Tag Archives: Henry McLaughlin

WordServe News: October 2012

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Exciting things have been happening at WordServe Literary!

On the final post of each month you’ll find a list of Water Cooler contributors’ books releasing in the upcoming month along with a recap of WordServe client news from the current month.

New Releases

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A Year of Biblical Womanhood, by Rachel Held Evans (Thomas Nelson)

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Finding God in the Hunger Games, by Ken Gire (eChristian)

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In the Twilight, In the Evening, by Lynn Morris (Hendrickson)

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Still Lolo, by Lauren Scruggs, with Marcus Brotherton (Tyndale)

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A Bride Sews with Love in Needles, California, Erica Vetsch (Barbour)

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Resolve, by Bob Welch (Berkley-Caliber)

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Christmas in My Heart #21, by Joe Wheeler (Pacific Press)

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New WordServe Clients

Christy Johnson: www.christyjohnson.org working on women’s non-fiction, spiritual growth

Angela Strong: http://angelaruthstrong.blogspot.com/ working on romantic suspense fiction

Dr. Wintley Phipps http://www.christianlifemediacenter.com/wintleyphipps.html working on Christian Living non-fiction, Spiritual Growth

Laurie Myers and Betsy Duffey, affectionately known as “The Writing Sisters.” Together they’ve written 30 children’s books in the general market that have sold 1.2 million copies. They’re writing both children’s works for the Christian market and Women’s Fiction. http://www.writingsisters.com/WritingSisters/Welcome.html

Cristobal Krusen, a film maker, screenwriter, novelist and collabortor. Recently had a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly for writing Undaunted, Josh McDowell’s memoirs. http://www.33hope.com/team/crist%C3%B3bal-krusen  and http://www.messengerfilms.com/

New Contracts

Wayne Cordeiro signed with Zondervan Publishing House to write and edit the NASB Leadership Bible. (GJ)

Deb DeArmond signed with Kregel Publishers for a book titled Related by Chance, Family by Choice. A book for moms and the daughters-in-law they love. (BS)

Jo Ann Fore signed with Leafwood Publishing House for her first book of nonfiction called When a Woman Finds Her Voice: God’s Healing for the Women Who Have Been Wounded, Controlled, Abandoned, and Silenced. (GJ)

Denver pastor and missional thought leader Hugh Halter signed for two books with David C. Cook. The first titled Flesh, a book that shows how to allow Jesus to live His life through you in daily living, the second untitled. (GJ)

Henry McLaughlin signed with Gateway Church to write a book on stewardship for one of their pastors. (SF)

Joe Wheeler signed with Howard Books for Great Christmas Love Stories. In every Christmas in My Heart book (21 straight years), Joe writes his own heartwarming Christmas story. This book will have the best of these love stories around Christmas. (GJ)

What We’re Celebrating!!

Excited for Rachel Held Evans, whose book A Year of Biblcal Womanhood has been getting some nice PR. She’s already done “TheToday Show,” “The View,” and will do “Inside Edition.” People magazine confirmed they’ll review it.

What can we help you celebrate?

Making Dialogue Work

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Dialogue is one of the hardest working tools we have because we ask it to do so much. It has to convey information, develop and move the plot, increase tension and conflict all while sounding natural.

Perhaps most importantly, dialogue must engage the reader through revealing our characters. It brings them to life and shows their personalities, their quirks, their goals, and their fears.

The most effective and real dialogue comes when we know our characters as intimately as possible. Whether our story is plot-driven or character-driven, we have to invest the time in writing biographies, character analyses, Meyers-Briggs assessment, journals, interviewing them, and experimenting with how they speak, act, think, and feel. And they’ll still surprise us.

In my first novel, Journey to Riverbend, I had a problem with the story arc of my female protagonist, Rachel. She was a former prostitute who received Jesus. She was also striving to open a dress-making business in a town where many were hostile to her because of her past. It wasn’t until I interviewed her that I learned Rachel was a feisty, determined young woman with numerous questions about her new-found faith, anxieties about her future, and wondering if love could ever be part of her life.

And I discovered her voice changed depending on her situation. She had a business voice she used with customers and an almost child-like awe when she talked about her faith. At times her prostitute “don’t mess with me” voice came into play. When the mayor attempted to get too familiar, Rachel stopped him cold with the whispered line, “I’m making dresses for your wife. I can make her look like a laughing stock while convincing her she looks like Queen Victoria.”

With these new insights, Rachel’s dialogue became stronger, more connected to her emotions at the moment, more realistic. It revealed more of her personality, her dreams, her fears.

Rachel came to life through her dialogue.

Make the time to know your characters. They’ll reward you with stronger personalities and become people that readers will keep turning pages for.

How has dialogue allowed you to develop your characters even further? What have you learned about your characters through dialogue that surprised you?

Fit For The Master’s Use

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One of my test readers recently sent me an email that both blessed me and reminded me of what we’re all about as writers. At the end of her email, she included a prayer: “God, I pray you give Henry wisdom, knowledge, creativity, patience and energy to finish Your book. Amen and Amen.”

It’s not my book. It’s His. I’m His instrument, His tool to get the message out that He wants shared.

At one level, I knew this. I’d like to think everything I do is for Him. But there are times when the ego gets in the way, and I lose sight of Him. It becomes my book, my project.

But that’s not true. He inspires us to write the words. In obedience to Him, we do and the writing flows. It’s not perfect the first time because I’m not perfect. But the refining, pruning process applies to our writing as much as it does to our spirits. My role is to have my heart in the place where my words can be grafted onto His vine and not lopped off as unfit for the Master’s use.

I’m His vessel, the clay in His hands. But it only works if I’m humble and obedient enough to put me aside and let Him shape and mold. And sometimes it hurts because I love my words, but He has better ones. And sometimes it hurts because the words He wants me to write in fiction reveal an area in me that needs work, work that must be done if I am to go forward with Him.

Has Father asked you to participate with Him in your writing in a way that is uncomfortable? How have His words and His plan for your writing grown and encouraged you? Your readers?