Your Heartache, Your Story

The themes for my novels have a common thread. They center around ordinary people plopped into extraordinary situations (mostly centered around war), and with the guidance of God these people rise above ... and help and save others in the process.

Also, all my novels have some level of abandonment by a parent that leads to internal struggles. I never planned this, but looking back it's in all my books! Even my third (and final) novel in my Spanish Civil War series.

As I was writing book #3 a light clicked on and suddenly every element of the story came together as it was revealed to me that one of my main characters was abandoned by a parent ... and WHO he really is.

I didn't plan that in Book #1, but it seems as if I did. It makes the whole story work and takes the whole series to a deeper level than I anticipated.

Hmmm ... as someone who didn't meet my biological dad until my late 20s and who got pregnant and was abandoned by my boyfriend as a teen I WONDER why I keep writing about this issue?!

This reminds me about something I read this morning from the book Loving God by Chuck Colson:

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One Easter morning, as I sat in the chapel at the Delaware State Prison waiting to preach, my mind drifted back in time ... to scholarships and honors earned, cases argued and won, great decisions made from lofty government offices. My life had been the perfect success story, the great American dream fulfilled.

But all at once I realized that it was not my success God had used to enable me to help those in this prison, or in hundreds others like it. My life of success was not what made this morning so glorious--all my achievements meant nothing in God's economy. No, the real legacy of my life was my biggest failure--that I was an ex-convict. My greatest humiliation--being sent to prison--was the beginning of God's greatest use of my life; he chose the one experience in which I could not glory for his glory.

Confronted with this staggering truth, I understood with a jolt that I had been looking at life backward. But now I could see: Only when I lost everything that I thought made Charles Colson a great guy had I found the true self God intended me to be and the true purpose of my life.

It is not what we do that matters, but what a sovereign God chooses to do through us.
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Consider this in your own writing. Do your historical novels have elements of your greatest loss and humiliation? If not, my suggestion is that you prayerfully mine those areas, because it is there you can write with passion, pain and conviction. It is from those hurt places that you will touch the soul of a reader in ways you never expected.

Tricia Goyer
http://www.triciagoyer.com/

My Jumble of Thoughts

Who ever said writing was easy? Right now I'm:

1. Reading through the galleys of my second novel in The Chronicles of the Spanish Civil War titled, "A Shadow of Treason."

2. I'm working on a non-fiction project ... writing the teen version of Max Lucado's next book!

3. Working on my third SCW novel, "A Whisper of Freedom."

4. And I have two possibilities to write fiction novels for publishers I've never worked with before, which means I need to come up with writing samples that are (to put it mildly) just plain brilliant so I can knock their socks off!

No wonder it's 1:33 a.m. and I'm having trouble sleeping. My brain is full!

But enough about me. I wanted to talk about some of your comments on the blog.

First, let's talk about self-publishing. My guest writer had some great comments, but I want to point out a few things, too.

1. Sometimes people consider self-publishing after they've received rejection after rejection. The rejections could come because they don't have a broad enough audience for their work. Personal histories or stories with local ties could fall into this category.

But ... sometimes the rejections come because the writing, "just isn't there yet." I'm thankful that years ago I didn't have the drive or the money to self-publish some of the things I wrote. I was a writer-in-training, and though I thought I was wonderful looking back I now see my writing still needed a lot of work.

I've had writer-friends who have self-published and honestly their books weren't bookstore shelf quality. So, now what? They have books they're trying to sell. Who is going to buy them? What bookstores are going to stock them? Why should the bookstores give these books space when there are thousands of new ones every month from publishers who are begging them to stock their stuff? (Just to get you thinking ....)

2. New topic. I've seen from your comments that some of you wonder if it's even worth trying. Should you be writing at all? I mean, there are some many people wanting to write books and the odds seem so slim. My answer?

What is God telling you? It doesn't matter the odds. What is God speaking to your heart?

When I attended my first writer's conference I was 22-years-old and pregnant with my 3rd baby. I had taken some college classes, but I had no degree. (Still don't.) After that, I worked on writing for YEARS with no success. Rejection after rejection after rejection came in the mail.

BUT deep in my heart I knew God called me to this. When I read my Bible He spoke to me. I clung to His promises. He who calls you is faithful, and HE will do it.

Yawn, enough of my rambling for now. I just wanted you to know I am around here, lurking, and thinking.

But ... as a good example to all of you ... I'm also making sure I get my daily writing goals done first. See, I'm only thinking of you :-)