Don't Chase the Wind ~ Karen Barnett ~ Lessons from the Journey

Interview by: Kelly Klepfer

What one issue makes you struggle the most as an author? How do you handle it? 

The biggest issue I struggle with is procrastination. When things seem overwhelming, I turn away to diversions like Facebook, watching television, playing games, etc. I think much of this stems from fear—fear I won’t be able to finish a project or it won’t be as good as I’d like. 

I battle it in two different ways. First, I pray for courage, direction, and focus. Knowing God is on my side helps me know I can conquer the project no matter how daunting. Second, I use little tricks to keep myself moving forward, like bribing myself with small treats for forward progress or setting a timer and allowing myself only scheduled breaks. 

What is the best writing (or life) advice you have ever heard or wished you had followed? Why?

Write the story God has placed on your heart regardless of the current trends in publishing. God knows the plan He has for your writing. We’re better off following His wisdom than chasing after the wind. 

Tell us a bit about your current project. 

Out of the Ruins is the first book in the Golden Gate Chronicles, set in 1906 San Francisco. While her sister lies on her deathbed, Abby Fischer prays for a miracle. What Abby doesn’t expect, however, is for God’s answer to come in the form of the handsome Dr. Robert King, whose experimental treatment is risky at best.

As they work together toward a cure, Abby’s feelings for Robert become hopelessly entangled. Separated by the tragedy of the mighty San Francisco earthquake, their relationship suddenly takes a back seat to survival. With fires raging throughout the city, Abby fears for her life as she flees alone through burning streets. Where is God now? Will Robert find Abby, even as the world burns around them? Or has their love fallen with the ruins of the city?

We are all about journeys...unique ones at that. How convoluted was your path to your first published book? Share some highlights or lowlights from your path to publication.  

I’d long felt God encouraging me to write a novel, but I didn’t believe myself capable of writing 90 thousand words. Instead, I decided to try writing for children because I thought those books would be short and easy. 

After stumbling through several horrible picture book manuscripts, I pieced together a middle-grade chapter book. I took it to the Mount Hermon Writers Conference in 2009 and showed the manuscript to some professionals. Several of them suggested I rewrite it for young adults. That didn’t sound so difficult, so I took the book home and spent a year doubling its length and deepening the story line for teenagers. 

As I worked, the desire to write for adults deepened. It seemed silly to rewrite a third time, so I finished the book as a YA novel, taking it back to the conference the next year. It was well received, and a few months later I received an email from a publisher. They might be interested . . . if I would consider rewriting it as a historical romance for adults. God knew what He was doing—it had just taken me a while to catch up. The publisher ended up declining the novel, but it encouraged me to follow God’s leading and not to let fear slow me down. 

I got back to work, writing now for the adult historical romance market. Mistaken released with Abingdon Press in 2013. And that novel I rewrote three times for three different age groups? Out of the Ruins releases in May. 

Do you still experience self-doubts regarding your work, or struggle in a particular area such as writers block or angst driven head-banging against walls? Please share some helpful overcoming hints that you’ve discovered.

All the time! When my first novel, Mistaken, was approaching its release, I was overcome with crippling anxiety. I’d been so focused on getting published, I’d sort of forgotten the fact that my friends and family would someday read the words. What if the book wasn’t that great? Every time someone said, “I just bought your book,” I felt sick. 

I’d heard people talk about spiritual attacks, but I’d never encountered one that had so effectively driven me to my knees. After receiving wise counsel from several friends, I began to pray in earnest and to beg others to do the same. I think the only effective remedy for fear is prayer. 

What mistakes have you made while seeking publication? Or to narrow it down further what’s something you wish you’d known earlier that might have saved you some time/frustration in the publishing business?

I’m a firm believer that writers need to have a teachable spirit, but early in my career, I took this too far. I believed every suggestion and criticism was gospel truth. This actually slowed me down. Later editors would ask, “Why did you write it this way?” I’d have to hide my face and say, “Because someone thought it would be better like that.” I’ve learned to weigh advice and to trust my own instincts at times.

Have you ever had one of those awkward writer moments you’d like to share with us, the ones wherein you get “the look” from the normals? Example, you stand at a knife display at the sporting goods store and ask the clerk which would be the best to use to disembowel a six foot man…please do tell. 

I’m not typically a note-taker when I listen to sermons, but something the pastor said triggered an idea for my current manuscript. I snatched the pencil from the pew rack and started writing furiously on my bulletin. My husband leaned over and whispered, “What are you doing?” Annoyed at being interrupted, I snapped back: “I’m plotting!” A visitor sitting in front of me turned around with a horrified expression. I’m sure she thought I was coming up with plans for world domination.

With the clarity of experience what advice would you offer up to the wet-behind-the-ears you if beginning this writing journey today?  

First, bathe your writing in prayer. Second, go to writing conferences. Attending my first Mount Hermon Writers Conference back in 2009 took me from being a hobby writer to a professional writer in a very short time. Conferences are like learning a foreign language by immersion—everything comes at you at lightning speed, but you learn the business end of writing very quickly. There are many great conferences around the country. My personal favorites are the Mount Hermon conference and the Oregon Christian Writers Conference. 

Do you have a pet peeve having to do with this biz?

I get frustrated with how focused we’ve become on certain trends. We’re encouraged as writers to write to the market. Supposedly, if the market is hot for Amish, you should write Amish. If it’s fantasy, we all start writing fantasy. If it’s pirate werewolves . . . well, you get the idea. The problem is, by the time the trend is obvious and you are able to pull together a publishable novel, it’s passé. I think you need to write the story God has placed on your heart, in the genre you feel passionate about. You might have to wait for the market to turn around, but when it does, you’ll be ready for it. 

Share a dream or something you'd love to accomplish through your writing career.

Since I practically grew up in my public library, it was always my dream to see my books on library shelves. I love seeing novels in bookstores, but libraries? That really makes me happy.

What gives you the greatest writer buzz, makes the trip worth the hassles (besides coffee or other substances, or course)?

Reading through a manuscript months later and stumbling over a particularly good phrase and thinking, “I wrote that? Cool!”

What is the first thing you do when you begin a new book? 

Starting a new book often feels like breaking open a new box of crayons. There are so many choices and I often don’t know where to start. Usually I take my new characters out for a test drive. I free-write a couple of sample chapters just to see how they react to things. These chapters may get trashed, rewritten, or used in some fashion, but they’re primarily written as an experiment. Only after I get a good feel for the characters will I sit down and try to frame out the story in a rough outline or synopsis.

Writing rituals. Do you have to sit somewhere specific, complete a certain number of words, leave something undone to trigger creativity for the next session? Some other quirk you’d like to share?

I used to always set my iPod to play the song, “Word of God, Speak” by MercyMe before I would write a word. The lyrics felt like a prayer and they helped me focus on turning my writing over to God. Eventually the ritual became just that—ritual—and I had to change it up a bit. I still like to start in prayer. 

Plot, seat of pants or combination? 

It’s a bit of a combination, but I lean toward seat-of-the-pants. I like to allow my characters some freedom of expression, and they often surprise me and take the story in different directions than I anticipated. I do keep a simple outline/synopsis to keep the story from getting too far off track. 

What is the most difficult part of pulling together a book? Ex. Do you have saggy middles, soggy characters, soupy plots during your first drafts…if so, how do you shape it up? 

The middle is always the toughest part for me. By that point I’m juggling multiple characters, plot lines, and emotional/spiritual arcs. Sometimes it feels like everything is degrading into a tangled mess. That’s when I need to go back to my synopsis and refocus my efforts on moving the story forward.  

Have you received a particularly memorable reader response or peer honor? Please share.

This past year I was named the Writer of Promise at the Oregon Christian Writers Cascade Awards. It was a huge honor, especially since my fellow writers at OCW have been such an amazing support system. I’d learned so much through the organization’s coaching classes and workshops, and I met my editor at their annual summer conference. 

Have you discovered any successful marketing/promo ideas that you'd share with us?

I loved working with Library Insider. Organized by Books & Such Literary Agency and author/librarian Judy Gann, this evolving database makes it simple to market to libraries around the country. Since my dream has always been to see my books on library shelves, this was a perfect marketing tool for me. Plus, readers who fall in love with authors via their public library will often go out and buy other titles by the same writer.  

Bio: Karen Barnett is the award-winning author of Mistaken and several articles published by Guideposts and other national magazines. Her latest release is Out of the Ruins (May 2014). She lives in Albany, Oregon, with her husband, two children, and an attention-loving dachshund named Mystery. For more information, visit her website KarenBarnettBooks.com.

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Author Ruth Downie ~ Interviewed

 Ruth Downie is the author of the New York Times bestselling Medicus, as well as Terra Incognita, Persona Non Grata, and Caveat Emptor. She is married with two sons and lives in Devon, England.   

Tell us  a bit about your current project.

I’m currently halfway through the sixth novel in the Medicus series, the follow-up to SEMPER FIDELIS. It takes place during the building of Hadrian’s Wall. I daren’t say much about it yet because I have a feeling it may end up being very different to the way I expect.

We are all about journeys...unique ones at that. How convoluted was your  path to your first published book? Share some highlights or lowlights from your path to publication.

I was in a writing group with some wonderful people, but after a few years I began to think that my inability to write as fluently and confidently as everybody else meant I really wasn’t a writer by nature and it was finally time to start facing the housework.  What I had written of the first Medicus novel was destined for the bonfire. However… before it got there, I had a phone call from the BBC to say I was a finalist in their short story competition. This was a real shock - I’d only entered because some of the group thought it would be a good exercise for us to try.

After the initial programme the BBC then went round filming all the winners for a possible follow-up, asking them about what they were writing. They’d been so encouraging to us all that I dared not say, “Nothing, I’ve given up.” Instead, I rambled vaguely about my Roman novel. “Great!” they said. “We’ll be back in three months to see how it’s going!”

Well, it was either write or be humiliated on national television. So I wrote. And wrote. And cursed and panicked and wrote some more, and after a while I realised three months had long gone and there was no word from the BBC. Apparently they’d decided not to make the follow-up after all. But since I’d almost finished the book, it seemed silly not to write the last chapters. My husband persuaded me to send it to an agent I’d had some contact with before (I suspect he didn’t want to think he’d suffered all that angst for nothing), and to my amazement, the agent sold it.

Do you still experience self-doubts regarding your work, or struggle in a particular area such as writers block or angst driven head-banging against walls? Please share some helpful overcoming hints that you’ve discovered.

Oh yes! I’m usually convinced that what I’m writing is terrible. 

There’s a quote from Frank Darabont pinned above my desk. It contains the words, “…please know that we all battle the usual feelings of frustration and insecurity, regardless of age or experience. For me, writing has always been a process of working through my self-doubt…” and later he says, “The good news is, every time you smack into it, that wall gets pushed a little further back… That’s why it’s important not to give into your fears and doubts, and to keep writing…” I wish I could remember where I found that quote. The man who wrote the screenplays for The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile still has doubts! That’s very consoling.

I’d also recommend Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art for anyone who shares my tendency to procrastinate.

What is your favorite source for finding story ideas?

Research. I like to walk the territory where the book is set and handle artefacts from the time (I’m never happier than when down in the mud with an archaeological trowel) but in the end most of the story ideas come from researching the Roman era and trying to imagine how people went about their daily life. Often something will recall a parallel in the modern world, and that’s the spark for the story.

Have you ever had one of those awkward writer moments you’d like to share with us, the ones wherein you get “the look” from the normals? Example, you stand at a knife display at the sporting goods store and ask the clerk which would be the best to use to disembowel a six foot man…please do tell.

You mean like the night when my husband woke to find me sitting up in bed next to him, studying “Dreisbach’s Handbook of Poisoning”?

With the clarity of experience what advice would you offer up to the wet-behind-the-ears you if  beginning this writing journey today? 

For goodness’ sake, do more writing and less worrying!

What gives you the greatest writer buzz, makes the trip worth the hassles (besides coffee or other substances, or course )?

Hearing that people have enjoyed the books. However this may not be apparent, as the first time I met a stranger who’d read one I was so amazed that I didn’t know what to say!

What aspect of writing was the most difficult for you to grasp/conquer? How did you overcome it? 

Plot. It’s fatally easy to bumble along and go nowhere. I’ve found that writing crime mysteries is a useful discipline because you have to work from a question to a solution.

What is the first thing you do when you begin a new book?

Tidy up the muddle from the last one so I have space for all those lovely new research books.

Plot, seat of pants or combination? 

Combination. The neatly worked-out plot and writing plan have to be thrown aside when you get a better idea than the one you had first. I haven’t yet found a way to get straight to the best ideas without meandering through the ones that, up close, either don’t look so good or don’t fit together.

What is the most difficult part of pulling together a book? Ex. Do you have saggy middles, soggy 

characters, soupy plots during your first drafts…if so, how do you shape it up?

I’m conscious of the danger of the Saggy Middle and do try to avoid it, but sometimes I’ve gone too far the other way, and set so many hares running that it’s a problem to catch them all at the end. Conversely, I’m often asked to bring the crime nearer to the beginning. This is the sort of thing that makes me value agents and editors, who have years of experience in spotting where things have gone awry, making a few thought-provoking suggestions and then leaving you to find your own way to fix it.

Have you discovered any successful marketing/promo ideas that you'd share with us?

I haven’t tried it myself yet, but a friend ran a very successful Book Swap evening along with a launch, so that everybody got something new to read sort-of free and had a chance to talk books in general rather than just having to make awkward small talk while queuing up to buy from the author. Now that, to me, sounds like a fun evening.

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Sibella Giorello ~ Hotel Writing

Sibella Giorello grew up in the mountains of Alaska admiring the beauty and nature that surrounded her. She majored in geology at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts hoping to learn more about the landscape she loved back home. From there Sibella followed a winding path, much like the motorcycle ride she took across the country, which led to her true love, journalism. 

She found herself in Seattle writing for rock-n-roll magazine and earned a journalism degree from the University of Washington before heading south to the land of great stories. In Virginia, Sibella became a features writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. It was there she also met her husband and would hear Jesus whispering her name at a tent revival.

Sibella started writing about Raleigh Harmon as a way to keep her love of story-telling alive while staying at home with her young sons. As a journalist and author, her stories have won state and national awards, including two nominations for the Pulitzer Prize. The Stones Cry Out, the first Raleigh Harmon novel, won a Christy award for debut novel in 2008. Sibella now lives in Washington state with her husband and sons.

Her latest release is The Stars Shine Bright. Learn more about the Raleigh Harmon series here. 

Visit Sibella Giorello and at  Facebook or Twitter. 

Hotel Writing

Like most women writers, I've got a long list of obligations that bump writing into last place.

Writing -- and getting a haircut. Both tied for last place.

First place goes to wife and mom, quickly followed by cook/chauffeur/maid/
Marine Corps drill instructor.

I'm not complaining because despite the totem pole that puts writing at ground level, I managed to publish five novels in about as many years. Remember what Ginger Rogers said about doing everything Fred Astaire did only backwards and in high heels?

And she was the better dancer for it.

The same goes with women writers. We learn field-tested tactics. One of my best  writing strategies was rising before dawn and churning out as many words as possible before people (read: guys) started asking about breakfast and clean socks.

That system worked. And it's still my daily routine.

But recently I discovered another powerful tactic: Hotels.

With blessings from my sainted husband and sons, I booked a room at a favorite hotel ninety-minutes from home. The distance seemed ideal: Far enough to get away, close enough that if the whole experiment blew up I could zip home and re-set the alarm clock for 4 a.m.

But the experiment worked.

And how.

In four days of hotel writing, I produced with 40,000 words.

That number is not a typo. I double-and-triple checked the word-count, since that's normally what I produce in one month. This will come as a huge shock to everyone everywhere, but your productivity really rises when you're not doing laundry, cooking, or yelling to the second floor, "Your lacrosse uniform is in the second drawer on the left side in the other bureau!"

If you need to get some words on the page, I highly recommend getting away to write -- but would add some caveats. Looking back, these things were crucial for the trip's success:
 

1. Pick some place that's nice but boring. For one thing, your subconscious can relax with safety and familiarity. For another, you're less tempted to shop or ride roller coasters.

2. Don't stay at a dump even if you're trying to save money. That plan will probably backfire because fear ruins creativity. What you want is a place where you are encouraged to feel pleasantly irresponsible for what goes on outside your hotel room.

3. Upon arrival, kick the inner nag to the curb. Self-doubt is creative suicide. You're a writer--don't doubt it. Say it loud, say it proud, and refuse to listen to any interior criticisms.

4. When it comes to your productivity, don't be picky. How did 40,000 words appear in four days? I lowered the bar. My mission wasn't to produce stellar prose. It was to produce a story—warts and all—and return home for editing. Don't judge your work. Just write.

5. Place that “Do Not Disturb” sign on the doorknob and don't remove it until you check-out. Yes, I know, after three days the maids were looking at me like I was the Unibomber's sister. But other than fresh towels, that room was for reserved for uninterrupted time pacing the carpet, talking out loud to myself and hammering on the keyboard.

6. Stock the in-room fridge with your favorite foods. Mine are black tea and brie. Whatever snacks help you write, eat them. Now is not the time to get healthy. You're not visiting a spa; you're in writing boot camp.

7. End each day with a reward. It will help motivate you for the next day's work. After writing for 12 hours, I would go a long run followed by a glorious dinner and glass of red wine at a restaurant that was all but deserted by the time I arrived. This last part was crucial because . . . .

8. You want to stay away from people. Writer Saul Bellow used to come into my aunt's restaurant in Chicago. He was always by himself. I used to think he was lonely, but now that I'm a novelist, I understand. Bellow already had too much company -- inside his head. As a fiction writer you carry around a waking dream and the nice people who feel like chatting can kill it. Be polite, but be firm. No new friends. You have good work to do.

9. If you get claustrophobic, move around the place. Mezzanines, balconies, poolside if you can write amid noise. Ask the front desk about a quiet spot. I found a cubby on the mezzanine where nobody could see me but I could see them. Ideal for describing characters taken from real life.

10. Pray. Really, this point should be at the top and bottom of the list. We're not in charge of our circumstances (though, like characters in novels, we tend to believe otherwise). Don't be afraid to ask for divine guidance. You have a lot to say and limited time to say it. And when all else fails, there's usually a Gideon's in the bedside drawer.

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