Hi friends,
Happy Wednesday! I always look forward to my Wednesdays with you. I hope your day is off to a beautiful start. I always start my day out with quiet time or group Bible study followed by writing. I find my mind is freshest first thing in the morning, so I block my mornings until lunchtime exclusively for writing. In the afternoon, my brain just doesn’t work as creatively, so I reserve that time for editing or sketching out the next scene or scenes I want to work on.
I’ve been writing since 2003, contracted in 2010, and my debut novel released in 2012. It’s been a long journey. Hard to believe it’s been a decade since my first novel, Submerged, hit the shelves. But one thing hasn’t changed—my desire to learn. I know there’s always more I can learn and ways I can grow as a writer. I think a good writer never stops learning. Today, I’m going to share a few of my favorite writing lessons.
To truly be a good writer, you need to have a love for reading. For the writer, reading feeds the creative well, it allows you to study how other authors introduce characters, reveal plot twists, and charge your emotion. Reading, for the writer, is an education and enjoyment wrapped in one.
Emotion. If you don’t feel emotion, whether it be happiness, sorrow, or breathless anticipation, you can be sure your reader won’t feel it either. So much of this comes in via the writing technique known as “Show vs. Tell.” We can visually see the emotions of our characters playing out on the page, along with Deep Point-of-View where we’re in sync with the feelings, internal beliefs, and raw emotions broiling up within our characters. Emotion plays a huge role in the story journey.
I love C.S. Lewis. My girls were homeschooled all the way through, and I have the most beautiful memories of us sitting around the living room as a family and reading aloud The Chronicles of Narnia. Lewis was so right. He created a lush, full world inhabited with people, adventure, and peril simply by putting words on the page. Though, there is no “simply” in writing. I’m going to cheat and sneak one more quote in here, but this is my favorite quote on the dedication and perseverance writing takes and is reported to be by Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway is reported to have said, “It is easy to write. Just sit
in front of your typewriter and bleed.”
Revisions are the life of a writer. We all have the fun or painful first draft, depending on which draft you enjoy writing most, but then come revisions. Revisions are crucial in shaping and forming the story. It’s where you deepen your characters, build up the setting, fine-tune the dialogue and layer, layer, layer. You need to commit to keep at it until the story shines through all the drafts.
Question: Which writing quote speaks most to you? As a reader, what aspect of storytelling has the biggest impact on you in a novel?
Blessings,
Dani
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I loved all the quotes, but C.S. Lewis’s touched me the most. As an aspiring writer, the hardest thing I do is sit at the computer and pour out my heart. The best thing I do is commit it to prayer. Then reading and studying what I can do, such as reading blogs like this, is the cream filling. 🙂
Hi Vickie,
I apologize for the delay in my response. I was in DisneyWorld with my grandkids and it was a whirlwind. LOL! It is so hard being a writer, but there’s also so much joy. Sounds like you’re on then right path 🙂 Best wishes on your writing.
Steven King’s quote is so true. I would not have become a writer if not for the books that I have read. They engage my mind, spark ideas for new stories, and show me how a well-written book can transport the reader into a new world to explore. My favorite part of a book is when I can, even if I haven’t been in the situation the character is in, relate and feel all the feelings with them. I also love going on an adventure with them from the safety of my reading chair. 🙂
Hi Gina,
I LOVE your answer of being transported as a reader. That is so true and the beauty of books 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing.