Just started reading Nicholas Sparks's novel Safe Haven. He wrote it in 2010. This year it's being turned into a movie. It must be awesome to see a book you wrote come to life on the silver screen. I'll bet that's a feeling like no other. I'd like to experience that for myself.
According to the list in the front of Safe Haven, Sparks has written (at least) fifteen other novels. I've read all but four of them over the last two years. In the last five weeks I've read five of his books. I like the way he writes. I like how when the main characters are teasing each other and nudging each other playfully and laughing, it makes me laugh out loud. I also like the fact that his novels are always based in North Carolina, where he lives, and he describes places where I've visited. It always makes me desire to return to the Outer Banks, my favorite vacation spot. One day I may move down there. Every time I visit I feel like I'm home. The last time my kids and I went there was in 2009, and when we came back to Virginia I actually felt so homesick for Nags Head I cried for a week.
But there are a couple of things I don't like about Sparks's books: he always has one or more bedroom scenes, and one of the main characters always dies in a tragic, heart-wrenching way. I've also noticed that when he delves into a main character's emotions or a conflict between the two main characters, invariably it strikes a chord with me, reminds me of something I've experienced in the past, and makes me cry. Guess I'm just too sensitive. Or maybe that's the mark of a good writer -- being able to write so that your readers can identify with the characters.
Never Alone is set in the area in which I live. I've lived here for around twenty years, so I know the area well. They say you should write about what you know, so that's what I do. When my sister read the description I wrote of the flower garden in my main character's yard in Never Alone, she said she could envision it. That's exactly the effect I'd been striving for. When she said that, I knew I'd done it right. I got so excited I actually did a spazzy little dance.
Since I write Christian fiction (not romance novels like Nicholas Sparks) I will not write bedroom scenes or have my characters use foul language. Christian fiction has to be "clean." There's no premarital sex, rape, drug usage, or profanity, or descriptions of private body parts, no prancing around in skimpy clothing, no dirty dancing. One of my secondary characters is an alcoholic who's haunted by memories of abuse and has a history of gang-related violence, but again, he's a secondary character. My main characters are as pure as the driven snow, and they keep all their clothes on. When bad things happen to them, they react like any human being would: they may question God's purpose in allowing the bad things to happen, but they eventually learn lessons in forgiveness and faith.
A book should take you on a journey to places you've never been. It should make you see a movie playing in your mind. It should make you think about and understand things more clearly. It should make you feel like saying, "Whoa, that was great!" You should be able to identify with the characters in the book. They should be like real people, having characteristics, emotions, and habits that you can identify with.
As I've started reading more, I've also begun a list of words that the other writers use but I've never used. They may be words I know but never thought to use; they may be words I need to look up. What I'm trying to do is increase my vocabulary. Many times I've found myself struggling for just the right word, or using a word or group of words way too much. At times like these, I can look at my list of words I've found while reading other books, and find the right word to use. It pays to enrich your word power.
Now I'm going to dive back into Safe Haven. I challenge my readers, whoever you may be, to read a book this week and start your own list of words to use in your writing and conversation.
God bless us, every one!
According to the list in the front of Safe Haven, Sparks has written (at least) fifteen other novels. I've read all but four of them over the last two years. In the last five weeks I've read five of his books. I like the way he writes. I like how when the main characters are teasing each other and nudging each other playfully and laughing, it makes me laugh out loud. I also like the fact that his novels are always based in North Carolina, where he lives, and he describes places where I've visited. It always makes me desire to return to the Outer Banks, my favorite vacation spot. One day I may move down there. Every time I visit I feel like I'm home. The last time my kids and I went there was in 2009, and when we came back to Virginia I actually felt so homesick for Nags Head I cried for a week.
But there are a couple of things I don't like about Sparks's books: he always has one or more bedroom scenes, and one of the main characters always dies in a tragic, heart-wrenching way. I've also noticed that when he delves into a main character's emotions or a conflict between the two main characters, invariably it strikes a chord with me, reminds me of something I've experienced in the past, and makes me cry. Guess I'm just too sensitive. Or maybe that's the mark of a good writer -- being able to write so that your readers can identify with the characters.
Never Alone is set in the area in which I live. I've lived here for around twenty years, so I know the area well. They say you should write about what you know, so that's what I do. When my sister read the description I wrote of the flower garden in my main character's yard in Never Alone, she said she could envision it. That's exactly the effect I'd been striving for. When she said that, I knew I'd done it right. I got so excited I actually did a spazzy little dance.
Since I write Christian fiction (not romance novels like Nicholas Sparks) I will not write bedroom scenes or have my characters use foul language. Christian fiction has to be "clean." There's no premarital sex, rape, drug usage, or profanity, or descriptions of private body parts, no prancing around in skimpy clothing, no dirty dancing. One of my secondary characters is an alcoholic who's haunted by memories of abuse and has a history of gang-related violence, but again, he's a secondary character. My main characters are as pure as the driven snow, and they keep all their clothes on. When bad things happen to them, they react like any human being would: they may question God's purpose in allowing the bad things to happen, but they eventually learn lessons in forgiveness and faith.
A book should take you on a journey to places you've never been. It should make you see a movie playing in your mind. It should make you think about and understand things more clearly. It should make you feel like saying, "Whoa, that was great!" You should be able to identify with the characters in the book. They should be like real people, having characteristics, emotions, and habits that you can identify with.
As I've started reading more, I've also begun a list of words that the other writers use but I've never used. They may be words I know but never thought to use; they may be words I need to look up. What I'm trying to do is increase my vocabulary. Many times I've found myself struggling for just the right word, or using a word or group of words way too much. At times like these, I can look at my list of words I've found while reading other books, and find the right word to use. It pays to enrich your word power.
Now I'm going to dive back into Safe Haven. I challenge my readers, whoever you may be, to read a book this week and start your own list of words to use in your writing and conversation.
God bless us, every one!
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