Eavesdropping At A Writers Conference

I’m at the Deep Thinkers Retreat in Destin, Florida and it’s beautiful. We come to the beach every year in February and I help facilitate the conference for the week. My main job during the conference is the care and feeding of the attendees. But I’m also watching, listening … and yes, sometimes I hear things.

Today I wanted to share some of my observations:

Eat Well, Write Well. Sorry, a steady of diet of chocolate chip cookies and malted milk balls are not conducive to clear thinking and well developed plot lines. Although they do help stabilize emotions, at least at the moment. When all else fails, have a malted milk ball instead of a melt down. For the record, I resisted the temptation this year and only succumbed to two. (Although we have two more days to go!)
Battle Uncertainty. I’ve heard, “I thought I had my story down, but now I’m not so sure.” It’s so easy to doubt yourself and question the validity of your writing.

Real Time Book Therapy

I’m working with a My Book Therapy premium member and she sent me this excerpt from her first chapter. She’s doing a great job of using the right tools — showing a hint of the want, wound, lie and fear, but the journey is a bit bumpy.

With her permission, I’m using our exchange to give you all some real time book therapy.

The story is a Biblical account set in the time of Elijah. The hero, is the son of a high priestess of a pagan god and expected to follow in her footsteps. But he’s starting to realize this is not what he was born to do.

At dawn on Preparation Day, Aban pulled on the threadbare tunic he’d purchased from the rag seller and climbed out a rear window, the very one he guarded during the nightly rituals to keep freeloaders from climbing into the temple of Melqart.

Dealing With Disappointment

Many of you recently attended the ACFW annual conference in Indianapolis. Those who did pinned hopes on getting some sort of exciting news or opportunity. MBT Voices overall received overwhelmingly positive news. So why am I writing this? Because with the sweet comes the bitter. They always go hand in hand.

I’ve dealt with and helped people through disappointment for decades. There are some things I’ve seen in the circumstance that contributes to the emotion of disappointment that I want to share.

Having Unrealistic Expectations. Truly there are novice novelists who go to their first conference expecting that the biggest publishers in the industry will stand in line to snatch up their masterpiece…that hasn’t quite been finished. Ok, it really hasn’t been written yet, but with a contract in hand, they could stay up late one night and write it.

Holly Garth, Rachel Hauck, Once Upon A Prince

Deepening the Spiritual Thread

I love this quote. I found it on Facebook. And it’s truth resonates. Writing a novel, or any story or article, is hard. And a bit scary. It demands our mind, our will, our determination and yes, even our hearts!

All of my creative juices and emotional energy is demanded when I’m writing a novel. Especially in the final stages when I’m polishing and weaving all of the threads and plot lines together.