By Jaime Jo Wright, @jaimejowright
When I wrote The Souls of Lost Lake, I had no idea that choosing to include a mother passing away from cancer would become a firsthand experience. The edits for this book dropped the week of my mother’s very sudden passing from cancer. We had about three days to prepare from the moment we found out she was terminal to the moment I helped her cross the finish line into her Savior’s arms.
Opening edits, the following week and facing down a similar death scene in Lost Lake was daunting, to say the least. I had to go internally to my own soul and ask myself what I had lost and how to transpose that onto the page so that not only was the scene authentic, but that it also didn’t leave the reader feeling the emptiness of death.
So, what had I lost? In my instinctual reaction, I listed it out: my best friend, my confidant, my earthly source of strength, my listening ear, my comfort, my heart, my soul . . . that was my mom. The saying “goodbye” was the worst moment of my life. When death wrenched from my grasp the main person, I believed I could not exist without. It was loss like none I had ever experienced before, and the idea of trying to write it in a novel was gutting.
Using personal experiences in your writing can be cathartic, painful, and difficult, but it can also add a poignant vulnerability to your scenes that readers will find relatable and impacting.
It’s difficult to infuse the painful parts of our lives into our writing worlds. Sometimes we visit memories we’d rather leave behind. Sometimes we reflect on troubles and sometimes there’s no reflection because we’re living in those troubles right now.
But the impactful part of fiction writing, is the ability to transport a reader into a time and place and invite them in to experience it. I remember when I was thirteen I told my dad I couldn’t write a kissing scene without having kissed a boy. After my dad got over his choking fit, he advised me that I could use my imagination. He was right. You can use your imagination to create scenes and stories that are palpable and good. However, when you can use personal experience, there’s a part of that scene/story that comes to life in a new, intense way.
When I worked on my edits, I actually had to take a step back. One, to get some Kleenex to wipe my eyes, but also to re-establish how I wanted to portray a scene of passing in my novel. I reflect on “losing” my mom. But I knew where her soul is. I knew where my soul is. Lost is a word that I eliminated from my vocabulary, because truly, there are no lost souls when the TRUTH is known. When the truth of our place in Jesus is solidified. Our destination is Home.
I reworked my scene in my novel, after I laid to rest the word “lost” and redefined it to the word “relocated”. I prayed that the passing scene in my book would reflect that same moment my own Momma ran across her finish line.
My book hasn’t released yet. It doesn’t until April 5th, but I’ve already received some early reader comments about that passing scene. I’m not sure I’ll ever read that passing scene again, but my prayer is that the Lord can use the experiences He allows me to walk through, to bring truth into the story, to touch others walking through similar journeys, and to minister to the brokenhearted.
He is the master storyteller, let Him tell it through you!
To save the innocent, they must face an insidious evil.
Wren Blythe has long enjoyed living in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, helping her father with ministry at a youth camp. But when a little girl in the area goes missing, an all-out search ensues, reviving the decades-old campfire story of Ava Coons, the murderess who is believed to still roam the forest. Joining the search, Wren stumbles upon the Coonses’ cabin ruins and a sinister mystery she is determined to unearth.
In 1930, Ava Coons has spent the last several years carrying the mantle of mystery since the day she emerged from the woods as a thirteen-year-old girl, spattered with blood, dragging a logger’s ax. She has accepted she will never remember what happened to her family, whose bodies were never found, and that the people of Tempter’s Creek will always blame her for their violent deaths. And after a member of the town is murdered, and another goes missing, rumors spread that Ava’s secret is perhaps more malicious than previously imagined.
Two women, separated by time, must confront a wickedness that not only challenges who they are but also threatens their lives, and the lives of those they love.
Jaime Jo Wright (www.jaimewrightbooks.com) is the author of six novels, including Christy Award winner The House on Foster Hill and Christy Award Finalist Echoes Among the Stones. She’s also the Publishers Weekly and ECPA bestselling author of two novellas. Jaime lives in Wisconsin with her cat named Foo; her husband, Cap’n Hook; and their littles, Peter Pan and CoCo. To learn more, visit www.jaimewrightbooks.com.