A Novel Creation www.WatersWords.com

Are you writing your first draft? Revising your second or third draft? Editing your final version? Maybe you are in the early phases of getting the story that keeps you up at night down on paper. It doesn’t matter.   You will soon learn that in order to be good at writing, you need to know a few simple math operations. Specifically, you need to be able to ADD, SUBTRACT, MULTIPLY, AND DIVIDE. You also need to know when to employ these operations to produce the outcome you need. I know. I am in various stages of writing three different novels. I am editing Libby’s Cuppa Joe, a short novel about a single mother who owns a coffee shop in Door County, Wisconsin. I am revising Karen’s Story, the novel about a woman who finds herself forever “in the middle.” I am still crafting the second draft of the Edge of Quiet, a romantic suspense novel. I looked at my list of what I needed to do. “Add this, delete that. Divide the chapter [HERE].” I realized how often...

Several years ago, my husband plowed through a book he declared was the slowest moving, most boring book he had ever read. “It will probably be a classic,” he said. When I questioned his comment, he said it reminded him of one of those long, old books that supposedly had a ton of symbolism in it. But Tom was always one to finish what he started, so he pushed his way through and vowed to never read another book by that author. The problem in that book was one of pacing. The author could have discarded two thirds of the book, boiling down the interesting parts that moved the story forward into a novella or short story. I think of pacing as the rhythm of the story. Much like a good orchestra piece. The overture establishes the tone of the music and offers a prelude to the story to unfold. Each movement builds on the theme until we reach a crescendo…a climax in the musical piece. Of course, I’ve slept through a few concerts as well. It’s all about making sure the story, or...

Ah, the smell of crayons! Walk into any grocery or department store this time of year and you will be hit with the smell of fresh crayons wafting from somewhere midst a mountain back-to-school supplies. I loved shopping for new school supplies as a child. Okay, I’ll admit it. I loved shopping for new school supplies as an adult as well. The smell of fresh crayons is like the sound of a trumpet to a teacher –the unofficial announcement that summer is over and a new year with a new group of children is about to begin. Actually, some schools have already started. I remember a time though, when the new school year started the day after Labor Day and ended the week after Memorial Day. There was a reason for that. Schools followed an agrarian calendar. We were a farming nation back then. Children were needed on farms to help plant and harvest. As a result, most schools don’t have air conditioning and were not built with cross ventilation in mind. They were built to keep ...

Note: This post first appeared February 25, 2015 on Norma Gail Thurston's blog. Recently, I was talking with a friend about Tom and our trip to Italy. I told her about Tom's boldness in speaking  God's truth. I told her about this post and she suggested I post it here. I pray you will live without fear. Be bold in sharing the Gospel. Enjoy with me once again, the  Roman Ruins. Our trip to Italy had been a once in a lifetime experience. We had been traveling with colleagues of my husband; fellow scientists interested in understanding the safe lifting equation adopted by the European Union. The fact my husband had led the research team that developed the equation made him something of a rock star to the engineers and scientists in Italy. We were blessed to eat in the homes of some of our new Italian friends. They traveled with us through Tuscany, showing us out of the way pools of water and waterfalls for swimming and taking us to their favorite restaurants. We ma...