No, I’m not going to tell
you that the Cobb salad I had on Saturday taught me that multiple ingredients
make a story more interesting. That isn’t what I mean by lessons from lunch.
I drove 300 miles (round
trip) on Saturday to hear a panel of respected authors speak at an ACFW Indiana
luncheon. Some of the lessons I learned came from the panel (composed of Dawn
Crandall, Denise Hunter, Rachael Phillips, and Cara Putman), but some came from
the conversation beforehand. There were three quotes that I found particularly noteworthy.
I am using the word “quotes” loosely, however. I haven’t taken shorthand since
high school and may not have the words down exactly right, but they are
substantially correct.
- Writing something you aren’t
interested in is like marrying the wrong person. While we were eating
lunch, the people at my table were talking about the tension between
writing as a business and writing what is on our hearts. Someone (possibly
me) made the statement that if you aren’t excited about what you write,
the product shows it. Then Darren Kehrer made the statement used here. He also
said you end up hating the person you marry or the manuscript you have
written.
Some writers
are so concerned about making money that they accept any assignments that come
their way. The best writers are able to take what looks like an uninspiring assignment
and find an approach that excites them. But I have also read articles and books
that sound as if even the author was bored. I have taken several assignments
over my writing career, and I’ve always managed to find the angle that gets me
excited. But it is better to turn a project down than to put the reader to
sleep.
- Reading is the most important
preparation for writing. Cara Putman made this statement during the panel,
and she is in good company. In On
Writing, Stephen King said, “If you want to be a writer, you must do
two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
Cara wasn’t
just talking about reading for pleasure, however. We need to read a book that
way first to get the full enjoyment from it. But Cara was saying that we also
need to analyze the books we read to understand what makes them captivate us.
As she got ready to write her first legal thriller, she took books by three
authors she thinks are good at it and wrote a chapter-by-chapter summary for
each. That showed her the plot pattern that can make a good thriller.
- God is faithful, but He is not predictable.
Rachael Phillips said this during the panel. Her point was that we may
think we know where we are going or where God wants us to go with our
writing, and all of a sudden He sends us down a different path. I’ve
certainly found that to be true in my life.
I tried writing
fiction in my high school days, but by the time I was ready to write as a
serious pursuit, I was convinced that non-fiction magazine articles were my
forte. I would never write a book. God didn’t agree, and there I was writing a
book proposal and signing a contract for my first non-fiction book, In God We Trust. Okay, so maybe I could
handle non-fiction books. But I would never write fiction. Then I got an idea
for an adult (as in grown-up, not X-rated) novel, and I wrote it. Then I wrote
another, and I have just finished a third. None of those novels have been
published yet, but they show the folly of saying “never.” My most recently
completed project is a middle-grade historical novel. Each new genre has been harder
than the previous one. God certainly knows how to challenge me. He must also
laugh at my bold statements about what I can or will “never” do.
I love
reading mysteries, but I could never write one. Does anybody want to take bets?
The Cobb salad was good,
but the lessons from lunch were even better.
__________
The image at the head of
this post shows Jo March reading. Jo March was Louisa May Alcott’s fictionalized
version of herself, and she loved to read books as much as she loved to write
them.
The picture was drawn by
Frank T. Merrill and was included in the original edition of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. First
published in 1868, the illustration is in the public domain because of its age.
