Into the Fire

I’ve been helping a friend proof the manuscript for his second novel. I find I enjoy doing this when there’s a solid voice and a good story. It’s amazing to me whenever I can actually help someone improve their writing. Not in the sense that I in any way transform it to be something else. On the contrary all I’m doing is smoothing out the rough spots he neglected to see or the grammar errors he missed. I make no claims to being an editor.

The fascinating thing about reading someone’s work is the realization of how much of us ends up in the written words. We can’t escape the truth of who we are. Even if the circumstances aren’t actual as to what we’ve experienced, something about them will ring with the truth of having either watched, felt, or been peripherally involved in them. If we left out those things which tie us to the story elements, the emotions which propel a reader deeper into a character understanding would no doubt be absent.

Occasionally I will read a piece on a blog or passages in a book which are technically perfect. However, they lack the element of passion and reek of precision writing. There’s no emotional trigger—there’s just organizational material which covers all the writer-ly bases and comes out in a clinical expression. Sterilized.

I’ve noticed in comments on blog posts that some people fear writing from their hearts, of exposing themselves from the inside out, of expressing doubts and fears and awkward thoughts. But it’s from those very uncomfortable places where characters derive their “juice” and leap out from the page capturing and identifying the reader at the same time, forcing him to relate to those things he might’ve thought were fairly well hidden in his own persona. Reading them from inside the head of a character on a page reminds us all we are not alone—or even original. We are human, and whether or not we are shown to be tender or tortured, we can know there is someone who is like us. Good or bad.

This friend has a huge problem goin’ on in this story, so it’ll be interesting to press on and find out how he intends to get his protagonist out of this ugly mess he’s in—or will he get out of it? I must read on to find out.

Father, thank you for this story, for the effort that’s been poured into it, the willingness to improve it, and the determination to get it as good as he can before submitting it. Please bless him according to the special and unique plans you have designed just for him. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.