Characters we love...

During all the many years in which I was an editor and publisher, what did I hope for when I picked up the manuscript? I wanted to fall in love, to be swept up as quickly as possible into the life of the character so interesting that I couldn’t bear to shut the manuscript in the desk overnight. It went home with me so that I could continue reading it.

We know what love is, we think of the other person at odd moments, we wonder where they are, what they are doing, we seem a bit crazy to the rest of the world. That’s exactly the feeling I have about characters I fall in love with in books.

--Sol Stein, Stein on Writing, p. 49-50

Tricia’s Thoughts:

Here’s a line written by my writer friend, Robin Jones Gunn, about my second novel, Night Song: “Readers easily connect with her characters and find themselves thinking about them long after the final note has been sung.” I take this as high praise from such a talented writer!

I feel the same about the characters in books I’ve read. I still think about Hadasseh from Francine Rivers’ “Mark of the Lion Series.” Or Marty from “Love Comes Softly”—the first Christian novel I remember reading as an adult. These are “people” we remember with fondness after being allowed an inside glimpse of a segment of their life-journey. And isn’t that what fiction is all about—taking part of a grand journey with someone we care about?

Health and the Writer by Camy Tang

Whether you’re a writer who also works a full-time job or are a busy stay-at-home-mom, it’s hard to stay healthy. I researched and figured out a bunch of tips and tricks to help me stay in shape without carving out of my precious writing time. I also found some tips to help me have just general better health. Pick and choose which of these will work for you.

Stress eating

Not all people eat when they’re stressed or emotionally upset, but I sure do. I pack on the pounds when I’m under deadline.

Curbing stress eating is a combination of practical tips and mental preparedness.

Remember that each day is a new day. Trying to leave negative or stressful emotions behind as soon as you fall asleep can sometimes help.

Try to cope with stress or negative emotions in positive ways. Do something you enjoy, like take a relaxing bath, read a book, play with the cat, walk the dog.

The key here is that exercises or activities that physically relax you will also influence your mental state. And that will prevent you from rushing the refrigerator.

Yoga sometimes works for some people. I personally enjoy the stretching. It makes my lower back pain ease and makes my body feel younger.

If you have a tendency to dwell on negative things, keep your mind busy. Sometimes I read a book or watch TV to de-stress—something that doesn’t give me a lot of thinking time.

Creative projects can also relax you. Knitting or crocheting, scrapbooking, stamping, making cards or soap or calico turkeys—whatever you enjoy.

Camy Tang is a novelist also fighting the battle of the bulge. Find out more about her and her books at http://www.camytang.com/, or enjoy the read on her blog at http://camys-loft.blogspot.com/.

Run the race...

The Greeks had a race in their Olympic games that was unique. The winner was not the runner who finished first. It was the runner who finished with his torch still lit. I want to run all the way with the flame of my torch still lit for Him.

J. Stowell, Fan The Flame

Tricia’s Thoughts:

My prayer for myself, for each of you, is not that you write faster, accomplish more. But that through the process you might know Jesus, know His light igniting your heart. My most challenging times of writing have also been the times when I’ve felt the Lord’s presence most closely. It is then that I discovered the truth for myself that in my weakness God’s strength is complete.

Jump...

To succeed you must make your piece jump out of a newspaper or magazine by being more diverting than everyone’s else’s piece. You must find some way to elevate your act of writing into an entertainment. Usually this means giving the reader an enjoyable surprise. Any number of methods will do the job: humor, anecdote, paradox, and unexpected quotation, a powerful fact, an outlandish detail, a circuitous approach, an elegant arrangement of words. These seeming amusements in fact become your “style.” When we say we like a writer’s style, what we mean is that we like his personality as he expresses it on paper. Given a choice between two traveling companions—and a writer is someone who asks us to travel with him—we usually choose the one who we think will make an effort to brighten the trip.

--William Zinsser, On Writing Well, p. 276

Tricia’s Thoughts:

One of my favorite books to write was “Life Interrupted: The Scoop on Being a Young Mom” (Zondervan). Written for teenage mothers, my style had to be conversational and fun. I hunted for interesting quotes and illustrations. I added quizzes and humor to make my book interesting, yet also able to connect with readers. The book works because I cared about making my ideas for helping teen moms entertaining. It’s a tactic I carried over to my other non-fiction writing projects.

Fiction: A Writer’s Secrets

The writers who discover what sets them apart are the writers with the best chance of succeeding. “Look inside yourself,” [Philip] Klass said. “Find out who you are. In your case, I suspect that means find out what you’re most afraid of, and that will be your subject for your life or until your fear changes.”

. . . Most people become writers because they’re haunted by secrets they need to tell. The writers might not know they have secrets, or if they suspect they do, they might not be sure what these mysteries are, but something in each person is bursting to get out, to be revealed.

David Morrell, Lessons From a Lifetime of Writing: A Novelist Looks at His Craft, p. 15


Tricia’s Thoughts:

After my first novel was on the store shelves an old friend called. “It’s amazing that you were able to write so much of your story into that novel,” she said.

My story? No, she had to be wrong. This novel was about a Nazi wife in World War II. It had nothing to do with me. Or did it?

Looking back, I discovered that my main character, Helene, faced some of the same issues I had: a shameful past, abandonment by someone who claimed to love her, and the good news of freeing redemption.

In fact, my novel is filled with secrets for those who know where to look. The only thing is . . . I had no idea I was sharing them!

Are you really a writer?

I once heard a college student in Waterville, Maine, ask visiting writer Ron Carlson how one knows if one is really a writer. Ever the showman, Carlson delivered an entertaining riff about the distractions writers put in their own way, all day, all the time: leaving the room to get coffee, check the mail, get coffee, walk the dogs, go to the bathroom, get coffee, look something up, get coffee. Then, dead serious, he summed up the whole enterprise in a line I have never forgotten: “The writer is the one who stays in the room.”

--Monica Wood, The Pocket Muse: Ideas & Inspirations for Writing

Tricia’s Thoughts:

Be the one who stays in the room.

Health and the Writer by Camy Tang

Whether you’re a writer who also works a full-time job or are a busy stay-at-home-mom, it’s hard to stay healthy. I researched and figured out a bunch of tips and tricks to help me stay in shape without carving out of my precious writing time. I also found some tips to help me have just general better health. Pick and choose which of these will work for you.

Six slimming strategies from Denise Austin

This is a really great article on small things you can do to change your eating habits to be more healthy.

Camy Tang is a novelist also fighting the battle of the bulge. Find out more about her and her books at http://www.camytang.com/, or enjoy the read on her blog at http://camys-loft.blogspot.com/.

Art and the Creator...

As I sit and listen to the silence, I learn that my feelings about art and my feelings about the Creator of the Universe are inseparable. To try to talk about art and about Christianity is for me one and the same thing, and it means attempting to share the meaning of my life, what gives it, for me, its tragedy and its glory. It is what makes me respond to the death of an apple tree, the birth of a puppy, northern lights shaking the sky, by writing stories.

--Madeleine L’engle, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, p. 16

Tricia’s Thoughts:

The greatest day of my writing journey came when I received a note from a WWII veteran concerning my novel, From Dust and Ashes. “I enjoyed the book,” he said. “Your research was amazing, I felt like I was back there again.” He then proceeded to make a list of a dozen things I’d gotten right. Finally he concluded, “Now . . . can you tell me more about this faith thing you also shared in the book?”

I still tear up when I tell anyone that story. That one comment is what makes writing worth it. But there is one thing the WWII veteran didn’t realize. I didn’t add the faith element in order to share a deeper story. Rather, I added the story in order to share the meaning of life as I see it.

Fiction: Characters

As you learn who your characters are, compassion for them will grow. There shouldn’t be just a single important character in your work for whom you have compassion. You need to feel it even for the villain—in fact, especially for the villain. Life is not like formula fiction. The villain has a heart, and the hero has great flaws. You’ve go to pay attention to what each character says, so you can get to know each of their hearts.

--Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, p. 69

Tricia’s Thoughts:

When I dreamed of writing fiction years ago, I never imagined that the protagonist for my first published novel, From Dust and Ashes, would be a Nazi wife. Through Helene, I explored how a person can overcome deep regret by the love of others and Christ.

Also, via my villains, I hope to give readers an inside look on how our actions can move us toward darkness, one step at a time—never to show acceptance for evil, but rather to help us understand the severity of small compromises which build upon each other.

Health and the Writer by Camy Tang

Whether you’re a writer who also works a full-time job or are a busy stay-at-home-mom, it’s hard to stay healthy. I researched and figured out a bunch of tips and tricks to help me stay in shape without carving out of my precious writing time. I also found some tips to help me have just general better health. Pick and choose which of these will work for you.

Eating vegetables

I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time getting excited about fresh fruits and vegetables when I’m in a hurry and don’t have the time to wash and slice. A good alternative is frozen fruits and veggies.

You can often use frozen fruits and vegetables straight from the bag without thawing.

Thawed fruit with yogurt and Splenda or honey is a great snack. Or make a smoothie with ice, milk, yogurt and fruit.

Frozen veggies are great when cooking because I just use what I need and put the rest back in the freezer.

Frozen veggies last about 6 months in the freezer and take up minimal room.

Canned veggies and fruits (the kind stored in water, not oil or syrup) are also good, quick alternatives to fresh. They can be heated up quickly in the microwave or tossed in a salad.

Camy Tang is a novelist also fighting the battle of the bulge. Find out more about her and her books at http://www.camytang.com/, or enjoy the read on her blog at http://camys-loft.blogspot.com/.

Poetry should be...

"Poetry should be great and unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one's soul, and does not startle it or amaze it with itself, but with its subject."

~ John Keats, English Poet (1795-1821)

Stories can be...

Reading is to writing what inhaling is to exhaling. They’re not the same but they are part of the same process; one must recede and co-exist with the other. Reading can do more than almost anything else to help your writing. Almost anything else. Finally, to learn to write, you will have to write and write some more, then do some more writing.

----Gene Olson, Sweet Agony: A Writing Manual of Sorts, p. 109

Through A Story...

“Life is best understood through a story—God’s story. It is a story that transcends and explains our experiences, our questions, our deepest yearnings, our greatest hurts. It is about God the person. His passions. His hopes. His heart. It is a story that includes a cherished beloved, a seductive villain, a hero’s journey, and a broken heart. It begins with 'Once upon a time' and ends with 'happily ever after.' It is a story within which our own can be told.”

~~Kurt Bruner, The Divine Drama: Discovering Your Part in God’s Story

GO...

"Goal begins with 'GO'"

--from a Family Circus cartoon by Bil Keane

Health and the Writer by Camy Tang

Whether you’re a writer who also works a full-time job or are a busy stay-at-home-mom, it’s hard to stay healthy. I researched and figured out a bunch of tips and tricks to help me stay in shape without carving out of my precious writing time. I also found some tips to help me have just general better health. Pick and choose which of these will work for you.

Eat Your Heart Healthy: 11 Tips! From eDiets.com

The tips in this article are really easy to implement in your diet and reduce the risk of heart disease.

Camy Tang is a novelist also fighting the battle of the bulge. Find out more about her and her books at http://www.camytang.com/, or enjoy the read on her blog at http://camys-loft.blogspot.com/.

Don't say, tell...

"Don't say it was 'delightful'; make us say 'delightful' when we've read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers 'Please, will you do the job for me?'"

-- C.S. Lewis

Best and simplest...

"My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way."

-- Ernest Hemingway

A daily faith...

In my books I try to depict not a glorious faith with celestial fireworks, but a daily faith, a routine faith, a seven-days-a-week faith. Father Tim's faith is part of his everyday life. He has simple prayers, not polished, pious prayers. He follows the Apostle Paul's command that we pray without ceasing. I try to depict how our faith may be woven into our daily life, like brandy poured into coffee. I believe that spirituality needs to be basic, common, everyday.

~~Jan Karon,

If...

"If more poets bought more poetry books, maybe more publishers would publish more books of poetry".

Marianne McNeil Logan

Health and the Writer by Camy Tang

Whether you’re a writer who also works a full-time job or are a busy stay-at-home-mom, it’s hard to stay healthy. I researched and figured out a bunch of tips and tricks to help me stay in shape without carving out of my precious writing time. I also found some tips to help me have just general better health. Pick and choose which of these will work for you.

Chocolate

It’s not always bad for you. I don’t know about you, but I could never live without eating chocolate ever again.

There are lots of ways to eat chocolate that’s part of a good health plan. You just have to be creative.

My favorite: dark chocolate. Break it into small pieces and let it melt in your mouth. If you’re a milk chocolate fan—same thing. Just try not to chew it. If you like M&Ms, portion it out so you don’t chomp down the whole bag.

Fruit dipped in chocolate syrup—and score! if you can find sugar-free chocolate syrup

Chocolate pudding—those little pre-made cups are wonderful, whether they’re full fat or fat-free

Hot chocolate—Indulge in real hot chocolate, too—the kind you make with milk (skim or lowfat) instead of water

Those little mini packets of candy from Halloween—if you have the self-control to eat just one, I really don’t see the harm. (My problem is that I can’t keep from taking a second or a third piece. Doh!)

Camy Tang is a novelist also fighting the battle of the bulge. Find out more about her and her books at http://www.camytang.com/, or enjoy the read on her blog at http://camys-loft.blogspot.com/.