Writing Fiction

I have been writing and publishing for many years. But until 2001, I wrote non-fiction exclusively, mostly Christian books about Family, Parenting, and Marriage. My wife, Nancie, (we've been married 42 years) and I started a company called Good Family Magazines, in which we published Virtue, A Christian Magazine for Women, Christian Parenting Today, and other family oriented publications. We also wrote several books on these topics, including Seven Habits of a Healthy Home, Lord, Bless My Child, Lord, Bless This Marriage, and That Man! Understanding the Differences Between You and Your Husband. This was my passion (and continues to be in many ways).

But in my heart, I always wanted to have a try at fiction. In 2001, having no training in writing fiction (believe me, it is very different from writing non-fiction), I decided to give it a go. The first thing I did was purchase about ten books on writingt fiction and devoured them. While I read about Point of View, Dialogue, Plot, Pace, Scene, etc. I did not realize the magnitude of those aspects for good fiction, until I began to write.

Then, for five years, I worked on a fiction book idea that had been rumbling around in my head. I allowed my wife to read the first draft, which, at that point, was a mistake, as she became pretty much bored with it after about two chapters. That was when I realized there was something major wrong, even though the manuscript made perfect sense to me. She was kind enough to point out some of the problems she saw. Following a complete rewrite, I made the mistake of letting one of my best friends read it. He too, got very bored after about four chapters, which prompted another complete rewrite. By now, some of the "fun" of writing fiction was beginning to disappear.

So I put the book away, and did not look at it for almost two years. Finally, I dug it out again, read it, saw how bad it really was and decided to do some more work on it.

It was then that I decided I needed to go the Venezuela, where the story in my novel took place. I was there for almost two weeks, and you guessed it....this prompted another complete rewrite. After a complete rewrite, I hired an editor to look it over. While that was very helpful, it prompted yet another complete rewrite.

Since I now had the blessing of an editor who had helped me chapter by chapter, page by page, I decided the manuscript might be ready for a publisher to view. So, I took it to one of my publisher friends who, knowing my non-fiction writing success, expressed interest. His fiction editor sent it out to a freelance editor to review.

Twelve pages of evaluation came back. The first two pages of the evaluation were very upbeat and encouraging. I had a good plot, I had some interesting twists and turns, I had some solid characters. Then, for ten pages, this fiction editor ripped it to shreds, telling me all the problems that existed. The bottom line was that I had a good story going, but it was definitely not yet ready to be published.

Then, the publisher I had given it to, sold his business. So I called the freelance editor who did the twelve-page review and said, "Look, I agree with everything you have said, but I am not sure I have the energy or talent to rewrite this again...at least not all by myself. Is there a chance you would be willing to partner with me on this manuscript as a co-author, lending your expertise?" His reply: "Give me a week to think about that."

There was a reason I made that offer. This guy is one of the leading Christian fiction editor/writers in the country. For many years he was the Senior Fiction Editor for Zondervan. I knew his work as he had written stories for some of the magazines I owned (that is another story). I also knew he had written the fiction curriculum for the Christian Writers Guild.

Three days later, he called me back and said, "This is too good of a manuscript to pass up. Yes, I would love to be a co-writer." That was a very good day for me! So we formed a partnership. He was like a master teacher about many of the things I mentioned earlier (dialogue, pace, POV, etc.) Every Monday morning at 6 a.m. Pacific time, David Lambert and I, via email (he lives in Michigan...I live in Oregon) wrote, exchanging emails with parts of the manuscript attached. Lots of mornings we would also talk on the phone to share concepts and ideas.

Then, he flew out to Oregon and we spent a week writing. He would work on a chapter, give the thumb-drive back to me and I would work on it. Back and forth, chapter by chapter, we rewrote, and rewrote. We created new scenes. We reworked characters. We moved things around. We changed the dialogue. I was the student, he was the teacher. Two more times we met together for several days to work on the book. About a year and a half later, and about four more rewrites, we both felt we had something really good to show publishers.

Not long after, Moody Press bought the rights. The book is called "The Missionary" and will be released in March, 2009. It is getting great reviews. Several New York Times bestselling authors have read Advanced Reader Copies and liked it well enough to endorse it.

Just now, I am beginning to feel like a beginning fiction writer. It has taken about eight years of work on one novel to get to this point. This blog, I hope, is a place where other fiction writers can talk about writing fiction. I think we can learn from each other.

So, talk to me about your own fiction writing experiences.