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God in Fantasy Fiction – To Be or Not to Be?

Tracey Dyck 48 Comments

A Forward

About five weeks ago, while slogging through edits on The Brightest Thread, I hit a substantial snag. A capital G snag–God. In the novella version of the story, there was no mention of a deity at all, and I was quite all right with that. (More on that later.) But now that I was fleshing out the storyworld, I was finding it increasingly difficult to deal with

a) magic with no explained source,
b) a vaguely referenced act of creation,
and c) the existence of false gods but no True God.

I avoided the issue for as long as I could. When I was forced to face it head on, I hemmed and hawed, I complained to my family, and then I dumped the contents of my brain into a fresh document, which I promptly sent as an S.O.S.: DESPERATE HELP NEEDED to a writing buddy.

Turns out the brain dump and the following conversation were rather insightful, and probably a topic of interest to both writers and readers.

To Be or Not to Be?

Christian writers get hung up on a lot of things. One of the biggest? God in fiction. Should we include Him or omit Him? If we include Him, how do we keep from being preachy or trite? Will “religion” (for lack of a better term) feature heavily in the story, or will it be a light dose? If we omit God, does that run contrary to our faith, or can it be done in a way that still glorifies Him? Should we even be having this dilemma? Shouldn’t it be a question of incorporating our fiction into God, not the other way around?

As you can see, many of us are bound up in fear over getting it right. How can we possibly fit all of God into a finite story? But that’s the thing. We can’t.

Even when writing a human character that literally exists only in your brain, you can’t fit everything about them onto the page. Whether you’re the kind of writer who keeps pages of details on your characters’ personalities, appearances, and histories, or the kind of writer who keeps their characters as a cast of imaginary friends in your head, the fact remains. You know more about your character than what appears in the story. (And if you don’t, you don’t know them well enough yet.)

Now try writing yourself as a character—you can’t fit even half of your personality on the page, and the bits you do write, you may struggle to portray accurately. (I suppose authors of memoirs and autobiographies have room for more of themselves, but even reading a book entirely about a single individual is still vastly different from sitting down and getting to know them face to face. There is always—always—more in person.)

So try writing everything about God’s nature into a book. The only book that succeeded in that is the Bible, and I’m pretty sure there’s even more we’ll learn about Him in heaven! He is infinite, after all. Therefore . . .

Point #1: You can’t fit all of God into your book. Instead, try to convey one or two aspects about Him, something that can be grasped or explored throughout the story.

And here’s another:

Point #2: God can show up in fiction in two ways: as a theme or as a character.

Truth, love, and light show up anytime I write. That’s just who I am. God is love, and He is the source of truth and light. So whether He is directly named or not, stories containing truth, love, and light bring Him honor because they are aspects of His nature. This is where God can be woven into a story’s theme.

But sometimes a fantasy story calls for an allegorical representation of God. This is where He shows up as a character, and this is possibly the hardest thing to get right. (But remember point #1!) He may be visible to other characters and may interact with them face to face. Or He may be invisible, referenced only as other characters pray, worship, or think about Him.
Or there’s a third option where God may show up as a character and as part of the theme.

So which is right for your story?

I can’t answer that for you. That’s something for you to think about, pray about, and experiment with. But I can offer a few thoughts and questions to get you going!

Pros and cons of God as a character

Pros
  • We’ve all wished God was physically here in front of us (at least I have!). Living vicariously through the characters, we get to imagine what it will be like to talk to Him face to face, touch Him, and hear Him speak. If written well, this can be very powerful for you, the characters, and the readers.
  • If you’re writing an allegory, particularly if it’s an allegory of Jesus’s life on earth, you’ll likely need a God-figure walking around.
  • It brings across an immediacy, a tangible presence.
  • It can breathe fresh life into our perception of God, especially when you shake up the uber religious picture of God as a stern, old man with a beard who zaps people from heaven. Let’s see Him laughing, enjoying life and people! Let’s see Him cry. Let’s see the real Jesus of the Bible, but with different skin on.
Cons
  • You have to put words into God’s mouth. That leaves you with two options: quoting directly from Scripture (which can feel shoehorned into the story), or penning your own words (and running the risk of portraying God inaccurately).
  • Therefore you may not feel comfortable writing Him as a character.
  • It takes a great deal of skill to write a God-figure that feels authentic and true to His nature. If your character falls short, well . . . Let’s just say that chances are high He’s quite important to your story, so a lot of it may crumble with Him.
  • Limiting an infinite being to a finite body can make Him come across as too small.
Examples that shone
  • Aslan (Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis) – Warm, mighty, mysterious, faithful, sacrificial. It’s hard to even begin to sum him up! Perhaps the most succinct description is, “He’s not a tame lion, you know.” There’s something wild, something awe-inspiring, about him. In this case, putting God in the finite body of a lion was not a disadvantage at all–as a reader, I always felt there was something more to him than what I could see. Something otherworldly.
  • Prince Aethelbald (Tales of Goldstone Wood, Anne Elisabeth Stengl) – As a picture of Jesus as the Lover of our souls, he persistently woos Una though she rejects him time and time again. Aethelbald is nothing remarkable to look at. Even his name is the furthest thing from romantic. But his heart beats truer and stronger than any of her other suitors, and by the time I finished reading Heartless, I was stunned by the incredible allegory. Again, presenting God as a flesh-and-blood character could have come across badly, but Anne Elisabeth Stengl gave him the same “something more” element that Aslan has. (Coincidentally, both characters hail from across the sea. Interesting.)

Pros and cons of God as a theme

Pros
  • This approach is more subtle.
  • It leaves the spotlight on human beings exemplifying Christ-like attributes, rather than putting them all into one character who represents God. These humans don’t have to be perfect (in fact, please don’t make them that way!), but they serve as examples for us to reach toward.
  • This can make your story more accessible to readers who don’t consider themselves to be Christians, while still reflecting God in a beautiful way.
  • Not every story needs a Savior or Creator. Some are actually better off without it. It’s all about the story’s scope and purpose.
Cons
  • On the other hand, some stories do need a Savior/Creator character. In the case of The Brightest Thread, I had written in some false gods to give the storyworld more depth and texture. But by doing so, I created an imbalance, and then had to invent a God-like figure. If I had left God solely as the immaterial theme of the story, it wouldn’t have sat well with me.
  • Without a God to rely on, your heroes’ journeys may feel like they fall flat. Depending on what kind of story you’re writing, your characters may need a higher power to bring about true transformation.
  •  Again, depending on the scope of your story, the themes you’ve so carefully woven into your story may be misconstrued as new age or a Disney-fied “follow your heart” sort of message.
Examples that shone
  • Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien)- Okay, okay, I know there technically is a God-figure (Ilúvatar), but to my knowledge he isn’t really mentioned in LotR. However, we can all agree that numerous characters exemplify godly attributes like courage, love, kindness, wisdom, justice, grace, etc. Watching Frodo suffer as he carried the ring to Mordor, seeing Sam remain faithful to his friend the whole way, witnessing Gandalf face the Balrog . . . these examples impacted me more than some fictional God-figures have.
  • Reapers (Bryan Davis) – Technically this isn’t fantasy, it’s dystopian. (And God may come up later in the trilogy, I don’t know.) But despite the fact that God isn’t talked about, Phoenix embarks on a journey that will position him as a hero. A person who rescues the oppressed, who speaks for the voiceless, who defends the defenseless. All qualities that inspire us to do the same.
A note: these lists are in no way exhaustive, and they’re not meant to sow doubt in your mind, dear writer! There are so many combinations of writing God as a character and/or as a theme (because you can definitely do both in the same story), and so many degrees therein. This whole post is meant simply to inspire careful consideration and deeper thought.

This isn’t a salvation story

That’s what I said when wrestling with the God question for The Brightest Thread. And even after deciding to incorporate a fictional God, the fact remained. This novel is not about a character “getting saved” or “finding Jesus.” Some novels are, and that’s great! But this particular novel is about two people sharing a love strong enough that they would each risk everything for the sake of the other; and about being willing to receive that kind of sacrificial love. That’s it.
Characters briefly question God (who goes by another name in the novel), and they briefly reach out for His help. But these protagonists’ journeys are not about faith.
I was discussing this with my writing buddy, and brought up the topic of evangelism. In leadership college last year, my leader said something that revolutionized the way I look at evangelizing. To paraphrase:

If a 0 is not knowing Christ, and a 10 is giving your life to Him, we often think that we have to bring someone from 0 to 10 all at once. But maybe all you’re supposed to do in that encounter is bring someone from, say, a 3 to a 4. Just one step closer to knowing Jesus. You don’t need to force a conversion on the spot. The next Christian to come along may bump that person up to a 5. Or you might be the person to meet someone at 9, and you get the chance to pray with them and see them become a 10.

“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” 1 Corinthians 3:6

[via Pinterest]
Maybe it’s the same in fiction. We don’t have to bring every character to a 10, nor do we have to do that for every reader. Maybe we just plant a seed. Or maybe the story is the water making it grow. What’s important is that we are discipling.

Playing matchmaker

My writing buddy subconsciously uses a really cool method of figuring out how to portray God in her stories. She looks at what her story’s theme is about–aka, what her main characters need to learn–and she traces that back to an aspect of God.

For example, one of her characters needed to learn about the importance of mercy over justice. So in that particular story, the God-figure’s mercy and love are highlighted. She doesn’t spend a lot of time on other topics, like God’s wisdom or power or holiness. Just what’s central to the theme. The result is a beautifully woven tapestry that doesn’t bonk the reader over the head with an ill-written sermon.

However . . .

Please, please, PLEASE don’t preach.

All of this stuff about figuring out how to portray God and tie in themes and character arcs may be better left as something to study after you’ve written your story! Especially if you’re prone to write from a soapbox.

More and more, I’m learning that the process of writing a transformative story is supposed to transform me first, otherwise it’s not authentic.

Writing themes that spring organically from the soil of character conflict and worldbuilding takes practice. A lot of it. But don’t let that discourage you from trying, because that’s how we all grow.

My friend told me, “Most of the time my characters teach ME things, instead of me trying to teach readers things.” Couldn’t have said it better myself! So when you’re writing God into your stories, let Him surprise you. Let go of what you think you know, and see what happens.

“He who has ears, let him hear.”

How and if you choose to convey God in fiction depends largely on your intended audience. But regardless of whether you’re writing mainstream or for the Christian community, regardless of whether it’s YA or middle grade or adult, resist the urge to explain yourself.


Jesus didn’t. In the parables He told to the masses, His Father sometimes appeared as a landowner, a farmer sowing seed, a shepherd, a literal father, a master, a groom, and more. But most of the time, Jesus didn’t explain the metaphor to His listeners. He left that up to them. Because when a person puzzles out the hidden meaning of a story themselves, the meaning sticks.

I think Jesus knew that those who were ready to know Him would find Him.

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The Steadfast Pen Blog Launch & Interview!

Tracey Dyck 25 Comments

In my last post I promised a special guest was coming. Well, joining us today is my younger brother, Josiah! He just launched his blog, called The Steadfast Pen, this week. To celebrate his splashdown into the blogosphere, I’m interviewing him about his perspective on creativity and life, two of my main topics here at Adventure Awaits.

You may remember him from Four Elements of a Successful Villain, a guest post he did here over a year ago. Or you may recall that he and I shared college adventures recently. You may also be unable to forget that, ahem, darling picture of him and I dressed as Mario and Princess Peach (featured in S&S May 2017) .

Josiah neglected to give me an official bio for this post, leaving his introduction in my very capable hands. (I’ve known the guy for nineteen years, so I’d like to think I’m an expert at this sort of thing.) Josiah is the creatively inclined, fastidiously detailed, uproariously funny person responsible for many a brainstorming session or Marvel fest in my household. Stories were what paved the way from our squabbling phase of siblinghood to the friendship phase we enjoy now. He’s got a quirky sense of humor, an affinity for puns, and a boatload of patience developed by the trials of having three sisters.

Without further ado, please welcome Josiah Dyck to the stage!



Tracey: Art and life have a way of intersecting. How does your life
influence your art, and how does art influence your life?

Josiah: Interesting question! I think that my life influences my
art—or, more specifically, my writing—in a host of different ways. When I
struggle in life, I can work those struggles into my writing. My story The Tournament of Convicts is a good
example of this. The main character fights against the feeling of never seeing
his dreams come to pass. This is something I’ve had to fight as well, and that
makes it more poignant in the story. Another scenario is for my first book in
The Portal Chronicles. One of my characters, Mark, tries to prove himself
because he wants his parents to be proud of him. I can relate to this, which
strengthens the story’s emotion.

If there are things I’ve wondered and want to work out,
stories are good places to do that. For example, Of Beauties and Beasts toys with the concept of actions and
consequences, especially when said actions were bad, but the intentions were
good. Darkened Slumber deals a lot
with honor and asks if someone can be honorable when they’ve killed someone
else. Maelstrom is going to be
focused on grace versus judgement, especially when people don’t deserve grace.
Being able to figure these things out on the pages of a novel is always a joy
to do in the end.

Through this answer, I think I’ve also partially answered the
second part of this question. By working through the struggles and questions I
have, my art influences my life when I find the answers. Also, when one is a
writer, one pays attention to different things than most people would. I
sometimes try to remember how someone looks so I can incorporate part of them
into a character. I’ll notice quirks, habits, and mannerisms—all worth noting
should I someday want to use them. I could go on, but I think I’ve rambled on
long enough for this question, seeing it’s only the first one.

Tracey: You write, but you also engage in a number of other creative
outlets—both as creator and as an audience member. What creative art forms
influence your writing?


Josiah: ALL OF THEM. Well, I should specify that every art form I
engage in has an impact on my writing. That includes books, movies/TV shows,
music, video games . . . There are art forms (e.g. dance, theater,
painting/drawing) that either don’t have any influence, or only a bit, but
maybe that’s because I don’t participate in these outlets. I couldn’t tell you
which one has the most power in my writing, but what I do know is that my
writing is indeed impact by the major forms of art I engage in.

Tracey: Soundtracks are a big favorite of yours, and I know that
asking you to pick a favorite is cruel of me . . . but tell us. What’s your
favorite soundtrack? (You can stab thank me later.)

Josiah: Ha. Ha. Ha. You just had to pull this one, did ya? I can’t
pick one favorite, because I’ll think of another and think to myself, “Oh yeah,
there’s that one, and that one, and that one . . .” Pretty soon, I’ll be saying
all of my soundtracks are my favorite.
But whenever I’m asked this question, one soundtrack often
comes to mind, so I’ll just use that one. If someone were to ask me what you
just did, I might be tempted to say that the Mad Max: Fury Road soundtrack (the
extended version of it) is my favorite. “Why?” you might be asking. Because
Junkie XL is a phenomenal composer, that’s why. You start off with lots of
intense or suspenseful sequences, filled with scratchy strings, pounding drums, and
eerie sounds I can’t properly describe. Then, out of the blue, an emotional
theme appears in the music. You’re hit with tracks that seem to be influenced
by classical music. Suddenly, this soundtrack is very different than what you
initially thought. It’s just so amazing! Hans Zimmer himself describes the
soundtrack as being “absolutely phenomenal and mind-blowingly brilliant.” Which
should tell you something about the Fury Road score.

Tracey: If you had a theme song that played whenever you walked into
a room, what would it be?
Josiah: I have legitimately thought about this beforehand, and all
my answers are goofy ones. Like, if I walked into a room and the Imperial March
started playing, or the Black Rider theme, I’d find that absolutely hilarious. But
if I were to seriously consider a theme, maybe Rohan’s theme? Or perhaps Ballad
of the Goddess from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Ooh, there’s also the
LEGO Ninjago overture! So many to choose from, and I don’t which I’d pick. I would
probably change it . . . a lot.

Tracey: Who are some of your fictional heroes, and why?

Josiah: Obviously, the first one on this list is Captain America.
He’s such a patriotic hero who upholds his morals, and when he’s made a
decision, he’s determined to stick with it. He was one of the first superheroes
I saw in a movie, and I couldn’t help but love his character. I just don’t
understand people who think he’s lame. Obviously, such people don’t know a
great hero when they see one.
Another hero would be the Flash—as in, Grant Gustin’s
version. He strives to be a noble hero, but at the same time, he’s also very
human. He makes mistakes and doesn’t always admit it right away. He wrestles
with the punches life keeps throwing his way. I love the combination of
hero/human, because then I look up to him and identify with him. He’s a
relatable character, and that makes him awesome.
Finally, Charlie West from Andrew Klavan’s Homelanders
series is one of my heroes. He’s fiercely loyal to his country and will go
great lengths in his fight for it. He’s also got a family, friends, and a
girlfriend who he loves and wants to protect. I cheered for him throughout the
whole series. He has to be one of the most memorable protagonists I’ve read in
a book series. (I don’t know about you, but I’m detecting a theme here.)
Captain America // The Flash // Charlie West featured on the cover of The Last Thing I Remember by Andrew Klavan

Tracey: If you could spend a day with any character, yours or
someone else’s, who would it be? And what would your day together look like?

Josiah: Gah, this is so hard. I think I’m going to cheat and say I’d
love to hang out with the three main characters from my Portal Chronicles
books: Mark, David, and Warren. They would be so much fun to spend a day with!
We would probably do things like go watch a movie in theaters and then rave or
rant about it afterward; we’d play video games and probably do it loudly; we
would go to a cozy café, sit down with beverages, and just talk about life. Now
you’re making me wish I could actually do this. You wouldn’t happen to know how
to make book characters come to life, would you?

Tracey: You’re a very detailed movie-watcher. What things do you
look for or notice first in a movie?

I’ve never really thought about this. I guess one of the
things I notice is the music. Because I love soundtrack and am always on the
lookout for something new to listen to, I’ll pay attention to the movie’s
score. This, however, doesn’t happen all the time. There usually has to be
something that triggers it. One case of this is in Big Hero 6. During the chase
scene in San Fransokyo, the music changes from orchestral to electronic with
electric guitar. My ears perked up, and I decided to give the soundtrack a
listen.
San Fransokyo

There are other things I look for, such as an opening that
catches my attention, characters that I can feel emotional about, a gripping
plot, cool camera angles, realistic sets, et cetera. Like I said, I haven’t
even thought about this before. I suppose I’ll be paying more attention to that
now.

Tracey: You don’t hesitate to follow the advice, “Kill your
darlings.” Talk to us about character deaths—what is their value, how do you go
about it, what to avoid, etc.

Josiah: Ah, yes, I do tend to kill off a number of my characters. I
think they’re valuable because they heighten the emotion of the story, and
that’s our number one goal as writers: to give the readers an emotional
experience. Plus, there are other reasons for killing off a character.
Sometimes you need to raise the stakes and show the danger of what the
protagonists are doing. Other times, a villain’s demise is just satisfying.

The way I do deaths, if I want the readers to care, is to give
them plenty of reasons to become attached to said character. When readers love
characters, the scene of their death will be so much more powerful. There are
some character deaths where I do it “at a bad time,” if you will. If the
protagonists are at the crux of the plot, when things are getting darker and
hard, kill one of them off. Make things even more difficult for the others.

Another idea to do it is when there should be satisfaction,
like when a final battle has been won. Mortally wounding a character just at
the end increases the emotion. Or perhaps things are finally looking up for
your character; kill them, and your readers will become frustrated—in a good
way, of course. I’ll even give the villains a bit of humanity to spark even a
little bit of emotion from the readers.

However, here is my major precaution in character deaths: if
they’re supposed to matter, do not do
them just because. See, when it’s a minor character, you can kill them off
easier because they don’t matter as much. But when it comes to major
protagonists, or even antagonists, tread carefully. Killing them off
willy-nilly doesn’t incite emotion in the reader if there’s no reason behind
it. I have to remind myself of that too sometimes. Whenever you’re debating
removing a character permanently, always ask yourself, “Do I have a sufficient
reason for doing this?”

I could give more advice, but this answer’s getting pretty
long. I guess I’ll just have to do a whole post on it sometime.

Tracey: If you couldn’t write, what would you do?

Josiah: I’d probably be a filmmaker. I would save up and get a nice
camera, establish a small crew, and make all sorts of movies. Even now, though
I am a writer, I wish I could pick it up as a smaller hobby. I think it’d be a
lot of fun to do.

Tracey: Quick—sort yourself! Which faction from Divergent?
Which race from Lord of the Rings? How soon would you die in The
Hunger Games? Which Pevensie are you most like from The Chronicles of
Narnia? (I’d ask you which Harry Potter house you’re in, but neither of us
has read it. #behindthetimes) (I took a quiz once, and I’m apparently
Gryffindor?)

Amity faction
Josiah: According to a test, I’m part of the Amity faction, but I
might prefer to choose Dauntless. I’d either be an Elf or a Skin-Changer. I’d
like to think I would win, but realistically, I’d probably die somewhere in the
middle. Eh, probably Edmund, after he’s done the whole betrayal thing. (I did
the HP house quiz, and I’m fairly equal in all the houses, which means I can
choose my own. Yay . . .?)

Well, thanks for allowing me on your blog, Tracey! I had a
lot of fun with this interview.

Tracey: So did I! Thanks for stopping by, bro! To all my fellow adventurers, head on over to The Steadfast Pen to read Josiah’s very first post. Hint: if you like pizza, you’ll get along just fine. Feel free to leave him some comments, here or there (or both!). I think I can persuade him to loiter around my comment section and chat with y’all. 😉
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11 Things to Do When Your Writing Feels Like Rubbish

Tracey Dyck 30 Comments
graphics mine, image via Pinterest 

What happens when you spend your week absorbed in writing and putting in your hours at work and neglect to plan ahead? The blog schedule falls by the wayside, that’s what! I apologize for missing Saturday, folks. (Although you did get a bonus post last Wednesday, so you can’t complain too much.) I decided to pop in this fine Wednesday as well, because I’ve got something important to discuss with you.

A couple days ago, a lovely young lady reached out and asked for advice on her writing dilemma.

“I’ve had a lot of trouble writing lately, feeling like my work is rubbish, and sounds cheap. I took a little break and want to get back to it now but I still feel like my work is not cutting it.”

Her timing was uncanny, because that’s similar to what I was going through last week. In fact, it’s something every writer contends with. So here are some ideas to get out of that slump!*

*I’m pretty sure about 72.8% of the items on my list are things I’ve unconsciously pilfered from other sources, but that’s neither here nor there.

1. Study other writers’ work

Sometimes when you feel like your writing is junk, it’s not because you’ve fallen out of love with your idea, your plot, or your characters, but with the very writing itself. I sporadically go through slumps where it feels like I’ve forgotten how to string one word after another. Every paragraph sounds the same, and I get sick of it very quickly.

One way to jumpstart your way out of that is to pick up a book by a favorite author, someone who really knows his or her craft. Copy a few pages of their book out on paper or a fresh Word doc. The physical act of retyping every word will make you pay attention to their style, voice, and sentence construction–and it may just breathe some fresh life into your own.

A slight caveat: when you return to writing your story, this may make your first chapter or two sound like Jane Austen or J.R.R. Tolkien or Maggie Stiefvater or whomever you copied. (That happens to me sometimes even when I’m just casually reading! Suddenly half a page sounds like a knockoff of somebody else before it returns to my voice.) It’s pretty much the writer’s version of osmosis, but it will pass, and some editing later on will get those copycat words to sound more like your own.

2. Reread the parts of your writing that you love

I wrote/edited my way to the end of The Brightest Thread recently, but it’s still too short, so I’m rereading everything to see where else I can make additions. As I was reading over it, my mom pointed out that I was grinning at my laptop. The scene I’d been reading was just too wonderful not to smile!

I don’t say that as a pat on the back, but merely to point out that remembering the scenes you’re proud of is a great way to produce another good one. When you’re deep in the drafting or editing stage, your focus is often on one scene, one sentence–goodness, even one word–at a time. You’re too close to your work, especially when editing, and so it’s easy to see all the flaws. But going back to refresh your memory will bring to mind the parts that really shine, which may be just the boost of confidence you need.

3. Give yourself permission to write junk

I picked this lesson up from Gail Carson Levine’s lovely little book called Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly. Sometimes you’re just in a slump, okay? That’s no reason to beat yourself up, because we all have been there, and unless you find the magical elixir that allows you to transfer your brilliant stories from your mind to the page with a snap of your fingers, you’ll fall into a slump again. That’s not meant to be a discouragement, dear writer. Just a reminder that you’ve been there before, and you got out of it. You’re in it now, but you’ll get out of it. And you’ll be there again, and once more you’ll get out of it.

In the meantime, allow yourself to write junk.

Even if it means typing I AM NOW COMMENCING THE GARBAGE FEST AND ALL WORDS FOLLOWING ARE JUNK, JUNK, JUNK on the page, do it. Even if it means talking to yourself in the middle of a scene–Bartholomew drew his sword and yelled, “That’s the last time you’ll do anything of the sort!” Good grief, this is lame. Bart has obviously been reading cheap comic books and picking up bad habits. Gotta get him some better reading material. The dark knight chuckled darkly and replied, “The dark will always win, little hero.” AYE KARUMBA, EVERYTHING IS DARK AND DASTARDLY AND UTTER GARBAGE–



Do it.

Eventually, you’ll find that the junk gives way to something halfway decent. Write yourself straight through that slump! I’ve heard it said that done is better than perfect.

4. Write something else

Take a break from that story you’re so worried is rubbish, and switch gears. Pull out a writing prompt, make up a writing exercise, write some fanfiction, whatever! Try your hand at a genre you’ve never attempted and scribble out a page or two. Dream up some new narrative technique and experiment. If you normally write lyrically, go for something stark. If you’ve been writing in first person, try omniscient. If fantasy is your gig, try out a Victorian mystery. You don’t have to finish it; the point is simply to limber up those writing muscles again. Creativity feeds creativity.

5. Stop comparing

One of the quickest routes to feeling depressed as a writer (or as a person) is to play the comparison game. We tend to place our worst flaws alongside someone else’s greatest strengths. Of course that’s going to be discouraging! Put everyone else out of your mind and just write. Write your story, your way. This is especially crucial when you’re on a first draft! They’re never perfect.
It’s also important to remember that everyone is at a different place on their journey. It isn’t fair to yourself to compare your WIP with a bestselling author’s thirtieth novel. I would even go so far as to say, if you’ve completed stories in the past, don’t even compare your WIP to your polished drafts. Those two stories are at different stages. It’s like complaining your apple tree is dying because the apple you just picked is green and unripe, and not at all like the beautiful red one you bought at the store.

6. Give yourself time

I can be straight with you brave souls, right? If you’re sensitive to criticism, skip to the next point, but if you want the unvarnished truth, then here it is:

If you feel like your writing is rubbish, you might be right.

I refused to even think it back when I started writing seriously. I thought my stories were amazing. Some of them were amazingly awful, but I didn’t realize it at the time, and that’s okay. It’s okay I didn’t see it, and it’s okay that they were awful. The beautiful thing about any skill is that it can be grown. And when it comes to something growing, time is absolutely necessary. You may not be where you want to be as a writer just yet, but you’re on your way! Accept where you are right now, dream about where you’re going, and then put in the work to get there.

Malcolm Gladwell said in his book Outliers that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become an expert at anything. Whether that’s scientifically accurate or not, the principle remains: you need practice and time to grow your skill set.

On another note, you need to give yourself time with this particular story. Maybe it hasn’t had a chance to fully develop, and both you and the story are experiencing growing pains. Be patient, and as I said before–you can write your way through this.

7. Read voraciously

This is the more organic sibling of point number 1 (study other writers’ work). When my writing is suffering, one of the frequent common denominators is that my reading is suffering too. Give yourself a few days away from your manuscript–or weeks if you’re in a really bad place–and consume someone else’s stories for a change!

8. Learn voraciously

As you’re giving yourself time and giving yourself permission to write junk, you know you don’t want to stay there. You want to improve. So if writing is something you’re serious about pursuing, read some good books or blog posts about the writing craft! If you can afford it, attend a workshop or a conference. Go to book signings or author events. Ask questions.

On the topic of blog posts, by the way–you may want to be choosy. I’m totally undermining myself here, but look for the blogs/websites of people who are “ahead of you” on the writing road, so to speak. Of course, I believe you can learn from absolutely anyone, including peers and also those who may be “behind you.” But you’re more likely to learn something new from someone who’s more experienced than you are. Many published authors provide helpful advice online. (I’ve actually wanted to do a post on writing resources ever since I started blogging. One of these days!)

But the main thing is that you learn.

9. Get critiqued

Alone, you can only see 180 degrees, yes? But with a friend, you can see 360 degrees. No matter how good you are at writing, you’ll miss something, so it’s helpful to get a few more sets of eyes on your work to help you pick out the trouble spots, inconsistencies, and snags.

Peers make great beta readers, and if you can manage to get feedback from a professional, that’s golden! You might not be able to pinpoint what’s wrong with your writing, you just know something feels off. But someone with more distance might be able to give you that eureka moment.

10. Recognize outside factors

I mentioned earlier that last week was rough writing-wise. Partway through, I realized it wasn’t just because the actual writing was slow. So, feeling frustrated and unhappy, I examined the issue and found out that:

a) I was filling all my free time with writing, and then staying up too late doing things like reading books or blogs to relax–so I wasn’t getting the rest I needed
and b) there had been a few stressful incidents at work that made my shifts more draining than usual.

Feelings are just signals! A negative feeling is like a window popping up on your computer to tell you that something is wrong. It doesn’t always mean your writing is trash, and it certainly never means that you are trash.

Life isn’t separated into neat little boxes. So many things can affect your writing: health, sleep, relationships, stress, finances. So when you hit an authorial slump, consider what else might be a contributing factor, and give yourself the grace to deal with that situation.

11. Pray

Everyone makes tidy lists of ten, but I couldn’t leave this eleventh point out. The biggest outside factor is your relationship with God. Take this from someone struggling with her devotional life as we speak: when you’re not spending time with God, whether that be reading the Bible, praying, or taking a walk while listening to worship music, everything else in life suffers. Including your writing.

I know, I know how it feels. Not all of you are task-driven people, but for those of you who are: I understand that putting off writing to pray or even to relax with a good book feels like . . . well, not necessarily time wasted, but time not spent writing.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. -Matthew 6:33 NIV

The thing is, you can’t afford not to pursue God. And when it comes down to it, isn’t He the most creative being to ever exist? Didn’t He hang the stars and fashion chimpanzees and create thunderstorms with just a word? You, dear writer, dear soul, are created in the image of the Creator! You are a creative being–that’s part of your very nature–but your creativity flourishes best when it is fed by a thriving bond with your Creator.

And that’s all the advice I have today, my friends. I’m off to go practice what I just preached (The Brightest Thread, here I come!), but before I go . . .

Stay tuned for Saturday, because I have a very special guest joining us!

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When Your Story is Too Short: Tips for Expansion

Tracey Dyck 24 Comments

Do you remember when I first started writing The Brightest Thread back in 2015? The first draft was a somewhat flabby novella that I ended up shortening from almost 30,000 words to 20,000 words in order to follow the Five Magic Spindles contest guidelines.

Fast forward to 2017, and I’m taking that story I worked so hard to condense and expanding it into a full novel! Back when I was cutting words and soaking my keyboard in tears (slight exaggeration), I ached with the knowing that there was so much more story to explore, but no room to do it. I felt I could easily make it three times as long.

Well, now that I am actually trying to triple its size, it’s a lot harder than it looks! See, my stories have always had the bad habit of exploding on me. Subplots crop up, character arcs get deeper or more complicated, and connections start springing up like dandelions in May. (Seriously, I look out my window and there’s a sea of yellow.)

So things get . . . long. Short stories become novellas, novellas try to become novels, and standalones turn into series.  That’s just how I roll, I guess.

But I know lots of young writers have the exact opposite problem. Their stories are too short. By the time they type “The End” their supposed “epic YA fantasy novel” is only 50k, more like middle grade than YA. If that’s you, I can sympathize with you for the first time!

photo via Pinterest // graphic mine

So today we’re going to be looking at ways you can lengthen your stories–and not just padding them with fluff, but adding meaningful length.

And we’ll do it by re-examining the condensing tips I shared in Unraveling a Mess of Threads to see if any of them can be reverse-engineered. Perhaps the opposite principles will be helpful.

(And there will be random gifs, because why not?)

1. Streamline.

Nope, you don’t want to reverse this one! Every scene still needs to carry its weight. Don’t wander for the sake of extra words. That’s when the reader starts yawning–or worse, decides to put the book down.

2. Cut dialogue.

Brevity is still the soul of wit, even if you’re looking to expand a story, but you don’t have to be quite so ruthless with your dialogue now. A lot can be revealed in a conversation: personality, motives, conflicts, plot, etc. Characters are crucial to any story, and quite often, so are their interactions. So when they start talking to each other, don’t be afraid to dig a little deeper, and look for ways to add tension or conflict.

It doesn’t always have to be conflict between the characters, either. A tense conversation can be about the imminent war or the urgent need for supplies . . . or it can just as easily be about smaller conflicts, like the fact their local diner stopped selling chocolate milkshakes and they’re both upset about it.

The point is, add dialogue that does something. Treat conversations like mini stories: figure out what each person wants and what stands in their way.

3. Cut descriptions.

Now you’ll want to add description! But no purple prose, please–your reader proooobably doesn’t want to spend three pages watching a sunset unfold. Nor do they need to spend an agonizing amount of time listening to your protagonist navel-gazing.

However, if your story is running too short, there are probably lots of places you can beef up your descriptions. Use them to ground each scene. Intersperse them with action and movement. Engage all five senses. Strive to immerse your reader wholly within the world you’ve created! That world may never come out on the page 100% the way you imagine it in your mind, but get as close as possible.

If you’re struggling to find a place to add description in a scene, stop and consider what’s out of the ordinary about where that scene takes place. Yes, it might be in your protagonist’s average little kitchen and not in some wildly exotic fantasy locale, but try to find something relevant and interesting about your setting. Maybe the dishes have piled higher than normal because the character’s mom has been sick, and the plates are crusted in yesterday’s lasagna. Maybe the little brother left a note on the fridge saying he left to search for his missing puppy, but the brother is only six years old and your protagonist starts freaking out about him wandering the streets alone.

But do take note: we don’t need to know about the plates or the note if they don’t a) further the plot, or b) develop the characters. Yes, you want to add words, but you want to add words that matter!

4. Make a list of scenes.

In the original post, I suggested doing this for the purpose of getting a birds-eye view of your story. That way, it’s easier to spot which scenes aren’t pulling their weight and need to be cut out. But this is also a great strategy for finding places to expand! Did the story jump from the hero departing home to his arrival at a tavern on the way to his goal? Well, perhaps the journey in between can offer some conflict. Take that boring walk you skipped over and throw some obstacles at him. Ogres attack! The bridge is broken! Bandits steal his food! He stops to help a wounded peasant who will later betray him to the villain! He injures himself climbing a precipitous road! The sky’s the limit, folks. It may take extra work later on when editing to make sure your new scenes fit into the story’s flow, but it can be done.

5. Cut minor characters.

When every single word is measured, you keep your cast to the bare minimum. But when you’re expanding, adding a few more minor characters can provide more conflict, more dialogue, more revealing of main characters, and more subplots–in essence, more words. Who could you add to your story to further complicate events? This leads into the next tip . . .

6. Cut subplots.

This goes further than just adding scenes and characters. This means tying those extra things into your existing storyline, which can be easier said than done. Right now, with every new element I introduce to The Brightest Thread, I’m worried that it will draw the focus away from the main storyline, or that I’m making the story worse, not better. (But at this point I should be in creative mode, and save those sorts of judgments for editing.)

But a new subplot can enrich your story like nothing else. At some point, you’ll want to consider whether the subplot revolves around your story’s central plot and theme (it should), but for now, take some time to jot a list of all the crazy, difficult, dangerous, beautiful, or interesting things that could happen within your story.

This is where it becomes all about connections! This is when you get to decide that your villain is actually related to your hero, or that trade between two kingdoms is suffering, or that the regular old sword the sidekick wields is no longer an ordinary blade, but a magical object that somebody out there would do anything to obtain.

Rather than bog the story down, a well-written subplot will add depth and complexity.

7. Enter each scene late and leave it early.

KEEP DOING THIS. Basically, start each scene when the important stuff happens, and end it before the tension drops. Don’t waste time in getting things going or wrapping them up. This will keep those pages turning fast!

8. Cut unnecessary words.

Admit it, you have a collection of pet words that somehow manage to pepper every other page, no matter how much pet-word-repellant you spray your keyboard with. When you edit, please don’t leave those pesky things there just to keep your wordcount higher. Keep deleting whatever’s unnecessary. Pacing can be an issue on the scene level and on the sentence level.

Keeping that in mind, you can continue adding dialogue, descriptions, scenes, characters, and subplots. Just make them necessary. Tie them to the stakes of the story. Therein lies the key to meaningful additions.

To sum up:

When expanding a story, look for opportunities to:

  • Add dialogue
  • Add description
  • Add scenes
  • Expand the cast of characters
  • Create subplots

But don’t forget to:

  • Keep it streamlined
  • And make sure every addition either furthers the plot, develops a character, or both

And that’s all I’ve got! I’m excited about a certain (ahem, creepy) subplot I’m in the process of writing into TBT . . . it’s definitely going to change the flavor of the book somewhat, but I hope it will be in a good way.

Discussion time! Have you ever tried to lengthen a story? What worked for you? What didn’t work? Or if you’re planning to expand a story in the future, which of these tips do you think will help you the most?

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