If you’re coming from Kathleen Fuller’s blog, welcome! She posted on this blog tour last Monday, June 2. Kathy is a dear friend and former critique partner. She writes truly memorable stories – Amish Fiction and Historical Romance. Now it my turn to make the switch to biblical fiction.
(Please make sure you check out the two authors (Fantasy and Historical Fiction) to follow next week – links are at the end of this post.)
I am in the midst of finishing the first draft of Deborah’s story. Once I put that aside to set for a time, I will step into Solomon’s life and travel to ancient Egypt to meet his Egyptian queen. Her novella is next on my list.
Every biblical novelist comes to their stories from their own perspective. We bring to the Bible our personal relationship to it and to its Author. And our worldview, that internal theme or outlook we carry, comes to play a part in the lives of the characters.
Of course, each of us takes time to study the history of the times, the culture, the geography and all that goes into writing an historical novel. But the longer I write, the more I realize why so many novels can be written on the same biblical characters and yet not resemble each other. The reason lies in that internal viewpoint and what comes from the author’s heart to the page.
For instance, the theme of grace and forgiveness continually come through each story I write whether it is in the forefront of my mind when I start the work or not. That’s because I see grace woven throughout every story in Scripture.
Other biblical novelists may have a different theme of heart, and that will affect the way their story is written. We all infuse a little piece of ourselves into our stories. If we didn’t, we couldn’t relate to the people about whom we are writing.
I love the Bible. God has given me a heart for His Word and the people in it, and I want to bring their stories to life for my readers as other biblical fiction brought the stories to life for me.
I also want to inspire readers to pick up the Scriptures and read these often overlooked tales to see what truly happened and compare it to what I found in my research and filled in with imagination. I hope it instills a greater love of Scripture for my readers.
I set a word count for each week and then aim to meet it. I set deadlines for the first draft so that I have time to let the story settle in my mind and can go back later and fix what needs fixing. I rewrite a couple of times, get feedback from my critique partners, and read the whole book out loud to myself before I ever turn it in to my editor. Once it is “in house” it goes through a few more sets of revisions before it lands in the reader’s hands.
I’m tagging Anne Elisabeth Stengl who writes award-winning fantasy adventure novels, and Tracy Higley who writes historical/biblical fiction about places I wish I could visit! They will blog on June 14 and June 16, respectively.
Happy writing~
