Status Updates From Write Your First Novel

Can we get the original book 100% by Gilbert Morris, please? Ngl, most if not all of the additions by Steve Laube are trite & redundant 🤷🏼‍♀️

Also, did not realize this book was aimed at Christian writers… the writing advice is good for any author, though

cont'd

so we may feel again their majesty and power? What do we ever know that is higher than that power which, from time to time, seizes our lives, and reveals us startlingly to ourselves as creatures set down here bewildered?^

^Annie Dillard put it this way:
Why are we reading, if not in hope of beauty laid bare, life heightened and its deepest mystery probed. . . . Why are we reading if not in hope that the writer will magnify and dramatize our days, will illuminate and inspire us with wisdom, courage, and the possibility of meaningfulness, and will press upon our minds the deepest mysteries,

^Flannery O'Connor put it this way:
The Christian novelist is distinguished from his pagan colleagues by recognizing sin as sin. According to his heritage he sees it not as sickness or an accident of environment, but as a responsible choice of offense against God which involves his eternal future. Either one is serious about salvation or one is not.^

^Your success as a writer will probably not depend on how well you write so much as on how well you handle rejection.^

^As Henry David Thoreau remarked, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."^

^For the meaningful or satisfying ending, the protagonist doesn't change his basic character trait, but solves the problem through his own character action.^

^Here are four other factors to consider when you write your climax:
1. Be sure the scene is of emotional value.
2. Steer away from "come-to-realize" endings.
3. A believable ending is a planned ending.
4. The climax scene is the most important confrontation in your story.^

^Now that you have a grasp on the essence of setting, attempt to master the following five uses of this element in your fiction:
1. Create a mood
2. Reflect a mood
3. illustrate a moral force
4. Symbolize an idea
5. Advance a plot^

^Use weather to get your reader in the mood for something.^

^"It is by the nature of itself that fiction is all bound up in the locale...for feelings are bound up in places. Location is the crossroads of circumstance, the proving ground of 'What happened? Who's here? Who's coming?'"^

^Five of these elements or "worlds" are discussed in this section.
1. The geological background
2. The weather factor
3. The biological world
4. The cultural-historical flavor
5. The social atmosphere^

^"As an author, ask the question, 'What do I want to emphasize?' If the dialogue is on what is being spoken, use 'said.' If the emphasis is on how, use a different dialogue tag.'"^

^Two of the main purposes of dialogue are to reveal character and to allow two characters to relate to each other.^

^Bare dialogue refers to the spoken words only; full dialogue includes the spoken words, plus the action pertaining to the spoken words and the speaker's reaction and thoughts.^

^The five principles are:
1. Mechanics
2. Variety of position
3. The Action tag
4. Variety of length
5. Tone^

^Give your character a wound, then let him either overcome it or let it destroy him.^

2. Psychological Patterns—
A. His or her basic psychological makeup.
B. His or her past.
C. His or her psychic wounds.
D. His or her self-image.
E. His or her image, as seen by others.^

^1. Behavior—
A. Your characters must act realistically.
B. Your characters must act consistently.
C. Your characters must have mannerisms.
D. Your characters must have activities.
E. Your characters must have reactions.^

^Make your minor characters come to life, but do not attempt to make rounded characters out of them.^

^Both the heroine and the hero should be attractive. Not in a visual sense but in the depth of their character.^

^Remember—don't say, "What am I going to write about?" Instead, ask yourself, "Who am I going to write about?"^

^If you are not careful, all of your characters will speak like one person; they will all speak like you. This is because the first words you think of for your characters to say will be your words. If you need to do this initially to get into the dialogue, go ahead. But be sure to go back and change it to the speech of that character.^

^Details in and of themselves are meaningless unless they add to the reader's emotional and intellectual union with the characters. Do not waste time on a multitude of details that fail to reveal what a character is in essence.^

^Remember that lazy writing makes for difficult reading; careful writing makes for easy reading.^

^Although the task of bringing your character to life is a formidable one, you can boil it down to four fundamentals—
1. Physical description—what he or she looks like.
2. Speech—what he or she sounds like.
3. Behavior—what he or she acts like.
4. Psychological patterns—what he or she thinks like.^

^As a writer, you must learn a new language, one deliberately tailored for your character.^

^Make exposition do more than show passage of time.^