Category: New Authors

Identifying your writing path and establishing your writing skills and focus.

Redefining What I Do || Lord, What Do You Want Of Me?

Lord, what do you want of me?

In Part One of my self-discovery posts I told you about questioning my identity as a Christian and what God wanted me to do with my life after my children had grown.

In the books I read and the classes I took at church, I came to realize I’m God’s unique design; a one-of-a-kind human being created in His image for a specific purpose at this moment in time. It’s no accident I’m here right now, writing these words, and knowing that makes a world of difference to how I live my life. God made me with a specific intent – and you too! If you’ll bear with me for a while I’ll bring it full-circle.

Me on the back deck reading a gardening book
What I Do – When I Can

My Unique Design – part two

So here’s who Lynne is in a nutshell, from my studies:

My Top 3 Spiritual Gifts

  • Faith
  • Encouragement
  • Service/Helps

I have 4 supportive Gifts which aid me in using my top 3, according to most online tests which are an indication and not an absolute, and which we all need to try out to see if we agree and if others see these Gifts in our lives too.

My Passion

To help people who are searching for identity and purpose, who may have lost direction or feel disheartened and hopeless.

My Natural Abilities

Here are my 5 strongest abilities:

  • Encouraging
  • Writing
  • Networking
  • Counselling
  • Creating

I’d like to list them all but I don’t want to brag 😉

My Personality

INFP  – with a quirky twist, I’ve been told

  • Introvert
  • Intuitive
  • Feeler
  • Perceiver

My Personal Experience

  • Christian Writer
  • Lay Pastoral Counsellor
  • Workshop Leader
  • Kingdom Purpose Coach
  • Mentor
  • Helper in church ministries, community events and in public schools

I’ve listed only a few things here, but there’s a reason for that (it has to do with age…)

How I Discovered God Had Been With Me All Along

As part of my Kingdom Purpose Coaching, I help my clients bring all their attributes together to discover how individual they are and what they can do for God’s Kingdom by His unique design for them. I do this by asking them to take note of the repetitions in each category. Here’s what I learned about my own Kingdom Purpose:

‘To help others see the hope in Christ; encourage them to discover their purpose for God’s Kingdom on Earth, and equip them for their assignment’.

Do you see the repetitions?

So with that in mind, how did I apply it to my life moving forward? I’ll blog about that in Part 3 – Redefining My Life.

Till next time, know you are loved by the One who created you in His image.

Lynne

Resources:

S.H.A.P.E by Eric Rees

The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren

Switching Focus

My next blog was going to be about compiling a playlist to inspire you as you write your fantasy novel. Instead, I’m letting you, my fellow bloggers, know I’m switching my focus on this site. I’ll let you know how you can still read the playlist post later.

Switching Focus
New Path

#WritingFantasy  Will Carry On

I’ve completed the series of posts I wanted to share with you about Writing Fantasy and the steps I’ve taken on my own journey writing my first fantasy novel. I’m very excited to start the actual writing process this November for my second NaNoWriMo! If you’ve followed my posts over the past few months I hope you’ll join me in November as we fire out 50,000 words together.

My Outline, Setting, Characters, World Building and Premise are all going to be relocated to another blog I write on, White Rose Writers.

So What’s My New Focus? #AmWriting

As most of you know from reading my profile, as well as being a writing coach I’m also a Christian Life Coach and Certified Lay Pastoral Counselor with many years experience coaching and encouraging believers in their walk with God. This will be my main focus on this blog going forward.

I’ll be blogging about Your Sacred Path, Finding Your Life Purpose, Hearing God’s Voice, Choosing Careers and possibly sharing a few gardening tips along the way. I love to network so I’ll be giving you links whenever I can for you to explore further.

My newsletter will be about the books and courses I’ll be writing, plus I’ll let you know when I’m launching something new, and I’ll have giveaways and social media events exclusively for my blog readers. If you choose to continue following me here that would be lovely, if however, you’re interested in continuing to follow my posts on writing, head over to White Rose Writers and follow my posts there, along with branding and marketing tips from my social media partner, Kirstie Shanks.

Thank you for taking time out from your busy life to read and comment.

Till next time here, or at White Rose Writers, I hope you are blessed.

Lynne

Writing Fantasy || 5 Epic Moments

How to Write an Outline for Your Novel

Researching this week, I discovered we need to go back to our premise and plot twists to see if we can now add more interesting content to the ideas we wrote. What can you glean from the premise you’ve written?

Ask the right questions for outlining your novel.

 

5 Epic Moments That Will Define Your Story Outline 

Can you think of five major events that will occur in your novel? Can you think of five ways to add your plot twists to each of those events?  When adding your plot twists, think about how these will affect the story:

  • How will this affect the protagonist?
  • Will you need to add backstory for your protagonist to show this effect?
  • Who else will be affected by this plot twist?
  • Is this a good place to add conflict? If so, between which characters?
  • Will this interfere with your protagonist getting what they want? How?
  • Will it cause a disaster for your protagonist?
  • Does your world-mapping need more of a fantasy backdrop for your plot twist to be epic?

 

Do this exercise for all your major events and you’ll have a good outline started. Try to write a rough scene for each one to revise later. If you hit a wall don’t give up. Read a book in the same genre, or brainstorm with your writing group, then just start writing and ‘pants‘ for a while. Letting the juices flow freely may stir a firework display of creativity.

 

VisualWritingPrompts

If you don’t have any scenes spinning in your head yet, watch a TV show in the same genre as your novel. This works great for me. I’m glad I have a pause button so I can write notes as I watch. You can also find some great visual writing prompts on my Pinterest board. Later, you’ll keep what fits and file the other ideas for another time or maybe another novel.

 

Sunset on the beach
Sunset Silhouettes

 

Here’s a prompt to get you started. What do you see in this picture? A peaceful sunset at the beach, an approaching storm, or perhaps a scary scene from The Walking Dead with a horde of zombies approaching?

 

 

 

Til next time, know you are loved by the One who made you in His image.

Lynne     

 

Resources for Outlining a Novel

White Rose Writers on Pinterest

Outlining Your Novel, by K.M. Weiland

Writing a Book by Jeff Goins

Writing Fantasy || Character Interview

Good Morning, readers, and welcome to our blog on Interviewing Characters. Today I’m with Colin Wade from Singularity.

#CharacterInterview
Lynne: Colin – first, let me say “happy birthday!”
Colin: (Laughs) Thanks. It was quite an accomplishment for me.

Lynne: I understand you’re a pilot for Deep-Sight Space Exploration. How long have you been working for D.S.S.E.?

Colin: Not very long. I mean, I’ve been with them for a long time, in training. And I’ve done some odd jobs here and there but this is my first time doing anything this… big.

Lynne: Yes, I heard your current mission is rather ambitious. Can you explain the goal?

Colin: The mission is to study a singularity. The central point of a black hole. Research into black holes is nothing new, but this is the first time we’ve ever attempted anything this close to one. The D.S.S.E. seems to think we’ve got the technology in place to study it safely but in greater detail than we ever have before. The data we get back from this one mission should match or even surpass what would normally have taken us decades with the previous tech. It’s a good time to be in astrophysics.

Lynne: How is it going?

Colin: Slow. (Laughs) So far it’s been surprisingly difficult to find viable black holes. But it’s probably just the regions we’ve been exploring. Ang seems to think it’s just a matter of time before the perfect one shows itself.

Lynne: Ang?

Colin: Oh, sorry. My onboard computer – the Artificial Neuron Generator for Universal Studies. “Angus” sounds too formal, though, so I just took to calling him “Ang”. He doesn’t seem to mind.

Lynne: I see. I hear this is your first time as captain.

Colin: It’s my first time on official duty as a captain. I mean I’ve had training. I’ve done the tests. But actually sitting in the chair on a live mission is a completely different feeling.

Lynne: Do you find space to be a lonely place?

Colin: It’s certainly different. I don’t mind isolation, necessarily, but space is different from simply finding a quiet room or spending time alone in the woods. To have literally no other living being around for incalculable miles is a feeling hard to describe. Ang keeps me company, though. For an AI he’s not bad to talk to. Plus he plays music for me.

Lynne: Oh, really? What kind of music do you listen to?

Colin: It changes. Ang’s gotten into the habit of picking songs based on my mood. I like a lot of oldies by Sarah McLachlan and Elton John. Lately, Ang’s been playing mostly “Take Me Home” by Phil Collins. And of course, David Bowie has some good ones for my particular career choice.

Lynne: I LOVE Bowie! And yes, I suppose he does have some fitting songs. What made you choose space exploration as a career?

Colin: I never really asked myself that. But if I think about it I guess there’s a lot of reasons. The biggest attraction was probably that it’s quiet. Not that I don’t like people. I like them in small quantities. A little bit at a time, or a few people at a time. But I do my best work on my own, in a quiet room, with all of space to look at. Compared to people, astrophysics is easy.

Lynne: Do you miss home?

Colin: Oh yes. Way more than I thought I would. But they did warn me that isolation can do that.

Lynne: Is there anything you’d like to say to any friends or family back at home?

Colin: Oh geez. Well, the first thing would be to thank everyone for the razor. It’s been working like a charm. I’ll give a shout out to my mom and dad and my sis. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there on my birthday to see everyone, but duty calls. We’ll do a barbeque at mom and dad’s when I get back. I’ve been practicing. I feel like I’m forgetting some people, but whoever you are, just assume that I miss you too. I’ll see you all as soon as I get back, and thanks for all the well wishes. Ang, do you want to say anything? (Brief silence) Really? Ang just says hello. He’s being unsocial.

Lynne: Well thank you so much for doing this interview, Colin. It’s been a pleasure talking with you.

Colin: Oh, the pleasure’s been all mine. It’s been great to hear another voice.

 

Well, reader, that was an interesting interview. I couldn’t imagine being alone in space for months at a time. Although listening to Bowie and staring at the stars sounds very peaceful.

Which of your characters would you interview? Why did you choose that character? What would you ask them?

Resources:

You can read more about Colin Wade and his extraordinary space mission in Singularity by Benjamin T. Collier.

Singularity by Benjamin T. Collier
Plot twists in every chapter!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read my other blogs on Character Development:

Writing Fantasy || Characters 1 – Races

Writing Fantasy || Characters 2 – Names

Writing Fantasy || Characters 3 – Occupations

Writing Fantasy || Characters 4 – Personality

 

Until next time, I hope you are blessed,

Lynne

Writing Fantasy || How Not to Compromise Your Faith

How do we as Christ followers write fantasy without compromising our faith? If we introduce a fantasy realm with a different belief system than our own are we setting the reader up to follow a different path of faith? Can we create a new religion without selling out our own?

Church
Keeping Your Faith Real

7 Things To Keep In Mind When Writing Fantasy As A Christian

  • Before you write anything and before you begin each day – pray. Pray for God’s guidance for each new chapter, each new topic and the whole book. You are writing the book, your name will be on the cover and you will receive accolades for a fantastic fantasy novel, but ultimately God is the one who called you to write it and He is your divine co-author who presented all those amazing ideas for you to write.

A good place to start your day is at Kimberley Payne’s blog.

  • What’s your message? Ask yourself if your story really says what you want it to say to the reader. Stay focused on the main goal. “What are you willing to compromise? What will you commit to and honour in your life? Where will you take a stand?” – Kim Gowdy in Freedom Fighters and Truth Tellers, (published by Author Academy, 2015)
  • Are you portraying Christ’s character or glamorizing evil? You will need villains but try not to make them ‘cool’ in case readers desire to emulate them.
  • Make your villains true villains. They need to believe their actions are justified but their history isn’t an excuse for their actions. Choosing to do evil is still a choice.
  • If you’re writing a redemptive story – keep the villain’s past life clearly separate from their life as a new believer. You want your story to show the dramatic change Christ brings.
  • Don’t write any faith into your story – either your own faith or anyone else’s when you write fantasy. Maybe add traditions or rites instead, things not similar to our world. Remember Christ came for human kind because we are created in His image – Elves are not. If you want Elves to be redeemed you’re looking at allegorical fantasy (paralleling Christian truths). It can be quite tricky to write so I suggest you read a lot of allegorical works by famous authors before you attempt this. I’ve listed some below.
  • If you’re writing allegorically it would be really beneficial to ask a Christian allegorical writer you trust to critique your work. If you belong to a Christian writers’ group or your best friend is a pastor, maybe you can read a passage once in a while that you feel you need a critique on. Writing allegorically requires a deeper sense of your message so you may also want to consider writing a few fantasy books to get the feel of that genre before tackling the allegory part.

Authors Who Do Christian Fantasy Well

C.S. Lewis

Ted Dekker

Benjamin T. Collier

Rachel Starr Thomson

Not sure fantasy is the right genre for you? Take my 22-page mini-course to find Your Write Voice for His Kingdom. The course has worksheets and coaching tips for writers of all genres.

Is God asking you to write for Him?
Writing for God

Until next time –

Lynne