Lorna Faith

Clean Fiction Author

A Snapshot of My New Romance Novel

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I’m amazed at the places in our stories – both fiction and in our real everyday lives – where we see restoration and healing.

In the last couple of days, as I started outlining a new contemporary romance novel, I’ve experienced the healing effects on a much deeper level.

You see, just this past weekend, I finished the first draft of Book #2 in the Russia to Canada Trilogy, and since I’m letting the manuscript rest for a couple of weeks before I begin rewrites, I started a new book. In the past year, I’ve discovered that I work best when I have about two or three projects on the go at the same time.

As I started to dive into outlining this new novel, I saw a glimpse of how restoration causes a turnaround in stories – and it happens in fiction as well as in real life…

old farmhouse

 

*Photo Credit By: Cindy Cornett Seigle ~ Creative Commons

A Snapshot of the Story…

Here’s a glimpse into the story I’m writing now.

I had the idea a few months ago and I started writing the outline, so now I’m in the process of fleshing it out. Here’s a brief synopsis.

Abby Fuller is made of strong stuff. Tough and persistent, she completes her four years of Art School, and marries her best friend Daniel as planned. When a car accident kills her first love Daniel Parker, only 5 hours after they’ve said their vows, she escapes to Mulberry Island, on the West Coast, looking for a new beginning. Arriving at her new run-down, 1900’s home, she finds Jack Shepherd hard at work trying to come up with a blueprint for restoration.

She chases him out of her house, only to find out that he’s the architect that her Realtor, Debra Rollins, recommended to make some changes to her new home.

As they begin to work together almost everyday, Abby finds more than she bargained for in Jack Shepherd. The tall and rugged architect stirs something primal inside Abby that shocks her with its intensity. But its too big a risk. She’s been there before, loving with all her heart only to have it ripped out.

Jack with his surprising and generous ways, worms his way into her heart. From the moment she sasses him, Jack knows there’s something special about Abby. He makes her want to love again, to reach for a new kind of happiness. As much pain as she has known, she’s ready to make her own fresh start with Jack. But first, the walls she’s built have to come down. Now Jack won’t give up until he convinces Abby that the biggest risk of her life is actually the safest move she could make: loving him.

This is the basic gist of the story. 

This idea goes a little deeper than what you might read in the summary. So I’ll let you in on a few of the details, which might help it to make sense.

As I was fleshing out the storyline, I realized that it was old Ezra Harper, back a hundred years earlier who had been the first to move to the island and given it the name Mulberry Island. He told people that he felt like it was his chance for his life to have a do-over. A way to get out of his mess and to have a breakthrough in his health, relationships and finances. He said he’d been given his marching orders and that angels were guiding his steps, just like the ancient text told him.

So when Abby moves to this island, she begins to experience a turnaround in her life as she listens to her own marching orders of restoring the old place. Her heart begins to heal. She continues to paint and it’s not long before she’s helping others -mostly teenagers – to learn to create beautiful art and at the same time heal from their own wounds.

Of course, Abby learns a lot of wisdom from Vi Grantham, the oldest lady on the island, who is also an artist. The older lady helps her through a lot, including when Silas Mallory(whose last name means ‘unlucky one’), comes to visit Abby demanding that he get his half of the proceeds from the sale of Daniel’s business of developing Apps for smartphones. He keeps coming back, despite the fact that Daniel’s lawyer told her there had been no partnership written down between the two men. She finally has to get a court order for him to stay away… but between her struggle with Silas and other dark secrets on the island, will she end up finding the peace and restoration she longs for?

You’ll discover more when the book is finished 🙂

In one area or another, most of us need restoration. It might be relationships, our health, our finances or something else. I’ve been feeling that stirrings of that theme, especially this year in my own life, but I’ve also seen it in those around me. 

… And I must say, I love the wisdom of old Ezra Harper. I’ve been sensing these marching orders, bringing me to a new direction and to win the battle over old enemies. Maybe you do too?

Have you felt the stirrings of your own marching orders, leading you down a new path this year? I’d love to hear your story in the comments.

hugs, Lorna 

*Photo Credit By: Cindy Cornett Seigle ~ Creative Commons

*Some of the above links are affiliate links and help to support this blog

How to Capture the Heart of Your Writing Voice

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“…be yourself when you write. You will stand out as a real person among the robots.” William Zinsser in his book On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction

I remember when I first started writing, I longed to be the best writer I could be. So I set my first goal. I wanted to try to sound like those other successful writers I admired. I thought if I could just sound like them, I would be a great writer too.

Despite my best efforts, I failed miserably.

How to capture the heart of your writing voice is often the single biggest struggle for writers. At least that’s been one of my big obstacles to finding my authentic voice.

And yet ironically, it’s also the key to unlocking your creative potential.

calligraphy pen

*Photo Credit By: Urban WorkBench – Creative Commons

5 Steps to Help Find Your Authentic Voice 

It’s normal when we’re first learning to write, that we imitate writers we admire. That’s often how we start with most things we want to get really good at. For example, like riding a bicycle or learning to sing. I remember doing that when I started with singing lessons years ago. I would try to sing like the popular singers I heard on the radio. My teacher would constantly tell me. Let’s try again. This doesn’t sound like you.

My next step was to try to play it safe. This happened in singing as well as when I began writing. I tried to go with a good clean sound in both. A sound that would be attractive.

Only I discovered that finding and capturing the heart of your voice doesn’t work quite that way.

It takes effort to develop it. It’s a discipline. And as I’ve kept scribbling for the last few years, I’ve realized that this is really important if you’re going to have the impact your words deserve.

I found 5 steps that have worked to help me discover more of my real writing voice:

1. Free write. Write(without editing) whatever comes into your head for about ten minutes. Just go nuts. Write in a way that’s most comfortable to you. Then go back and read it. Ask yourself do I publish stuff that sounds like this?

2. Ask yourself if you enjoy what you’re writing as you are writing it. If it feels like work, you might not be writing like yourself.

3. Write down at least three blogs, books, or articles you like to read. Ask yourself: How are they similar? How are they different? What is it about how they are written that catches your attention? I know for myself I often admire what I aspire to be. Maybe you do too?

4. Something that might help is to ask yourself if the way you write is how you talk. I have done this and used to see a big difference between how I talk and how I write. I’ve been slowly closing that gap.

5. Stay aware of how you’re feeling. Do you feel nervous, anxious or worried before you publish? Good. You’re on the right track. Usually if we’re completely at ease with putting our words out there, then most likely we’re not being vulnerable enough. Try writing something that is a little more you. Use the fear you’re feeling to inspire you to make your writing matter.

I’m still working to discover the heart of my authentic voice. It is a struggle, and sometimes it’s frustrating, but on the other hand, it’s been surprising and fun to see which words will make their way onto the page.

The truth is that there is a bunch of noise out there in the world. And if you are going to be heard, it’s not enough to just raise your voice. You’ve got to set yourself apart, showing that you have something unique to say.

So be brave and continue to write. Trust yourself. Most of all, keep writing those words you love most.

hugs, Lorna

*Photo Credit By: Urban WorkBench – Creative Commons

*Some of the above links are affiliate links and help to support this blog

How to Find Your Writing Voice – Part 3

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“We must actively search for our voice, and clear a path for it to emerge. It is uncovered, not manufactured. We may not even like what we discover at first, but by embracing it we will position ourselves to occupy the unique space for which we’re wired.” Todd Henry 

This is the last post in the series of How to Find Your Voice. You can find Part 1 and Part 2 here.

Creators of any kind must find their voice. Builders of anything must discover what makes them tick. 

Here’s the thing: we’re not truly expressing ourselves, and speaking the truth, until we’ve found our voice: the tone, style, tenor, pitch and personality we use to express ourselves. 

Your voice is who you are – your essence – put out there for the world to see. The hardest part is being brave enough. [Tweet this]

There’s no easy answer on how to do this. I’m discovering it’s a quest that is unending. It’s a constant retuning as the essence of who I am is constantly changing and growing.

As I’ve coached many students on how to fine tune their singing voice, I’ve been encouraged how their voice changes throughout the learning process. This is natural. It’s the same with us. 

Much like our singing voice, our voice in writing and in life, is ever emerging.

Your Voice

*Photo Credit by LifeSupercharger

Tips to Help You Find Your Voice

Here’s some tips from my own journey as a writer and Vocal Coach. Yet, the ideas here apply to people who are creators and builders of anything. 

Write a lot. This goes without saying. Really nothing else matters without the constant practice of writing. Write short stories, blogposts, novellas, novels, letters, diatribes, book reviews and love poems. The sheer mass of your writing will become the raw matter from which to chisel your voice. 

Experiment. Be bold. Mimick people who are great at writing and make it your own. Find your own sweet spot. Trial and error. That’s what being a creative is all about. 

Learn to really hear yourself. My writing voice is my thinking voice. In the noisy world inside my skull, I talk to myself. That voice inside, is the voice I try to put into my writing. The trick is to get that voice down onto virtual paper. Do it enough to get good at it. 

Find what feels true for you. As you start it will seem like it’s just not good enough. But you need to sort through that and keep going to find the truth. Read your work out loud. You’ll hear the parts that ring true. 

Find clarity. Good writing put simply, is really just clear thinking. I’m still working on this. Way too often my mind is muddled, so my writing is too. Clear writing is just a matter of simplifying. Work at removing the extra words and ideas until you have honed it down to express a simple thought. 

Get rid of the noise. Most people end up with too many words because they never subtract. The noise gets in the way of your voice, so trim down the noise until all you’re left with is the truth. After you’re finished writing, edit and remove the unnecessary. Most people nowadays have too much noise in their lives to hear themselves think. Too much is going on around them and online that there is no room for silence. You can’t hear your thoughts, your voice without silence. Remove the noise in your life too. 

Use your voice. You don’t go on a quest to find your voice just for the beauty of it. Although that’s a great thought, it must mean more than that. You must use your voice. To express yourself, to help others and to change the world. These are all things I’m learning daily. And everyday I’m discovering what it means to find my voice, and I hope my learning somehow helps yours. 

Practice Your Writing Style 

Last week I wrote a story from when I was 15 years old as my exercise and the previous week was a story from when I was 4 years old. This week’s exercise is also from Les Edgerton’s book Finding Your Voice: How to Put Personality in Your Writing.

This last exercise in this series is to write a page describing a happy experience – but move ahead in time to a recent memory. Use the words you use now. 

Here’s a recent story told in the language I use today:

Yesterday I sat at my desk trying to think of happy experiences from this past year. Tears rolled down my cheeks when nothing came to mind. I couldn’t believe it. A whole year gone by and nothing exciting? I knew I had been working hard with learning a bunch of new writing skills and other online learning this past year, so I thought maybe I just couldn’t see the past my own muddled busy-ness. More tears came unbidden at the weight of that guilt.

My daughter walked into the room at that moment. “What’s wrong mom?” Her hands picked up mine. 

I told her. 

“Mom there have been lots of happy moments. Maybe none of them were big, but the small ones are worth just as much.” Her simple words hit me like a bucket of cold water. It was the truth. I had been trying to think of huge, exciting moments, when all the while there had been many small moments that have been worth so much more. 

“Sometimes the simple things of life hold the most meaning.” Her fingers toyed with the scratched gold wedding band on my left hand. “Like this small wedge that’s hidden under your ring. At times it’s the things hidden and simple that remind us most of what true happiness is. Those memories are the ones that are deep, lasting and meaningful.” 

She gave me a hug and walked away. I wondered how she got to be so wise. 

My daughter’s words brought a flood of memories. I thought of many moments that had brought so much joy to our family. Our oldest daughter’s High School graduation and later her acceptance into Art College; our family hikes; laughter around the kitchen table; card games on the living room floor; sitting at the piano singing with my girls; watching my husband play chess with his sons; picking summer saskatoon berries; watching the sunset, and the most recent … wildflowers picked from the meadow at the bottom of the hill from my two beautiful daughters. 

That scent of earthiness mixed with the colours of summer remind me of these simple gifts that are worth more than all the Big moments for me. 

I remember… and I am thankful.

I hope you’ve found this series helpful.

Now that you’ve read all three stories, I need to tell you what author Les Edgerton says what you’ll discover as you read once more through each story. He says to sit down and compare each story. Take your time and really look for differences. He says one thing you should “hear” is the voice that has stayed constant throughout your life, even though the vocabulary has changed. Those words and sentences will be those that are shorter and simpler with few or no adverbs and adjectives. These will have strong verbs and nouns that say exactly what you mean. Direct and plain descriptions of emotions. He says most likely the third piece has more flowery language than the others. He says to pick out the sentences in each story that stand out as a piece written by the six-year old in you.  Those simple sentences are the real you – your voice.

I admit, I found these exercises very freeing. Looks like my next task is to find those simple sentences that show my real voice in between all the clutter of flowery language. Then to get rid of the ‘extra words’ and stick with the simple.

Did you try these exercises? Have you narrowed down your writing style to get to which writing style is your real voice? Let me know, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

 

 

 

 

*Photo Credit by LifeSupercharger

*Some of the above links are affiliate links and help to support this blog

How to Find Your Natural Writing Voice – Part 2

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“One of the best ways to begin to recapture your own voice is to write autobiographically. The autobiographical voice demands that you write in none other than your own voice, more so than any other kind of writing… Write as if you were leaving an account of the incident to your kids…. that’s when your own true voice comes to life.” Les Edgerton Finding Your Voice: How to Put Personality in Your Writing

This post is Part 2 in a series. To read from the start go to Part 1.

For years I’ve been interested in how to find my voice. It pulled at me, even though I didn’t understand why. In the past few years of writing I’ve realized I wanted to find out more of who I was so I could express myself fully. 

When I started singing at the age of 5 years old, I sang with my sisters. This was the first time I learned how to give voice to the gift inside of me. The thing was, for me at the beginning, I tried to copy my sisters voices. My inner ear could somehow pick up the pitch, tone and style of their voices so I could match my sound to theirs. So for the next few years I was basically imitating the sounds around me.

It changed when I started private vocal lessons in Junior High School. I finally learned to sing in my own voice because I had to sing on my own.

In some ways, this is a little like writing. At first we learn from others, modelling our craft after writers we admire. But at some point we move away from copying to learning to express ourselves and our ideas in our own voice.

This all takes a little bit of practice.

Sometimes finding your natural voice means changing your writing style in a way that brings you closer to the true expression of you. 

People will be attracted to your writing when you are the ‘real you’.

writing rewrites

*Photo Credit By: Patricia Glogowski

When you find your voice, writing will feel almost effortless. Of course it will still take hard work. However, you will have a new comfort level and familiarity with your words that wasn’t possible before.

If for you writing feels like hard work, you might be writing for the wrong reasons. To impress someone, as a challenge because someone said you couldn’t, or any number of reasons. 

Writing for the wrong reason is poison for the creative soul.

As you get more comfortable with your voice, other people in turn will get more comfortable with you. The quality of your work will grow and so will your confidence. And people will follow.

As you put your message out there, remember: It’s not just what you have to say, but how you say it.

Your writing voice is that compelling style that will cause people to pay attention to every word you write. 

Practice Your Writing Style

Last week I wrote a story from when I was 4 years old as my exercise for that week. This week’s exercise is also from Les Edgerton’s book Finding Your Voice: How to Put Personality in Your Writing.

This time the exercise is to write a page describing a happy experience – but move ahead in time to when you were a teenager. Again, use words you would have used at that time in your life. 

So here’s my practice shot from when I was 15 years old.

“It’s just not fair, Mom!” I dried the dishes faster than usual. The sounds of the dishes banging into the cupboards matched the cranky tone of my voice. “He gets to fly all the way to South America and here I am stuck at home. Working.”

I knew I was being petty, but it sounded like he was having such a fun adventure and here I was doing the same old, same old.

“Lorna, your brother is helping to build houses for other people. For missions. That’s not easy work.” She looked at me, a frown hovering over her usually smiling face.

Well, when she put it that way… maybe doing my job of mowing lawns in our small town and then helping some in the garden at home wasn’t such a bad thing. I pictured him sweating and burning his skin as he and all the other volunteers built houses in Paraguay. Okay, come to think of it, maybe what I was doing wasn’t so bad after all.

“Sorry, Mom.” I grimaced. “I just want an adventure too.”

“I know you do. We’ll see, maybe you’ll have one yet.” Mom finished washing up the last dish. My dish drying hadn’t slowed any, because while I didn’t complain anymore on the outside, on the inside I still wished for more fun.

Little did I know that her words would be prophetic.

Summer was almost over when my brother called and said they would be landing in Tampa Bay Florida, but they needed some money. I don’t remember the conversation that went on between mom and dad, but after a few hours, mom talked to me.

“Lorna, do you want to fly to meet your brother?” I looked at both dad and mom at the supper table.

“Is this a joke?” The farthest I’d ever driven away from our small Northern Alberta farm, was Vancouver and Saskatchewan. The thought of flying all the way to Tampa Bay, Florida sounded a little like being handed the world on a silver platter. 

“No. We thought you could spend a week with your brother and his friend at Disney World. We’ll send you with travelers cheques so you can all have some fun while you’re there.” Mom’s big smile along with the twinkle I saw in Dad’s eyes, assured me that this was real.

“That’s so cool! I’ve never been on a plane before.” I got up dancing my way from the kitchen to the living room. “By myself?” Suddenly I stopped and turned around, realizing all that would happen here. That’s the part that scared the bejeebers out of me.

“No worries, there’s always someone at the airport who will help you get to where you’re going.” Mom assured me.

I swallowed the fear that still coated my throat.

By the time Mom and Dad drove me to the Edmonton International Airport, I had a lot more details, but I was also sweating with nervous energy. Here I was 15 years old and going by myself far away. My stomach was in knots by the time dad and mom had to go. I was assured all I had to do was wait for my flight number to be called. So I sat close enough so I was sure I would hear it. It took a long time, in fact so long that I dozed off. It was only by some miracle that I heard “Final Call for Flight #420 to Tampa Bay, Florida” that woke me up with a jolt. I quickly got my stuff together and headed to the where the flight attendant was waiting for the last people to board.

It felt weird being the only teenager by myself on the long flight. When I stepped out of the plane at the airport, I could hardly breathe. The air was so hot and humid. It took me awhile to adjust to this heat from the dry cool air of the North. The moisture felt good on my skin. I found my brother and his friend, waiting patiently in the airport terminal. They had been there all night. I gave my brother the travelers cheques and off we went  That whole week exploring Disney World and seeing all the new sights, was an amazing adventure. 

One I’d knew I’d remember for years.

So that was the voice I remembered from my teenage years… that and the constant restlessness I had back then…

Now it’s your turn. Practice this exercise at home. Really. You’ll be surprised at the voice that emerges on the page.

I hope you’ve been finding these exercises helpful. We’ll continue next week and work on the last exercise in this series.

Do you find your writing voice changes when you write from a younger voice to the writing voice you have today? Please join the conversation in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you.

hugs, Lorna

*Photo Credit By: Patricia Glogowski

*Some of the above links are affiliate links and help to support this blog

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