Done!

Finished my first Christian Fantasy this last week; at least I finished enough of it that I could give it to three people to look over and critique for me. Praise God He brought me through it!
Was a hard story to work on; but I finally kept a promise to a dear friend, and I finally got everything out concerning the subject my story was on.
Now I am working on two other story ideas.
One story is a Steampunk zombie book.  ((Which will require a fair amount of research, which will be tough and take a long time, so that might take longer)).
The second is another Christian Fantasy. The theme for this one is depression.  ((Have so many ideas, but now it's just a matter of putting them together. Lord willing, I will be able to do that soon.))

I really want to work on the second; I wish I could think of a strong story for this one, and put it into the right world.
Right now, at this point in my life I have so much I want to say about depression and rejection; it's only a matter of finding the right words.
I keep reminding myself that I need a place to bleed. I need to gather my thoughts; and let them out into something that makes sense.
There are so many reasons I want to write a story with the theme of depression.
I think it would be good for me to do right now; it would be a constant reminder to me in my own life. Perhaps writing it would be good for me.
I need to bleed a bit.

--A.W.

Bridging Out

Been really discouraged lately as a writer.
Seems like the writing circle that I am apart is becoming one of the most clique groups of all time. You have no idea how sick and tired I am of reading about dwarfs that all act like Gimli, the wise, good dragons, and of course, the majestic elves.
Why in Christian Fantasy must it be so clique? We all read from Lewis and Tolkien and try and base our style off of them. Because that's all we read! We don't bridge out, we don't read tons of other secular books that are actually well written.
Now don't take this the wrong way. I'm not trying to encourage you to go read a bunch of secular crap like Twilight. I'm only trying to encourage you to look at unique books like Terry Pratchett's and Brandon Sanderson's, who don't fill up their space with crap but do have a unique stories, and original voices. Instead of looking at secular books with such a negative eye, look at them as a way to bridge out.
Don't be afraid to bridge out. Don't be afraid to break the rules of POV or character. Sometimes a story requires that. Don't be afraid to try something new, that no one has tried before.
It might work. You'd be surprised.

Often I have wondered why I generally prefer secular books over Christian fiction, and now I finally get it.
It's not unique. Most of the write styles are all the same. The themes are always about faith or leading their MCs to Christ. It's so clique. Perhaps I am the only person who thinks that way, or at least isn't afraid to tell anyone about it.
Look, if you are a Christian who writes fantasy, I just want to say, don't be afraid to go all out. Don't be afraid to try something new in your books.
Maybe you want to write about an extreme subject ((that no one seems to deal with in books)), try it anyways. Don't let what's already out there hinder you in any way.
It feels like so many Christian fantasy authors don't try too hard in writing. A lot of them seem to write the same. But I know they can go harder. They can change their style, make it into something that this Christian fantasy genre has never seen before.
You can be unique. Just stop looking and following after everything that is out there. Work on making your style unique and plot creative.
If we don't start doing this, we'll never get out of this ditch. This is the only way that this genre can make a comeback.

God Bless,
  A.W.

The Plan

 So I just came up with the most ingenious plan for my writing.
I have officially accomplished all of my goals for March, and I was considering making goals for April. The only goal I have for April is to finish reading Calvin's Institutes, which I have about 300 more pages left. This will definitely be a challenge.
Anyways, I came up with a brilliant writing plan for this year. This is how it will go.

I. I am going to spend at most, two months editing AD.

II. Then over Summer I am going to write the last book in the series: DVSAD.
     --Not going to have a whole lot of time to write this Summer, so I am at least going to finish writing the     first draft.

III. After Summer I will spend the rest of the year editing DVSAD.
And then I will be done! Officially I will be finished with the DD series. And I can finally move on to bigger and better projects.

Now, I will write about something that I was thinking of this week.
I was talking to a friend this week about Christian fiction. I told him that most of it was clique, and the writing was mostly the same. He argued that it wasn't and that it was unique.
This is something I would argue till death about.
I have read quite a few books that would be labeled Christian Fantasy. Most tend to be the same. Their writing style is almost always the same, there isn't anything unique about it. Their stories are about characters who either are in the real world, and somehow get into a fantasy world, and go on a quest and become a "Christian" on the way, OR it's about a character who is already in a fantasy world that must go on a quest and on their way becomes a "Christian".
Sometimes there are stories where the characters are already Christians but they must go on a quest, and it changes the person so that they will have more faith, or that they won't be so selfish.
I wouldn't mind if some people did those stories, but the problem is is that almost everyone is doing them.
The Christian fantasy genre has become so clique these days.
There is only one author who has broken that flow, but I would never recommend his books to you or anyone else.
Something is wrong with this. Terribly wrong.
The one man who has broken the flow and come up with some great plots and has a different writing style is a heretic. And the others who have decent theology are just going with the flow and don't care if their stories are clique and if their writing isn't much better than a kid in High school.
I know young people who can write better than some published Christian authors can.
Do you see something wrong with that?
Maybe people are aspiring to be too much like the successful authors of this genre. They aren't looking to be unique. If you want to glorify God in writing, and if He has given you the heart and talent, then you better be ready to push it for all you're worth.
Christian Fantasy has grown so pathetic.
Who will break that flow?
May God raise up men and women who will break that flow.

God Bless,
  A.W.

Nothing too Interesting

This isn't really an interesting post but on Friday, I am going to post something I wrote a few months ago. Maybe that will be a bit more interesting for you. That is, if you enjoy criticizing bad writing it will.
Anyways, this has been a great month, writing wise. I finished typing out Iceblade (Part one of AD) onto my computer, and this week I have been working on the outline for the last book in my series. Lord willing, today I will finish writing out the outline. And then I think I will go edit Iceblade, and then type out the second part of AD, and then edit that. And then finally after all of that I am going to reread both parts and make sure that it all flows one last time before I put it away for good.
So I have been thinking a lot about my writing lately. And I realize that I need to figure out how to get to the place God wants me to be as a writer. I feel that God is calling me to be a writer, and I know what He wants me to write, but I can't write it until I finish my series.
I am hoping that by then I will be a good enough writer to actually sit down and write that book.
And now that my series is coming to a close, I realize that I am still not the writer I should be.
Everyone always says that I should take classes to become a better writer.
But I have taken classes, and they haven't helped me at all.

It was like whenever I enjoyed what I had to write, my teacher didn't like it and gave me a bad grade. But when I played by her rules I couldn't stand my papers. And I grew frustrated, because no one ever gave me any good advice on how to become a good writer.
But one day I was at dinner with my older brother who writes scripts and does filming. He told me that I should write what I want to write, and I should write how I want to write. Not what and how everyone else wants me to write.
So I took that advice and I finally embraced the freedom of writing.
But I am still left with the problem of writing.
I like writing like the "Epic Fantasy" way, that the authors do a lot of world building, and get into the characters' heads. I absolutely love that writing, but some people don't like it because it has a lot of run-ons.
But that's what makes it good! Because you are getting the characters so much in depth.
Some people just don't understand it.
And then there are authors of suspense novels, and they tend to have a lot of fragments in their writing. But that's what makes it good!
Some people just criticize those authors for that. Some people just don't understand.
And so when people tell me to play by the rules of grammar and spelling, I agree to an extant.
I agree to the extant that everything should be spelled correctly and that there should be good grammar in the book but when people get into the run-ons and fragments I would disagree at times, depending on the book and genre.

And here is another thing--I want to break into Christian Fantasy. I can't really take any good advice from that group, because the majority of people all write the same exact way. And most of their books are about the same exact things, with the same exact theme. I mean, if they their writing isn't bad, their theology is! You can't have two in one it seems for Christian Fantasy at least.
That's got to change.
I read book from that genre strictly for reference, of what not to do. And half of the secular fantasy books I read because they tell me what to do.
I can't seem to win either way.
So now I seem to be at a crossroads.

Two years ago, around this time I was reading a whole lot of books on writing, and copying pages and quotes from those books down, and my writing greatly increased. I still have those notes. And a few months back I would read through some of my favorite books and write down notes about the structure and craft of the story. That helped a lot too.
So here is one thing that I have considered doing--is reviewing all of those notes I have taken long ago and applying those things to my writing.
That would surely help.
And the second thing I could do--that I have heard so many authors already say is that I should read a lot.
I believe it was Stephen King who said, "If you don't have any time for reading, you don't have time for writing."
The writers who I respect most say that I should read a lot. That will help me with my writing, no doubt about it.
And then, most importantly, I need to write, write, write. I should be writing more. I don't write that much, at most, an hour a day. I won't get anywhere with just writing a few minutes each day. I have to keep going at it. That is how you get better. By writing.

So there are three things that I have considered. Now trying to think of more things to improve my writing.
But for now I will just put those.
Now, one last thing before I end for those who are a bit depressed that I didn't post anything meaningful today.
This is a video by one of my favorite preachers, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
Great video where he talks about George Whitfield's life. He did live a truly incredible life. Just watch and you will know what I mean. Even if you don't know who on earth either of those men are. Maybe this video will inspire you to listen and read more of Lloyd-Jones' sermons and read more of Whitfield's sermons too.
Both men were greatly used by God.

God Bless,
  A.W.