Sorry about my lack of posting yesterday. I spent Friday afternoon through Saturday night out living life, seeing concerts, hanging with friends, and soaking in the whole anime experience at Tokyo in Tulsa. But, I'm back! And I have a good chunk of info for you all. It's from Nancy's individual workshop at the conference. These are my notes from the first day.
Relationships with Nancy 6/7/10
Psalm 45 (Message) “My heart bursts its banks, spilling beauty and goodness. I pour it out in a poem to the king, shaping the river into words.”
Finding the core of what you’re working on
Eugene Peterson Christ Plays in 10,000 Places “Story is the most natural way of enlarging and deepening our sense of reality, and then enlisting us as participants in it. Stories open doors to areas or aspects of life that we didn’t know were there, or had quit noticing out of over-familiarity, or supposed were out-of-bounds to us.”
Christ rarely interpreted his stories. He only explained that to his disciples—stories speak for themselves.
Book – Love Walked In (recommendation, novel)
Consider your story:
Is it enlarging and deepening someone’s sense of reality?
Are you enlisting other people to participate in it?
Is your story going to open doors to aspects of life that your readers may not know were there?Are you reminding people of the importance of some facet of life? (Ex. Hook)
Are you showing them they can understand things they thought they were beyond them?
Are you welcoming someone in and giving them a sense of home?
How to do these things:
Don’t think that you have to know exactly how to finish it and how you’re going to ensure its success. There is no guarantee of “success.” There is a guarantee it will not be successful if you don’t commit to it completely.
What a Christian novel is:
1. Christian elements can be overtly spoken, covertly alluded to, or it may never be mentioned at all. BUT it must be inherent to the story. You need to make sure your story wouldn’t work without it.
“Preach the gospel always. Use words if necessary.” – St. Francis of Assisi
It can’t be plastered on—it has to be woven in.
Psalm 16:2 “I say to God, ‘nothing without You makes sense.’”
It needs to show Christianity in people’s lives as it is, not as we wish it would be. How much banana are you going to put in your pie? Because it needs to be a banana pie.
2. It should provide a mirror for readers to identify with characters.
3. It should entertain as well as to edify. It’s a story. Make them cry, make them laugh!
Nancy’s own advice—it should be a book that people want to OWN. I want the story to be a place where my readers wish they lived.
Sunflower seed
The big, beautiful sunflower you want to create has to start as a seed.
One word that captures what you’re trying to say in your novel:
Examples: Equality, justice, family, hope, etc.
“What if” question:
Ex: What if something wrong is so widely accepted it becomes normality and combat seems impossible?
What do you think is the answer?
[Insert answer to your question here.]
Write a paragraph in which you briefly tell how your protagonist can come to the answer.
[Insert paragraph here.]
The closer you get to the truth, the more you want to resist it. (from Nancy)
There is freedom in limitation. Don’t be looking at other things than what God intends for you to be looking at. Don’t be like an Irish Setter!
Book of Common Prayer - Send us out to do the work you intended for us to do with gladness in our heart.
Have a verse of Scripture that underlines your question and answer.
Name of protagonist:
Obvious need as it appears at the beginning:
Protagonist’s hidden need:
“Plot is what happens. Story is what it does to the person it happens to. Plot is the motion. Story is the emotion. Plot is the outer journey. Story is the inner journey. Plot is the road it takes to get there. Story is the path to the truth.”
Inciting incident (22 minutes into the movie):
(If it’s in the first chapter, that’s not where it belongs.) You have to make the readers care about the characters. Inciting incident needs to be a quarter of the way in. (Fantasy can be a little different. See what works!) Keep the reader moving forward.
What goal is produced for protagonist through inciting incident?
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