SW 2013: Day 3-5

Sorry for taking so long to post this! Things got pretty busy after the first full day. Any time I sat down to try and write blog posts, I nearly fell asleep. So, here's a short summary of the rest of the week.

Wednesday
We took a group picture on the steps outside the Bell Center at 8:40. Everyone broke into song, singing things from the Sound of Music. 'Do Re Mi' seems to be one of the favorites of everyone. I hope someone got a recording, because it was pretty fun.

The first session was by Jeff Gerke and on the power of plot. He talked about things that can make or break your story--characters, genre, setting--and how to improve it. Something he suggested was a 'ticking time bomb' and putting one in all your stories. A ticking time bomb is something big that's going to happen and the entire story basically "counts down" to that. Not every story needs one, but it very much improves every story. You want your reader to keep flipping the pages and not be able to stop.

Jill Williamson gave the next session, and I have to say this was probably one of my favorites. She talking about storyboarding, which is an outlining technique. It looks really interesting and I think I'm going to try it for my next story.

We had critique groups again and I had a blast. My group was absolutely amazing. Go Elephant Trunks!

The evening session was by Mark Wilson and on Realism and Joy in Christian Fiction. This session was my absolute favorite. I've got so many good quotes from it, which I'll post here for you all:

"Sometimes evil wins for a while [in stories and life], but not forever. Christ has already won the ultimate battle."

"No matter how big the catastrophe is, no matter how long the Roman occupation lasts...there is always hope." (my favorite quote)

"Joy rings true to us because it's connected to the ultimate truth."

And then finally...

"Write with hope. Hope is realistic."

As you can see, it was a pretty cool session. Talk of hope and joy all over the place--and that is IS realistic. I loved it.

An improv team called Greenleaf came after his session and were absolutely hysterical. They had all of the OYANers nearly dying of laughter. Can't wait to see them again next year!

Thursday
Jill Williamson gave two sessions in the morning on revising your novel. I'd never really thought about all the things that need to go into that process before and she really laid out some good points.

She gave us a self-editing checklist (which I'm really looking forward to using). Some other things she said on editing were:
--Make charts for your characters: what they like, don't like, etc.
--Use personality tests
--Figure out what your character wants and why they want it.
--Give them an inner desire--everyone has one.

There was a break at 10:30 before she started the second part of her talk, which was about more considerations for editing. In this portion, she covered using multiple point of views, how important word choice is, dialogue tags, showing vs. telling and flashbacks/backstorys. I could probably write an entire blog post now on each one of those things.

Again, critique groups were awesome.

Dinner was one of the best parts of the day for me. I got to eat dinner with Jeff Gerke and Jill Williamson, so that was amazing. They gave me and some of my other writer friends some good advice on building a platform, advertising and self-publishing.

Mr. S gave a session on putting the unexpected in your novel, which was also interesting.

After Mr. S' session, we had student open mic night. Lots of people performed, including myself. I did the song 'Do You Hear the People Sing' from Les Miserables with a group of other people. It was so much fun and I probably could have stayed up there singing Les Mis songs all evening.

Friday
...and then came the last day.

Friday was a pretty tough day for almost all of the OYANers--it always is, as everyone prepares to leave. Mr. Gerke talked in the morning about three places novelists tend to make mistakes: before the editor sees your proposal, when the editor looks at your proposal and when the editor reads your sample chapters. I took tons of notes on that, so it was an extremely helpful talk.

The second morning session was a Q&A panel with Jeff Gerke, Jill Williamson, Stephanie Morrill and Amanda. People were able to turn in questions and get them answered from all of their perspectives. I really enjoyed that as well.

I went out to lunch with a friend on Friday and had a break from the rather fake cafeteria food. Chipotle has never tasted so good.

We had our last critique group session after lunch and everyone was pretty tired. We were all going crazy and laughing. At one point, one girl was reading a rather depressing scene from her novel. She, and the rest of us, cracked up nearly every paragraph. I guess that's something only writers do. I nearly fell asleep part way through and had to be a little more animated than usual to stay awake. Ahh, what fun. We took a group picture too, which I need to my hands on at some point.

The last session was called "Making it Real" and was by Mr. S. His talk was sort of like Mark Wilson's at the beginning of the week, on Realism.

Everyone hung out in the gym after the session until 1 AM...and cried. I talked with some really good friends, so that was a plus. Lord willing, we'll all be there again next year.


OYAN: I love you. You're like my second family and I can't wait to see you all again.

SW 2013: Day 2

Lindsay ended up getting on campus around 3:15. She accidentally set off some sort of alarm by keeping the outside door open too long, so quite a few people woke up. She’s in the room with my Grandma and I, so I think that will be fun.

I got up way too early this morning: 5:30. I got ready for the day a lot quicker than I had planned and sat in the gazebo for over an hour with some other OYANers. Most everyone was too tired to really talk much. 

Around 7:10, we all prayed and I read a passage from Matthew 5. We talked about mourning and hard times and how you can learn a lot from that. It was a good discussion, but like I said, most people were much too tired to actually talk.

Backtracking to this morning. I have been designated Kristin and Abbie’s alarm clock. Kristin thought I somehow managed to walk through doors or use a sonic screwdriver to get into her room this morning, because she’d locked the door.

Breakfast wasn’t all that exciting. I had fruit and pancakes, but they were way too sugary. I’m hopefully I’ll find something not quite so sweet tomorrow.

The first sessions were great. Mr. S talked about ordinary heroes and how they can really be extraordinary. I really enjoyed his talk. Someone named Mark Wilson talked about Rivendell for writers.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Lord of the Rings, I’ll explain what Rivendell is. BUT. Only if you promise to read the books and see the movies. Yes, in that order. They’re amazing.

Anyways. I digress.

Rivendell is this peaceful place where the elves live. It’s always quite there. Beautiful streams and waterfalls run all throughout this city. Everywhere you go, there is light and the sound of nature. It looks so peaceful.

Mark Wilson was talking about the importance of a Rivendell like place for writers. Back in the late 17^th century, many poets would dedicate a poem to someone like a nobleman. In return for that, the nobleman would sometimes let the writer come to his house and write. It was really peaceful and a Rivendell like place.

After hearing that session, it’s kind of my goal to find a Rivendell now.

Lunch wasn’t interesting either. Just plain old lunch food. I had a really good salad.

Critique groups were next. I’m in the ‘Elephant Trunks’ group and I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun in a group before. I didn’t know anyone, but we all get along really well. They LOVED my first excerpt and I got much unexpected cheering and applause. That was a little intimidating, but I think it may be why I like my group so much. We went about 30 minutes over, but no one really minded. The best quote from today (and of course, it made more sense in context) was someone in the group saying, “Girls have horns!” All the girls laughed and the guys look at him like he was crazy. Ah, I love this group.

Free time started after we finished with our critique group. I wandered around for a bit before gathering with some people in the auditorium of the Bell Center. We’re going to be performing ‘Do You Hear The People Sing’ from Les Miserables on Thursday night, so we all got together to practice. It went really well and, if I do say so myself, we sound pretty good.

The last two sessions of the evening were by Jill Williamson and Jeff Gerke. Both sessions were wonderful. Mrs. Williamson was very humorous and talked about world building and all the things that go into that.

Mr. Gerke talked about how to make a believeable hero and give them “knots”, or sins. He said, “We’re playing God, except for one thing. We GIVE the character the sin and then punish them for having it!” I got some really good story ideas for my current novel from that session, so I’m looking forward to being able to write again.

After sessions ended, I just hung out with some people until I decided to be mature go to bed. I did manage to get some pictures today too, so those will follow this post.

Keep Shmiling!

~Katie

Pictures Below:

I ate breakfast with these lovely ladies this morning. From left to right: Kristin, Abbie and Savanna.

This girl is awesome. We're the stinkers. I'm Stinker 1 and she's Stinker 2. It's a rather long inside joke with another OYANer who couldn't make it this year. 

Our lovely ice cream and my coffee. We sent this picture to the Queen of Stinkers. We're her minions. 

I'm in this dorm. The last window on the left on the first floor is my room. 

Volleyball nets. 

The beautiful gazebo where we have Bible studies in the mornings. 

And last, but certainly not least, the Bell Center. This is where most of the epicness takes place.

SW 2013: Day 1

We left the house at 6:00 AM sharp and arrived around 6:30 (CST) to the MidAmerica Nazarene University campus. I managed to drive and not freak out from excitement. Still not quite sure how I did that.

The registration line was really quick to get through, so after saying hi to a few people, I got my things and went to set up my dorm. I'm rooming with my Grandma and another OYANer this year, so that will be fun.

For most of the evening, I hung out with some people in the Tipping Lounge/Gym. I don't know as many people as last year, but the few people I do know are pretty close friends. So, that's a benefit.

I also talked to Mr. AND Mrs. S tonight, so that was pretty cool. If you're reading my blog and you're not an OYANer, then you should know that Mr. and Mrs. S are somewhat of celebrities around OYAN.

The only reason I'm up this late right now is because I'm actually waiting for my roomate--Lindsay--to arrive. Her flight got delayed for 3 hours and someone just went to pick her up. Hopefully she'll be arriving before too long.

A more interesting post will be coming tomorrow after I actually have a full day here. And...I'll take pictures. I forgot to do that.

Keep shmiling!
~Katie

Meaning and Balloons

It is happening in everything: school work, literature and even writing. Meaning is being systematically removed and instead, we’re told that “it’s all relative”. There’s no real meaning in anything. This is called deconstructionism.

I heard an analogy that meaning—what deconstructionism does to meaning—is like a red balloon. One person can come up and say it’s a blue balloon. Another can say it’s a green and pink balloon. Yet another person could say that it isn’t a balloon at all; in reality, it’s a pen. I could go on with examples forever, but you get the picture.

Now, according to what the American education system teaches, (because it’s really them who are furthering this kind of thinking), everyone would be right. Meaning is considered to be relative. Because of this, the balloon can be anything or any color people want it to be, based on their thoughts and their desires. This probably sounds crazy, but it is what people think these days.

So, how does this apply to writing? I’m glad you asked.

As any writer knows, there’s something specific you’re trying to get across when telling a story. If you’re like me, the character may actually be an exaggerated reflection of one aspect of yourself, a person you admire or someone you’re close to. The scenes and situations you put in mean something, and it’s something very specific.

I’ll use an example from my own writing. Currently, I’m working on a story about a girl who escapes from a Nazi death camp like situation. She runs away and ends up, unknowingly, in the governor’s house. The butler agrees to let her spend the night (he isn’t aware she’s a prisoner) in exchange for her working an international dinner that his boss is putting on. Now, because of the fact that the governor has kept Kiah (my main character) and her family imprisoned for so many years, she has developed a deep and intense hatred for the man.

Her first errand at the party is to serve drinks, and she meets the governor. At first, she doesn’t know it’s him. He strikes up a conversation with her and, having no preconceived notions herself, starts to think that he’s a nice guy and all that. This is when it’s discovered he’s the governor. She gets super embarrassed and ends up dropping her tray, shattering and spilling everything she was carrying.

There is a certain thing I’m trying to get across in this scene. Kiah’s heart eventually changes in a good direction toward the governor (no, this is not a romance novel), but it doesn’t start out that way. Near the middle of the book, she realizes that she is sinning by hating this man so much and she asks the Lord to change her heart—and He does.

Hopefully after reading my summary, you know what I’m trying to get across: Don’t judge a book by its cover. The big theme in this book is the fact that we so often as humans stereotype people and that we really should try our best not to do that.

If you didn’t get the same thing I meant when writing that summary, I obviously need to work on my summarizing skills.

When you’re writing, make sure that there is no confusion as to your meaning. What you say should be clear. You don’t want someone reading your book to fall into the trap of relativism and draw something you never meant from the text.

The things in the reader’s minds should always match what’s in the author’s mind. I do realize it’s really hard, but it’s not impossible. I’ve gotten a lot better at getting those to match up, but I still have a long way to go. A good way to test if you’re getting across the right thing is to read your scene (or whatever you’ve written) to someone. Make sure you know what you want to get across before you do that. Read the writing and then ask for their thoughts. Ask them what they think you were trying to get them to feel. Hopefully, they’ll say exactly what you’re thinking. If not, tell them what you were thinking and ask them how you could have gotten that across better. It’s daunting to read your work to someone, but it does help.

There is absolutely no such thing as relative meaning, or relative truth. God makes this really clear in His word. He tells us what we should do and what we shouldn’t do, how we should act and how we shouldn’t act. The way in which He tells us leaves no room for confusion as to His meaning. Take a look at the Ten Commandments, or Old Testament rules or commands to believers in Ephesians to see what I mean.

God’s meaning is clear. That gives us no excuse to do anything less.

Previously published on Kingdom Pen.

Today, Ohio seceded from the US--TeenPact Day 3

We left the house around 7:30 again and this time, got to class about 25 minutes early. Today we were in a different building than Monday and Tuesday, so we hung out in the cafeteria and looked out the windows until class started. (again, pictures of this at the end of the post)

This morning for prayer walks, we were able to pray outside the governors office, which was pretty cool. The State House has a map of Ohio with all the counties on the floor in a room, so we got to pray for our local government near that. Again, it was pretty neat. 

Our only speaker today was a person by the name of Clarence Mingo, the Franklin county auditor. He was my favorite speaker so far. He talked about a lot of things, but his main point was that God needs to be the center of everything we do. Compromise is not allowed in the life of a Christian. He had a several main points, and I list those:

• Remember you're different from everyone else because of who you serve, and therefore at times you might be alone
• Never separate God's truth from ANY subject 
• Never be afraid to speak the Lord's truth
• It is well with us to guard your tongue and speech
• Public conduct should match your private conduct
• Bible study and prayer must be a daily discipline in the life of any Christian
• Resolve to please God rather than men

He spoke for a long time and there was very little time to ask any questions. I thought it was so cool that an elected official stood up there and talked about what he did. That was probably one of the best parts of the day.

After Clarence Mingo finished speaking, the newbies went off to field experiences and the alumni stayed behind. We were assigned in small groups (3-4 people) to go walk around the State House and interview random people, asking their beliefs on various movements (Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party). I had another person in my group who lives in the same city and we actually got to talk to our senator, Senator Dave Burke. It was SO exciting. The other two people in our group thought we were really weird, because both of us were grinning ear to ear.

Senator Burke graciously answered our questions and we got to chat with him for a little while. He invited us to come sit in on a meeting he was holding in the North Hearing room. We went to the TeenPact leader to ask permission and that's where our adventure began. For at least 15 minutes, we wandered/walked very quickly around the State House trying to find the North Hearing room. I learned that I can go pretty fast in heels and I can also run up/down stairs in heels. By the time we found it, we were all breathing hard and sweating, but got to sit in. Senator Burke didn't talk before we had to leave, but it was still pretty cool.

Lunch was a lot of fun too. We had a rather interesting bill, which I'll mention later. Another one of the bills had to do with the government and CPS having more control over children/families. There was one girl in our group who was completely for it and said something to the effect of, "Well, the government should have way more control than they do!". Everyone freaked out a bit and debate broke out. I'll summarize and say it was rather interesting.

General elections were held this afternoon. Senatorial candidates gave their speeches first. They were asked some serious questions, but one was "If you were a donut, what kind would you be and why?". I remember thinking, "Okay...this is ridiculous. This isn't going to help me decide at all." However, it was quite the opposite. Several people said things like, "I would be a chocolate glazed donut because it's like me. It's awesome on the outside, but even awesomer on the inside." So...that cut out quite a few people I didn't realize were quite so arrogant and they didn't receive my vote. 2 of the 3 people I voted for became Senators.

Gubernatorial speeches were next. My friend Spencer was one of the candidates and he did a pretty good job with the questions. Someone else, Peter (someone in my committee, actually) ended up winning. He did really well too. 

Then the best part of the day: TPL (Teen Pact Legistlature, or TPLeg). Just so you all know, Ohio is now seceding from the United States. We voted on that today. The Ohio TeenPact class will be the government (so I'm a politician now!). I really, really loved this bill. It said that Ohio would secede from the US. Those who are unfairly using welfare will be forced to work to build an iron wall around the borders of Ohio and will receive a pay of $6 an hour. They will work until they pay back the already hardworking citizens of Ohio. Patriarchs/Matriarchs will be required to own an AR-15 and at least 500 rounds of ammunition. We'll have 5 iron domes that will protect against missile attacks.

Another bill was also presented today in first reads. It said that the prisoners who are in prison for life will be randomly selected in groups of 24 and put in an arena to fight to the death. That's right folks, it's the Hunger Games. I expected a bill like that to pop up at some point.

The car ride home after TeenPact was just as much fun as the rest of the day. We are all getting tired and were pretty slap-happy and just generally crazy on the way home.

Can't wait to see what tomorrow holds.

The skyline of Columbus. It was actually pretty hard to get a picture of.

The State House from the 19th floor of the Riffe Center.

Me and mah sissy. ^_^

I believe this is the House chambers, but don't quote me on it. Abbie took this picture. Anyways, we'll be doing TPLeg in the House tomorrow. I'm INCREDIBLY excited.

The senatorial candidates. It's not the best picture, but I can sort of point out who I voted for. From left to right, I voted for number 5, 7 and 11. 5 and 7 were the ones who got Senator, as well as number 3.

Me, Sarah and Abbie after class today.

TeenPact Day 2

(pictures at end of post)


Today was really enjoyable. We started off the morning with worship and a devotional. After that, we walked around the State House on prayer walks in our committees. We stopped in the Senate and House chambers, as well as near a statue honoring the military. I find it SO cool that we're able to walk around our State House and pray in public for our leaders. The prayer walks are one of my favorite things about TeenPact. Everything that we do is centered around God and how He is in the center of things.

We returned to the "house floor" (also known as Rhodes Center auditorium) after prayer walks. The newbies went on their first field experience, which I believe was interviewing lobbyists. Alumni stayed for the first session in the Alumni track--Past and Present Movements. As part of our homework, we were required to write an essay on two different movements: one past, one present. I wrote on the Anti-Vietnam War movement and the Tea Party movement. We were separated into groups based on the essays we wrote and had to present about the movement in front of the rest of the class. Another girl and I were the only ones brave enough to talk about the Vietnam movement. There was some really good discussion on that issue, as well as many of the others. Our session ended earlier than I would have liked due to something silly called "lunch".

Lunch is in your committees as well and it's also a super fun part of the day. We talked about bills for the first time and I'm convinced we got all the ridiculous one. There was one about making Call of Duty the state video game (Call of Duty people--don't kill me), one about making it illegal to kill and catch frogs and a couple other ones. One of the people in our group wrote something about Ohio seceding from the US and we passed that one. I'm really hoped it comes up in TPL. The funny thing about that bill is we had some non TeenPacters comment on it. We all meet in a cafeteria type setting to eat and after our clerk read the bill, several people at a nearby table applauded. They came up and talked to him afterwards, so that was kind of cool.

I also found another writer in my group, which is SO exciting. He's written 5 books, various short stories and some poems. At some point this week, I'm planning to tell him about One Year Adventure Novel and Kingdom Pen.

After lunch, we did a brief session of TPL, had a speaker and then  did another session of TPL. That's another part about TeenPact that I really like. Maybe I should just start saying I love the entire thing.

The last thing today (besides the test) were the primaries. There were four parties: Agrarian, Libertarian, Capitalist and Workers. I was put on the Agrarian party. Each party is allowed to select one gubernatorial (governor) candidate and three senatorial candidates. I ran for senator, but wasn't picked. It was still fun though. General elections are tomorrow. A friend of mine (Spencer) got the nomination in his party as the gubernatorial candidate. Hopefully he'll end up being governor.


Tomorrow the alumni are going to interview random people on the street and ask their opinion on current events and things like that. I'm really looking forward to it.

I also just realized that I should probably take more than three pictures. I'll try to better on Wednesday and Thursday.

Abbie and Kit-Kat being goofy.

So, naturally, I had to follow suit.

Everyone on the way home. They look a lot tireder than yesterday. :P

Teen Pact Day 1

Today was the first of our 4-day long government class called TeenPact. The Marysville group of kids (picture at end of post) arrived at our house around noon and we drove down to Columbus.

Upon arriving at the Rhodes Center, we met other TeenPacters and the staff. Today mainly consisted of learning the ground rules, TPL (Teen Pact Legislature) and committee break-ups. For the rest of the week, we'll get to pretend that we're representatives and debate bills in committees before presenting to the "house" or TPL. It's pretty fun. I'm on the Health and Aging committee, so we got assigned some interesting bills.

Before TPL started this afternoon, we did something called first reads. Each student is required to write at least one bill to be presented before the TPL. Everyone came up, read a short portion of the bill and then it was assigned to the different committees.

There were a number of humorous bills read during first reads. My favorite funny bill is from last year and it was to start doing the Hunger Games in the state of Ohio. Last year, my committee got this bill and we decided to move it to the "house" to be discussed. We actually passed the bill. 

Since committees had not yet had the opportunity to debate bills, we used one that the staff put together. It was on education and requiring all teachers (public, private, home) to receive certification in each subject that they teach. So, the homeschool parent would have to be "certified" in math, english, science and a large number of things. Thankfully, the bill did not pass.

We also heard a few lectures by a lobbyist and the director of the state TeenPact class. Tomorrow looks to be about the same. We'll be leaving the house at 7 AM (I'm not exactly looking forward to that) and class will go until 3 PM. I glanced briefly at the material for the Alumni track and it looks pretty awesome. But, I won't talk about that just yet. I'll keep you all in suspense for another day.

From left to right: Colton, Spencer, Curtis, Me, Kit-Kat, Abbie, Marisa and Lily. 

How Much is Too Much?

Details are the most powerful tool a writer has at hand. By skillfully describing a location or the way a character is feeling, the author can make their reader experience a mental movie. They don’t even notice the words on the page anymore, because they are so immersed in your writing. However, there is a problem that many writers struggle with and that is how much detail to put into something. How much is too much?

Before I get into this, let me give an example of how details can create a mental image. If I were to say, “My Dad is weird,” any number of things could pop into the reader’s head. One might think that my Dad stands on top of a hay wagon and yodels for hours on end and another might imagine him as a one man band on stilts. The list of possible mental pictures is endless. On the other hand, if I were to tell you, “My Dad likes to dance a jig while drinking hot chocolate and practicing his archery,” then those details plant the exact image I’m thinking in the reader’s head. When you’re writing, it’s important to convey what you’re thinking through your words and to convey exactly. Otherwise, there will be confusion as to your meaning.

So, how much is too much? God is the master storyteller, so let’s use the example of His Word, the Bible. During creation week, He explains everything He created. God wanted to make sure we knew exactly what He did and how He did it. Therefore, He used description! Also, look at the details God gave Noah in Genesis 6:14-16 when He told him to build the ark. “So make yourself an ark of cypress wood, make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.” See how many details are put into this? Even though we might not know exactly how long 450 feet is or how high 45 feet is, we still know that the ark was huge. This is called detail mode. Details create mental images in your reader’s mind.

I was at a writing workshop this summer in Kansas and the speakers talked about description (and the importance of it) a lot. You don’t want your reader to feel like they’re mentally walking into an empty room. 

Some things, it’s fine to leave to their imagination. However, there are cases when this isn’t good at all and can actually make the reader frustrated with you as the author. If you start writing about a character in Chapter 1 and give very vague details—gender, age, area they live in--, the reader will start to build an image in their mind of what they look like. It doesn’t take long for them to establish this and connect it with that character. Let’s say the next physical description you give them is at the end of Chapter 3. By this point, your reader has decided that the main character is a petite, dark curly hair, blue-eyed female. This isn’t what you were thinking, though. In your mind, the main character is taller, has straight, long blonde hair and green eyes. I know I’ve experienced this several times when reading and it’s really frustrating and difficult to go back and change that picture you’ve thought up. 

Just like God did when telling Noah exactly how to build the ark, we need to show our readers exactly what we’re thinking.

There are some cases where details should be avoided. Instead, something called “summary mode” should be used. Again, let’s see what’s in the Bible. When Cain murdered his brother, Abel, the only description we get is, “And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. (Genesis 4:8b)” We don’t need to know all the bloody gory details of how it happened. Abel was killed and that’s all we need to know. Or, look at the description we’re given of when Noah got drunk in Genesis 9:21, “Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.” Summary mode makes it so the reader gets the concept of what happened, but doesn’t plant any inappropriate images in their minds.

Used skillfully, details and description can be the best tool the writer has. There are certain things that are best left untouched, or very briefly mentioned. Some very ugly things happen in the Bible. Summary mode is used to avoid planting images of sin. A lot of literature these days does glorify sin and give lots of unneeded details about it. You can still write realistic literature without going into every detail. 

If in doubt, leave it out. You don’t want your words to be a stumbling block for a reader or yourself. If God didn’t—or wouldn’t—describe every detail that goes into an event, then you shouldn’t either. Follow the example of the Lord, because He is the Master Storyteller. 

My Dad, by the way, enjoys both archery and hot chocolate—however, rarely at the same time and never while doing a jig.

 

Update on writing.

I'm rather ashamed to say I've not been writing as much as I should lately. This is partially due to the fact that I've been pretty busy with school. The annoying thing about being busy is that I always seem to get tons of awesome ideas, or random bits of ideas...and of course, no time to write any of them.

I have a new novel started and it's called #754. A simple way to describe it would be to say it's a combination of Beauty and the Beast, The Holocaust, Esther and Moses. Yes, that's quite a combination. I'll hopefully do a post describing it more in detail shortly, but for now, here is a (working) synopsis:

Kiah is poisoned, or so says the government. She and all like her are forced to live in a prison camp and work until their death. No parole, no reprieve. It's for life. One day, Kiah decides she has to change her life and narrowly manages to escape from the prison. She ends up working in the house of the governor, the man she hates more than anyone else. For years, she's built up this image of him being a gnarly beast and biting off anyone's head who came near him. But that's not the case. Much to her dismay, she actually starts to like him. She starts out as a maid for just a weekend party, but he hires her on for longer. Word eventually reaches him that a poisoned has escaped. Will the governor discover Kiah's secret?

In case you're wondering about the title, #754, it's Kiah's prisoner number. She has it tattooed right below her elbow in black with an arrow above it. All prisoners have a similar tattoo. 

Another idea I had has to do with WW2 and Auschwitz, one of the main places Nazis used for extermination of the Jews during the war. I was doing some reading for my World War 2 class and found out that the prisoners arranged a secret newspaper. They managed to smuggle information out to the Polish resistance, some of which helped capture Nazi perpetrators after the war had ended. Having a great Uncle who fought in the war, it's always been a big source of interest for me. I've wanted to write a book based in that time period for quite a while, but struggled with how to make it un-cliche in the mass market of WW2 historical fiction already out there. I think I've found the way to do it.

I have a couple other bits of ideas, but they don't really fit into anything I have yet. Seems like almost anything can spark a novel idea.

The plan is to have the rough draft of #754 finished by June, the final version by August 1st and to start the Auschwitz one in September. That one will need a lot of planning and I'll need to make sure everything is historically accurate. I'm thinking of changing my favorite genre to historical fiction now.

When I was at the library yesterday, I checked out 15 rather large books on various aspects of the war, so I'm looking forward to reading those. I hope to be writing again soon, but schoolwork has to come first right now. The good news is that classes end in three weeks, so I'll have more writing time once they're over. Believe me, that can't come soon enough.

I suppose I shall stop rambling about my writing now (except, the blog IS called Writer's Ramblings. Guess it's an accurate title.). Be looking for a few writing articles in the near future!

Auf Wiedersehen!
~Katie