WRITE2IGNITE PRESENTS: A Young Adult Master Class with Tessa Emily Hall

For those of you who have followed my blog for several years, you know that Write2Ignite is dear to my heart. I've served on their planning team for several years and administer their blog (no surprise there, right?). Our mission is to encourage and teach Christian writers who want to share their faith through literature. Whether that's through explicitly Christian books or books that reflect Biblical values, our commitment is strong: to present quality, clean, books for children and young adults that will inspire, educate, and entertain. 

Since COVID, we exchanged our annual conferences for semi-annual virtual master classes. This year, our class is on September 18 and will be taught by writer and editor, Tessa Hall.

For only $69.00, writers will spend the day learning from Tessa and practicing the principles Tessa has presented. Here's the schedule:

In addition, during lunch I will interview Tiffany Slack, head librarian at Matthews Christian Library. She will tell us about the books she'd like to add to her collection. 

If you are a Christian who longs to write books which impact teens, please join us! Registration information can be found here. 

By the way, our blog has provided excellent young adult resources this summer. Here are some posts that might interest you:

Recommended YA Books and Series

Perceive the Trends in the Young Adult Market 

Purple Moon by Tessa Hall: Book Review 

Should Writers be Hopeful about the State of YA Christian Fiction? 

Writing Christian Fiction in Young Adult Literature

Writing Clean YA Fantasy

I hope you can join us for a day that will inform and encourage you!

And just in case you have a manuscript that you would like critiqued, here is a special offer for you:

And here are two short movies in which I interviewed teens in my church to find out what they liked and didn't like in YA literature.

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Congratulations to California book blogger Rosi Hollinbeck who won A CAPE! and to Cathy Ogren who won DON'T CALL ME FUZZYBUTT. I still have stacks of books to share with you--so more coming soon!

Aaron Moments: A Tribute to Friendship

Congratulations to Joyce Hostetter who won the autographed copy of "The Great Call of China" on last week's post. Trust me, her winning was independent of this post!

A Bible Lesson

The ancient Israelites had a problem. In a battle with their enemies the Amalekites, Moses and Aaron noticed that whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed. But his hands got heavy and when he let them down, Amalek prevailed. 

Exodus 17:12 says, "But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron (his brother) and Hur (his companion) held up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun." 

Apparently this intervention worked because the next verse records how the Israelites were victorious. This is a superb example of two friends coming alongside a great leader and giving him the help he needed.

Since this blog deals more with writing than Biblical history, you might be wondering where I'm going with this post.  

Half-Truths and Aaron Moments

I'm close to the end of my fifth write-it-from-the-beginning draft of Half-Truths. Last week I was writing a scene in which Lillie really wants to be mad at Kate. But, according to my outline, this is Act IV when the two girls are now friends. Why would Lillie choose not to nurse her anger?

Light bulb moment. By remembering a time when Kate believed in her when other people didn't.

In my mind, I dubbed this previous incident in the story an "Aaron moment." A time when Lillie was ready to give up and give in. But Kate's encouragement kept her going--despite her fears and doubts. 

Meet my "Aaron's"

Like Moses and Lillie, I've had my moments when I was ready to quit. Thankfully, I've had three friends who have believed in me and helped me fight my panic and doubts. You've met these friends in blog posts, but here's a little more backstory about how each one has helped me with my story. 

In chronological order, here are my three "Aarons:"

April, 2016

Seventeen years ago, Fran Davis, the Regional Advisor for SCBW (there was no "I" back then) called me, and then called Linda Phillips. She had decided the two of us should co-chair the 1999 regional conference in Charlotte. We each agreed although there was one problem--we had never met. After much email correspondence, phone calls, and meetings, Linda and I pulled it off. 

In the process, we became critique partners, praying friends, and walking buddies. We continue to lift each other up when the other person is overwhelmed by doubts and fears. We give each other marketing advice, pep talks, and a different perspective on ourselves and our writing. Most of all, we're always there for each other as the voice of encouragement when the other person wants to abandon her work.  

In 2007, I met Joyce Hostetter at the Mid-South Reading and Writing Institute in Birmingham, Alabama. I went to her workshop on writing historical fiction and had her autograph a copy of BLUE. Thus started a friendship which led to us co-teaching writing workshops at NCCAT and publishing our online newsletter, Talking Story. 

In 2008 Joyce challenged me to stop talking about writing a novel and to plunge into NaNoWriMo. She encouraged me to spend a week at a Highlights Foundation Workshop for which I'll always be grateful. She's read and critiqued numerous synopsis and first pages. She's now (finally!) reading this draft and giving feedback on everything from sentence order to killing my darling similes. When I bewail how long it's taken to write my first novel she offers understanding but no excuses.  

2013

I attended the 2011 SCBWI-Carolinas conference with a revised first draft and great confidence that I was on my way to publication. Mary Kate Castellani,  my critiquer, changed all that.  She rocked my world and changed my novel by calmly suggesting that my book would reach a wider audience if I wrote it from both Kate's and Lillie's POV. 

My mind whirled as I walked through the revolving doors at the conference hotel. I had just finished writing the entire book from Kate's POV. How could I possibly write a story from a black girl's POV? How could I start all over again? (little did I know...)

The first person I saw on the other side of the door was Rebecca Petruck. 

She not only told me I could and should write Half-Truths from both POV's, she has helped me with the humongous task of plotting a book from two points of view. I've appreciated Rebecca's ability to see what Half-Truths was trying to be and to bring me back from the many bunny trails which my imagination led me on.

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These friends have believed in me as a writer and in Half-Truths as a story. They have been my "Aarons" figuratively holding up my arms when my battles were rough. Thank you, Linda, Joyce, Rebecca, Kate, and Lillie. You each have showed me how powerful friendship can be. 

How about you? Who are your "Aarons"? 

Follow me Over to Joan Edwards Blog

Congratulations to Kim Van Stickler who won the ARC of Steering Toward Normal. In her comment she wrote, "I am replying from Ohio where we have one kick-butt state fair every August."

Today I'm guest blogging on Joan Edwards' "Never Give Up" blog. I'm musing about who inspired me as a writer, some advice on how to get your manuscript submission ready, and chocolate. 

PLUS, I'm giving away a 250-word critique. So come on over, and celebrate the New Year with Joan and I!

Revision and Seeing the Big Picture- Part I and a Giveaway!

Some of you have already met Rebecca Petruck (either on-line or in person), my writing coach who is helping me shape, hone, and revise Half-Truths. In this blog and the next, Rebecca shares her own revision journey.  I am currently following Rebecca's advice on letting my manuscript rest while she reads my entire manuscript. 

When I posted a photo of my revision map on Facebook, Carol invited me to write a post for her blog. STEERING TOWARD NORMAL will be released by Abrams/Amulet Spring 2014. I received my editor’s letter and marked-up pages March 2013, with the final due by June. But let me back up a little.

I’m a big believer in the benefits of letting a manuscript “rest." I can’t say enough how important it is to take a real break from a story—the kind of break in which you write something else. Even if your deadline means you can only let the MS rest a few days, take those days to write a short story, fan fiction, even type chapters from a favored author’s book—anything truly separate from your novel. Your brain needs to be entirely turned to the off position re: your story in order to be able to see it new again. Critique partners are hugely helpful in this, too. Anyone who gives you fresh insight into your work is a keeper.

I didn’t let myself read STN again until I received Howard’s notes. I wanted to see it through his eyes. Afterwards, I didn’t let myself do any work on the actual manuscript until I had thought everything through and had a plan. (This is harder than it sounds—jumping in is easy.)

I’m not an outliner, but I am organized. I had a three-month window and broke it down into, you know, three’s. :) One month for planning, one month for writing, one month to tweak per notes from my critique partners. One month for planning may seem like a lot of time with a deadline fast approaching, but that time to think through what I wanted to do was ESSENTIAL. It saved me from being slowed down by a bunch of false starts and misdirections.

I had a list of sixteen questions from WIRED FOR STORY by Lisa Cron that I used as starting points. I journaled about the four major characters, and brainstormed a B-story that ended up being so exactly what the book needed I couldn’t believe it took me eleven drafts to figure it out. (Thank you, Howard, for asking about Diggy’s friends!) The questions that resonated most with me ended up being: “When and why was his worldview knocked out of alignment?” “What does he HOPE will happen (vs. what does)?” “What is his ‘aha’ moment?”

I tend to think of early drafts as heart-and-gut writing. If we’re lucky, and if we can stand it, this is the time we write something about the world we believe deeply, even (especially?) if we’re not aware of it. Later drafts are the terrain of the analytical brain. What IS the theme? What can I do to make it pop more? Do these scenes speak to it? Do these characters learn it, get hurt by it, care? WHY?

Theme is one of those things you can’t think about while you write, but you must think about between drafts. It’s that thing so important to you, you wrote a NOVEL. Yet is a classic Catch-22—if you think about theme too overtly while writing, your story is likely to be didactic or simply bad. But you can’t ignore it either. Every story has to have a POINT. Even so-called “light reading” or humor books—the ones that rise to the top anyway—have a clear theme, sometimes as simple as “Life is ridiculous and then we die.”

Next week, Rebecca will return with advice on what to do once the thinking is done.

Meanwhile, she is once again generously offering one of two giveaways. You can win either a 10-page critique from her, or a copy of WIRED FOR STORY. Here are the rules:

• Post this blog on your social media site of choice OR become a new follower of this blog and I'll enter your name once. 
• Post this blog on two different social media sites OR become a new follower of this blog AND post it on a social media site and I'll enter your name twice.
• Either way, leave a comment with your email address (if you are new to my blog) with what you did. 
• Winner will be drawn on Monday morning, August 5 - so get those entries in!

How many writing coaches agree to meet you at
Whole Foods Market in Wilmington, NC?
Rebecca did!

Rebecca Petruck is a Minnesota girl, though she also has lived in Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, England, Connecticut and, currently, North Carolina. A former member of 4-H, she was also a Girl Scout, a cheerleader, and competed in MathCounts. She reads National Geographic cover to cover. She is represented by Kate Testerman of kt literary, and her first novel, STEERING TOWARD NORMAL, will be released by Abrams/Amulet Spring 2014. Please visit her online.