The novel. It’s been around for not only years but centuries. It’s a place where we can lose ourselves as we read what’s been written on the page. We can go off on adventures or fall in love with a prince. We can go to a place only the imagination can make up or a place we’ve never been before.

Novels can be both historical or contemporary. They can teach us things or simply be a nice escape from reality. They can be light and just a fun read or they can be go deep delving into emotions that aim straight at our hearts. There are so many to choose from because each writer is different and each one has his or her own voice.

For me, I never thought I’d write a novel. I figured I wouldn’t be good at it due to my learning disability called Dyslexia. Then my daughter died and my life changed in an instant. I was drawn like a magnet to write down whatever I was thinking or feeling. Words became a source of freedom for me as I wrote through my grief journey.

Then one day I had an idea for a fiction story. That night I sat down and began to write what it might be like for what I imagined in my head. Let’s just say that first scene was a tad bit rough. Lots and lots and LOTS of telling. However, I didn’t let it stop me as I didn’t even know what telling was at that point. I started down the road toward fiction writing and it’s now become a great love of mine. I found out you don’t necessary have to be good at grammar and things like that because that’s where editors come in and help to improve your writing. It’s knowing not only how to tell a story but being able to get that story written down in such a way that other can relate to it.

I guess I should say writing in general has become a great love of mine. Words help me to express how I am and how I’m feeling. Then when I share those very words I’m always humbled and blessed when people reply back saying how those very words have touched someone in some way. Think about that for a moment. How many people can truly say that? I never thought I’d be one of those people. Yet, God had different plans.

I thank the Lord every day for this gift He’s given me. My hope is that one day the novel I’m writing will touch others like so many novels out there today have touched me and many others.

O is for Outline

April 17, 2014 Kristena Tunstall 0

Or as I like to call it: Plotter. In writing a novel you have what we writers like to call either Pantsers or Plotters or somewhere in between. A pantser is someone who writes their novel, as they say, by the seat of their pants. In other words, there is…