Christian Fictio Blog subscribers and readers I will be praying this week for Christian romance author, Kristy Dykes everyday at noon for fifteen minutes. Would love to know that we can all pray together.
And I don't know what to do
While I'm in this change, help me remain
-Lyrics from "A Song of Strength" written by Fred Hammond.
For months my soul has struggled to hold the reigns of my life. Last weekend it let go and I fell to the bottom of me. This place is dark, shame filled, lonely, and draining. You can't create in this space. You cannot feel hope, or experience joy, or know who you belong to in that abyss. I wished I would have heeded the detours and roadblocks that are now so apparent along this way. As I sit at a new crossroads in my life I have had to make some weird and heartwrenching, but soul saving decisions. I hope to share these decisions with you own my blog in weeks to come, but today I want to share the remedy that has brought me back to the edge of my soul.
I am still traveling, so I am not fully there. But I do know from the emails I've received, the prayer requests mentioned, the phone calls I've taken and the love that I have had to say goodbye to again, I am not alone. Somehow, somewhere some of us have lost our way-- not because we intentionally chose to stumble, but because we have gotten so caught up trying to live our day-to-day lives we've forgotten that we were created to live forever. So if you are like me or experiencing something close to what I am right now, then continue reading and I will share my remedy for spiritual renewal and a song that keeps me focused every day.
with us.Sandi: Jeremy Cramer, the next Einstein of research, is a medical resident specializing in infectious diseases. While working on a way to revive water submersion victims, he makes surprising discoveries, while also living with massive guilt over incidental infections that occur (which he could have prevented). Even as his marriage teeters, his career continues to skyrocket. Then, with a few twists along the way, he finds everything he has fought for threatened by the most personal, most heart-wrenching, choices of all.
How did you come up with this story? Was there a specific 'what if' moment?
The story had a thousand or more “what if” moments. I’m pursuing a PhD in Aesthetic Studies, and I worked on the setting, characters, a lot of the plot, as well as my narrative voice during three novel-writing classes taught by a novelist who writes fiction reviews for Publishers Weekly. And I got some great feedback from fellow students who don’t believe in Christ about ways to address faith issues more naturally. I also took a Dante class, which influenced my choice to give my characters five of the seven deadly sins. (I’m saving the other two for a future work.)
But the elements in the plot designed to keep readers up at night came through a brainstorming session with medical doctor, William Cutrer, with whom I’ve coauthored three medical novels.
What is the most difficult part of writing for you or was when you first started on your writing journey?
I still struggle with expressing character emotion. I feel like I’ll insult the reader if I stop to say “the shock of the news hit like a two-by-four in the back of the head.” I figure if I tell the horrible circumstance, the reader has enough imagination to feel what any normal soul would feel. I want to say simply “His dad died in a plane crash,” and let the reader fill in the emotional blanks. Yet everybody experiences shock and grief differently. For some the room spins. For others it shrinks. For some it grabs in the pit of the stomach. Or it feels like a physical jolt. It’s part of my job as a developer of character to choose how this character will react and respond. When the emotions get intense, I need to slow down and let the reader enter the character’s head. But I’d rather get on with the plot.
Take us through your process of writing a novel briefly—from conception to revision.
Once I have a germ idea, I come up with the beginning, middle, and end. Then I figure out the in-between points. Next, I create the main characters. I have four pages of questions I answer for each. About thirty percent of novel-crafting for me is the pre-writing imaginative work on the plot and character sketches. Then I choose a setting. I ask myself how I can use setting to communicate something. I try to choose a setting that communicates on a deeper level. All the time I’m making these choices, I deliberate about the best way to tell the story. First-person? Third-person? Who will be the main POV character? Why?
After that I craft a proposal. It starts with a one-paragraph synopsis. While my agent shops it around, I develop the summary into a chapter-by-chapter outline. And then I make a file for each chapter and start dumping in ideas.
When my agent has some success, he calls. Here’s what happens from there…
Editorial person really likes it
He or she takes it to the marketing meeting
I wait forever for that meeting to happen
Marketing approves it
I wait for them to agree on an offer
They issue an offer
I reel from the shock of how low it is
I negotiate
I wait for them to draw up the contract
I receive and sign the contract
I write the book
I send the book to the publisher.
They send the first half of the advance
I spend it all in one place
I wait for them to edit it
I wait a while longer for them to edit it
They send back the manuscript with lots of changes needed immediately
I edit it again
I wait
And wait
They send a galley proof, which they need back immediately
I edit it yet again
I watch helplessly as the release date gets delayed--again
I wait forever for my progeny to arrive in the mail
Finally, I hold my masterpiece in my hands
I find a typo
Come back Nov. 12 to learn more about Sandi's writing process and how her faith keeps her spirit smiling. Think you may forget? then Subscribe to christianfiction by Email .
I hope to higlight a few holiday reads and movies for you within the next few weeks. I'm very interested in featuring a story that deals with Thanksgiving, so if you have a story hit me up.
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