BookTherapy

"NEITHER SNOW NOR RAIN NOR HEAT NOR GLOOM OF NIGHT…”

We had a major rainstorm up in the northland yesterday – roads washed out, a river coursing through our yard. And, of course, the internet was down…so I had to pack up my computer and forge my way into town to send it from my husband’s hotel. As I left the house, my daughter said, “Are you sure you want to brave the elements?”

Of course! Because I was focused on the end goal of getting my blog up (and, of course, checking my email1). I drove around downed trees, and navigated a small river with m SUV, and dodged piles of dirt but I finally made it to town.

And my blog.

On your hero’s spiritual journey, he’ll have downed logs to traverse and rivers to wade through, and dirt to dodge….how do we keep him on track and focused?

Here’s a few hints I’ve discovered:

Focus on one central truth. My primary purpose to getting to town was to blog. Now, if I accomplished picking up some groceries, or even a skinny vanilla latte from the local coffee shop, that’s an added bonus. But my focus was….internet access. In the same way, keep your spiritual theme/plot simple and focused. One verse, or one passage, one song, one line from the song. Don’t do the buckshot method of sowing the seeds…pick your ammo and aim well. Some possible ways of communicating the theme/truth/message:
i. songs (hymns or other songs)
ii. sayings (quotes they read, hear….could be anywhere – graffiti, on a menu, on a bus, on the radio…)
iii. a wise friend, relative, pastor. Even something someone says in passing. (a fisherman? A store clerk? In my book Happily Ever After, I used the director of a group home)
iv. Confrontation – an argument with another character that surfaces a truth, an accusation, or a dilemma.
v. A memory, jogged by a memento.
vi. A letter, or journal entry.
vii. I’ve also used landscape, weather, even animals to convey a truth. (Karen Kingsbury used an eagle in A Time to Dance.)

Make him teachable: in other words, show your character’s desire to change. I rose early, packed up my computer, dressed for the weather…in short, I displayed my desire to get to town. Likewise, show a yearning in your character to want something different, deeper in his spiritual walk.
Ie, Happily Ever After, Joe WANTS to forgive his father for the crimes of the past, but he’s not sure if it is worth it. I give him a glimpse of the “fruit” of forgiveness by having him go fishing with his brother, and seeing the simple joy he can have in that.
Ie, in Francine’s Classic, Redeeming Love, the heroine, Angel, wants to love her husband, Hosea, and each time she runs away from him, it is a little bit harder.

How can you show your character is willing to change? Here are some hints:

1. Show their Desire for change. Simply an awareness of emptiness. Perhaps a longing, something he sees in another person, or where he was and fell from.
2. Apply Pressure Points that show his spiritual emptiness, through friends, memories, failures.
--ie, in HEA Joe, gets a letter from his father and wishes he could have their old relationship. He begins to enjoy his brother’s company, and his brother’s example of forgiveness causes him to be ashamed of his own behavior. Also, he falls for the heroine, but because of his walls and spiritual fears, is unable to commit to her, despite his deepest desire.

Finally, cumulate in an epiphany or Ah Ha! moment. As I drove to town today, I passed a football field sized log jamb at the mouth of a local river, piled up against the bridge. Like the log jamb, all of your character’s lessons/moments/challenges should pile up to one moment where he realizes a truth about his life. Often, it’s at the darkest moment, either right before, or right after.

There are many kinds of epiphanies --

a. Gradual “light” turning on, naturally, over time. A series of small changes lead to the big change until they finally stand in a place where their destructive behavior might be repeated and they see their change (or have someone see the change for them).
b. The “Big Bang!” method. Suddenly, the character is at his/her lowest point, and things they’ve seen/heard/learn along the journey flood back to them and they get it. Have them make a change of behavior in that moment, a different decision than they would normally make.
c. The Reader Ah-ha Method. This is where the characters don’t realize their change, but we as the reader see it. (Often in an allegory). At the end, often the character does something that they would have never done in the beginning, to illustrate this change.
d. The Oh No, am I like HIM? Method. In this scenario, the hero/heroine sees themselves in reality and how much they are like the villain, or someone he despises. This jolts them into change.

Now, so I don’t have to drive in again tomorrow…here are some tricks to weaving in the spiritual plot:

1. Don’t make the change too easy. Have them fight it. (C’mon, how many of us embrace our faults?)
2. Don’t use too many devices, (and don’t use coincidences!) Have something pop out at them when they are reading, or listening to a song. Instead of having something jolt them, have them embrace understanding from something they hear.
3. Let the reader see the change…validate their changed life through a changed behavior, decision, words.

But Susie, what if I’m halfway into a book and I’ve lost my spiritual thread? To keep the fabric of your spiritual story from unraveling, simply stop in every few chapters and start your chapter with a question to your character – what do you think God is doing in your life? How do you feel about God? What has been happening around you that makes you uncomfortable spiritually?

You might even have to take another look at your theme – is your character leading you to a new place where you might have to tighten your spiritual plotline? Refine it further? Maybe (like in real life!) your character is going to learn something you didn’t expect! Be flexible and go with the story. Trying to keep a story too tightly inside the “confines” of your theme can make it seem contrived and even unrealistic.

Writing the spiritual thread for a story will deepen your story, allow your readers to participate in the character’s spiritual journey, and hopefully, they’ll walk away with a deeper understanding how God might work in their lives, also.

On Monday, we’re going to be talking about that Special Someone in your Hero’s life…and how to weave in the elements of ROMANCE! Have a dry weekend!

Moseying down the spiritual road

My hubby and I love to travel. We’ve gone everywhere – well, not South America, but Europe and Asia and Alaska….and we’ve discovered that we travel in different ways. I like a map. And a destination. And the knowledge that I get to eat something normal on the way. He likes to set out and see where the road takes him. The difference isn’t our destinations – eventually we get where we want to go. It’s the HOW.

How are you going to move your hero along on his spiritual journey? Here’s a few travel tips I’ve learned on my journeys:

In plotting my stories, I often start with a story question – and the same thing goes for the spiritual thread. Whether is it a story about a man fighting his own demons of sin (Dekker: Three), or a woman facing her husband’s career as a pastor (Rivers: Shofar Blew), your character will begin in a place of spiritual unrest. Defining that for the reader, through metaphor, or dialogue or situation will give you a place to start from, spiritually.

How do you discover your character’s spiritual darkness? I begin with a simple interview. Ask your character what the major catalysts for change were in his/her life, and how did that mold his spiritual thinking? Did he/she have any God moments as a child? What was his/her darkest moment in their lives and how has that affected their worldview today? What now keeps them from walking with God? The key is to discover where they are spiritually.

The most important question in the interview is: What holds them back from a relationship with God? Try and boil it down to one sentence.

i.e. in my book Happily Ever After, my heroine, Mona needed to trust God and forgive herself (accept God’s forgiveness). My hero, Joe needed to forgive his father.

Ie, in Francine River’s book, Redeeming Love – Angel needed to accept God’s unconditional love and forgiveness, and then see Hosea as God’s instrument to love her.

Once you’ve discovered their spiritual state, and what they need, then you can move onto their journey.

Your character is most likely beginning in a place of reluctant contentment spiritually. They may not like their worldview, but it’s all they have. However, in stories, as in life, God will bring someone to their darkest moment so that His light shines brightest. He wants people to reach up and grab a hold of him, and this is what your character should do. Your job is to plot their spiritual demise. The point is to bring them to their darkest moment, when they want to give up and they have no where else to turn.

I’ve used, for years, what I call, the D’s. (For more information on the “D’s” pick up “Getting into character” by Brandilyn Collins)
Desire – What is your character’s spiritual desire? Or need?
Distancing – What has caused this need?
Denial – What deepens their need?
Disappointment – What brings them to a place where they are despondent.
Destruction – Based on their spiritual needs, what breaks them?
Delight – Using scripture, or some other verse, metaphor, hymn, song, conversation, etc what can restore them with a Biblical truth?

Let’s see how this works in a secular book, and how the story might have been adapted for the Christian market.

In The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, the heroine is overwhelmed with her upcoming wedding. She’s afraid, and she doesn’t know why. Her mother’s friends, the Ya Yas, know why and they kidnap her to help her sort through it. It’s all very traumatic for her, and at one point during the unraveling of history, she wants to give up. She calls her fiancé and calls off the wedding. However, the Ya Yas persist, and through her father and the Ya Yas, faith in marriage and relationships is restored. And finally her relationship with her mother is restored. If this was a “Novel with a Christian World view”, at the darkest moment, she would have realized that only a relationship with God won’t fail her, that He will give her the strength to mend the broken past. She might still need the support of the Ya Yas and her father, (and in the end, there is a sort of “spiritual” commitment), but this is how you’d incorporate the spiritual nature into your story. (Now, before I get a lot of letters – I loved the book, I’m just using it as an example!)

Mapping out the spiritual journey can be as extensive or as minimal as you want. I like to define the low and high points and let the story and characterization take it from there. Some might just want to put a verse as their pillar of light, and let it lead when it may. Others may want to write out a long theological statement for every leg of the journey. Whatever helps you stay on track and ends with your hero at his destination: The Truth.

Tomorrow we’ll take a final look at the spiritual journey with some techniques and tricks!

How deep should you go?

Hey all! I’m bleary eyed today because I was up late reading “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” by the author of the Kite Runner. I loved the Kite Runner – powerful story, evocative writing. And, although it was a secular book, it still contained themes of redemption, forgiveness, grace….everything that makes a book resonant. He did the same with Splendid Suns, weaving in themes of purpose and destiny, and love.

What I liked about the Kite Runner and Splendid Suns, is that they make the reader ponder these spiritual issues, regardless of their religion (they’re written from a Muslim perspective). As a reader, I don’t want the spiritual plot to be so thick that it strangles me – and as a writer, I don’t want to strangle my reader. I want the story to intrigue, to draw my reader deeper, to allow them to look at the issues and wrestle with them without feeling as though they are told what to believe and think. I want them to experience the issues through the eyes of the main characters. If the spiritual thread is so thickly woven that they find themselves entangled, even strangling, then the book isn’t a fiction story – but a non-fiction dissertation.

But each writer is different, just as each spiritual journey is different. So, how do we weave in a spiritual thread that enhances the story, and blesses the reader?

Here’s some questions to ask yourself as you consider the spiritual plot:

1. What kind of spiritual depth are you going to put into your story? What are comfortable reading, yourself? Are you the kind of reader who enjoys seeing the spiritual epiphany drawn out for you? Or would you rather read an allegory, and discuss the deeper meaning over a venti decaf latte?

Consider the different degrees of “spirituality” offered by today’s hottest CBA authors:

 Ted Dekker – His themes – ie, the inner struggle between light and darkness, or even a study of the book of Romans -- are embedded in his plots without even mentioning scripture. But they allegory can’t be missed, and thus, the message that much more profound.

 Brock and Bodie Theone – Writer’s of Biblical fiction (as well as historical fiction) tell stories of Christians caught in dark times, and their characters lead by example.

 Francine Rivers -- Who doesn’t want to be like Hadassah? (Mark of the Lion series?) More than that, her books, sprinkled with scripture, are about people just like us, who struggle, and win. She helps us see the trust through the eyes of her characters.

 Dee Henderson – Master writer Dee draws us in with her thematic plots, the angst of her heroic-yet-flawed characters, and allows us to see hwo scripture, in the hands of saved friends, works to redeem.

 Frank Peretti – He’s a master of taking us “behind the veil” to the spiritual battles waging around us, letting us decide which side we want to be on.

 My personal bent – I believe scripture is the catalyst that changes people. I like to weave in one particular verse that I hinge the entire story on, and let it redeem the mind and hearts of my characters.

So, now you know what kind of story you want to write – now, how do you start your hero on his spiritual journey? Tomorrow we’re going to take a look at techniques and rhythm for weaving in the spiritual thread!

And don’t forget to post and tell us what your recent favorite book has been, and why!

See you tomorrow!

Grappling with the uglies

Dear Susan,

“Wow you've done it again! That book was fantastic. You have a way of developing believable characters that suck you into the story as if you where there. I don't know why or how, but your books have stirred in me a new sense of faith. Your messages have hit home and I am seeking my place with God, and how I fit into the picture in his eyes.”

I love those kind of letters! People often ask me what I write – my answer (because I’m all over the place in genre!) is - I write Novels with a Christian World View. But inside, I’m really wanting to say – I write 4 dimensional stories. I believe that with Christian fiction, because it deals with not only the physical and emotional sides of a character, but also the spiritual side, we are getting a “full-bodied” view of a character. More than that, however, we also get a glimpse inside the “4th” dimension – the Great Plot, which is God at work to draw people to Himself. I strive to write the deeper story, the one that changes lives.

As your hero begins this leg of the journey, the challenges he encounters should be more than physical. They should test his mettle, emotionally, and stir up issues, spiritually. Even make him confront the ugly things inside him.

Ask yourself – what spiritual issues will my character be grappling as he encounters new places in himself. How is this journey going to change his view of himself, his God, his place in eternity?

Recently, Rachel and I were talking about publishing, and how, as a writer, once you get published, it doesn’t erase any problems you have in your life – in fact, you are forced to grapple with them even more. Reviews, editorial changes, competition – it’s a journey that can bring out a side of a writer that they didn’t know existed. I didn’t know I was so possessive of my words until an editor wanted to change them. I didn’t know I was so thin-skinned until I got a scathing letter. This leg of my journey had made me take a hard look at myself, hit my knees and allow God to change me.

How is your hero’s journey going to change lives? Will readers see an eternal truth played out on the page? What is the spiritual take-away for the reader as they experience your hero’s journey with them?

Why, in the fabric of eternity, does this book matter?

Tomorrow, we’re going to talk about the different ways contemporary authors weave in spiritual threads…and then later this week, we’ll discuss how to weave in your own spiritual threads.

Today’s homework is – what fiction book in the last year have you read that has impacted you spiritually? Why, and how, and what did you learn from it. Post your answers so we can learn with you (and perhaps pick up some great recommendations!)

See you tomorrow!

Nothing is ever the same again...

Okay, yes, a two week hiatus from MBT seems like eternity! I didn’t really MEAN for that to happen – I was finishing up a book before Memorial Day weekend, getting ready for a big event, and well, it consumed my brain! And left no room for otherwise coherent thinking. (And we all lost about 5 lbs, too. *g*) Last week, I spent…are you ready?...34 hours driving. Yes. Driving. I did listen to the Last Juror and The Kite Runner on CD, so it wasn’t just mindless.

But why, you ask, did you spend the equivalent of 5 hours (roughly) a day driving? One word: KIDs. Or maybe…Three words: I’m A MOM. See, despite the fact that yes, there are weeks when the kids scrounge through the house, eating things like cold ramen noodles for a snack, or oatmeal for supper, there is one call I still hear, even when wrapped up like a mummy in my imaginative world: (my kids call it my thought blanket) – the call to be a MOM. Which means that, regardless of how many words I have left in my scene, I hit Control-S, climb out of my pajamas (okay, yes it is 5pm, but I do my best work in my pajamas!), throw on some makeup and scrounge together a meal for 40 kids in the youth group. Or, attend my son’s play at school. Or drive my daughter and her friend six hours one-way to training day at camp. Or take my youngest (and feeling neglected) son go-karting. I’m a mom first. Then a writer. (and then, apparently, a Book Therapist. *g*).

(That doesn’t mean I don’t create worlds in my head as I drive, however. *g*)

Why do I do this? Because…I LOVE being a Mom. I’m called to it. I was created to do this job, despite the challenges and sometimes failures.

You see, the day I gave birth to my now 17 year old son, everything changed. Never again would I have the freedom (nor want it) to weigh my needs/wants/desires as most important. Motherhood made me see my weaknesses, my strengths, and most of all, what my greatest dreams looked like.

We’re going to get back on track this week at MBT to push our hero into the next stage of his journey – Incidentally, the 2nd stage of the three part act – the Initiation, or the segment of the story where the hero’s world is changed forever. The first stage was all about Departure, or leaving his world. Now, we’re see what happens as he walks the road. This week, we’ll be diving in to the Road of Trials, and talking about weaving in Spiritual Threads as the hero begins to see his weaknesses, his strengths….and point him toward his greatest dreams.

Oops, gotta run – it’s Track Meet Day! See you tomorrow!

Where oh where are my therapists?

We're here, we're here!

How's everyone in MyBookTherapy land?

We got into a busy crunch and figured y'all could use a break from our relentless blogging. There's tons of good stuff on the site to review if you're new to the community!

Well, Susie had a fun weekend in Minneapolis with long time friends, then last night attended the IJM dinner in same city. Her hubby came along for the event and they are spending some quality time together. IJM is International Justice Mission focusing on human rights abuse, specifically human trafficking.

Susie's latest book, Wiser Than Serpents, deals with this issue. Be sure to add it to your summer reading list.

While we don't want to write agenda fiction, stories are a great venue for raising social awareness.

She'll be back home this week only to turn around and run her daughter to camp. The joys of being a mom of four never end!

Check back later for pictures from her weekend and the IJM dinner.

As for me, the second banana around here, and a fine one at that, I'm working on a new book for Thomas Nelson, tentatively titled Dining With Joy.

I spent the weekend relaxing at home, doing various chores, finding myself entangled in yard work with hubby on Monday. Afterwards, I vegged with a Gilmore Girls DVD. First Season. I'd missed most of it in past years, so it was fun to catch up on the beginning of the story. I'm impressed at how well they maintained the story line. I'm not impressed, after watching one show right after another, at how poorly they keep their time lines. Loralie will be at dinner on Friday with Emily and Rory and find out there's a parent thing at Chilton next Wednesday.

In the next scene, Rory will be with Lane walking down the street in her uniform talking like weeks have passed, or something.

Anyway, small price to pay for great dialog and story line.

I also learned my summer release, "Love Starts With Elle," earned 4.5 Stars from Romantic Times Book Club, as did Susie's "Finding Stephanie." Yay.

But, Elle got an extra boost this time. Top Pick! My first RT Top Pick.

See, I don't have four kids so I can obsess about the strangest things!

Be sure to check out Christine Lynxwiler's new release, "Along Came a Cowboy" available now! Chris has a fun, down home breezy writing voice with engaging characters.

And look for Tracey Bateman's August release, "That's Not Exactly Amore." I've already read it and loved it. Tracey has a great ability to grasp the female range of emotions and put them on the page.

We'll be back in force next week, focusing back on writing. But for now, surf the site, or hop over to forums for fellowship.

Blessings!

Tension Toolbox

I meant to post yesterday, Friday, but the day got away from me. Sorry, team.

This is our final post on tension for now. No promises about the future.

What mechanical ways can we show tension in our writing? Word choice. Short sentences. Entering the scene late, exiting early.

Let's try a scene:

The wind blowing over the prairie was hot and dry as Mikaila urge her horse forward, scraping her fingers through her long blonde hair. Her cornflower blue eyes caught sight of a billowing cloud of dust rising from the horizon line, a mushroom from the earth, she thought.

Wonder who it might be? She let her mind drift toward Cole who waited for her back at the ranch. They'd fought, about nothing. But she speed away on Old Horse before refusing to listening to his apology. Don't tell her the woman flirting with him on the veranda was just a young foolish girl.

Did he think her a fool? Suddenly, images appeared from the mushroom cloud. From the way they road, the glint of the sun off of their sweat soak skin, Mikaila knew. Indians were riding her way.

Okay, I tried to write a flowery scene, but I'm not too good at flowery. But we see this is a long scene hinting at tension. How can we pump it up?

Here's a try:

The cabin door slammed as Mikaila stormed out. Cole, the fool.
"Mikaila, don't be a child. Come back here." Cole's foot falls thudded against the dry dirt.
She whirled around. "Me? Child? No, she's the child, flirting with you shamelessly while your fiance looks on. And you, not doing a thing?"
'What do you want me to do? I'm being polite. She's a guest."
Enough. Mikaila hit the barn, hoping on Old Horse, tuning out Cole's pleading, and riding into the heat waves.
A mile out, she saw it. A dust cloud along the horizon line, a troop of glistening bare backs ridging toward her.
Indians.

***
Above, I tried to enter the scene late (mid fight) and exit early (Indians.)

The reader, in theory, wants to know what's going on. They'll keep reading. I used shorter sentences, less personal description. This is not the time to tell the reader hair and eye color.

I added dialog to let us know about the flirty guest and used action tags (Cole's foot falls thudded against the dry dirt) to give a sense of place as well as moving giving a sense of Cole's frustration.

I don't give Mikaila time to wonder, "who is this riding out of the dust cloud."

For good tension, move the story forward without letting the protagonist ponder too long. Use phrases like "stormed out" or "hit the barn."

You get the idea, right? Even if you're writing romance, you need to think about cutting description and adding tension.

Have fun!

Where's my knife? I want to cut the tension.

Yesterday we talked about the importance of tension in our stories. Here are a couple of definitions:

a balance maintained in an artistic work between opposing forces or elements, or the act or action of stretching or the condition or degree of being stretched to stiffness.

Tension holds the story taunt. It is the element that makes a story compelling. Once we introduce the story question and problem, it is the tension that keep the reader turning pages.

Most of the time, writing books use suspense or thrillers to show wanna be authors how to create tension. I say, "Not fair." Come on, "Silence of the Lambs," are you kidding me? Of course there's tension. But I write romance, or romantic suspense, or women's fiction.

Think about your own life. What creates tension? You've had an argument go unresolved. The bills are due and you have no money. The car won't start and you're late for the meeting.

Tension is that element which elongates the story.

In Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic books, we feel Rebecca Bloomwood's struggle because through most of he book, nothing gets resolved, it only gets worse.

For example, her bank manager sends her letters, asking her to come in and talk about her accounts. Becca doesn't pick up the phone and say, "Oh yes, I'll be right down, I'm so sorry for all the trouble."

Noooo, she throws the letters in the trash, along with her Visa bill and Master Card.

The conflict? Becca is bad with money and loves to shop. The tension? She refuses to deal with it.

Tension needs to be layered, too. There's not just the tension of Becca spending too much money, but there's tension in her job. She hates her job. Once she comes to this revelation, she doesn't quit, she just performs her job badly.

There's tension when she visits her parents, and she's afraid the neighbors will fix her up with their son. What does she do? Give them financial advice. But it's bad financial advice.

Look for ways to layer in tension. Don't answer all the problems. Set up a scenario for later in the story where the tension mounts.

Becca's bad financial advice to the neighbors causes them to lose everything! When she finds out, she's horrified.

In Sweet Caroline, there's always tension between Caroline and her brother Henry. They are cordial, but snippy to each other. I use this later to cast doubt on Henry's faithfulness to his wife. Hmm...

Knowing your story really well helps keep the tension line taunt. As soon as you start writing happy, sunshine, all-is-right-with-the world scenes, it's time to back up and rethink.

At a Donald Maass workshop I attended, he took a comedy scene from Rene Gutteridge's Work In Progress and... added tension. A disgruntled airplane passenger became more disgruntled.

Don't be nice to your characters, save it for the end. Layer in the tension in all your scenes and subplots.

In Love Starts With Elle, there's constant tension between Elle and her baby sister, Julianne. Why? Jules has a secret. When we discover the secret, the tension escalates. One easy way I pulled this off was because I knew Julianne's story before I began.

As you read and watch movies this next week, look for that tension. How do you feel when it's not in the story? How do you feel when it's done right?

The Tension Was So Thick, I Could Puff It Away

Ever read a book where the tension just did not deliver? Conflict was set up, devastation delivered then all resolved on the next page, or worse, the next paragraph?

Yeah, me too.

Tension is that part of the story telling that keeps the reader on edge. Conflict ebbs and flows, devastation is resolved, or handled, perhaps escalated, but tension is the one element we must maintain.

In our physical world, we use tension to keep a cable or rope taunt. No trapeze artist wants to walk on a lose high wire, right? It's the tauntness of our stories that hold it together.

But most of us don't like tension. We don't want to walk into a room and get the cold shoulder or get ignored. The stiff remarks between family members at Thanksgiving dinner makes our stomachs knot.

But fiction thrives on tension. We must have it.

How do we decide tension? First, as you begin a scene, think of how you can move your protagonist farther away from his or her goal. What can go wrong?

Now, hold on. Don't have something go wrong for the sake of going wrong. Chick lit offended here with the pratfall, the office gossip that revealed the protagonist's secrets, or the spilling of coffee or fowl language. That's not tension. That's just "stuff happens."

Tension is the underlying tauntness that holds the conflict and the devastation together, driving the protagonist away from the story question or overall goal is what you want.

If I want to drive up I-95 to the mall, what are possible obstacles? Traffic jam. A wreck. My car breaks down. A road detour taking me way out of my way.

Now what kind of tension does it create? Road rage? Snippy conversation with my husband when he calls. Speeding, thus a speeding ticket. Well, you get the picture.

Tension is created four ways: Dialog, Description, Action and Tone.

Let's set up a scenario: Two newlyweds are working out the mechanics of their marriage. After a few days of spats, she wants to create a homey atmosphere for her husband. She took off work early to grocery shop. She bought candles. She cleaned house.

He comes home and... Scene.

The key in the door told Susie her man was home. Surprised at her fluttering heart, she pressed her hand to her chest as she listened for his, "Hey, babe, I'm home."

Instead, sharp footsteps echoed down the hall, against the hardwood. His keys clanked against the desk.

"Hey, Andrew, I'm in the kitchen."

"Be out in a minute."

Susie heard the click of his old lamp, the creek of his college chair, and angled around to see a lone cone of pale light slicing the darkness. "Andrew?"

"I said in a minute."

End Scene

Okay, I just threw that together to give you an idea of tension. Susie is excited for Andrew to be home, but apparently he's had a bad day. We feel and hear the tension on the scene with the clipped dialog, the footfalls on the floor, a lone light in the darkness.

I have a feeling Susie isn't getting her romantic dinner.

In Sweet Caroline, my heroine's story question is "what do I do with this money pit Cafe?" She stuck with it until probate ends, and in the mean time she's dealing with money and structural problems.

Not long after she takes over command, Caroline learns the former owner booked a 90th birthday party for a family matriarch. Everyone is coming. Caroline rises to the occasion only to have the Cafe itself betray her.

On the day of the party, the electricity fails. Bad wiring. This creates all kinds of tension keeping with the over all goal and story point. It created tension within Caroline, with her employees, with her customer.

In the end, she finds a solution to satisfy all, but don't worry, the next bit of Cafe tension is around the corner... bad plumbing!

You must have several layers of tension going on, too. I had tension with the Cafe, with Caroline's family, with herself, with her love interests. And, a time or to, the town.

Layer in the tension. Your readers will love you for it.

So, let's recap. Tension is the tauntness that keeps your readers turning the page. If you have a relaxed, happy moment, devastation ladened with tension should be on it's way.

Tension is communicated through the dialog, the character's action, the setting description and the tone of the writing.

See you over on Voices!

Crossing the first Threshold

Many times in life we are challenged - challenged with change, with stepping out, leaving our comfort zones.

I believe to be effectual for the Kingdom of God, we have to step out of ourselves and trust Him. I mean, who wants to pray for the crippled man in the supermarket? How embarrassing. But if the Spirit whispers, "Pray for him," then we must step out, over come our fear and do it.

It'll be worth it!

It's the same for our fictional characters. We drive them to a place of fear or doubt, then have the leap out in "faith" to overcome.

Peter boldly beckoned Jesus to call him out of the boat to walk on the turbulent water. Jesus saw his faith and said, "Come." Look at what happened, though.

From Matthew 14

"And He said, "Come!" And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"

Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?""

It's one thing to leave our comfort zones and face life's thresholds, but it's another to keep the faith while we're "out there."

Peter lost sight of his vision. He took his eyes off Jesus. Look again at the verse above, "but seeing the wind, he became frightened."

Look, if Pete was gazing at Jesus, he wouldn't have seen the wind.

How many times do we take our eyes off Jesus and see the wind, feel the tossing waves. My big fat hand is in the air right now. I've crossed this line many times in the last six months. And you know what, I confess it as sin. Yep, call it what it is.

I use scripture to help me over come. I pray and lean on Jesus. I get mad at myself for sinking, but every time, I cry out to Him and He lifts me up.

What I want though is to NOT see the wind and waves and keep my eyes on Him. Help me, Lord!

Our characters face the same dilemma. Will they be overcome by the circumstances? Well, it's fiction, so yes. But, then we bring them back.

This week well talk more on MyBookTherapy about crossing those personal thresholds.