Exceptional Writing, Exceptional Techniques

Let’s start out this year by congratulating exceptional writing.

I read a lot of books. I have to admit, most books leave me with just one memory of what I liked about them. I may remember a single scene or a turn of phrase or perhaps a clever plot point.

But a book rises to the top of my favorites lists when it leaves me with many memories. Furthermore, I classify it as a significant book when those qualities not only impress me, but change me.

Such a book is The Passion of Mary Margaret by Lisa Samson. As a reader, I was impressed with the way she dragged me along with her protagonist into situations that demanded a moral decision and then demonstrated how courage and obedience to God can enable someone to not only survive a “hard teaching” from God but triumph in it.

This book changed how I look at romantic love. I will never be the same after reading this book.

I hope that more readers will want to buy this book. This book is good reading because of its unusual premise, the clever “frame” format, a wealth of compelling details and wry dialogue and humor and gut-wrenching scenarios.

I also hope writers buy this book to study its craftsmanship. I learned from it. For instance, it takes skill to effectively pull off a first-person narration with that many flashbacks without frustrating the reader. There are too many examples of other subtle literary proficiencies to list in a single post, but one I particularly admired.

Previously here on NM we’ve discussed how to insert the literary equivalent of what we call a “rest” in music – what would in a movie be filled with music or something else while a character stays silent in the midst of a conversation.

Samson inserted a pause by giving a description:

Halfway to the dock, Gerald took hold of my arm with his other hand. “Stop just a minute, Mary-Margaret. I’m getting a little breathless.”

We stood in front of a span of eelgrass, the ribbon leaves swirling in the gentle ebb of the water.

I’m sorry.”

He rested his hand atop his head, then rubbed. “Used to be I could drag you along.”

Did you see it? Not only is the reader snagged away from the next line of dialogue, made to wait, to count out a caesura, but the description is itself of something that is silent and filled with motion that designates time.

That’s exceptional writing, and I salute Lisa Samson. May God give her a long life and many more books to bless us.

What exceptional Christian book have you read lately?

God is Edgy

As 2009 wound down, a friend raved about reading her new Bible from beginning to end. I thought I'd done that, but I hadn't. Who knew Job was written before Genesis, that Ezekiel and Jeremiah do-si-doed? (No, I didn't go to Bible school.) I was very intrigued. My husband saw my interest and ordered a chronological Bible for my birthday. Wow.

It's been a very interesting year. The story seems bigger, more personal.

In my reading, however, I've thought more than once: Uh, God, have you seen the writing guidelines for Christians?

In short, God isn't always nice, nor does he use polite language. We make a mistake if we try to fit him into our 1950s sensibilities, probably the last decade being His follower felt comfortable. In my Bible reading yesterday, God speaks to Israel through Ezekiel like harlots with lusts for very large Assyrian...um...well...genitalia (Ezekial 23), only He spoke in more earthy language. In the next chapter, Ezekiel's wife dies. God tells him not to mourn to demonstrate His lack of pity on His adulterous children. That's not nice, either.

God is so surprising.

He is not "nice" as defined in western culture. In fact, "He's not a tame lion," as C.S. Lewis proclaims in his Chronicles of Narnia. His jaws ensnare us; his teeth rip flesh; we are devoured by His greatness.

He's God.

His justice is harsh. His love is crushing, comforting, confounding. His truth immutable. When we expect Him to zig, He zags. He subdues His power and begs us to come closer. His will comes to us as a finger writing in stone and by a child's breathy whisper. He is a passionate lover. His desire is for us, and His love outpaced His judgment when He took the nails on Calvary.

Who can figure Him out?

And yet, books are written--fiction and nonfiction--pretending to knowing the secret formula for taming Him, like if we do x, he will y. Riiight.

All of this is to say (thanks for being patient) True edgy fiction isn't pushing the envelope on topics of sex and language, although I agree with Sharon's conclusions yesterday.

Edgy fiction lets God be God.

We need some good examples, don't we? What have you read lately that portrays God as God? Lisa Samson's The Passion of Mary-Margaret and Embrace Me come to mind. And you?

Is the God of Fiction Too Small?

Only two more followers needed to reach the 200 mark! We so appreciate your partnership in exploring the craft of writing and the passion of reading. Number 200 wins one book from each of us. AND if you share your favorite flower in your comments, I'll choose someone out of a hat to win a three-book set of my Garden Gates series. I've sprinkled flowers from my garden throughout the text, my gift to you at the beginning of this Memorial Day weekend.

Dearest readers and friends~ You've been absolutely brilliant this week, offering comments to reinforce and challenge ideas about showing emotion in fiction and the place for sarcasm. More graciously, you've seeded new ideas. Thank you for coming ready to participate. If you missed a day, be sure to scroll down and read the discussions. It's never too late to comment. Maybe we should rename our blog Novel Matters et al.

My question for you today: Is there room for mystery--and I'm not talking whodunit--in Christian fiction? Let me explain.


Let's go back to Abram. (This is not a Bible study, but this is a question that springs from some Scripture exploration. Hang in there with me.)

Abram went on quite a wild ride with God. He was minding his own business back in Ur. He knew what to expect from life because he was entrenched in his culture. He was a landowner with some standing in his community. His father was around for 205 years to offer advice--"Go for the two-humped camel. You'll never be sorry for the extra cargo room." The household idols, like a punching bag, gave him a place to vent. His heartache was his wife's barrenness. His greatest test, surrendering the son who answered all of God's promises.

On the other hand, there were no laws. The Ten Commandments hadn't been given yet. No Tabernacle. No Ark of the Covenant. No exodus. No synagogue. In essence, God was a distant idea from the time of Noah.

Simply, Abram was a man in the desert with a barren wife.

Until God talked to him.

God didn't lay down the law, he made outlandish promises to an old man with a barren wife: "I will make you into a great nation...and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

Oh, really?

And God did just that. (Thanks, God.)


God encountered Abram, soon to become Abraham, in an incredibly personal, extravagant, unexpected manner. He's still doing this through today Jesus Christ. Yay!

With this in mind--plus the fact, for one, that Jesus never healed the same twice--is there room in Christian fiction for a powerful, humongous God who defies explanation? Do you want to know any other kind? This is a God who doesn't always give the protag the man of her dreams? Who doesn't resolve life's questions in 95,000 words? Who may use disease, mayhem, and/or an irritating relative to express his power and love? And who, when he touches us, he will definitely leave a mark? He will show up in the most surprising places, like in the deserts of Ur, to a pagan who cannot accomplish God's promises on his own, although he tries. (Don't we all?)

Don't get your BVDs in a wad. I know. I know. The parameters of revelation in Scripture are sacrosanct. Also, hope is the best sort of resolution, very necessary in fiction--and the only resolution many of us are given--in fiction and life.

Our Novel Matters writers are masterful at that very thing. Lest we seem too self-serving, let me direct you to a book I've referred here before, The Passion of Mary-Margaret by Lisa Samson. If you haven't read it yet (Why not?), I don't want to ruin the book for you, but Jesus is a character in Lisa's contemporary women's fiction masterpiece. She tickled my imagination and made me hunger for the incarnate Christ. I want my fiction to do that, too.

Don't you?
So, what about it? Have you read something lately that expanded your perceptions about God? Please name them! Also, and I know you will, let me know if I'm running as fast as I can in the wrong direction. That's what we do for one another around here.

Be sure to thank a serviceman, past or present. My salute goes out to my step-dad, a WW II veteran and my brother-in-law, Bob, who served gallantly in Viet Nam. I'm also remembering my dad, William Irvin Kegebein, who supported the troops in Guam during the Korean War.

Who are you thanking? Feel free to add your salute here. It's let-it-all hangout Friday.