy Wise.

Details!

A detail person I am not.

I love generating ideas. I love designing the overall feel of a project. But actually finding a practical way to implement those ideas and designs? Forget it. That stretches my brain in a direction it doesn’t want to go, especially under a deadline.

Of course, where do I find myself today? Working out details for two projects, both with inflexible deadlines at under a month.

So pray for me. I think I’m losing my mind—if I’ve not already misplaced it.

The Four Levels of Maturity: Adolescence, Part 2

Last week we concluded the characteristics of teenagers were:

• Learning through experimentation,

• Increased freedom, especially from immediate parental oversight, and

• “The sky is the limit” mentality.

As I stated in that post, none of those characteristics are wrong, but both are healthy and necessary. But even healthy characteristics can be taken to dangerous extremes, both in life and in fiction.

The Dangers

Probably the biggest temptation that teenagers, both physical and spiritual, face is the it-doesn’t-matter attitude. They know enough to be dangerous, but lack the wisdom that comes from experimentation; and their belief that anything is possible can make them think they’re invincible.

This manifests itself in fiction in the opposite extreme that children face: you can read or watch whatever you want. What fiction you absorb doesn’t matter. It doesn’t have any effect.

This is like saying you can drive a 100 miles per hour down the highway. Sure, you can do it. Yes, you may not get caught or hurt the first or the second or even the tenth time. But that still doesn’t mean this is a safe or wise way to drive.

Likewise, watching R-rated movies or reading erotica as a consistent diet (for an extreme example) may not immediately have consequences. But that doesn’t mean the practice of this is healthy.

In truth, fiction acts more like a drug. A single dose won’t usually kill and may not even have any negative side effects. But the more you take, the more the drug infects the body, increasing the potential for addiction and impairment. Fiction affects the thoughts, attitudes, and heart much in the same way.

The Safeguards

With freedom must come responsibility. So while teens may no longer be restricted as much by parents/mentors, they still need accountability.

That doesn’t mean they aren’t allowed choices or the ability to sample a variety of fiction. However, we all have personal boundaries, places we shouldn’t cross into. But teens are often unaware or defiant of these restrictions.

So an accountability partner is the best safeguard at this vital age when tastes are being developed. Not someone to say what’s right or wrong, like the mentors of infancy and childhood. Rather, someone who allows them freedom to try and make up their mind while pointing out the personal boundaries and say, “Careful! You’re delving into dark places. You’re developing dangerous habits.” For while anything may be “permissible,” not everything is beneficial.

Sound restrictive? Perhaps, but it’s also common sense—we all have blind spots, and it’s better to have someone say, “Don’t take that road” than to drive off a cliff. And any teen not mature enough to accept such help isn’t mature enough to handle the freedom of choosing what fiction they absorb.

Premonition

Title: Premonition

Series: City of God #2 (#1, Transgression, is hard to find, so I’ve not yet obtained a hard copy to review yet. However, you can read #2 without #1; the author provides enough hints.)

Author: Randall Ingermanson

Genre: Time travel/Historical

Excerpt from Chapter 1 of Premonition:

Rivka woke from a light sleep, her heart thudding. Had she heard a child scream? She listened, her whole body taut, absorbing the sounds of the sleeping city. Jerusalem, city of white stone. City of God. City of fear.

Nothing.

She must have imagined it. Rivka snuggled herself into the warm hollow of Ari’s body, willing herself to relax. So much had changed since she’d left Berkeley last summer. Now with Hanukkah coming—

A thin, reedy voice screamed outside in the street. “Imma! Where are you, Imma?”

A rush of adrenaline shot through Rivka. Good grief, some little kid was out there in the cold, shrieking for Mama.

Rivka waited, listening. She and Ari were camped out in a small house with their hosts, Baruch and Hana. It was horribly unprivate. Back in America, her friends would just freak to hear she’d gone off and gotten married and was sleeping on the floor in the same room with another couple. But this was Jerusalem, another world. She couldn’t go back.

Stuck in first-century Jerusalem, a couple from the twenty-first century seeks their place—and the place of their futuristic knowledge.

The Writing: Premonition contains good, straight-forward writing. Three-dimensional characters bring very individual, specific, and identifiable goals, hero and villain alike. The plot builds steadily and reaches a very intense but satisfying climax. The research seems thorough, adding so much color and life this almost read more like a historical novel than a time-travel story.

My one complaint, if I must pick something, would be the lack of flow. Mr. Ingermanson seems to work very hard to write cleanly and to provide a good story. Thus the writing seems a bit rule-oriented and lacks the organic flow found in the best writing. However, this is largely due to this being an earlier novel of Mr. Ingermanson, and this small flaw will impede few readers’ pleasures.

The Content: Like the writing, the content of Premonition is clean and solid. Spiritual themes are as plentiful as different character motivations—meddling, forgiveness of enemies, the pursuit of honor—yet they intertwine into a single strong cord of truth.

But a couple side notes: Premonition does follow a married couple and the main female protagonist becomes a midwife. Thus the book carries some scenes pertaining to those things. However, most of them are as simple as the description found in the excerpt above: “Rivka snuggled herself into the warm hollow of Ari’s body.”

The second thing to note is that this story’s time period covers Roman whipping, stoning, and martyrdom. Mr. Ingermanson makes every element count and describe with only the necessary details, but he does remain historically accurate—no modern sanitization of a brutal time.

Summary: Premonition is a high-paced novel that is both intriguing in premise and thought-provoking in content. It’s a good read for most and a must-read for those with historical or Jewish interests. The only two groups I would suggest avoiding this are kids under sixteen or readers with low tolerances for violence/death/blood (martyrs and midwiving).

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ready to order? Click here.

(Check out book three's review here.)

Plot Twists

Every writer has their own way of plotting a story. I land somewhere in the middle of the two extremes.

I cannot write a story without any idea whatsoever of where I’m going or what the story is about. I’ll get lost among rabbit trails and bogged down in swamps.

But neither am I pre-planner. Making endless charts and detailing the exact sequence of ever scene removes any desire to actually write the story.

Rather, I mix the two methods—a wandering plan of sorts. I want the security of boundaries, but within those boundaries give me complete freedom. In plotting that means I need a starting point (usually an opening scene) and a final destination (the climax) with a couple planned pit stops in between. But how I get there—that’s up for grabs.

So my plotting is a bit like taking a trip: I pick up a character from her home and we head toward Point B City where we have hotel reservations tonight. No problem—a straight shot down the interstate. Two hours drive time. Three max.

But then a billboard catches my character’s eye—a restored historic town with free tours. Sounds interesting, and we do have time. So I agree. We veer off the interstate, take the tour, and buy a postcard or two.

When we get back into the car, my character looks at the map. If we stay on this back road, which basically parallels the interstate, we’ll run into Village. We have friends who live there, friends we haven’t seen in oh-so-long. So we call them up, and they’re free for lunch.

We have a great time, eating and talking and catching up. But soon we need to get going. Our reservations at Point B City are waiting. My character and I head back toward the interstate.

But we forget to ask for directions and the map isn't clear, so we get lost twice and have to take a detour because of road construction. But finally we make it back to the interstate and we cruise along for an hour or so.

By this time it’s mid-afternoon and hot. A hole-in-the-wall restaurant advertises the homemade ice cream. How can we resist that?

The locals there are quite friendly and ask us about where we’re headed. We tell them, and they shake their heads—there’s lots of construction coming up that way. Yuck. I hate driving road construction, so I inquire about alternate routes.

The locals offer me three sets of directions, but the minute they mention a scenic route, my character’s face lights up and I know that’s the way we’ll go, steep grades or not.

But as the locals promised, the view compensates for the slower drive. Wow! We pull over at an overlook to take pictures and soak in the tranquility.

As the sun begins to set, the scenic route merges with the interstate and within thirty minutes, we’re checking into our hotel.

What a day! Much more memorable than taking the interstate the whole way. But am I exhausted. I’m glad that tomorrow is a straight-shot down the freeway to Point C, only a couple hours of driving, three hours max…

Four Levels of Maturity: Adolescence, Part I

Teenagers.

One word not connected to anything else, and yet it evokes detailed images, mixed emotions, and vivid memories. It doesn’t matter if you’re barely past those years or if sixty years of experiences lie between. For many people, the teenage years are some of the most powerful and influential.

Adolescence

The years directly proceeding adulthood are full of growing freedom and lessening parental supervision. A driver’s license provides mobility. Jobs increase financial freedom. Physical growth and deepening knowledge grant teens the independence to do and think for themselves.

No longer the imitators of childhood, adolescences want to experiment with doing things their way to find an identity, to discover their gifts, to develop a style unique to them.

And within the proper parameters, this independence is good, a necessary stage of growth. Without it, we would have a world of copy-cats, unable to create, explore, invent, or even lead. We would become directionless, bland automatons.

So how do teenagers learn? Like children, largely by doing. But now instead of imitation, it is through experimentation. Teens want to test, not be told what to do, because for them, the sky—no, the infinite universe is the limit.

Teenage Christians

Like their physical counterparts, adolescent Christians explore a lot. They know enough Christian doctrine and Scripture to glimpse the freedoms and endless possibilities of Christianity.

Spiritual gifts play an important role at this stage, as teen Christians also seek to find their place, not so much in society as in the body of Christ. They know they are unique, but they aren’t always sure how or in what way their gifts/passions/talents fit into the larger scheme. Often they jump from ministry to ministry as they seek the best fit.

Expansion and vision are also increasingly important to this group of Christians. They have tasted the possibility of what God can do (not necessarily will do), and now their enthusiasm drives them to try a whole feast. They are ready and able to do Big Things for God.

Summary

None of these characteristics of adolescence (physical or spiritual) are wrong in themselves. Rather they are very needed and healthy. But like most characteristics, each brings a dark side of dangers.

But more on that next week.

Dragon Keeper Part 4

Title: DragonFire

Series: The Dragon Keeper #4

Author: Donita K. Paul

Genre: Late Mid-grade (10-14) Fantasy

Excerpt from “Treasure,” Chapter 1 of DrgaonFire:

Sir Bardon gripped his struggling wife in his arms.

“You’re not rushing into that battered building, Kale.” He lowered his voice to a more soothing tone. “Come on, lady of mine. You can control this urge.”

With his arm encircling her waist, he felt her take a deep breath and let it out slowly. He loosened his grasp but remained wary. In this state she couldn’t be trusted. Her talent sabotaged her judgment. Perhaps words of reason would override her compulsion.

“Remember, Kale, we must find Regidor and Gilda before it is too late.”

Kale’s body tensed, and he reacted by tightening his hold just before she tried to lunge out of his arms toward the inn.

“Bardon, please.” He voice broke on the last word.

“I’m just as determined to keep you here as you are to go. Relax, Kale. Think.”

He scanned the building she wanted to enter. One end had collapsed under the barrage of a recent battle. The other smoldered sullenly.

The muscles in Bardon’s face tightened. Fire dragons. I wonder how many?

A drenching rain had doused the flames. How long ago? Where are the people to answer my questions?

The rain had finally stopped. The villagers had collected their dead. But still the acrid smell of war permeated the air.

“I have to go in, Bardon.” Kale’s voice shuddered as she pushed ineffectively against his hold.

Now-married Kale and Bardon must separate ways to protect a land ravaged by two warring wizards.

The Writing: Once again Ms. Paul delivers a colorful array of characters that tickle your funny bone and pull your heart-strings. And despite the large cast, each character is so unique that any confusion or mix-ups are minimal.

Nonetheless, plotting remains the weak point in the Dragon Keeper series. While the duel point of view is well balanced and skillfully handled and the tension builds throughout most of the story, the climax fizzles. Bardon’s climax seems almost nonexistent. Kale’s decisions do directly impact her story’s climax (a questionable area in past books), but the solutions are reached too easily, it seems. In addition, the feeling of multiple, convoluted climaxes dissipate the tension that was built.

Nonetheless, the end reached is fairly satisfying.

The Story: DragonFire, like all of the DragonKeeper series, has many wonderful themes and spiritual threads. Love. Sacrifice. Forgiving the past. Learning to depend on each other and God. Choosing good over evil and using our talents aright. These and more are found within the pages of this novel.

However, a couple notes for parents. Kale and Bardon are now married, and therefore act as such, including kisses, physical awareness/attraction, and one scene where they share a bed (Chapter 5, “Night Talk,” for those who want to see it in advance.) I personally don’t think it is a problem, as everything is kept very innocent and simply described, but it is something to be aware of.

The second note is about the increase of magic in DragonFire. Again, I think it is well handled, since the book works hard to emphasize this supernatural gifting is exactly that: a gift from God. It is not inexhaustible; it is limited by what has already been created; there are proper and wrongful uses of it, just like with any other talent or gift.

Summary: While not without its faults, DragonFire is a fun and entertaining read to make you laugh and the heart ache. Overall, it’s a fairly safe read for all ages, unless magic tends to be an extra sensitive point.

Rating: 3.7 out of 5 stars

Interested in buying DragonFire? Click here to order.

(Click to see reviews for books one, two, and three)