The Writer’s Eureka Moment

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Sometimes it’s writer’s block, sometimes mental exhaustion or impossible expectations, that drag us to a standstill. A lethargy sets in that smothers ambition and overshadows everything with its ‘I’ll-never-get-out-from-under-this-cloud’ sense of gloom. If you haven’t experienced it, you likely know others who have.

The thing is, it feels as if it will never end, but it always does.

If we’re writers, we’ve struggled for hours, days, maybe even months, to find the key to some plot dilemma. The harder we try, the farther success retreats. The brain is funny that way. It taunts with a conviction that we’re doomed to fail.

When we refuse to be overwhelmed by discouragement, refuse to give up, we inch forward with increasing momentum. We find other places for our minds to dwell while the subconscious works on the problem, until…

Eureka!!!

Endorphins release the elusive creativity… or some similar momentous action occurs. That’s my take on it, anyway. I’m not aware of any scientific explanation for why the brain suddenly allows an idea to explode out of the suffocating grey matter into the bright light of inspiration. I don’t need an explanation. I know it happens if I allow myself a smidgen of optimism and a large dose of patience.

How would you describe that moment of revelation? Where are you at present: nearing a breakthrough, streaking along in the light, or still trying to shove the cloud away?

Never fear. The light WILL shine through.

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“Remember me in the light of your unfailing love,
for you are merciful, oh Lord.”

[Psalm 25:7]

~  ~  ~

Writing and Fence Building

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Fifteen years of shade and encroaching moss did their damage. The fence around our 30’ x 40’ dog yard wobbled like a bobble head if we leaned against it, and only a few of the posts kept it upright. Fortunately our dog wasn’t an escape artist, but there was very little keeping him from a romp in the neighbourhood. Replacement couldn’t be put off any longer.

One man, four months and $1200 later, the old fence has been dissembled section by section, and a new one put up in its place. The yard needed to be safe and usable during construction so nails were carefully removed from the old boards as they came down, and the wood was stacked outside of the yard. Old wire fencing temporarily filled each gap as it was created. It’s been painstakingly slow work, but – halleluia! – the job is almost done, with just a few cosmetic tasks left.

Each time I took a progress photo to send to our family I found myself comparing my husband’s fence building to my novel writing endeavour.

• The initial commitment
• Planning and research
• Calculating and obtaining the necessary materials
• Starting the work, and keeping going despite bad weather and interruptions
• Taking down less than perfectly cut boards and redoing them so the next ones will fit properly
• Slowly building the sections and putting everything together until only one final gap is left
• Crafting the closure
• Trimming and refining the finished product.
• Taking pride in a job well done

Yes, there are similarities.  What other forms of construction can be compared to novel writing? Piecing a quilt? Composing a song? Planning a Sunday School lesson?

Is the existence of such similarities enough to prove a theory that formulas or templates can be used to produce almost anything? Then at what point do creations cease to be art? When does our writing stop being original and become just another fence board?

Oh, my! I’ve digressed a long way, haven’t I? I should be content that the dog can’t find his way into the creek or the neighbour’s garden and stop this mental meandering.

By the way, have you built any fences lately? Finished writing any novels?

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Author Interview: David Ebright

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Everyone knows I don’t write for young adults (well, except for once, under a pseudonym), and I normally don’t read YA novels either. My preference is for mainstream mystery and suspense, and in recent years I’ve found my way to inspirational romantic suspense. But I never, hardly ever, read YA.

Then again, when I think back to the author interviews I’ve done, several have been with YA writers. When I like the people, and I like how they write, I read their books. Today’s guest is one of those people.

I’m not sure how I first came across Dave Ebright’s blog, but I remember finding his humorous post on getting a new computer just at the time I’d gone through the teeth-gnashing frustration of replacing all the electronics in two offices, thanks to a nasty power surge. He had me laughing, and I was hooked. That was back in January 2009. He had just released BAD LATITUDE, and before I could figure out why I was barking, “Ahoy, mate!” I was reading all about pirates, ghosts and teenage treasure hunters… and loving it.

Now he’s published the second book in the Jack Rackham Adventure series and I think it’s about time you met the Haunted City Writer himself. He’s every bit as interesting as the stories he writes.

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Dave (Pop) and grandson Jack on the real "Laffin' Gaff'"

CG:             Welcome, Dave. I’m so pleased you agreed to this interview. You keep telling me you’re not a serious author, and yet RECKLESS ENDEAVOR is your second published novel. How do you explain that?

DE:           Thanks for inviting me. This is my first-ever book-related interview and will no doubt drive your readers away in droves. It’ll take months for your blog to recover. Sorry.

Do I really have two books out now? Wow. I had no idea. To begin ‘splainin’… being an author never crossed my mind. I DO remember the very day I started this craziness. Something clicked and I discovered that writing was enjoyable and relaxing, so I kept working at it. What started as a short story for my grandson (Jack) turned into BAD LATITUDE. While BL was in the works, I had several spin-off ideas so I did a major rewrite to create a lead into the next book. The Rackham name did not, in fact, become part of the story until well after the first draft and rewrite was finished. One day I was thinkin’ what if Jack (my primary character) was the descendant of a real pirate? Rewrite. And now there are two books with a third underway – all part of the Jack Rackham Adventure series. How strange is that?

CG:            What’s the story about? This is a sequel to BAD LATITUDE, isn’t it? Does it work as a stand-alone book, too, or ?

DE:           RECKLESS is a sequel and it absolutely stands alone … and once again leads into another adventure. I could say it’s a ghost story, but that would be only partly true, though the ghost (Calico Jack Rackham – a pirate hanged in 1720) is a key character. The story follows the summertime high seas voyage of four sixteen-year-olds (one being a homeless girl) aboard an 82 foot schooner with special features, from St Augustine through the Bermuda Triangle and into the Bahamas in search of another lost treasure. It’s about family, friendship, loyalty and facing fears and challenges.

CG:            In the first photo I saw of you on your old website, the one I’ve posted above, you resembled a biker guy in your sleeveless t-shirt, bandana, and tattoos. Somehow I didn’t picture you as a writer of Young Adult novels. What prompted you to choose this genre?

DE:           Hah! I hear that biker guy stuff all the time and I don’t even ride. YA sorta chose me. For years I coached teenagers. Deb and I were always surrounded by kids, including our two boys and their friends, and our house was always a very busy place. (This is where Nan and Pop received their training?) I guess, to a degree, it’s an example of ‘write what you know’ and I do know kids. 

CG:            How long did it take you to write RECKLESS ENDEAVOR compared to your previous novel?

DE:           Getting the draft down didn’t take long at all – but the work was interrupted by a lot of business related travel. I’d hoped to have RECKLESS out in late 2009 but it ended up taking two years.

CG:             With your home in St Augustine, your company’s office in Jacksonville, and a more-than-year-long work project in Ft Lauderdale, you must spend a lot of time on the road. How do you fit in writing time, and how much marketing have you been able to do?

DE:           I’ve been out of town (thankfully, Deb travels with me) since October 2008 with the exception of a few consecutive months at the end of ’09. I usually grab chunks of writing time late at night – starting at 9PM and going non-stop ‘til 4AM a couple of times a week. As for marketing… what is that exactly?            

CG:            Do you have support in your writing… a mentor, critique group, etc.?

DE:             I wish.

Dave with what he calls his "book signing for kids" face

CG:            What’s your writing process like? Do you plot and outline first, or do you dive in and let your characters take charge?

DE:             On RECKLESS I did some outlining to keep timelines straight. It seemed helpful, so with my current WIP I’ve created a pretty thorough outline – minus the ending. I never write any part of the ending ‘til the end.

CG:            Where do you do most of your writing? Have you built that nautical themed writing outbuilding yet?

DE:             The outbuilding will have to wait. I do have a very comfortable writing room at home in St Augustine, which now gets minimal use – it does have a tropical theme. In Ft Lauderdale I have a smallish antique desk in a bedroom – which works out okay. Both houses have screened-in porches, perfect writing spots when it’s not too hot.

CG:            Every writer has a story about the publication process. What led you to self publish and how has the experience been for you?

DE:            Self-publishing was the right path for me, and I have no regrets. Keep in mind, I was 50 years old (it was July 19^th, 2007) when I started writing, already had and still have a successful business career, and had no aspirations to be the next Mark Twain, though that would be cool – except for the part where they take away the house to turn it into a museum. With self-publishing I liked the idea of controlling content, cover, title, etc. I really had no motivation to go through the query/rejection process. Had I started writing when I was younger, maybe I would have approached it differently. So nowadays, kids and adults(!) are reading my books and asking when the next Jack Rackham Adventure will be available. 

The Dave I know best

CG:            Looking back, is there anything about the process that you wish you’d known before you started writing?

DE:              They say ignorance is bliss. Then you get into that whole old dog/new tricks debate… besides, I don’t know anything now. 

CG:            Where can people buy copies of RECKLESS ENDEAVOR and BAD LATITUDE?

DE:            Amazon.com or several fantastic shops in St Augustine and (now) Key West. It’s spreading … like a disease. Hint: It’s only $2.99 on Kindle.

CG:            What’s next? Do you have other stories in the works?

DE:            Yep. There’s another Jack Rackham Adventure underway – the title is still up in the air. And… (picture the biker guy again?)… I’m working on a book for little kids called “Spanky and the Speckled Butterbean.” I’ve teamed up with an awesome artist from Atlanta for the illustrations.

Lizards beware!

CG:            Anything I haven’t asked you that you’d like to take the opportunity to mention? Like what is it with those lizards in your pool? 

DE:           Hey, I had no idea lizards couldn’t swim when I swatted that poor fella off the screen. It was just bad luck that he landed in the pool. I’ll never forget the look of pure terror on his poor reptilian face as he sank below the waves… I mean surface.  (*sniff*)

~  ~  ~

 

Bio:

Dave Ebright lives in St Augustine, Florida where he creates the characters and stories for the action packed Jack Rackham Adventure series.             

Blog:           http://jaxpop.blogspot.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dave.ebright

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What’s right and wrong with Christian fiction?

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Does anyone really know what constitutes good Christian fiction? Four years ago I was invited to do several book reviews for our national church magazine, The Presbyterian Record. The books ranged from historical fiction to children’s fiction, and I chose to consolidate the reviews in one article, incorporating the reactions of fictitious readers.

Those reactions reflected conversations I’d had with people whose experiences with Christian fiction were frequently negative. They told me plots were too often superficial, with stilted characters, unrealistic conflicts and predictable conclusions.  Any romance reminded them of a television commercial where the closest lovers got to each other was running through a field of wildflowers, arms outstretched for an embrace. I have to admit their opinions mirrored my own, based on what I’d read twenty years ago.

But things are changing. After reading the designated books for the review, I realized many written in the twenty-first century were more satisfying than I expected. There were still shortcomings, but that’s just as true in books written for the secular market.

Although the guidelines of CBA publishers have relaxed a little, allowing for more true-to-life plots, and authors are writing grittier Christian fiction in ever-expanding genres, criticism of it still exists. In their blog posts yesterday authors Katie Ganshert and Jennifer Hale both discussed the question of why.

Jennifer suggested it may be in how we deal with the conversion scene. She said, “I really don’t enjoy books where the character “gets saved” and everyone lives happily ever after.  That’s not realistic. And nine times out of ten, I skip reading the “conversion scene” in a novel.  Why?  Several reasons.  But mostly because there is no cheesier part of the book than the conversion scene. It’s a very difficult scene to get right.”

Katie asked, when dissatisfaction with Christian fiction is expressed, “[is it] Christianity in general that bothers these readers, or the way the Christian themes are handled?”

I’m not sure the answer can be reduced to a generalization, but I’m interested in your opinion. If you don’t read Christian fiction, why not? And if you do read it, what genre do you prefer? What do you especially like or dislike about many of the stories?

~

I hope you’ll join me here on Monday for an interview with
YA author Dave Ebright.

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Inspiration in Unlikely Places

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An idea eludes my pen… skips sullenly into shadowy places where I cannot go, and refuses to be teased back into the light.  Some days it’s like that. I sigh, resigned, and move on to hunt down a fresh one.

In the newness of my exploration I bemoan the continued barrenness. Where to go from here? Eyes closed, mind emptied, I search among the rough, undefined thoughts, until in the most unlikely of places, a tiny idea blooms.

Wild Strawberry

How it arrived and survived without nourishment or nurture is a mystery but I focus on it with thanksgiving, and begin writing again.

Sometimes we look in the wrong places for inspiration. Do you always find your ideas in emotionally rich surroundings? Or do they also reveal themselves in bleak landscapes?

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Refilled and ready to write again

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What’s that song? “Back in the Saddle Again?” Yeah, that’s it.

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I’ve been away since last Wednesday, taking the refreshment break I mentioned, trading the trickle of my deck’s water garden for the roar of the Similkameen River. My w.i.p. didn’t accompany me, but I wrote every day and took more than 150 photos, experimenting with my new camera.

Breaks are good and necessary things, especially when it comes to nurturing creativity.  We can’t keep drawing from the well without refilling it. Eventually we’re drained dry.

Each of us has our unique way of replenishing enthusiasm for the task. I’ve mentioned before how I like to sit by the ocean and hear the waves pound in.  There was no salty water in close proximity last week, but the wild river water was a wonderful substitute. Everywhere I wandered, clicking the shutter at all the wonders scattered about, the roar accompanied me – it overpowered all other sounds, including the arguments I’d been having with myself.

Creation’s beauty was everywhere but within the beauty was a reminder that it takes more than enthusiasm to get a job done. It takes hard work. Learning, dreaming, even planning, are all part of the writing process. But unless we begin getting the words onto a page, and keep putting them there until the whole story is told, nothing is really accomplished.

So yes, I’m back in the saddle again, renewed and ready to continue the task at hand. How about you? If you have a viable dream, are you working to make it a reality, or just daydreaming about possibilities?

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“And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God.”
[Psalm 40:3a KJV]
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“I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart;
I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.”
[Psalm 9:1 KJV] 

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Time for Refreshment

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I’m taking a ‘refreshment break’ today.

Hope you have a great weekend. See you on Monday.

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Trying to make it perfect… or, revision frustration

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The perfect shot shouldn’t have been all that difficult. I followed the striking black and yellow Tiger Swallowtail butterfly around the yard, sneaking up with camera in hand whenever he fluttered within range and settled on a plant. But I barely had a chance to locate him in the viewfinder before he skittered away again… always a little too fast for me, even with my new zoom lens. I snapped more failed shots than I like to admit, until finally I gave up and traded the camera for a book.

A few minutes later movement yanked my attention from the page. There was the butterfly, flitting from blossom to blossom on a rhododendron bush almost within arm’s reach. Afraid to let him out of my sight, I grabbed the camera from the patio table and leaned over to capture the photo. He obliged me by remaining still long enough to capture my perfect shot… except, when I uploaded it onto the computer I discovered the exasperating truth – it wasn’t perfect at all. The photo was fine; this time it was the butterfly that was flawed.

 

So often my writing disappoints me in a similar way. I try for the perfect words, sometimes struggling until I fling myself out of the chair in frustration. It’s after a break when I’ve cleared my mind and returned to face the page with resignation that words surprise me. They slip effortlessly onto the page, and I finish the session with a glow of satisfaction. It’s finally perfect.

The glow lasts until the scrutiny of revision, or someone’s critique, when the flaws are discovered. It was almost right, but not quite. Not perfect after all.

It’s at that moment I’m tempted to discard the whole thing.  Perseverance is hard. When all the effort proves ineffective, persistence seems futile. In such moments I remember the butterflies.

The next day they were back, and one hovered over that same rhododendron. I watched as he floated lightly onto a blossom and stayed there, wings outstretched. He stayed while I stepped into my shoes, stayed while I found the camera, stayed when I opened the patio door and stayed as I cautiously approached. It was as if he were urging me not to give up but try again. I tried, and this time was rewarded.

Every successful writer I know says, “Never give up.”

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“Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us.
And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement
as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.”

Romans 15:4 NLT

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Finding the words to show, not tell

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“There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose,
because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted.”
[Henri Matisse]

Description, we’re told, is best achieved not in telling, but in showing — not in saying it’s raining, but in helping the reader feel raindrops on his face. (Who said that, BTW?) If Henri Matisse thinks painting a rose is difficult, he should try describing one! That God can even create such perfection leaves me without words.

How about you? Could you write a sentence or two that would allow readers to experience the fragile blush, the satin texture, of this beauty?

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“Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”
[Jeremiah 32:17 NIV]

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The right outlook makes a big difference during revisions!

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How many July days have you needed to keep a lamp lit the entire day? I clicked the switch on as I entered the family room yesterday morning and turned it out fifteen hours later.  The entire time I needed extra light to keep the day’s grey gloom at bay.

The morning sky slouched into the trees, letting wisps of mist settle between branches. Later the mist became drizzle, and moisture accumulated until it trickled from the deck umbrella.

The forecast for today was no better, and as I planned for this post I contemplated my collection of photos, wondering what might brighten another cheerless day. Perhaps this rhododendron, taken as it basked in Saturday’s sunshine.

But it didn’t reflect the dreary truth, so I grabbed the camera and ventured out into the rain, expecting to capture a soggy, bedraggled bloom to throw onto the page. Instead, I found rain-washed glory, and liquid diamonds.

Raindrops captured in a spider's web

My outlook was typical of my approach to the novel revision that currently bugs me. I’m not pleased with some of the scenes and it’s tempting to think there’s nothing worth salvaging. I mull over them day after day, moody and miserable, convinced the writing is pedantic. I decide the only thing to do is delete the scenes and rewrite from scratch, but when I open the file and take an in-depth look, I discover unexpected gems that are worth saving, bright spots that convince me they belong in the story.

Often, when the Inner Critic is being persuasive about the terrible caliber of our writing, it’s our own perspective that’s skewed. Instead of dwelling on the negatives maybe we need to take a break, adjust our attitude, refocus, and determine to look for the bits of genius (don’t laugh… I’m trying to be positive here) that are worth saving.

Do emotions affect your perception of the quality of your writing? How do you keep your moods in check so you can be more unbiased? Or do you perhaps use your moods to help you colour particular scenes?

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“The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure,
the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season,
and to bless all the work of thine hand.”
[Deuteronomy 28:12a KJV]
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