The final novel planning method we’re going to look at is called Draft Zero or Zero Draft. This is the draft that comes before your first draft. (Here is another downloadable document that tells about it.) It’s one step beyond “pantsing” your first draft. (Pantsing means writing your novel with little to no planning whatsoever. […]
You’re sitting in your living room on a Friday night watching a movie as a family. The power blinks. You realize town power has gone off and your house is now running on the back-up battery power. You look at the clock. It’s 7 PM. You know it’s probably load shedding and the power will […]
NaNoWriMo has started this year! I love NaNoWriMo and look forward to it every year. I talked about my history with NaNoWriMo in a blog post last year. This year some of my children are participating with me. I’ve read articles recently criticizing NaNoWriMo. There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about this event. […]
The following is a true story. The Nakivale Refugee Settlement is near Lake Nakivale and named for the lake. It has been in existence for decades with the first refugees coming from Kenya, Rwanda, and Congo – then Zaire. In a 1960s experiment, anacondas were brought from Brazil to Lake Nakivale. The snakes have grown […]
The next novel planning method I’m sharing with you is called the Dramatic Structure or The Freytag Model/Pyramid, named for Gustav Freytag who first described it using ancient Greek and Shakespearean dramas. This is the primary method I’ve used to teach novel planning. Another variety of this is The Story Spine. The Freytag Model uses […]
Yesterday was Making a Difference Day. It isn’t a huge thing, but I noticed it because the theme of Talents is Making a Difference. I’d love to be able to finish my life knowing I made a difference for someone. Anyone. Sadly, most of the time we go through life without knowing the impact we […]
When I wrote the blog post about having a rough week, I used the word stress several times. I realized later what I really meant was culture stress. Everyone deals with stress. It’s a fact of life. Culture stress is like stress on steroids and there is nothing you can do to get away from […]
I debated about whether to share this method of plotting a novel or not. It’s very similar to the Three Act Structure, so similar in fact, that in many ways they can be interchanged. However, if you look these up online, many writers make distinctions between the two. I’ll let you be the judge. You […]
Missionaries deal with stress in their chosen field on a daily basis. Most times it’s small things that add up, though sometimes we face huge stressors and have to deal with them without the normal coping mechanisms set up in our culture. This blog post talks about it in more depth than I’m going to […]
I read this verse today and thought of our church people when I read it. Paul had been in Philippi. While there, he was arrested, beaten, and thrown in jail. He and Silas sang in jail and God opened their bonds. Their jailer and his whole family were saved as a result. He then traveled […]