A Writer's Week #64: Gotcha Day and Other Holidays

Today is Good Friday, a solemn and holy day for Christians around the world. It has always been so for me. But for my family and nine others, this particular day of the year--March 29th--is special for another reason. You see, eight years ago today we were in China to meet our daughters. Today, Stephanie and I held our daughter Abigail--all of nine months old--for the first time.

Stephanie & Abigail in China

We call this day Gotcha Day, as in "I gotcha!", and it was the culmination of a long journey. For my wife it fulfilled a dream of adopting a child that she had had since being adopted herself. For me it was the completion of a dream that I had adopted 7 or so years before when Stephanie had asked me if I'd be willing to adopt a child.

A year or so after we had our son Christian, we decided that the time was right to start the search for his little sister. Our search led us to China and Abby. After a year and a half of paperwork, social worker interviews and letters to the Chinese government promising to be good parents and to always treat our daughter as one of our own, we left 3 year old Christian with my in-laws and my parents and took off from Newark airport the day before Easter bound for Hong Kong and then on to Changsha in China. Because China is 12 hours ahead of us, by the time we landed in Hong Kong 18 hours later we had missed Easter entirely.

The entire gang on the lobby steps of the China Marriott in Guangzhou

It was worth it. Abby was the final piece in the puzzle that is our family. Now, eight years later, I can't imagine life without her. In fact from the moment I received her on Gotcha Day, it seemed like she had always been with us. Ever since I met my wife and asked her to a sunrise Easter mass, Easter has been extra special to me. Gotcha Day makes it even more so.

Christian & Abby a few years ago

Happy Gotcha Day to Paul, Deb & Clare; Marie, Tommy, Christina & Julie Rose; Roseanne, Eddie & Gianna; Marcia, Den & Mia; Claudia, Eugene & Maria Pia; Maryanne, Tom & Megan; Joanne & Jaida; Patti & Cami; and Nina, David & Julia whose Gotcha Day came a little later and through infinitely more trying circumstances. We love you guys!

I also did some writing this week. I've got things ramped up a bit and have added a bunch of action to The Golden Dragon of Ang. This week resulted in 2,200 words written, which brings the tale up to 32,300 words, 140 pages and 30 chapters. The coming week should also see some fun publicity for the audio book version of Sharky and the Jewel. I'll give you a heads up when that appears.

On a totally unrelated front. I have pulled together a collection of inspirational short stories and poems that I wrote many years ago for the high school community group that I used to advise at my local church. I'm going to publish them in time for Christmas this year. I wrote one every year for the group's annual Christmas retreat for almost 17 years. Each one was written to reflect the theme of that year's retreat and were meant to be a relaxing interlude in the middle of the retreat--a kind of modern fairy tale. Anyway, I'll keep you updated on that project as it progresses. Have a great week!

My Favorite Books: Custer's Last Battle

I've mentioned before that my parents always managed to find some great books for me for Christmas. I've documented a few of them here in the past. Every once in a while they would give me a book that I had fallen in love with at the library.

One such book was Red Hawk's Account of Custer's Last Battle by Paul & Dorothy Goble. It was an account by a fictitious Sioux warrior of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. It was based on the actual accounts from real Sioux warriors.

I took that book out from thee library a bunch of times to read it and pore over the illustrations. My parents, always observant, decided it would be a good one to get for Christmas. I was really excited. Very few things excited me like a book at Christmas. Okay, maybe a revolutionary war set complete with stone walls trees and a tin tavern gave me a bigger thrill at the age of 8 or 9, but not much else!

The account was eye opening for me. The book was published in 1969. I probably received it in 1973 or 74 or so. It was really the first time I'd read something that was sympathetic to Native Americans and gave their side of the story. Until then the only accounts of the American west that I had encountered were  John Wayne and Henry Fonda movies. Needless to say it was a revelation.

I also loved the illustrations. They were done in a Native American style by Paul Goble. The Sioux and

Cheyenne warriors were very interesting, but I have to admit I was fascinated but the army uniforms. At that point in time I loved the blue uniforms of civil war and Indian war period soldiers. Each of the figures on both sides had a personality--no two were the same. They really helped bring the story to life.

Anyway, mom and dad really came through again. I guess I took for granted that there was always going to be a present or two that I would really love under the tree. One of them was almost always a book.

Today, with video games a dime a dozen--or $45 dollars each--give the child in your life the gift of a good book. If you're not sure what they like, take them to the library and see what they gravitate to. Remember, books open up worlds for children, and you hold the key.  

Inklings: Resolving Your Conflict

Your story got off to a great start. It has great characters and action. It moves along at a good pace and keeps the reader interested. So, can you celebrate your creation of a great piece of literature? Well, not yet. There is still something that needs to be done. Your story has to come to a satisfying conclusion. As an old ballplayer, Yogi Berra once said, "It ain't over 'til it's over."

Starting a story can be hard. Keeping it moving along and interesting in the middle can be a challenge. So after all that, how hard can writing the end of a story be? Try very hard. Think about it. You've worked hard to get your reader interested. You've got them wondering what's going to happen to your characters. They keep turning those pages to find out what happens next. The tension's building--and then the story just fizzles out. Nothing's resolved, no loose ends are tied up. The characters, and your readers, are left hanging.

Not good. As a reader, there's nothing worse than reading a book with a bad ending. It's like listening to someone tell a joke and forget the punch line. Ugh, I hate that, don't you? You feel like you've been cheated. As a writer, there is nothing worse. Whatever you do, don't cheat your reader!

How can you avoid doing that when writing your story? You can start by understanding what goes into a great ending. Here are a few things:

• Climax--All the tension you've been building up in your plot needs to reach a breaking point, the climax. Will the hero unmask the villain, or will evil triumph? Does the boy get the girl, or is he dumped? You find out at the climax, the high point, of the story. If you don't have a climax--if the hero never confronts the villain, or if the boy does not kiss the girl, then your story just fizzles out. Ho hum, who cares?

• Resolution--This is also known as tying up loose ends. After the climax, how is everything else resolved? Are there any subplots that have to be taken care of? Now that the boy has the girl, do they live happily ever after? If you've mentioned something earlier in the story, like the prince's cousin had been scheming to take the throne from the prince while he was busy wooing the fair maiden, you have to show how he was thwarted. Otherwise, the reader will be left hanging.

• Happy, sad or somewhere in between--You also have to decide if your story will have a happy or sad ending, or a bittersweet or funny one. Hopefully when you outlined your story you had some idea of what was going to happen. Sometimes, though, things don't go the way you thought they would when you started writing. That's okay. Sometimes a surprise ending is fine. Just be sure that everything makes sense. The prince can't decide that instead of marrying the princess he's going to marry the shoemaker's daughter if you've never said anything about a shoemaker's daughter in the story. Again, this confuses the reader and makes them feel cheated. 

A great ending is the icing on the cake of a great story. It's something that will make it memorable in the minds of your readers. What are some of your favorite endings? Share them in the comments.

A Writer's Week #63: Taking Stock

For about a month now I've been bumping along writing about 2,000 words a week. It's the weekly goal I've set myself. While it's not very challenging in and of itself, it is tremendously so when you add in everything else that I've got going on in my life. I've been hitting my goal pretty consistently, but I've felt that I've been in a rut. The thing was, I could not for the life of me figure out why.

Then on Monday as I was writing my latest Inklings post it hit me. The post was all about writing the middle of the story. I listed three things that you need from the middle of a story to keep it from getting bogged down--challenge your characters, pick up the pace and throw in some details and history. As I was writing the post, I suddenly had an uneasy feeling. Was I ignoring my own advice? I was worried that maybe I might be going a little bit astray in the middle of The Deliverers 3. After all, while I thought there was some good tension and suspense and also a little bit of a mystery going on, it did not seem to me that there was a whole lot of action.

Now, my wife had read it through and said that she thought the pace was good and that it was not boring. Okay, that's nice. I respect her opinion and she has never been wrong in the past, but I still had this uneasy feeling. The second book in the series, Order of the Crystal Lion has, I think, a lot of action in it. There's a lot of fighting, people getting captured, two storylines, etc. On the other hand, The Golden Dragon of Ang has had one abduction, no fights, and only one real storyline (although the groundwork has been laid for a second one). Uh oh, I thought, I may be in trouble.

So, I decided to take some time and read the story all the way through. I'm happy to say that I think things are pretty good. The pace is fine, there's tension and I really like what the new characters populating this latest world bring to the table. It made me feel a whole lot better and loosened me up. In fact, the day after I read it I wrote 1,400 words including the first battle of the book. There is also a chase that will take place in the next chapter. I don't know if this was an unconscious thing on my part, but as I was writing all the ideas kind of clicked. I think it was just the right part of the story for some action. Things had been leading up to it.

This week I wrote 2,200 words which puts me at 30,100, 27 chapters and 130 pages. Getting to 30,000 words feels good. I love those little milestones. I had been thinking the book would be about as long as the second which would put it at 61,000 words or so, but right now I'm not sure. The Deliverers still have a long way to go on this journey. Will I break 300 pages? Part of me thinks it would be neat, but the other part thinks that may be a bit too long for a middle grade novel--I'm not J.K. Rowling after all. Anyway, we'll see. Now that I'm sure of my direction again I'm hoping to get back to weeks of 2,500 words or more like I was doing at the beginning of the year. I'll let you know if that's the case next week.

Inklings: Middle, Keep the Story Moving

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the beginning of a story. Once you've set the whole thing in motion, you need to keep the momentum building. This happens in the middle of the story. Middles can be tricky things. Sometimes, your plot can get bogged down or start to wander.

In the beginning, your characters are introduced to some sort of conflict. They're launched into the story and are raring to go. Then they hit the middle. One off two things can happen. Either they scale the mountain, facing challenges and obstacles and overcoming them, or they get stuck inn the mud and sit there going nowhere.

So, how can you avoid getting stuck in the mud? How can your characters climb the heights? Here are a few good things to keep in mind as your story unfolds:

• Keep challenging your characters--Don't let them relax for a second. Keep giving them problems to solve and obstacles to overcome. Maybe they don't always succeed. In fact, they probably shouldn't succeed all the time--after all who does? You don't want to set them up for failure, but you also don't want their journey to be a walk in the park. The more they struggle, the sweeter their victory will be in the end for them and the reader.

• Pick up the pace--Keep the story moving. This can be difficult. Sometimes characters like to talk about things. They can talk about their situation a little, but you want to keep the pace exciting. Shorter chapters that cut back and forth from the main plot to a subplot can help you achieve this. Lots of action is also a good way to keep things moving.

• Add details and history as you go--One of the great things about reading a story is to learn things along the way. Add in bits and pieces of characters' histories as the story unfolds. Sometimes it's tempting to divulge a character's entire life story right when you introduce them--don't. Save some of the good stuff for later in the story where it may have more of an impact. This will help keep the reader interested and provide an "aha!" moment. A reader likes nothing more than the feel they've put the pieces of a riddle together and found the answer. You want them to think "Oh, so that's why they acted that way. It makes sense now."

The middle is an important part of your story. In it you work to bring the characters and the reader through many twists and turns right up to the climax of the action of the story. When does that climax take place? We'll talk about that another time!