The wisdom of Samwise Gamgee

Frodo: I can't do this, Sam.

Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?

Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.”  

In watching Lord of the Rings, Samwise Gamgee taught me three things.

1. Never forsake a friend, no matter what.

2. There is always hope, even when things seem the darkest.

3. To always have strength in the face of adversity.



"There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tower high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."

When I first began writing my novel, I had no plans for my characters. I was thirteen and just writing a story for fun. It was going to be full of adventure and suspense and awesome battles and duplicity. It was only until after I had finished the book and began growing up myself that I discovered there was more to a story than just great plots.

Heart.

 

 

 

 

Embedding personality, appeal, and emotion into my characters proved to me more of an adventure than all the plotlines together. At first I had no idea what kind of personalities I even wanted them to have or what I wanted those personalities to accomplish.

 

"I don't know how to say it, but after last night I feel different. I seem to see ahead, in a kind of way. I know we are going to take a very long road, into darkness; but I know I can't turn back. It isn't right to see Elves now, nor dragons, nor mountains, that I want - I don't rightly know what I want: but I have something to do before the end, and it lies ahead, not in the Shire. I must see it through, sir, if you understand me."                

 

 

 

 



Gradually as I began to understand the development of characters in other books, movies, and people around me. The more I recognized certain quirks, traits, and behaviors, the more I was able to map out what kind of person I wanted to create in each of my characters.

 

When I first watched Lord of the Rings, I was struck my Samwise's part in the Trilogy. Basically, with no Sam, there is no story. At least, no story worth telling. Pretty sure it would all be doom and despair, because Frodo would have given in to the Ring and everything good would have been destroyed.

 

And I began to want to create characters like that. Characters that are indispensable. Irreplaceable.

 

It's quite fun.

 

:D

 

 

Doomed

So I have more or less finished nothing on my book.

eh he... yeah, and I have how many more days until the end of the month? Don't remind me. I don't want to hear it. It will mean I will be cramming a million pages of editing into the last few days. Just be warned, you will probably not be hearing from me.

To be honest, I have simply been procrastinating. I have the time. I just have a million other things I'd rather do. Like play with my new puppy. Go outside with friends. Watch the Hobbit {which we have on DVD now}... I mean, the list goes on. I'd even rather go do the dishes and mop the floor right about now. Only because I know I have to finish now. Do any of you ever get like this? No? Well, I'll be fried. In hot oil. Maybe with a few eggs and bacon.



I thought for a while it would be cool to show you what editing for me looked like. I would pull a random piece from my book, post it here, then go edit it, and show you the result. Until I realized what that would mean...

My writing is changing soooo much right now...you wouldn't even recognize the two pieces. Most of what I have done has been rip out selections and put them back together totally differently. I completed a chapter that was killing me. {Finally!} It is now a compilation of what was two chapters... So yeah, that wouldn't work.

So, now would be a good time to pray for me. Really hard. I mean, REALLY hard. Because I am about to die. Of sleepless nights. And something like drain-bamage... SAVE ME!!!!!

 



the issue of a challenge...

Call me terrible. Say I'm a loser. I can take it. Because it's true...

 

After all, how many weeks has it been since I did a proper post? Too many, to say the least. But I am here now, and I guess that is what counts.

 

Here, and issuing a challenge.

 

I am doing the impossible. At least that's what I am telling myself. Really, had I thought about this a month ago or even a few weeks ago, I would have freaked out and wept into the carpeting. But today I am strong. Today I am going to do it.

 

 

I am going to finish my book, In the Shadow.

 

This month.

 

Yes, you heard me correctly. That is my goal. Impossible, to say the least.

 

 



 

 

I am excited because I only have about one third of the book left and I have been working hacking at it pretty well the last few days. I've switched a few of these later chapters around and now I am reworking their progression and the entire middle part of the book. But the goal is to have the entire thing finished by the 31st and then to do one final editing. At that point, I will seriously be giving it to my beta-readers, get some good feedback, and start trying for a publisher!!!

I am mostly afraid of not finding anyone who likes my book. Since I began it at thirteen, a lot of the storyline and character progression are cliche and simplistic. While that is not entirely bad, it is still less of a masterpiece than I hoped to bring to the world. I know, this first book ~ in fact, no book ~ can be perfect. But I want it as perfect as I can get it... So I am aiming for as perfect...as possible.

 

I was very tempted for a while to just ditch the whole book and start on one of my other ideas. But after 6 years spent dedicated to it's cause, I decided {with advice from my Dad} to keep at it. I'm glad. I am very fond of this book. It has been by my side through the hardest part of my life. It has been through five title changes. It has changed and changed and changed some more, sometimes more a reflection of how I have grown than anything else.

 

 

 

 

But that also put me in mind of all the time I have spent on this book and how much I'd like to go on. I am determined to finish this book {really finish it, to publishable standards} before embarking on a new novel. So many times during these last six years I've been sidtracked with secondary ideas and neglected this mammoth project for weeks...sometimes, even months. And it has dragged out for far too long. It is time to be finished. That is why I decided to challenge myself and get it done THIS month.

 

I know I am crazy. I have about a hundred pages of editing left. But I am sick of just picking at it. The time is here. The time to finish.

 

 

 

 

 



 

 And now for my challenge...

 

Do any of you have unfinished projects that you have been working on forever that just *need* to be done? Come join me in my adventure and try to finish it THIS month!! You won't regret it! In fact, I have a serious feeling you will relish the completion. There is always a sweet feeling of satisfaction when you have finally finished a project.

 

I am looking forward to that feeling.

 

 



 

BACKSTORY

Backstory is important. REALLY important. It sets the stage for your characters and makes them who they are. It shows you why they are to be pitied, gives them loveable personalities, or legitimate reason to be scared to death of what’s going on in the world. Every character will have their own backstory, with its own purpose.

How do you create a backstory?

 

Take a look at your character. Do they have weaknesses? Desires? Do they understand something so deeply it’s uncanny? Pull them out of their shells and figure out why they have these traits. And create a story about it. Is Miguel terrified of escalators? Perhaps he tripped and fell out of one once. Does Brianna evidence strength, when we know she is not? Maybe she was hurt before and tries to protect herself by pretending to be strong.

Backstory as a history.

There is also the side of backstory that creates a better comprehension of the setting, the personality, or the way the character interacts with others.

It is usually slipped in during a part of the story where things won’t make sense unless you KNOW why a character is doing something or love/hates another character. And it will be important for the rest of the story. 

EXAMPLE of backstory being slipped into the present story: from In the Shadow, my current WIP.

Setting:

Ancient Rome, during the reign of Emperor Nero.

Two slaves, Cyrus and Merrie, whispering together in the dark of the stable.

Cyrus is trying to convince Merrie to share important information she has learned with their master. Merrie is scared to death of their master and doesn’t want to do it.



Word count: 415

© Pure Grace

 

Cyrus’s hand felt cold against her shoulder.

“It is the only way. You must see that! If you cannot go to Messalina and you do not want to speak to Claudia, you have to go to their father.”

Merrie’s breath streamed out and fogged in the damp stable air. “It won’t work,” she protested.

“You just have to try. Trust me. Very little works in Rome, when you are a slave.”

Merrie glanced at him sharply. He had not spoken like that in a long time. Almost since she had met him. She still remember the day he had been dragged into the Antistius courtyard, rough, angry, his raggedly uneven black hair blown over his forehead and into his eyes, wrists bound behind him, a spitting, red-hot flame burning in his eyes. She had been with Messalina, preparing to go to a party, and their litter was late. She had watched silently as he fought against the men who struggled to haul him toward the center of the courtyard, where Kaderus awaited them. Then one of the men struck Cyrus, sprawling him on his face. Blood gushed from his nose. Merrie had seen enough. Grey eyes large with distress, she had sprung away from Messalina and skidded to her knees beside the wild boy, covering his head and shoulders with her body.

“Out of the way, child!” one of the men shouted at her.

“Don’t hurt him!” she plead, helping him to his knees.

“Hotheads will get what they deserve. We will deal with him.”

“He won’t cause any more trouble.” She had looked up into Cyrus’s eyes and watched the flame slowly flicker, fighting against her, and then gently give up.

“Nay,” he had whispered huskily. “I won’t cause any more trouble.”

She had helped him to his feet, wiped his bloodied face and elbows with her clean sash, and then skipped back to Messalina, feeling light and exultant inside. His eyes had trailed her until one of the men prodded him in the ribs, reminding him to move. From that day on, they had been best friends.

“You just have to try,” Cyrus leaned back in the hay, wincing slightly as a straw pricked him. “It is your only chance.”

Merrie paused, trying to make sense of the mixed fear and longing inside her. She wanted to tell someone, so badly! Yet she dreaded facing Antistius. The darkness pressed around her. She stood up and planted her feet. “What you say is impossible.”

Backstory can be very pretty. It can impact you and help you feel more familiar the character. It can leave you feeling grief for them, make you relate to their anger, dig deep in your heart, or cause you to laugh at their outrageous stupidity.

But it can also be used unwisely. It can tell too much, solve too many plot intrigues, and explain more of the characters faults or virtues than need to be yet known. Sometimes too much is explained away too early and there is no more desire to read because we have all the answers about why the character is behaving the way they are.

Personally, I love a good backstory. I enjoy learning about the characters and feeling more akin to what is going on. I really like backstory that draws me into the character, and makes me wish things hadn’t happened, or at least happened differently, even though you can’t change them {and you know it’s just a story and can’t help wishing it had ended up different}. Stories such as Katniss’s father in The Hunger Games. You hate the fact that he died. When you read slips of the past slide between passages of compelling story, you cannot help but feel the depth of meaning behind what is happening.

How to construct backstory.

First of all, you have to feel the need. Is something missing from your character? Is there a trait that is unexplained or a part of the story void?

Then you need to decide what kind of backstory will fill it. Do you want the readers to be saddened by what happened? Confused? Maybe angry? Or maybe you need them to laugh. Create the backstory according to your hole.

A few weeks ago, I was editing a portion of In the Shadow. I was in chapter 17 {over half-way through the book!} and reached a place where a character was telling his own backstory. The purpose for the story was to make my MC feel a greater contempt for another character and a consuming pity for the storyteller. The backstory was neither compelling nor humorous. I ditched it, did my research, and came up with a story that is powerful, frustrating, and breathtaking. Something that will leave you in as many tears as the MC. {But I can’t share it, or else I will spoil too much. ;)}

Where to put your backstory.

Most of the time backstory will flow out of the story itself. When that moment arises that you need an explanation or emotion for your characters OR readers, it will just fit in. But other times, you may already have a backstory planned for your character and just pitching it in will confuse the reader. It will feel like a misfit and as much a throw in as it is.

First, decide what the backstory fulfills. What is its purpose? Why is it necessary? Then find out where in the story that need arises. Where does the character face that need? That will be the place to put it.

Making backstory captivating.

The best way to make your backstory interesting is to interrupt it. Fling the reader into the middle of a great history and then cut it off short by springing them back to the present. So, just as they get to the reason for the character’s pain, or distrust, or any other purpose for the backstory, it is cut off and unanswered. Not only will they be frustrated fascinated, but they are going to want to know what happened and why, how it was solved and who did it…and keep reading.

And that of course, is every writer’s goal. ;)

Because backstory is so important, it has to be done well. Be careful about what you chose to put in and where. In most cases, you can feel safe in taking more out than leaving more in. Too much story can destroy the book. Too little? It might confuse your readers, but it will not take away from the story.

 

I hope you have fun creating your backstories!



So I have come to a conclusion...

Stories in the Mind is rather boring right now.

Trust me, it is painful to admit the truth, but it is a very evident one. There is absolutely nothing that sets it apart and makes it unique and cool. Just drab.

 

 



 

So I put the dilemma forth to you, my dear readers. What is it missing? Besides more posts from me, eh? I had so much inspiration when I started it, so much planned for it. And I still do…but I lack the motivation to get it done. {blah, THAT would be the issue, wouldn’t it…}

I think part of the problem may be that I’m doing less writing and more editing on my novels right now, so I am feeling burnt out for fresh ideas. I need a spark, something to explode in my face and dazzle me with its brilliance. {Assuming I don’t get freaked out and run away before it can shout out how wonderful it really is.}





I have a very distracted mind. Had I gone to school {rather than be homeschooled} I’m pretty certain I would have been diagnosed with ADHD. Well, at least the hyper part. I am wildly active and it is sidetracking. It keeps me from getting things done because I am always up and down and over here and over there…in my head just as much as in my body.

 

 

I’ve got it! I’m going to start sharing more of my adventures with you! Oh wait… I don’t have any adventures.

Well, that is a lie. I actually do. But they are mostly domestic and are narrated in full detail at My Unicorn Has Wings. I do have some writerly adventures though, so I think I will begin by sharing more of those.

So what are your thoughts?



Do or Do Not

Sometimes there are days when you just don't feel like writing. It has nothing to do with writer's block, headaches, business....or anything at all. You just don't feel like it.

I've been having one of those weeks. Or was it two?

Nothing seemed to be extraorindarily inspiring. I did some writing on my book here and there, but I just wasn't there.

I'm at that stage where all I am doing is editing. And editing. And editing some more. And if I don't feel like it, I don't do it.

Ha.

I tried made myself work.



And then discovered when I write by compulsion...its pretty much appalling.

There is a fine line to writing. You can't just go do it. You have to be able to feel what you are doing, get the flow, the mood. It's not something to be done by force.

Yes, I know. There are days when you just need to stick your rear in the chair and write because you are merely procrastinating.

Yet, there are days to take a break. Writing is exhausting. It takes talent, time, and energy. It can't be whipped up by throwing inspiration, words, and a few sketchy plotlines into a blender. {Wouldn't that be nice though!!!}

So I have learned that it's better to wait, sit back and take that break. The desire will come back.

Because if you don't enjoy what you're doing....no one else will either. And what a pointless piece of work it would be!


That all came because of my lack of activity here on Stories in the Mind. I was just....empty of words. At least relative ones. I think that is gone now and I am finally back. I will get back into the swing of things and have the guest post and linkup again next week. I hope you all enjoyed my absence.



Guest Post by author Cait Drews

So I'm back. Hopefully. For now at least. I will go into detail about just what has transpired in my sad absence at My Unicorn Has Wings. For now, I have a fantabulous guest post for you all written by Cait!



 

If you’re a writer, you’ve probably heard of the adage “don’t be passive in your writing”. Funky. Specific. And easy! Right?

 

Right?

 

Well, what exactly does it mean? Does it apply to every-single-sentence-in-your-book? How do you identify a “passive” passage? What is the exact difference between passive and action sentences anyway?!

 

Keep calm. Breathe. Let’s think about this slowly and logically, okay?

 

How to identify a PASSIVE sentence

 

“Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.” – (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling)

 

“There was a town, and there was a girl, and there was a theft.” – (Who Could That Be At This Hour? by Lemony Snicket)

Let’s take a closer look at these two examples, okay? They both have a certain thing in common. Hands, hands? A show of hands? Yes! The verbs are passive. Instead of action verbs like “shoved” or “ran”, they use passive verbs like “was” and “were”. I highlighted these in yellow (because I’m nice like that).

 

How to identify an ACTION sentence

 

“My mother drove me to the airport with the windows rolled down. – (Twilight by Stephanie Meyer)

 

“Rain fell that night, a fine, whispering rain.” – (Inkheart by Cornelia Funke)

This is easy now, isn’t it? Instead of passively telling us what’s happening, they use an action(“drove” and “fell”). Cornelia Funke could have said “Rain was falling…” and Stephanie Meyer could have said, “My mother was driving me…” But they chose to use action.

 

Okay, so we should always use ACTION in our writing and never be PASSIVE?

 

Gosh, no! For one, it’s impossible. And for two, there’s no need. Passive isn’t wrong, it just isn’t as strong as action. Basically, if you can show, you should.

 

In her book, What’s Left of Me, Kat Zhang could have started the first sentence like this: “Everyone was blasted from their seats by the end-of-school bell.” Instead, she decided to make the sentence into an action. The novel begins: “The end-of-school-bell blasted everyone from their seats.”

But you can’t always show.

 

Think of this sentence: “I was sad.” If you want the sentence to look and feel roughly the same, you can’t take out the passive. That’s not bad or wrong, either.

Learning to write sentences that use action verbs instead of passive ones takes practice. A little work and you can do it! ACTION can make your writing pack a punch, because it becomes tighter, smoother and connects the reader to the story by putting them in the middle of everything and not relating that it “just happened”. It’s a priceless piece of advice. I like it a lot.

 

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” (Sylvia Plath)


Between writing, eating peanut butter, and rereading The Hunger Games, Cait blogs at Notebook Sisters. She writes fantasy, a little on the darker side, and has finished 6 novels. Her favourite hobby is rewriting said six novels. She’s 19 years old, a homeschool graduate, and believes in Never Land.  

 

This week, the Once Upon a Time... linkup prompt will be: threats. Have fun!

 



P.S. I will also be doing the giveaway info which I missed while I was gone. Good luck to those of you who entered!

 

The Importance of Eyes

Have you ever noticed how much care photographers take about the eyes of their subjects? Whether it be a baby, a senor photo shoot, an elderly man, a pouting toddler... they focus in on the eyes.

I have always been captured by eyes. The color. The expression. The beauty and delicacy and emotion encompassed in two small orbs stuck in your face. It is incredible. No matter who a person is, I look at their eyes. I can see a lot about them just by what they look like. How they glance around. How they avoid contact. How crinkles fold at the edges when they laugh. Eyes are beautiful. And speak so much.

 

 

 

 

There is a beauty found in the human eye that you can't express. And I think it is important to capture that in writing. It is a hard thing to do. Eyes are visual. Not just because they are literally what we see through, but because their expression is something we see. And to be able to convey it in a story is something both necessary and hard.

 

And when done right, powerful.

 

Ways to describe eyes vary. You can display shock by widening them. Anger by narrowing them. Pain with tears.

 

 

 

 

And still, there is more to it than that. I find this quote by Leonardo da Vinci covers it pretty well.



 

 

 

Eyes speak the heart. You can see love shining, hatred simmering, anger churning, pain screaming...oh, it goes on and on. But it boils down to one thing. Eyes are important, to humans and the way we interact and contact each other, and need to be used. Finding the perfect way to do that is tricky. But when you can do it, you capture something that cannot be put into words. Just seen.

 

 





Purpose

My writing is not just something I do. I don't get random urges to write, sit down for ten minutes, type out a hundred words, and slip back into the rest of my life. My writing is my life. It is my calling.

 



I have been writing ever since I could read. That was at age 3.



I was a naughty child. Like really. My parents always planned on having ten kids. I was two years old, my Mum had just had my little brother, and every day when Daddy came home from work she would shove me in his arms and go cry. She said she never wanted to have any more kids. I was bad. On purpose.

By the time I was three, Mommy had almost given up on me, so she went to talk to the pastor's wife about what to do.

The woman's advice?

I was bored.

She couldn't have been more right.

I've never been brilliant. But I understand things pretty quickly. And everything fascinates me.

So the pastor's wife {I'd give her a name if I knew it...} suggested Mommy start teaching me how to read.

What a joke, Mum thought. She's three! But she tried it.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I sucked it up like a lollipop. To have the world open up before me like that, adventures and people and places...things my little mind had never dreamed of...it was amazing. In every true form of the word. I could read my children's Bible before I turned four. And started down the path of my future: books and books and more books. I just read and read, everything I could get my hands on, no matter what it was. And I stopped getting into mischief. {What a relief! Mommy was able to have at least five of those ten kids!}

When I was five I created my first "real" book. I was so pleased with it! I kept it tucked away in a special drawer and didn't let anyone touch it. A few months later I made a second one for my dolls. They ought to have some books too, eh! I still have them.

 



Even though I liked those books, they were not much and I knew it. So when we were visiting some relatives in Canada one summer {I was seven} I stapled a bunch of paper together and began a life's history of, well...me. I even illustrated it! It makes me laugh so hard. But I was proud of it. I carried it with me everywhere. Quite literally. And enlisted several of my Daddy's cousins {who must have thought I was cute to have been crazy enough to help} to write a few pages to my dictation. Oh, I was a real author!!!

At ten I began to write a novel. Something beautiful and massive and purposeful. I found a pink notebook with silver flowers on it, pressed the title on the cardboard cover, and started out. {You should look at the spelling. It is atrocious! Eeeek! Scary!} I even finished the book this time. It made me super proud. I had every girl in church reading it.

{My books}

 

When I turned eleven I was given my first computer. Daddy is a teacher and the school he worked for at the time gave it to him. We already had one so he gave it to me. It was one of those old yellow ones with the huge monitor and floppy disc inserts. I embarked on a new faze of writing. About my second infatuation of life. Horses. I wrote an entire 171 page novel about a horse {named Tulip...but of course, she had lots of names in the story.... her true name was Tulip}. Unfortunately, the computer was destroyed on our trip from Oregon to Missouri and I lost all but the first five chapter of that book. It still breaks my heart...

During all this, I was still enraptured in books. In my ninth grade year {I was 13 and now in Missouri} I read over 300 books. Only about 90 of them were for school. It was the winter of 2007 and we had an ice storm. That meant no outside play and I was buried deep in Beric the Briton by G.A. Henty. And it suddenly struck me. All his works were written for and about boys. Every single one. He was my favorite author ever at the time. I'd read every readable copy of his works we owned {about 100, but 10 or so are antiques that fall apart if you pick them up). But something was seriously lacking. Though there usually ended up being a girl in the story, they were still not much. So, I sat back, pulled out a piece of notebook paper, and wrote out a story idea almost identical to Beric but with the main character...well, you guessed it. A girl. And the idea's didn't stop there. Once I put my head to it, I just wrote and wrote out idea after idea, filling up pretty much every angle and culture of history. Ancient Rome. Alexander the Great. The Pharaoh's of Egypt. World War II. The French Revolution. It didn't matter. It was history and it was writing and it was girls. I ended up starting a novel set on the Oregon trail. After a hundred or so pages, I was revamped.

I've been around Christians all my life. I became a believer and was baptized when I was 6 because of some important things that happened to me at that time. And I understood the Redemption of Christ fully. Still, he never really came into my books {The Princess Travels did have God bring my main character back into focus} in a true spiritual way. We were watching some documentaries for school about making Christ the center of your life, finding his purpose and calling for what you do, and doing whatever you do for him.

So I did a 360 to take in what I had written and began tapping away at another book, a decidedly Christian book. I wanted to change the world for God. I still do. Eh he...I always was a dreamer. I started fresh on a new book, combining two ideas and going back to my original Beric inspiration {the book is still on my favorites list, just so you know; I think I'll do a review on it here sometime}. By the time I turned 14, I had a novel and a half in the making. And I have been writing it ever since. It has gone from a girl-Henty to a Mara, Daughter of the Nile {review HERE} to a completely-and-only-Caitria-style in the last five almost six years. But, at long last, it is almost done.

And all of that was to bring you to the point of this. {No, it was not just a spill out my life story post. ;) }


I was writing on Chapter 15 this week. My Daddy is my primary editor right now, my sister Brisa next, and friends Lauren and Cait next. Various friends have read, critiqued, and looked over it, but still, Daddy is my best editor. Because he looks for the deeper things. The meaning and reason behind everything, the actions and motives and desires of my characters. You know, the things that make them real. Anyway, Chapter 15 {entitled Empty} is the climax emotionally for one of my two main characters. There are a some things few authors have attempted to tackle. The real heartaches, meanings, and desires of life. Things that the world just can't understand...without God. I'm not going to spoil anything, but Daddy inspired me to enhance the reality of it. The absolute emptiness of life. Because it matters.

Anyway, this whole post was to get to that little paragraph and somehow it didn't seem to do much, because I won't spoil what exactly I mean...



There are a lot of things I want to do with my life. There are a lot of things I love and tons of stuff I intend to do. But this {my writing} is something I know God has brought me to. And no matter where I go or what else I do, it will be something that will be used to bring him glory and show the power of his love. For me and for you.



Guest Post by author Mime Drews

And it's time to be back!!! The blog is looking a bit more normal again. We're getting back into routine after all the holiday buzz and, ahem, silence... :D Today's guest post is by my friend Mime from Notebook Sisters. Enjoy!!!!



Dialogue is my favourite part of reading. And writing. Maybe In my opinion, a snappy, realistic, or heart-wrenching dialogue can tilt the scale from ‘another book on the shelf’ to ‘good old favourite.’

Some books just nail it. Like Ranger’s Apprentice (John Flanagan). The plot is... not exceptional for most of the books. You could even say it’s Lord of the Rings come general fantasy/medieval-ness. And yet... I still have fond memories of reading all eleven books. Why? The dialogue. The characters are great, sarcastic, and tease each other mercilessly. That’s exactly the sort of humour that appeals to me—I love sarcasm in dialogue.

 



Also, a normal voice helps. I am awed by people like Tolkien who can have extensive dialogue passages in “thee’s” and “thou’s” and really long sentences. I think they must be very patient. But personally, I prefer reading normal, conversational tones. This usually comes across with more modern books—contemporaries, dystopian, or just ones set in the current/future world. The Gallagher Girls series (Ally Carter) is a perfect example. Every girl in the spy school talks like a normal teenage girl. It makes the book easy to read, and I identify with the characters better.

But that’s not to say you have to have your 18^thcentury courtiers talking modern slang. In Johnny Tremain (Esther Forbes), they manage to speak clearly and understandably. The sentences don’t go on forever, and even though it feels a bit more old-fashioned, you still get the same love for the characters’ voices.

To me, dialogue needs to be spread throughout the book generously. It’s so much fun to read. While you can’t have the whole thing being dialogue, I think it makes things come across easier than a lot of narrative, which I tend to find quite boring. Too much narrative, and I yawn, and say, “I’m sorry, but I got lost a while back.” Dialogue can make me laugh or cry, or just plain enjoy the book more. Of course, on the flip side, if there’s too much dialogue, I say, “What is going on here?” There’s a good medium, and it’s different for every story.



Dialogue’s important for letting the reader get to know the characters, particularly in 3^rd person. The way someone talks tells a lot about them—the way they were brought up, the way they think of things, their common phrases, their nationality, or their amount of talkativeness. I know that if there’d been no dialogue in Detectives in Togas (Henry Winterfeld) I would have had no idea who was who. Dialogue defines characters, and that, I think, is why it’s really important.

I think the trick to good dialogue is making sure your character's voice is strong, and that their personality shines through the way they talk.

What are some of your favourite books for the dialogue aspect?

 



 



Writing Historical Fiction

I began writing historical fiction at age 7. My first novel, scrawled out in a small pink notebook {yes, the one pictures} and titled, The Princess Travels, was set in the 1800’s {don’t ask me how I got a princess in the Midwest; I managed very well, thank you}. My favorite books from the time I could first read {at age 3} until I was 18 years old were all historical fiction. In fact, I read history books just for fun.



I was {I guess I must admit still am}, what you call, a history nerd. Or geek, depending on whether you are my sister Brisa or my sister Abrienne.

And I love it.

So, writing historical fiction. . . Me? 

Historical fiction {HF} is not easy. You cannot just sit down and pound away at your keys and expect a historical fiction to come to life beneath your fingers. HF takes work. Lots of it.

From accurate settings, to correct mindsets, to what analogies you can use, historical fiction is like no other genre, just as they are not like historical fiction. And what makes it unique is what makes it awesome.

History itself is incredible. To flip through the pages of cultures, lives, and empires who once dominated this world of ours is as enchanting as it is almost scary. There are so many people, so many cultures, so many indescribable things from those other times, other places, and it is incredible thinking about them, knowing they were once real, life to someone, just the way things were, and now . . . now it is gone.

 

The world in which your character moves is as important as the character himself. You can paint the most believable, realistic, heartrending protagonist imaginable. But if his world does not fit around him, he is detached and we lose contact with him. Your setting will be whatever culture you decide to write about, and it means more than just the kind of clothes and rooms and wars that encircle your character. It is everything. From the stream trickling through a dark Sherwood Forest to a sparkling goblet in Queen Hatshepsut’s throne room to the dull, lifeless cap flopped on William Bradford’s head. It is the kind of dialogue and ways of expression between your cast. Can you see the picture, see the room, see the world where your character lives? That is his setting and his life. And it has to be real. It has to be his setting. Throwing a great, big medieval sword into your Egyptian pyramid is not going to create a very easy or authentic picture for your reader to imagine. It just won’t feel right.

Analogies are so important in writing. They describe, evoke, imagine, so much of your character and their feelings and the understandings of the world around them. And it is important to get them right. If you are writing a story set in medieval times, it would not work for you to use this analogy:

 

Rosamund felt as though everything around her was spinning like tires on black ice.

As you and I know, there was no such thing as tires OR black ice during the Medieval Ages. And our poor Rosamund would have no idea what it felt like to be spin like that.

Aah, and then you have correct mindsets. I must admit, this is one thing I find the most misused by HF writers. We tend to like and want to write in the mentality of our own culture. And that is a big mistake.

First of all, I think a part of the charm of an ancient culture is the ways the people thought, the things they did, and why. To destroy that by bringing very Western ideas into a HF novel is as good as burning your book before you start. It devastates it authenticity.

I know it is almost heresy for me to say this, but I must, because it is true. In most of the ancient world, education was not looked upon as important to anyone but the upper class. In fact, most of the time, the people believed they were incapable of learning. So it would be inconsistent to create your main character a peasant boy and give him great learning {no matter what scheme you come up with to give it to him}. Your story had better be good if you want to tempt to mount that social barrier. And it is better not done. I rather enjoy the thought of getting to know a fellow who is just as smart in common sense as you or I without an education ~ and who doesn’t even care to have one.

 

 



 

See, the charm of historical fiction is not in how many rules you can twist to get away from the real ethnics of that time and make it desirable to this culture, but how many rules you can fit in and still capture your reader. For therein lies the desire of every HF writer. We want our readers to fall in love with the richness of the history of our story as much as the people of our story. And if they don’t, we have not succeeded. If they don’t want to run away to ancient Incan ruins or towering Italian cathedrals, we have failed.

Historical fiction will always be my favorite genre to both read and write. It is just one of those things, something that touches a trigger inside me and boils a passion and a desire for it. I will always find myself buried deep within those cultures, wondering just what it was like, just who would have lived, and what sort of things they might have done. And you will always find me curled up with a blanket and a good HF for company.