Into the Fire

Once in a lifetime we might do something the best we could ever do it and do it well the very first and only time we try it. A unique occurrence. Not likely to be repeated if we try the thing a second time, and we know it.

Most of the time if we engage in something we want to do, knowing that we’re wired for it, feel the definite leaning to further our attempts to pursue and learn it, ultimately to be recognized by those who we consider must assess it and consider it valuable and/or worthwhile, we make the effort to work at it.

Writing Christian fiction is our focus here. Novels in particular. In one of our Saturday Sample features several weeks ago, we featured 24 year old Katie Hart, author of two completed novels and working on a third. I’m willing to bet that when Katie assesses her first novel in another year, she will see that her following works progressed to a point where she would esteem them “better”, not because she doesn’t like her original work but because in the natural progression of a writer of novels, authors hone their craft.

Writers who want to improve read others’ novels and also read books on crafting novels. If they can, they attend creative writing classes or conference classes and they acquire knowledge, sifting through what they can accept and use in their own work and determining what will not work for them.

I would love to be able to write a thriller like Robert Liparulo does. I doubt I’ve ever turned pages faster than when I read his novels. You’re almost winded by the time you get to the end of a chapter. The man is a master at fast-paced action. Unfortunately, I write exactly the opposite of him in every way, but it can’t be helped because I’m not designed in my “skills” to write those kinds of novels as much as I read them and love them.

So, let’s say you’ve finished writing your first novel. You’re in the self-editing process, applying the aids you’ve learned from reading all kinds of technical books on the craft. Suddenly you feel inadequate. The thrill you felt at typing “The End” on the last page has evaporated like a desert shower. Inferiority is dancing around your vision, and you wonder if this manuscript is nothing more than drivel. If it hadn’t been so much work, maybe over a period of years, you just might light it on fire here and now. Stop it. Get it spiffed up if you need corrections and decide who you can share it with. What kind of test reader do you want? Think about a friend, associate, or family member who might be considered one of your “audience”. Do you want drop dead honesty or do you want gentle consideration? What are you looking for? Be sure to tell them what you expect from them so they don’t give you exactly the opposite. Naturally, not all the people you select will be writing experts (at least in my world), but they well may be prolific readers and consumers of books. Perhaps all you really want to know is if they liked the story, if it held their interest. Once they’ve read it, you’ll figure out if you want to play with new words, improve those verbs, eliminate more adverbs—you know, all that stuff you read about in your pile of books by the side of your desk.

Here’s the deal. Everybody has to write a first novel. Chances are it won’t be your best one, but that’s not to say it won’t be enjoyed or that it won’t make a difference in someone’s life for having read it. Most of the time it won’t be your best novel. Not technically. The more you write, the more novels you read, the more you discern who you are as a writer, the better you will become. It’s the natural progression of someone who applies himself to something which requires his continuing effort to improve. That’s not to say that a reader won’t like your first novel better than your seventh novel—maybe the technical aspects of it really didn’t get noticed by them because the story blew them away. And they don’t happen to enjoy the seventh story—it just doesn’t resonate with them. So is one better than the other? Technically speaking from a strictly writing standpoint, probably yes. Does it matter if you have different fans for both books? No.

It only matters because you recognize how you’ve improved, using methods you were less skilled at in that first effort but were downright polished at by the third book. The more you write, the better you will get because you are becoming who you desire to be as a writer and as a person.

Really the only absolute positive thing that can be said about aging is the acquisition of wisdom from experiencing life and gaining perspective. And the only real way that wisdom is truly attained is to travel life’s roads with Jesus Christ. One of the ugliest and profoundly saddest observations in life is to see an elderly person who is bitter, cranky, and has nothing good to say about anyone or anything. They don’t know the Lord, and they have no desire to know Him. If you can imagine the distortion of a person twisted and embittered by year after year of living in a sinful state and choosing no remedy for a constantly increasing bad attitude, it’s just a pitiful thing. Most of those folks generate little if any sympathy because it’s such an unpleasant drag to be in their presence.

In life as in writing, when you try to maximize the experience with the Lord Jesus Christ, you will get better. He will see to it if you are yielded to Him. Who can say what opportunities He has for you? Not me. Will they be the plans you have for your writing? Don’t ask me. I only know His plans are the only ones that matter, and the only way to gain true satisfaction in your writing is to follow His plan for it. And in order to do that, you have to spend time with Him to learn those plans, and you have to keep writing to fulfill His call in your life. Believe me, when you do, you will get better.

Father, may the joy of belonging to you be infused into my writing. Nothing is more important in this life than spending it with you. Nothing compares to that either. So, please let my joy be full in writing the words you have for me. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.