Jan Cline

lover of relics and history

Pain…the good it can do

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Been thinking a lot about pain the last few weeks. I recently finished a wonderful book by Jamie Ford titled Songs of Willow Frost. At the end of the book he said this:

“I was an aspiring writer, fumbling for years with this thing called fiction, but too often I had nothing of substance to write about. It was only after I’d collected enough scars that I found the expository canvas on which to paint my stories…”

Considering my recent, and ongoing, pain of my daughter’s cancer diagnosis, this quote hit home for me as a writer.

Some people seem to go through life with very little strife, or tragedy, or pain. I have had people in my life who appeared to have avoided a lot of the pain I have experienced. I often wondered why some are “spared” while some are apparently “doomed” to excruciating difficulties with health, family, finances, friends, or other things from the long list of earthly troubles.

It doesn’t really make sense in the short-sightedness of our humanity. It’s so easy to ask why, why me, and look to God and exclaim, can we not do this again?! But when we step back and see the bigger picture of life here and then eternity, it’s clear pain has less to do with selection than is does with direction.

Where do we direct our reaction to pain? Pull it inward? Lash out at others? Be angry at God? Or could we possibly turn it into good?

A good author will help the reader connect on a personal level, sometimes reaching deep into their hearts. It’s a good use of pain. As a fiction writer, I hope I will capture the essence of my character’s pain more clearly because of what I have gone through. I hope my readers will find solace, comfort, insight, inspiration, and encouragement in what I write. After all, I want to glean all those things when I read a book.

So we can be changed by our pain, and in turn change others – for the better.

Once we get over the sting of it all, and the gaping wounds begin to heal, we would miss the best part of the process if we neglected to use it for a higher purpose. My friend Mick Silva wrote this:

“With a little pain God brings relief. With a little darkness eventually he brings light. He ordains the contrasts of life to make it rich and meaningful.”

 

Relief is something we all long for, and I would imagine it comes more readily when we resist the urge to contain our pain in a jar to be taken out in doses when we have a need for pity, justification, or attention.

 

Are you able to see your pain as a tool of prosperity for someone else?

 

Keep reaching!

Jan

May 19, 2016

Do You Work Without A Net?

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trapeze

April 14, 2016

Even trapeze artists occasionally fly without a net. They risk their lives, trusting their skills and training to keep them from falling. I’ve often wondered at what point did they roll up the net and fly free without something to catch them if they miss the bar.

How good do they have to be before they trust their instincts and talents?

I’ve been learning some news things through my recent book launch and subsequent planning of another book. One is that I learned more about writing than I thought I had. All I have absorbed during the studying of the craft, the coaching, and the workshops and classes, is finally starting to show in my writing.

The foundation has been laid, and the house of prose I’m building is on pretty steady ground. But I also stand ready to add another strengthening layer to it when I can.

Sure, I will still make mistakes, and I have a way to go before I write a GREAT book. But I’m ready to take down the net.

What is my net? It’s a tightly woven fabric made of several things.

Rules of structure and method.

While plotting, structuring, and planning are good things, trying to conform too much to them only kept me constrained and a bit frustrated. I had to find a happy medium of joy riding and sticking to the map of novel writing. My nature is to write by the seat of my pants. Tempering that with some structure allows me to fly free.

Fear of never being good enough.

Repeat after me: I will get better.

I’m a work in progress and so is my writing. It’s okay to not be a best-selling author. I do the best I can, knowing I will improve with practice – just like anything else I do. What is important is that I am NOT afraid to learn something about myself in my stories and then pass that along to my readers. Then it doesn’t matter if my writing is perfect, it’s usable, and I am usable.

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Self-imposed unrealistic writing schedules.

I have a busy life. Yeah, yeah, so does everyone. I’m no spring chicken (sorry for the cliche) and I have an auto-immune disease that cuts into my productivity. I have to give myself permission to be less productive than the prolific writer I really want to be like. It is what it is, and by expecting too much of myself, my creativity takes a hit.

 

So, while I know that I need to rely on a safety net from time to time, I am hoping to drop it often enough to discover my best voice, hone my natural talents, and feel the freedom of the breeze in my hair as I fly through the air of writing my next novel.

What is your safety net? Do you feel you’re ready to let go of it?

Like the trapeze flyer….

Keep reaching!

Jan

Writing contests..it’s the season!

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Feb. 3, 2016

I’ve entered several writing contests over the course of my writing journey. Sometimes the experience was rewarding (not always in an award sort of way), and sometimes it was frustrating and downright unfair.

So do I recommend contests? Mostly.

Will I keep entering them? Probably.

Will I have as high of expectations as I did when I first started entering contests? Absolutely not.

My first experience at a writing contest (fiction) was the ACFW Genesis contest way back when I wrote my very first novel, which is now resting in peace in the dark confines of my file cabinet. Yes, it was horrible, but I got great feedback and learned a lot from the experience.

This is the best reason to enter a contest – to get free or low-cost feedback from published authors and/or industry professionals.

Chances are, if you have 3 judges, you will get 3 very different scores. It seems that I usually get one low score, one high score, and one in the middle.

I have had a few “placings” in contests, most recently, I made the finals in the 2015 My Book Therapy contest, a big honor. I did receive good feedback, and can add that to my short list of accolades. You have to remember, there are usually a large number of entries, and competition can be stiff. There are so many great writers out there – even those yet to be published. Enter with the priority of learning. But finaling in a noteworthy contest can be a boost when writing your book proposal and talking to agents and editors.

I have also had one especially frustrating experience at a well-known Christian writer’s conference contest I will not name. I did not place, which is okay, I can handle that. But the feedback I got from a couple of the judges was very confusing. More than confusing, some of it was rude and sarcastic. I later discovered that one of the judges for my Historical fiction category was a children’s book author. Not exactly my genre, and not exactly what a judge is supposed to do. I also found out at the awards ceremony at the conference, that the judges were also contestants. And some of them won!! AGH!

Anyway, I say all that to lead up to some important points:

  • Read the guidelines, rules, judge’s names, category list, etc. If there is no specific information on all that, you might consider emailing the organization for it, or skip that competition.
  • I recommend not paying a lot for contests. The ones that charge more than $40 or $50 could be out to make money, and not designed to benefit the writer. Just beware.
  • Contests that are not associated with a known conference, writer’s group, or Christian organization (if you are writing for the Christian genre) should be investigated carefully. There are lots of scams out there that may want you, as a “winner”, to invest in a compilation book of winning entries. Don’t do it. As I said, beware.

Don’t let a low or non-placement discourage you. Even though I appreciate how hard they work, judges are not always the most qualified, or they may just not like your genre (a judge actually told me that in her feedback)…or, you might just have needed the constructive criticism you received. It’s a learning process – use it to your advantage.

I will add that at the disappointing contest I mentioned above, one of the judges clearly was not qualified, nor appropriate for my genre. The story I entered, which is my novel to be released next month, is about a family living in a Japanese American internment camp during WWII. I had researched extensively about life in the camps. One of the several inappropriate comments from this judge stemmed from a line in the story about a character doing her laundry in the latrine, which is indeed where they had to do their laundry. The judge’s comment was “Oops! A latrine is a bathroom! Use your thesaurus!” There were other comments by this judge that made it clear to me I would have to dismiss her score. You may have to do that with some judges – just be willing to receive what is good and set aside what does not help you be a better writer. Even negative feedback can be profitable if it’s from someone who knows what they are talking about.

So go forth and enter. Keep your perspective, have an open mind, guard your pocketbook, do your research, and have fun with it.

Keep reaching,

Jan

How Do You Move Forward?

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I’m ready to move forward in this new year. Middle of last year, I wasn’t sure I could. 2015 brought too much loss, too little good health, too much indecision, and not enough order.

I bet many of you could say the same. It’s nice to have a fresh start, choose a new road, take a decided leap, or just leave the past behind.  I think January was invented so we could have a marker, a reset, a deadline for change.

I’m taking a new road this year – but strangely it’s one I started to take last year. I turned back. I still don’t know if it was a decision thrust upon me or if I just chickened out.

It doesn’t matter, because God turns all things into good if we let Him.

I will publish my first novel this year. I tremble just typing the words. Sure, I’m committed now, but what if things go wrong again? What if I chicken out? What if someone whose opinion I value says it’s not good?

Again, it doesn’t matter, because God turns all things into good if we let Him.

This story is important, even if I haven’t told it excellently. It’s relevant for what our world is going through these days. But I think it’s good, and I must put one foot in front of the other and follow the road I know I was meant to travel. I don’t want to come to the end of this year and realize I turned back again.

My publication target date is end of March. I hope you will watch for more news about it – I’ll let you know as things move along.

It’s a new road for me and I hope to follow it to the end.

What road are you contemplating? Will you take the first step? What is standing in your way?

 

Keep reaching!

Jan

 

 

Navigation Pane as Promised

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In my last post 5 Editing Tools I Use, I mentioned using the Navigation Pane in MS Word. Here is an explanation of how it has helped me.

Note: This tool will not help you much if you have a separate document for each chapter in the book you’re writing. It is most helpful to those of us who have a continuous manuscript in one document. I used to separate my chapters to have their own document, but it drove me crazy to try and find certain characters or pieces of story when I needed to. So I went back to one document and began to use the Navigation tool.

Now I can see as I go what is happening in what chapter or scene because I make notes at each chapter and scene change. All I need to do to maneuver through the manuscript is to click on the chapter heading or scene subheading in the pane.

I just learned about the feature from my friend and fellow writer, Suzanne Kuchynka. She is the master of organization and tools to do that with your plotting and writing. I’m not one to go to great lengths to be organized, but I do like using this tool in at least a minimal way. You may want to take it to it’s full level. I’m just going to share how I use it. Simple as it is, it really helps me keep track of my story as I write.

You will find the Navigation pane toggle under the VIEW tab in the menu at the top of your document.

(It’s the same thing you see when you click on “Find” to search for a word in your document.)

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Simply click in the box and it will bring up a sidebar.

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When I start a new chapter, I title it, i.e. Chapter Two, and then assign it as Heading 1 in the Styles bar that shows up in the Home tab.

If I put any subtext under the chapter title, I assign it as Heading 2.

You do this by highlighting the Chapter Two or Scene 1 and then clicking on the Heading you want it to have.

Here is an example of what mine looks like:

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When I click on any of the headings in the Navigation Pane, it goes to that place in my manuscript.

Under the Heading 2, I usually put the scene number, word count of that scene, and a little description of what happens in that scene.

If you click in the Nav. Pane on Pages, it will give you a view of all your pages.

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I know there are other uses for this tool. Here are a couple links for tutorials:

Tutorial One

Tutorial Two

I plan to take some time soon and dive deeper into this feature. I hope you are finding your own tools to make your writing and editing easier.

Happy Navigating!

Jan