Into the Fire

Okay. I know you know my opinion on current writing trends, and I call them “trends” because they don’t adhere to all the variations in novel writing. Each generation of writers yields its own crop of fiction with styles as diverse as the weather. While some of what is “preached” today as the gospel for publishing is worthwhile, not all of it works for everyone. This isn’t about me either. It’s about not producing formulaic, unimaginative, cloned novels.

The following quotations are from three different published CBA novelists who shall remain nameless. These words illustrate how thick the current fabric of novel writing is threaded. If the words were sheets, well, they’d be high thread count Egyptian cotton. But, there ya go. These are published novelists in today’s CBA market.

“(In fact I was surprised at how much he used “was” and “were” in his prose, but it worked)” [Speaking of a secular highly acclaimed work]

“I read critically while enjoying a good story. One change is if I’m not hooked from the first sentence, I’ll continue the page and maybe a few more pages, then I’m done.
. . .
To read Donald Maass’ Writing the Breakout Novel and Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook along with taking his workshops. But I don’t think he was in the forefront then.” [From an interview]

“There was a day when a writer could take the time to describe the settings in his/her novel with painstaking care. Not anymore. Now we begin with a bang and speed through.
Is all of this change bad? No, but neither is it all good. It just “is” and we who write need to adjust.” [From a comment on a writer’s blog]

Dayle James Arceneaux quoted this the other day on his blog “Reflections” from the well-known book Self-Editing for Fiction Writers (How to edit yourself into print) by Renni Browne and Dave King (second edition).

“We have noticed since the first edition of this book came out that a lot of writers have taken our advice about showing and telling too much to heart. The result has sometimes been sterile writing, consisting mostly of bare-bones descriptions and skeletal dialogue. Yet fiction allows for marvelous richness and depth, and nowhere more so than through interior monologue.”

Did you get that? “Yet fiction allows for marvelous richness and depth . . .”

Writing is a skill, no doubt. But it is also someone’s voice. Someone’s passion. Someone’s heart. They must know the rules of grammar, be able to capture the naturalness of dialogue, stun us with surprises or twists, make scenes so visual and sensual that we can smell them and be there with the characters. Talent is God-given, it isn’t manufactured. It takes perseverance to be the best you can be at anything. Practice. Focus. And the will to determine who you are in this case as a writer.

There are so many ways to get discouraged in the process. Rejections. Suggestions. Opinions. “I failed to get engaged.” “It doesn’t get it for me.” “I have no passion for it.” “Not for us at this time.” “We’ll pass.” It’ll knock you down and put you out if you let it. At some point, you alone have to decide if you can handle the disappointments and keep on doing this writing thing. There are the success stories, too. “I submitted my first proposal and signed a contract shortly after.” Blech! Just kidding. It’s okay. God knows what He’s doing even when we haven’t a clue. And it’s for our own good!

Anyway, the point is, yes, there is a process, and a general formula for writing a novel, but the word “formula” sticks in my throat because it implies that if a person doesn’t adhere to it, then that person is not really creating a novel. I think a writer has to be careful if they intend to stick too closely to the “manuals” of writing. They risk seeming too much like too many other novels. Read enough of them, and you’ll spot it.

This writing gig is not just expressions of rules. It is the writing of the heart, the passion of story, the telling of tales, the creation of characters, worlds, action, and timetables. Words streaming into larger rivers of imagination, riding the waves out to the sea of infinite narratives. Restrict it too severely and you end up with lifeless fiction, predictable and mundane.

Father, let each of us strive to be the ones you desire us to be, to write according to your leading and satisfaction, to learn who we are in you, and to follow your ways for our lives. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.