Which Is Your Style?

I've seen bloggers blog everyday, some blog three times a day, and others, myself included blog when inspiration strikes.

How do you blog?

What's your schedule?
Do you pre-plan them and set them in que?
Do you feel the urge and blog away?
Do you plan and wrack your brain as you stare at the blank post form?

Which is your style?

NaNoWriMo

Okay, it's official!

I'm one crazy lunatic...for those of you who already knew that, keep your mouths shut, k?

I signed up for NaNo this coming month...and I'm petrified!
I don't have enough time to consistently write 1000 words each day...how am I going to write 50k in a MONTH?!!!!!!

*sigh*

30k's closer than 0, right?

Who else is doing this stupid thing we call NaNoWriMo?

Red Ink - Review

I was recently given the privelage of reading Kathi Macias's Red Ink, the third novel in the Extreme Devotion Series.
1. No Greater Love
2. More Than Conquerors
3. Red Ink
4. People of the Book


 
On the Back:
Zhen-Li-Raised to observe the party line, including it's one-child-per-family policy- falls in love, marries a Christian, and adopts his faith.  Though the couple downplays their Christianity in an effort to survive, Zhen-Li's family is appalled, and she and her husband are ostracized.  When she becomes pregnant for the second time and refuses to have an abortion, the persecution begins in earnest.  Zhen-Li's parents, under pressure form the government, pay to have Zhen-Li kidnapped and the baby aborted.
It is then that Zhen-Li  decides she must live up to her name- "Truth" -and take a firm stand for her faith, reguardless of the consequences, and so she beings to regularly teach children about Zhu Yesu (Lord Jesus) and to distribute Christian literature every chance she gets.
Based loosely on the life of Christian magazine editor Li Ying, currently serving a ten-year prison sentance in China, the story of Yang




At first, I found this book hard to read.  Not becuase of the writing, not becuase of the names and Chinese language sprinkled, (I actually quite enjoyed that, and now find myself saying Zhu Yesu instead of what I usually say for Lord Jesus) but because I hate to see this persecution as truth.
You hear about the persecution in other countries, but until you read about it or see it, those stories are well...just stories.
This novel took my heart and emotions and threw them in the face of reality, and I loved it.

Zhen-Li is a young Chinese woman forced to serve a prison sentance for distributing unauthrized material to children. 

She befriends another young Chinese woman and finds it her mission to witness to her.

An American teenager gets into drugs and a bad relationship and is taken down a path of terror.

Two sweet, gentle, kind, loving Christian elders find THEIR mission in praying for, the granddaughter of a new resident and all that comes in contact with them and a woman in China (Zhen-Li).

Through this book, I learned a new way to see God.  Kathi Macias shows the reality of our God as presence a to be reckoned with if you're against Him, but a presence to depend...no really...DEPEND on when you're on His side.

Apart from the great story and honesty it showed me, this book takes on a different meaning for me personally.
I'm writing something that deals with hard issues like this, and to see this people of China and what they believe, I'm learning how to write better (even though you can't tell by my grammar) what God is trying to get me to see.



Check out Kathi Macias here.

Did He Really Love Me?

I was listening to Way FM one morning and heard Brant pose a question about God loving us now that we're His children, but does He hate us when we sin?
It was (okay, I'm paraphrasing here) mentioned by one of the people, not quite sure who it was that He loves us now that we're his children and doesn't hate us when we sin.

But a peace settled across my soul becuase God doesn't hate us, he hates our sin.  But even though God hates sin, He doesn't leave us lying in our own dirty pit of it.  He shows us, repremands us, and teaches us how to overcome it!  WE ARE VICTORIOUS!!!

I think a lot of people, myself included feel at one point or another that God judges us on how we act.  Did I pray today?  Did I ask God for help?  Will he still hear me even if I thought I could do this on my own?  Will he be mad or do something bad to me if I don't go to church?  That is, thankfully, not our place with God.

In the begining, we were at emnity with God.  But HE STILL LOVED US THEN!!!!
How do we know this?

For God so LOVED the world that he sent his only son that whosoever believes in him woudln't perish but have everlasting life.

God loves us, how are we to really KNOW he loves us?

My husband was teaching our youth last night in AWANA and one of the teenagers asked if once we're saved, can we get lost again?
VERY important, VERY pertinant question.

So can we?

NO!

Praise God, if his Jesus wasn't sufficient enough to keep me, then he would have had another kid and sent him too.  That's how much God loves us.
But Jesus was sufficient becuase, okay, first of all he IS God.  Part of the Trinity.
He came as God in the flesh and died for our sins.

God hates sin.  We all know that, otherwise, he wouldn't have told us not to sin.  But He does NOT hate us.  All Scripture, all the times I've personally felt God with me, near me, loving me, healing me, teaching me, and walking with me PROVES that He loved us in the begining becuase until about 5 years or so ago, I wasn't saved.  But I still felt God with me.

A child in the midst of tragedy or danger can sense God protecting them, or even being present with them and so can we.  Now, I know Jesus loves children.  He was a male who actually gave children the time of day back then.  He gave women the time of day...even the ones he was forbidden to talk to!  He LOVES US!!!!

He upended religeon of his day to SHOW us this.

God sent his Son and the Holy Spirit, to show us he loves us.  In John 1:1-2 and 14 he Bible says:  ¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning.  14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,[d] who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. 




"You light up the sky, you light up the sky to show me you are with me!  I can't deny, no I can't deny that you are RIGHT HERE WITH ME! You opened my eyes, so I can see you all around me, you light up the sky, you light up the sky to show me....that you are with me..." - The Afters (Again, paraphrasing :)

I want whomever is reading this to know that God doesn't hate you.
He loves you.
Sinner, lift up your head!
Love is passing by!

By the grace of God, I am His.
Not by what I have done, but by what God has done.

~~~~



Alright, family, if I have missinterpreted things here, please point them out.
Unfortunately, when I was trying to get ahold of the radio station to talk to them about this, all I could hear was a bunch of static.  :(  So I hung up the phone.

This or That

Third Person or First Person
And which variation? 

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Or in a writer's case...where the fingers meet the keys.

I've been plotting, character journaling, and outlining my latest WIP.

It's going great.
My petulant character I ranted about here finally opened up a little and shared with me what his thought processes were.

However, it's been about a month since I started organizing and outlining this work in progress, and I finally feel as though it's time to start writing.

How do we know when that time comes?
When is it time to get down 'n dirty?

1.  When things are making sense
I've been trying to organize this book for a long time, but now, after much agonizing and fretting with my Critique Partner and with God I feel as though I know where this thing should go.  I've got the jist of the thing.

2.  When you feel the need to just WRITE!
Okay, let's face it.  We're writers.  We've got to do it or things just aren't right.  I've noticed a significant difference in the way I feel and react to my family and friends when I AM writing and when I'm NOT writing.  It's night and day.  So when we feel the itch, it's nothing to write a few chapters even if we're going to scrap them later.  Just write!

3.  When you're at that deadline.
As an aspiring author, I have to set my own goals and deadlines.  I don't have an agent tapping his/her foot and rolling eyes at me (this in no way reflects how I feel about agents.  I know they are here to do what's best for us and our work).   Our goals in reality are probably cake compared to an agent's requests.  But in order to get anything done in the unpubbed world, we HAVE TO SET GOALS.  Otherwise, we'll be floating for a long, long time.  It's healthy to have goals.  It keeps us moving. (okay, rant over.)  Make them attainable, but make them to push yourself.

4.  When you feel led by God
I've been waiting for God to come and lead me through my characters when I character journal with them.  I've asked Him to lead me when I'm just opening my notebook to show me what He would have me write, and He does!  I know without a doubt that this is God's story.  It's a worship time, and we're connected.  (See one of my post about this here)  So it's obvious He's going to give us a prompt in the right direction. 
Take those prompts and follow Him.  He's got a plan for all things.  That includes our future, and that includes our work.

These are the four factors that have finally pushed me to the point of action.

Question:  What are your "go ahead" signals?  How do you know when it's right to write?

This Or That:

Is your story character driven or plot driven?