Contemporary to Historical ~ A New Slant on Research

Posted on August 3, 2020 by Connie Stevens

I am delighted to welcome Ane Mulligan to my blog today. Ane has a wonderful sense of humor that translates into spunky, sassy characters in her stories. IN HIGH COTTON is definitely her best one yet! I know readers won’t be disappointed. Ane, tell us a bit about how you came to write IN HIGH COTTON.

Ane:
After writing five contemporary novels and two novellas, my agent liked the premise of In High Cotton. She said it fit my brand: ensemble cast of strong Southern women facing life’s issues together. She gave her blessing on the series.

I wanted a rural setting for In High Cotton, book one in the series. I discovered an area around Uvalda in southeast Georgia. There is hardly anything near it, except two rivers (the Ocmulgee and the Oconee) converge to form a third (the Altamaha). The Indians called this area “Where Rivers End.” That gave me my town’s name: Rivers End.

I like to set my stories in fictional towns. I draw a map and place the businesses and houses where I want them. That way, nobody can say there wasn’t a store on that street.

When I did my character interview for my heroine, Maggie Parker and her sister, Duchess Alden, I had to go back four generations to dig out their story. Maggie and Duchess are as different as chalk and cheese. However, the love between them is strong and surprised me at times. I love these characters.

The book took quite a bit of research, which I discovered I love. My method is writing until I need a point researched, then stop and find what I can online. I’m disciplined enough that I don’t allow myself to get lost in netsurfing (we won’t talk about chocolate). If I need more on the subject, I’ll put a note to the side, and move on.

I found I like the discipline of writing historical. My characters can’t grab a cell phone and get out of trouble. In my Chapel Springs series, my research was into geological probabilities, not everyday life. For In High Cotton, I originally wrote one scene where Maggie would take the grocery’s truck to drive about 200 miles. But when I realized that would take over five hours, I sent her by train instead.

Besides the restrictions of the year, there were also restrictions by the setting. While big cities had electricity in the late 1800s to early 1900s, small rural areas in Georgia didn’t get it until much later—some into the 1950s—yes, really.

However, I wanted the grocery to have electricity. There were cases in rural areas, with the right political and financial connections, electrical service could be run. The town had a railroad station, where farmers brought their crops to be shipped. The town grocer had married Maggie, whose sister was married to Mr. Alden, a powerful and rich Atlanta man. Stay with me here. Mr. Alden had the political connections, the most important being with FDR. The soon-to-be president traveled to Warm Springs, Georgia often. He also went through the Uvalda area on his way from Savannah to Warm Springs.

And so the tiny town of Rivers End got electrical service. There are always ways when one is a novelist.

♥♥♥

In High Cotton
Southern women may look as delicate as flowers, but there’s iron in their veins.

While the rest of the world has been roaring through the 1920s, times are hardscrabble in rural South Georgia. Widow Maggie Parker is barely surviving while raising her young son alone. Then as banks begin to fail, her father-in-law threatens to take her son and sell off her livelihood—the grocery store her husband left her. Can five Southern women band together, using their wisdom and wiles to stop him and survive the Great Depression?

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2WOLShX

ShopLPC: https://shoplpc.com/in-high-cotton/

Target: https://www.target.com/p/in-high-cotton-by-ane-mulligan-paperback/-/A-80663388

To read the first chapter free, go to https://anemulligan.com/georgia-magnolias-series and scroll to the DOWNLOADS

Ane Mulligan has been a voracious reader ever since her mom instilled within her a love of reading at age three, escaping into worlds otherwise unknown. But when Ane saw PETER PAN on stage, she was struck with a fever from which she never recovered—stage fever. She submerged herself in drama through high school and college. One day, her two loves collided, and a bestselling, award-winning novelist emerged. She lives in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband and a rascally Rottweiler. Find Ane on her website, Amazon Author page, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and The Write Conversation.

 

Thanks for visiting with me today, Ane. I’m excited about your newest release, and I know your readers are going to love it!
Folks, don’t forget, leave a comment here on this blog for a chance to win an e-copy of IN HIGH COTTON.

Posted in ACFW Author, backdrop for characters, Contemporary to Historical, creating characters, historic details, historical fiction, new release, Research, Research for fiction, setting details | 9 Comments

A TIME FOR HEALING by Ramona K. Cecil

Posted on July 27, 2020 by Connie Stevens

Ginny Red Fawn McLain, a Shawnee medicine woman, is thrust back into the world of her birth family twelve years after her abduction. While she eschews the Christianity preached by her birth uncle who found her, Ginny’s heart refuses to shun his friend and fellow Christian minister, Jeremiah Dunbar. Jeremiah is immediately smitten with his friend’s long-lost niece. But unless Ginny Red Fawn joins Christ’s fold—something she adamantly resists—any future with the woman he loves is impossible.

 

Please welcome to my website and blog today–Ramona Cecil, award-winning author of historical Christian fiction. I’ve known Ramona for about 12 years through American Christian Fiction Writers. Her books are wonderful, her characters unforgettable, and her plot lines resonate with the heart. Welcome, Ramona. Thanks for dropping by. Share with the readers about your upcoming release, “The Time For Healing.”  ~ Connie

The Time for Healing – Releases August 7th with Pelican Book Group

Hi! I’m Ramona K. Cecil and I’d like to talk about my new historical romance novel, The Time for Healing. I love history, especially the history of my Hoosier state and many of my stories are set there. The Time for Healing was inspired by the Pigeon Roost Massacre, a tragic event that happened in 1812 in southern Indiana. There, on a serene September afternoon, the unsuspecting frontier settlement of Pigeon Roost was set upon by a contingent of hostile, Shawnee warriors. Twenty-three settlers were killed and it was said that two children were taken captive. The story was told, though also refuted, that many years later one of these children—a little girl—was found by her missionary uncle, living among the Shawnee along the Kankakee River. In The Time for Healing, I re-imagined the compelling story of the little girl taken captive by the Shawnee. I thought for fun today I’d share the unpublished prologue to the story followed by an excerpt from opening chapter of the book.

 

Scott County Indiana, September 3, 1812

            “It’s time for you to feed the chickens and bring in the eggs, Ginny.”

Ginny blew out a long breath and dropped her rag and cornhusk doll to the floor. It was a good baby. No matter what she did with it, it never cried. She walked, but not too fast, across the room to the fireplace where Ma held out a bucket half full of shelled corn while bouncing Ginny’s squalling baby brother in her other arm. “Maybe if the house is quiet, I can finally get Joe to sleep.”

“Yes, Ma.” Ginny wanted to say that it was Joe making all the noise, not her. But the way Ma’s mouth was all puckered up liked she’d bit into a green persimmon told Ginny she was in no mood for sass.

Not wanting to risk a switching, Ginny kept quiet and took the bucket with both hands. The rope handle scratched her palms while the bucket’s weight pulled hard on her arms, making them burn. She wouldn’t complain. Feeding the chickens gave her a good excuse to get out of the house and away from Joe’s crying that made her ears hurt.

At least today she wouldn’t have to shell the corn. When she pushed the grain away from the soft red cobs, the rough, dry kernels always dug into the heels her hands, making them sting.

Before baby Joe came she had less work to do and more time to play. Ma seemed to know that Ginny wished Joe hadn’t come because she’d say things like “You’re a big sister now, all of six years old. ’Fore you know it, you’ll be growed.” As if that would make her like her brother better. It didn’t. Maybe she’d like him better when he got old enough to play with her, but right now she’d rather have her doll.

Ma followed Ginny to the cabin’s open door. “And don’t rip your dress or get it dirty” she said over Joe’s cries. “Uncle Zeb and Aunt Ruth are comin’ for supper.”

“Yes, Ma.” Nodding, Ginny lugged the bucket down the two stone steps and headed toward the pine trees where the chickens would roost for the night. She liked this time before supper when the sunshine poked through the pine grove around their cabin. It looked like melted butter the way it poured through the trees and settled in yellow puddles in the dirt. She liked the way things smelled this time of day, too. The pine needles smelled stronger, and she could even smell the creek water, fresh and cool beyond the trees where bullfrogs had already started their croaking. They sounded like they had a bad case of the hiccups, only deeper. She paid attention to things like that. Aunt Ruth said that was why Ginny would do well when she went to school.

“Chick, chick, chick,” she called.

Their wings flapping, the chickens appeared from the brambles and the shadows behind the trees. Ginny liked the colors of the chickens, some black and white speckled, some all snowy white, and some a reddish brown color that almost matched the color of Ginny’s hair. Their eggs were different colors, too. Some white and some brown. She was eager to see how many she might find in the thicket where the chickens had made their nests against the trunk of an old fallen tree. She’d have to be careful to get all the eggs and not leave any behind for the raccoons and other varmints to steal.

She grinned down at the plump birds as they strutted and clucked and pecked at the dirt. “Puck, puck, puck, puckaw!” Cocking their red-crowned heads sideways, they looked up at her with eyes like big black peppercorns and clucked louder, begging for the corn.

Ginny grabbed a handful of kernels from the bucket and scattered them over a patch of bare ground, too shaded for grass to grow. While the chickens pecked at the corn, Ginny jabbed the air with her finger, practicing her counting like Aunt Ruth had taught her.

“One, two, three. Stand still so I can count you. Four, five, six. Six hens and one, two roosters.” She especially liked the roosters. They stood taller than the hens and puffed out their big chests when they walked. The combs on their heads and the dangly things under their chins were bigger and brighter red than the ones on the hens, and they had sharp toenails on the backs of their legs that could scratch her if she wasn’t careful. But Ginny loved their brightly colored tail feathers that curled behind them and looked like little rainbows in the sunlight.

“That makes eight,” she said, proud of herself as she finished counting. At supper, she would show Aunt Ruth and Uncle Zeb how well she could count. Aunt Ruth would be proud of her, too. Ginny was glad Aunt Ruth was the school teacher. Even if Ma needed Ginny to stay home and help with chores and not go to school for another year or two, she would not get behind in her learning.

An owl hooted. It sounded close.

Ginny looked up into the pine boughs above her. She’d never heard an owl call while it was still this light. And Ginny paid attention to these things.

Another owl hooted, and then another. But the sound didn’t come from up in the trees. It came from near the ground over by the creek. Why would owls walk when they could fly? Pa said they liked to roost high in the trees and look down on everything.

Pa.

            Pa should have been back from driving their cow, Sadie, home from the meadow where she liked to graze. The tallest pine tree’s shadow stretched across the yard and bent up against the cabin. Pa was always home before the shadow touched the cabin.

A scream came from inside the cabin, chilling Ginny like the time last winter when she fell into the creek. The sound froze her in place, and the bucket’s rope handle slipped from her fingers. Somehow she knew it was Ma that had screamed, but it didn’t sound like Ma. Joe wailed, but then he stopped right in the middle of his crying and everything got quiet. Joe had never stopped crying all of a sudden like that.

Ginny looked down where she’d dropped the bucket, spilling the corn in a yellow heap. She reached down to pick up the bucket, but someone grabbed her arm. She looked up and saw a man with red lines painted across his face standing over her. He didn’t have much hair, just a little in the back, and a large gray and white feather dangled from it. His chest was bare and large rings hung from his ears and nose.

She tried to scream like Ma had, but nothing came out.

 

The Time for Healing opens up twelve years later along southern Missouri’s White River. The following is an excerpt from the first chapter:

Shawnee village, southern Missouri, 1824:

“Life will change for you soon, Daughter.” At her mother’s quiet words, anger rumbled through Red Fawn like the low howl of the autumn wind outside their wigwam. She knelt and tugged the shaggy buffalo robe closer under her mother’s swollen chin. Their tribe had moved twice since they buried her father where the Pigeon Creek flows into Spelewathiipi, the big river the white man called Ohio. She hated the thought of moving again before the time of the Spring Bread Dance. And she hated the whites who would force that move.

“Life will change for all of us when the white man makes new laws that will force us to move west again.” Would Mother even survive another move? Red Fawn’s heart quaked at the thought.

“No, Daughter.” Mother shook her head as she rose onto one elbow and coughed. Her raven braids streaked with silver shook with her convulsive movements. Red Fawn snatched a scrap of cloth from a nearby basket and handed it to her mother, who pressed it to her mouth. Despite Red Fawn’s efforts, her mother grew weaker. When her coughing had subsided, Mother grasped Red Fawn’s hand. The comparison of her own freckled skin against the smooth brown hue of Mother’s jarred Red Fawn anew, reminding her that she hadn’t been born a Shawnee.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hope you get to check out The Time for Healing. Here are the links for ordering your copy.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Time-Healing-Ramona-K-Cecil/dp/1522302328/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1S3QFJVY2ZESB&dchild=1&keywords=the+time+for+healing+ramona+k.+cecil&qid=1593278046&s=books&sprefix=The+Time+for+%2Cstripbooks%2C152&sr=1-1

Barnes&Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-time-for-healing-ramona-k-cecil/1134332259?ean=9781522302322

Thrift Books: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-time-for-healing_ramona-k-cecil/24295657/#isbn=1522302328

Book Despository: https://www.bookdepository.com/author/Ramona-K-Cecil

Leave a comment for a chance to win an e-copy of the book!

Ramona K. Cecil is a wife, mother, grandmother, freelance poet, and award-winning inspirational romance writer. Now empty-nesters, she and her husband make their home in Indiana. A member of American Christian Fiction Writers and American Christian Fiction Writers Indiana Chapter, her work has won awards in a number of inspirational writing contests. She’s the author of thirteen novels and novellas. Over eighty of her inspirational verses have been published on a wide array of items for the Christian gift market. Through her speaking ministry, she enjoys encouraging aspiring writers by sharing her story of how she became a published author. When not writing, her hobbies include reading, gardening, and visiting places of historical interest.

Thanks for being our guest blogger today, Ramona.

Folks, don’t forget to leave a comment for a chance to win a free e-book!

Posted in ACFW Author, drawing for free book(s), E-book, Guest Bloggers, historical fiction, new release, Ramona K. Cecil, Research for fiction, Shawnee Indians, Shawnee medicine woman, The Time For Healing | Tagged | 11 Comments

DO YOU HAVE A TWO-FACED CHARACTER?

Posted on July 20, 2020 by Connie Stevens

When you call somebody two-faced, you are not giving them a compliment! But what if you have a character in your story with a “split personality?” That is– the other characters see her one way, but the readers see a very different side of her.

In my current work-in-progress, there is a character who is disliked by the other characters. Her name is Josephine Templeton. Before the readers meet Josephine, the other characters mention her in dialogue. They hint that Josephine is not a nice person. When the reader does get to meet her, their expectations are fulfilled–at first. Josephine is a harsh, critical, judgmental person. Because of her position, she has the ability to make those who work under her miserable. At this point the reader is thinking, “Wow, what a witch! I’d hate to work for her!”

Just when the reader is sure Josephine Templeton is the antagonist of the story, they glimpse little snatches of why she acts the way she does. Little by little they are allowed insight into her thoughts, background, and her painful past. This is  when the reader will become annoyed with me for turning the character they wanted to hate into a character for whom they feel sympathy and empathy. But we must not forget the other characters in the story–the POV characters and minor characters alike–have no positive feelings for this woman. Much of the way they feel toward her is brought about by her own doing. The reader understands this, but the reader is now waiting to see if the other characters will ever know the true Josephine.

CRAFTING THIS SORT OF CHARACTER REQUIRES A SENSITIVE TOUCH.

A two-faced character usually starts out as a person all the other characters dislike, fear, avoid, and maybe even malign. But it’s a fine line. I can’t make her so despicable to the main characters that the readers also despise her, which would make redeeming her in the eyes of the reader very difficult. So even though Josephine is quite unlikable in the first several chapters, I’ve already pulled back the curtain just enough for the reader to catch that glimpse. Yet I have to give the main characters valid reasons for disliking her–or at least being intimidated by her.

Thus, I have created a two-faced character.

Just as the reader is allowed small glimpses into Josephine’s private thoughts and painful back story, the main characters will also have some “HUH?” moments with Josephine.  In order to have a spiritual arc*, a two-faced character will struggle with those buried experiences that have grown into bitterness or resentment or anger. As these issues push their way to the surface against the character’s will, she has a choice. She can either make a change in her outlook and relationships, or stubbornly cling to her belief that her behavior is justified.

Do you enjoy reading stories with characters that don’t reveal all their secrets to the other main characters? Have you ever crafted two-faced characters?

 

  • A simple explanation of the SPIRITUAL ARC: Where is your character spiritually at the beginning of the story? How do they change and where are they spiritually at the end of the story? How rocky is the road to get there?

 

Posted in backdrop for characters, Brainstorming characters, conflicting emotions, creating characters, fictional characters, point of view, Relatable characters, Two-faced characters | Leave a comment

THE ART OF DESCRIPTION

Posted on June 29, 2020 by Connie Stevens

Authors have debated for years over how much description to insert in a scene. Description is a lot like seasoning in a stew. If the stew lacks seasoning, it’s bland and uninteresting. But if you shake too much seasoning into the pot, the stew is hard to swallow. Authors must keep the “seasoning rule” in mind when sprinkling in description.

Characters who are assigned lines of dialogue, but have not had a benefit of any description, are called “talking heads.” We can hear them but we don’t know what they look like. If a character doesn’t play a major role in the story, or even if he is what I call a “wallpaper character”–meaning he only appears in one or two scenes and is there for the protagonist to exchange dialogue to move the story forward–he still has a face, or perhaps a funny quirk. The reader doesn’t need to know his life history, his favorite color, or his shoe size, but let the reader see his wispy gray hair that sticks out in all directions, or the ink stains on his shirt. Maybe he has a gap between his teeth, or maybe his speech pattern is odd. Give the reader a quick glimpse of even the minor characters before your protagonist moves on.

Likewise, sticking a character into a setting without giving the reader a clue of the surroundings, the time of day, the season of the year, sensory details, or a mental image of the backdrop is confusing. In order to have a clear picture of the story timeline, the reader depends on the author to show the grass still wet with morning dew, or the blazing sun overhead at midday. The author needs to make sense of the movement of time in the story so the events feel realistic, and the reader can place the character in a mental calendar. Major holidays don’t come and go without notice, nor do the changing of the seasons. I like to drop in my characters’ reactions to the heat of summer, or the chill of autumn. Instead of saying, Three months later, the air was cooler… I show the character fetching her heavier cloak instead of her lightweight shawl, because there is a nip in the air. Perhaps when she steps out her door, she is surprised to see frost covering the ground. Showing the character reacting to the time of day, or the time of year, lets the reader move forward with the timeline.

Surroundings that are the backdrop for numerous scenes in the story–the kitchen, the workplace, the place where the character often goes to think–need to be vivid in the mind of the reader. But don’t stop the forward progression of the story to drop in a paragraph of description. Sprinkle the description in through the eyes and movements of the character in the first few chapters. By chapter three or four, the reader will have a good mental picture in her mind of what that place looks like.

Sensory details pull the reader into the story. Let the reader smell the fresh loaves of bread cooling on the table, or the fragrance of clover and summer grasses in a meadow. The sound of a sawmill, a cattle ranch, a busy street, or a thunderstorm moving in, or the grating sound of a character’s nasal-quality voice can help paint an image for the reader. Let the reader feel the thorny vines snagging at the character’s hands and arms when she picks blackberries, or taste the sweet blackberry juice on her tongue when the character pops a few berries into her mouth. Sensory details put the reader into the character’s head, and description creates a story world into which your reader can step.

Posted in creating characters, creating setting, Description, historic details, minor characters, settings | Tagged | Leave a comment

SETTING DETAILS — Where am I?

Posted on May 29, 2020 by Connie Stevens

There is an expression used in fiction writing–“talking heads.” It means a character is speaking, his lines of dialogue are there, but the reader has no idea what this character looks like. Is he tall, short, fat, skinny, does he have a beard, does he need a haircut, does he have bad teeth?  We “hear” him, but we can’t “see” him. This happens most often when the author is using a wallpaper character, created for the purpose of moving your POV character through the story. A wallpaper character is disposable–you might only see him a couple of times in the story, but he serves a purpose. But even a wallpaper character has a face and a body.

The same goes for setting details. Let your reader know where your character is and not just what he’s doing. Otherwise, he is detached and floating through the scene. He needs to be anchors to the place he is in at the moment.

Whether your scene takes place in a plush, ornate room, or a pitiful shack, the reader would like to see his surroundings. An historical cabin is a very different setting from  modern-day home. A rustic prairie town won’t sound or smell the same as a bustling city. A farm definitely won’t sound or smell the same as a high-end penthouse. Allowing your reader to step into the scene and experience the setting around her pulls her deeper into the story. The reader is now part in the story because she is standing in the middle of it.

This is NOT to imply you should drop in a block of descriptive narrative, painting a picture of the setting. Don’t stop the forward progression of the story to use half of a page telling the reader every detail of the platform on which the actors are playing. Instead, weave the setting details into the character’s POV. How does he react to the noise of the city? Does she cringe at the sight and smell of animal droppings around the barnyard? Does envy strike a strident chord when the character runs her fingers over the silk tapestry-covered furniture? Is your character fascinated by unusual wildflowers, or trees? Perhaps he reaches to pluck a flower, only to have thorny vines scratch his hand.

These are all setting details shown through the eyes of the POV character. As a result, the reader experiences a presence in the story. When you put your reader IN the setting, the story unfolds around her and she is part of it.

Posted in backdrop for characters, conflicting emotions, creating setting, fictional characters, historic details, readers, Relatable characters, secondary characters, setting details, settings | Leave a comment

REGIONAL DIALECTS–yay or nay?

Posted on May 22, 2020 by Connie Stevens

I recently finished–and turned in (YAAAY!!) — a story in which several of my characters speak with a regional dialect. The story is set in 1886 in the mountains of western North Carolina. They have lived their entire fictional lives in an area of the country where the use of “ain’t,” and dropping the “g” at the end of an ING word are perfectly acceptable. Instead of “if” they say “iffen,” and they will reckon rather than suppose. Most of these characters can turn a phrase that nails them as being native to the Appalachian mountains. Writing the dialogue for these characters was a delight for me, although I realize not all readers or authors will agree. Some will find it endearing. Others find it grating on their perfect-grammar nerves. You can’t please all the readers all the time. (I think Abe Lincoln said that.)

When writing in Deep POV, I go a step further. My POV character, James, has lived in this area of the country for all 74 of his years. For him to use perfect grammar would be out of character. Likewise, for him to think with perfect grammar would be unnatural. When I am writing in James’s POV, his narrative reflects the way he speaks. When he observes another person shaking his head in disagreement, James thinks: He waggled his head like he were tryin’ to shake a doodlebug out o’ his ear. This is in the narrative–James’s thoughts, not his dialogue. If I were to re-write this narrative to read: He shook his head in vehement disagreement, it would sound like a narrator was standing backstage with a microphone, telling the reader what James was thinking. It certainly would not sound like James, and I would much rather the reader would see what James is thinking.

I want my character’s narrative to sound so much like him that even if I don’t mention his name in the first sentence of the scene, the reader will know immediately that it’s James. This helps build a relationship between the reader and the character–and believe me, James is a beloved character. He is the kind of person with whom you wish you could sit down and ask for his advice. He may not sound like a Philadelphia lawyer, but his wisdom is vast. This is why I want to use regional dialects even in the narrative portion of the story. It helps the reader become acquainted with the character, and as the story progresses, the reader recognizes the character. By the end of the story, the reader sorrows just a little to turn the last page because she will miss that character.

The relationship between the reader and the characters is what will motivate that reader to look for your next book, because she will know there are new friends to be made in a book with your name on the front.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Making Characters Relatable

Posted on May 11, 2020 by Connie Stevens

The story I am currently working on features a young man and an old man as two of the characters. The young man is searching, seeking for purpose and acceptance. Having grown up in the shadow of an older brother who always succeeded at everything he did, this character never managed to win his father’s affection or approval. How often do we encounter someone who is either estranged from a parent, or never truly knew the love of a parent? More often than we might think. When readers identify with your characters’ circumstances or background, they connect with that character emotionally. They root for them, they want to see that character rise above the issues from his past. Isn’t that what we do with each other? If a friend is dealing with a hurtful situation, we pray for them, we try to encourage them. That’s what we want our readers to do with our characters.

This young character of mine, in the course of his struggles, encounters the old man. At first the young man is viewed as an adversary. The old man and his granddaughter believe this guy wants to cheat them out of their land. During the course of the story, however,  the older man’s insight discerns the need in the young man’s life. His years of walking with God have given him perception, and he employs gentle patience and faith in dealing with the young man.

While the young man is strong and able-bodied, he wavers in spirit. The old man’s physical strength is waning, and he is finding it more difficult to accomplish the tasks he once did with ease. The old man’s strength is in his experience and wisdom. His faith is a beacon for the younger man.

Writing Christian fiction means crafting characters with whom our readers can connect, but also characters who have traveled through hard times, struggled to persevere, possibly made some wrong choices, experienced forgiveness, and have grown in faith.  These characters start out as our imaginary friends, but they must grow in their realism if we expect readers to fall in love with them and learn timeless truths from them.

 

Posted in Brainstorming characters, character photos, creating characters, fictional characters, readers, Relatable characters, seeking, Why I write | Tagged | Leave a comment

WHEN GOD CHANGES YOUR PLANS

Posted on May 10, 2020 by Connie Stevens

“A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” Proverbs 16:9

We are generally pretty good at deciding what we want. Our selfish nature tends to run ahead of the Lord, and we devise all sorts of reasons why our choice is best. The trouble is our plans may not line up with God’s plans. I don’t always make the right decisions or choices.

The writing life sometimes hits dead ends–I mean like running headlong into a brick wall kind of dead end. Sometimes God tries to steer my focus in a another direction, but I’m doggedly charging down this road because this is my plan. Other times, I stumble around in the dark, not knowing where I am in this writing journey. Locating the light switch means sitting down, being quiet, and opening God’s word. If I need to hear from God, checking my inbox or Facebook isn’t the most effective way to do it. There is only one way to communicate with God, and that is through reading His instruction manual and prayer.

If you work in an office or some other place of employment, chances are you have regular staff meetings in which your boss tells his workers what he expects. If you don’t follow his instructions, a private one-on-one meeting usually follows. If I say I am writing for God, but don’t heed His direction, I can count on a one-on-one meeting taking place.

BUT . . . if I REQUEST that one-on-one meeting–if I open His word and ask Him to speak to me through His word, He will guide my fingers on the keyboard with more clarity than Googlemaps. When I turn off the distractions, be still and quiet my heart before God, He will direct my steps, or in this case my fingers. If my writing does not honor Him, I might as well quit.

Posted in change plans, plans, purpose, seeking, Why I write | Leave a comment

How Do You REALLY Feel?

Posted on February 6, 2019 by Connie Stevens

We’ve all heard–and used–the expressions: Down deep in your heart…, my gut feeling…, her secret desire…, his hidden thoughts…, and one of my favorites: If I was to be truly honest…

I’ve recently been working on some materials for a workshop I’ll be teaching on writing Deep POV, and the above expressions are precisely the considerations authors must address in order to show their characters’ deep points of view. Letting characters express themselves is like seasoning a pot of homemade soup–the result can be savory and the aroma can draw those around it. Omitting the seasoning leaves the soup flat and tasteless. If the characters in my stories don’t reveal their deepest feelings and reactions, my readers will quickly become bored with the story.

Our characters will sometimes attempt to hide their true feelings from the other characters in the story, but they can’t hide them from the reader. Often, one or two of the plot threads involve a main character concealing his past, or the heroine struggling with trust issues because of an earlier betrayal. Perhaps a character never felt that he measured up when compared with a sibling, or constantly failed at everything he ever tried to do. Maybe one of your characters has a checkered past and he is seeking a fresh start. Even if the other characters in the story aren’t aware of the hero/heroine’s struggles, the reader must be able to identify and commiserate with them. Otherwise, the reader has no reason to keep turning pages.

Whatever the reason for the conflict, and the emotions connected to it, our characters must reveal those emotions to the reader. This may involve your character having a bit of a split personality–the person he lets everyone see, and the person he is inside. Those internal feelings, no matter how hard your character tries to hide them, will determine how he reacts and responds to different situations. Everything that comprises his emotional make-up–greed, fear, ambition, distrust, grief–will affect the way he reacts, and every emotion has internal and external reactions.

Here is an example scenario:
Our hero was raised in a home with an abusive, alcoholic father who spent every nickel on drink. His mother worked two jobs, but often missed work because his father had beaten her in a drunken rage. Finally, his mother died of injuries sustained at the hands of her husband, and our hero, just fourteen years old, tried to raise his younger sister. [That is the hero’s back story.] In chapter one, the story opens with our hero and his sister now both in their twenties. Over the years, they’ve had a very close relationship, but lately she is drawing away from him. One day, he learns she’s been hiding the fact from him that she is dating a man who works as a bartender. What kind of emotions are going roil through him? How will he respond to his sister? What does he want to say to her boyfriend?
How does this character really feel? The reader wants to see his internal emotions, even if he is trying to hold himself together on the outside, and the other characters aren’t aware of the storm going on in his heart.

SHOW those deep internal emotions so the reader can get a clearer and more complete picture of who your characters are.

Posted in conflicting emotions, creating characters, family history, fictional characters, point of view, readers, Writing Deep POV | Leave a comment

WHEN RESEARCH GETS IN THE WAY

Posted on June 12, 2018 by Connie Stevens

Have you ever read a book and found a glaring error? I’m not talking about a misspelled word or a grammar mistake. How does it make you feel as a reader if the author has obviously not done her research and weaves inaccuracies into the story–particularly if one of the main plot threads is built upon that faulty foundation? I’ve heard readers say they stopped reading a book because the setting was a location with which they were quite familiar and the author had taken such liberties, the reader was pulled out of the story. This is the reason I invent fictitious towns in which to set my stories most of the time. It allows me to lay out the town, name the streets, place buildings and business where I want to, and create long-time residents of said town without the fear that a reader will challenge any of it.

Researching for historically accurate information for a story can be challenging, especially when questions regarding obscure issues arise for which one can’t find answers. Sometimes it’s the trivial details that keep an author awake half the night. Those fine lines that become blurred in the interpretation make me crazy. The elements that make up a plot thread can seem incidental until I begin putting the pieces of the story together.

If it were something as simple as the location of the mercantile or post office, or whether or not the main street was called Main Street, I could probably dig up that information by talking to the local librarian or some sweet old soul who has lived there for 92 years. They are usually a wealth of information. However, all research isn’t that easy or that much fun.

For my current project, I’m trying to find out if there were any laws or ordinances that protected cemeteries from being disturbed (think dug up, moved, or built upon) in the late 19th century. In 2018, the very thought of erecting a building on top of graves is absurd, but a power-hungry character in 1886 might not think the same way. After all, there must have been a time when it became necessary to pass such laws. So. . . when was that?

I exhausted all my favorite “go to” sites — Library of Congress, historical societies local to my setting, chamber of commerce, local librarian, state historical sites. It’s a relatively minor detail, but historical accuracy is important because it gives my stories credibility. I never want a reader to find a mistake in my research and feel they can’t trust me as an author.

It finally occurred to me that I could create a plot twist to detour around making the cemetery the biggest point of conflict. Plot twists are just that–twisted situations and circumstances in the lives of my story characters that are developed for the purpose of complicating their lives. (Yes, authors can be heartless, sometimes.) What if there is a more pressing point of contention, a more urgent matter that draws the focus from the cemetery to the deep-rooted cause of the strife between the characters–especially if each character has their own personal reason for going to battle? Then, I’m shining the spotlight on the emotions, the goals, the motivations of each character. If I do that, the story becomes character-driven instead of plot-driven, and the issue with the family “plot” drops into the background.

Yep, that can work.

Posted in backdrop for characters, cemeteries, creating setting, fictional characters, historic details, historical fiction, readers, Research, Research for fiction, settings, unexpected plot twists | Leave a comment