They have the ability to frustrate you the most as well the ability to touch your heart. My siblings and I get along well. Yes, we get on each other’s nerves sometimes, but for the most part, we are the best of friends.
We are there for each other in the hard times, and rejoice with each other in the good times. We are good at making each other laugh and smile. A day just isn’t right without giving a hug to each of my sisters and brother (who by the way still lets me hug him even though he is almost 18).
Thank you God for my siblings.
#31: My siblings laughter
#32: Sweet smiles
#33: Inside sibling jokes
#34: Childhood memories
#35: Shoulders to cry on
#36: Never having to be alone
#37: Siblings to rejoice with
#39: Siblings who love me for who I am
#39: Late night sister talks
#40: Shared faith
One Lesson at a Time
We all want our books to be more than just a good story; we want our books to touch people’s hearts and lives. We want it to not only grab their attention; we want it to make them stop and think. We don’t just want to tug at their emotions; we want to pull at their minds. We don’t just want to have amazing characters; we want to compel our readers to examine their own lives.
This week, we are starting a new series for Writing Saturday on weaving life lessons into our story. We will start today talking about only having one lesson at a time. In the following weeks we will talk about teaching vs. preaching, showing vs. telling, relevant messages, and more, so stay tuned.
Unlike in real life, where God may be teaching us sometimes several lessons at once, our books should focus on one lesson. Although this may not be life like if you try to put too many lessons, none of them will make a big impact.
For example in the film The Widows Might, the makers tried to tackle many different issues. Although the film was well done, the point of the film was buried by all the other issues the makers tried to tackle. It wasn’t that there wasn’t a central theme or that the movie was bad, but there were so many issues that the main one was in danger of being lost.
Think of you book as having two levels. The first is the action or surface level. On the level, you see bad guy against good guy, girl likes guy, sword clashing against sword and all that other action. On the second level, you have the emotional and internal struggles. This is where the good guy wonders if he is strong enough to take on the bad guy, the girl wonders if the guy will ever love her and the swordsman is sure this battle will be his last because of his great sin. If you try to add to many struggles, your second level will overwhelm your first level, upsetting the balance of your story.
With that said, it is possible to have more than one struggle in a book. However, if you have a second one, you need to make sure that it doesn’t detract from the most important struggle. like it did originally in my book, The Destiny of One. In the first draft, Maria Morris was struggling all the time with the fact that there wasn’t a “special someone” in her life, and what she was supposed to do with her life. In the end I realized that that the lessons were detracting from each other.
Keep your focus when it comes to lessons. Don’t try to tackle everything in one book.
Join me next week as we discuss sermons and soap boxes (this should be fun)
I spent most of the day either the phone with friends and chatting with the girls of Meditations of His Love. We are having so much fun planning our topics and other ideas for MOHL for the coming year. I thank God for this amazing group of friends.
I get stuck on songs, I will admit it. My poor siblings who have wonderful tastes in music will have a few hundred songs on shuffle and won’t listen to the same some for days. I on the other hand will find a song that moves me and listen to it over and over again. I think the only reason they put up with it is the fact that I can put on headphones.
I think my dear sister Rose and brother, Michael are regretting sharing their album, Walking on Air by Chloe Agnew, with me. Her voice to me is one of the beautiful I have ever heard. It is so pure and sounds so natural even when hitting high notes. This is the latest song of hers that I have been listening to:
#11: The still and quiet voice of God
#12: The power of a song
#13: Voices
#14: Chloe Agnew
#15: I Will Lift my Eyes, another song that have been a huge blessing in my life
#16: My MP3 player, allowing me to take music wherever I go
#17: Songwriters
#18: The ability to play the piano
#19: My sister who has a voice as wonderful to me as any singer I have ever heard
#20: The chance to sing with friends in the National Cathedral, our voices blending harmony is a sound I can still hear and treasure
Legate ~ One to whom a legacy is bequeathed
Gadding/Gadder ~ A rambler; one that roves about idly
Extraversion ~ The act or the state of being turned or thrown out
Pensive ~ Thoughtful, reflective
Respire ~ To breathe, to catch breath
Join my next week for the start of a new series on weaving lessons into your stories
Rated; Unrated
My Rating; (On a scale of 1-10) 8
Age recommendation; All ages
Plot; (from back cover) Ever judge someone just by looking at them? We've all made snap judgments about people. But what if we really got to know them? Would our opinions change? And what if we actually became them ... how would the shoes fit? Stressed-out high school teacher Trish Fahey can't understand her students' lack of effort and why their parents don't seem to care. This is especially true of Justin, a basketball star who is underperforming in her class. All of this changes when Trish wrecks her car and wakes to find herself living in the shoes of Justin's mom, a woman she has personally judged and criticized. With the help of a mysterious stranger, Trish discovers the real reason behind her struggles, teaching her a whole new meaning of compassion. No one is left unchanged.
I really liked this Wal-Mart movie! Although this movie is not as light-hearted as the others, it is deeply moving. The story was very touching, with a lesson that God has been trying to teach me for years; that we shouldn’t judge others – we have no idea what is really going on.
The only thing that kept this movie from being a 10 was two things. One – you are actually following two stories, though one not as close as the other. The guy who they follow just doesn’t seem to really fit into things much until the middle of the story. The last three minutes of the film with this guy don’t fit at all; it is obvious a set up for a sequel. The second thing that wasn’t great was Molly, who you get the feeling is an angel. She was a little strange, but nothing real bad or scary.
Now for some of the great things. As I said before, the message is powerful. It isn’t just about judging others, but also helping others, forgiveness, and living your life without regret. It is a great film to watch and get a family conversation started.
Find it at Wal-Mart for only $13.00.
See my reviews of other Wal-Mart movies like Who is Simon Miller?, The Jensen Project, and Secrets of the Mountain
Our lives our full of blessings, just sometimes we have a hard time seeing them. We get so focused on what we don’t have and how hard our lives, we miss the blessings all around us. We forget the kind words said, the music that surrounds us, the beauty in the sky above us, and the other thousand blessings that we take for granted every day. Today, I am joining a challenge to now forget those thousands on blessings. Would you like to join me? Click here to find out more.
#1: Rachelle, who’s Multitude on Mondays posts caught my attention and reminded me to me thankful.
#2: A beautiful new blog background!
#3: Cooler weather
#4: A home when so many people I know lost theirs this week.
#5: The gift of writing, it truly has been one of the biggest blessings in my life
#6: Hot tea on chilly mornings
#7: A working computer that is so perfect for me
#8: Facebook chats with friends
#9: Gods intervention into history and our lives
#10: Unconditional love
I have been thinking a lot about September 11, 2001 lately. Some it has to do with the fact that it has been all over the news, but a lot of it has to do with the fact that I can hardly believe it has been ten years.
I can still remember sitting on the couch watching the story starting as a horrible accident, and then in horror watching as a second plane came on the screen. Before any of us had time to react, it went into the building. The day the world changed for so many of us, is now ten years behind us.
Many of my readers were young at the time, like me. We soon knew words that none of us had ever heard before; Terrorist, collapse, World Trade Center, Afghanistan, Jihad, and many others. We went from living in a world that the day before felt so safe, to wondering if a building near us was the next target. Planes were no longer something you ran out to see, they were weapons to run from in fear.

It was hard to imagine in those few weeks that we would ever get back to normal life, yet we have. We are flying, we are living our lives, we are rebuilding, and we are overcoming. Those terrorists failed in the one thing they wanted the most. They wanted to cripple this nation in fear, but they haven’t. A memorial will be opened today to remember those who died. The new One World Trade Center is moving ever higher in the sky, higher than the old buildings. And we have tracked down the leader that instigated the attacks and punished him, just like we said we would.
May we NEVER forget those people who lost their lives, or the day that changed our nation.
Writing endings is hard for me. Not the last chapter ending, but the last paragraph that says good-bye to the beloved characters forever.
I recently finished the rough draft of the third and final book in the Destiny Trilogy. When I knew I was nearing the end, I thought about the feelings I wanted to leave the reader with. I think that thinking about the feelings you want to leave your reader with is the key to making your ending all you want it to be. Do you want readers to feel excited and ready for another adventure? Do you want them to be pensive and think back on the story? Do you want them to be sad?
As I was getting to the end of the Destiny Trilogy, I was feeling sad at saying good-bye to Maria and the rest. They had become like friends to me. I wanted the reader to have a fulfilling ending but one that captured the idea that Maria continued, even though we weren’t going to be reading about it. She may have found her purpose, but she had a lot of life ahead of her. We may be saying good-bye, but it wasn’t the end for Maria.
Whatever emotions you want to leave the reader with, here are a few things you might want to keep in mind.
First, make sure that the reader is satisfied. No one wants to come to the very end of the book and feel let down. It may not be the climax of your book, but it should tie up any loose ends, unless of course you are setting up for a sequel.
Second, there shouldn’t be any surprises. The end is not the time to put plot twists; it is the time to finish untwisting the plot. Even if you are setting up for a sequel, major plot twists should not, in my opinion, happen in the last chapter. It makes the reader mad.
Another thing you want to keep in mind is to end on a high note. This does not mean it has to be a happy ending. If the main character dies, a high note would be showing that he/she did not die in vain.
Lastly, choose your words with care. How you say things is as important as what you say in the writing world. Nowhere is that truer than in the last words in your book. You want to be creative in your word choice but not use words that will send you reader looking for their dictionary.
On that note I will say good-bye until next week, when I will share five fun words and their meaning.
James 5:13 NIV
Rated; Unrated
My Rating; (On a scale of 1-10) 9
Age recommendation; All Ages
Plot; (from back cover) Can a family survive an ancient mystery? Somewhere between the demands of her career, her ex's wedding and her kids' busy schedules, Dana James is noticing her tight-knit family starting to unravel. An unexpected offer to purchase her family's mountain property sets up a weekend road trip, which she hopes will bring her family back together. But when they arrive, they quickly learn that the mountain is much more than it seems. An ancient secret and a treacherous quest will test the family like never before. It's an edge-of-the-seat adventure that reminds us that when times are tough, families don't run away from problems - they run back to each other.
This was the first Wal-Mart movie made and the first we ever saw. I have to say, this was very fun! It reminded me so much of my favorite movies growing up; treasure hunts, adventure, people overcoming great odds, and bad guys that weren’t too scary. It felt a lot like an old Disney.

Things you might want to know before watching: They do show some skulls and bones, but it didn’t scare any of us. The kids have some attitude issues but nothing real bad. It has been a few weeks since I have watched it, but I think that those are the only things to caution you about.
Want a good family movie night? This is a great one for the whole family!
I am sitting outside where it is in the 70's!!!!! What a blessing after all those very hot days.
Another great blessing in our life? A tree fell, right between the storage shed and the electric pole yesterday. What a blessing that it didn't fall even a few inches to the right or the left of where it did.
Another great blessing in our life? A tree fell, right between the storage shed and the electric pole yesterday. What a blessing that it didn't fall even a few inches to the right or the left of where it did.
Thank you so much for your great questions! Let us jump right in, shall we?
Q; Julia ~ Hi Sarah! I do have a question, but it's a little complicated. :D Near the end of the book I'm writing, I thought I might have a period of time where the heroine is suddenly convinced that the hero is not in love with her, and in fact is in love with another 'mystery' girl ... and so she struggles through that until finally learning that the report was completely untrue, and the hero's heart belongs solely to her. It sounds good to me, but I'm a little unsure that I can write it without making my readers annoyed at the heroine for being a little dumb, and anxious that the hero might not be in love with her after all. Do you have any tips on how I could write this section of my story? (I can e-mail you with more details if you need them to help you with your advice) :D Love & Hugs, Julia
A; Julia, I enlisted my mother’s help to answer this one, having no real life experience or even much writing experience when it comes to romance. May I suggest a slight shift? If it works for you story, don’t have her doubt the hero’s love, and have her doubt her own. Let me explain. Instead of her wondering if Mr. Hero really loves her, have her wonder if she made up his love to begin with. Did she imagine that he liked her more than the other girls? Had he really ever loved her, or was it something she had imagined.
I think that you will find this slight adjustment makes it believable, doesn’t make your character dumb, and yet creates the desired effect.
Q; Rachelle ~ I'm at the place where I've finished the first draft of one project and ready to pounce on another, but I want to do a little fore-planning to reduce the amount of rewriting that came with my very first novel (which I literally plunked down according to how I felt like it - think NO planning for this plan-oriented girl = lots of work to do after THE END). How much "research" do you conduct prior to diving into a WIP? Do you plot? Outline? Make character charts or journals? Decide on a theme? Just curious. :)
A; Planning? Research? Outline? I am sorry to say I do very little of this. Most of the time, if I do anything, I just take a sheet of paper and write what I want to happen in each chapter. When I run out of plot, that is the last chapter. Not very detailed is it? There is only one book I truly have in the planning stages that I am doing much planning or research on, so I will tell you my methods and hopefully you will find some of it helpful.
My brother and I are working on a project together. We started with just a basic idea, an adventure story, and a name – Salazar – so we needed to do some planning. We cleared off a wall, got a pile of sticky notes and pens, and began to bounce ideas off one another. After a few hours and a lot of rearranging, this is what we had: A string down the middle of a wall. On the top part is the historical side of things, since we decided that this was going to be a historical fiction book. The bottom part is the plot line of the book.
As for research, I look things up as I need the information Wikipedia being one of my favorite resources because it is safe, free, no ads, and good information.
I hope this helped! Thank you Julia and Rachelle for your questions!
Join my next week for a post on great endings….