Fairy Tale or Gritty Reality ... Part 2

This seems to be a common question recently as writers are torn between writing their passion and writing for the market.

It's a struggle I've faced as well. I love to read novels that show authentic, messy lives, about people who are hurting. God can do so much with broken people, His redemption message seems so much clearer.

In today's economy, the reader wants stories that whisk them away from today's hurts. For an author to have financial success, they almost have to write about brighter, happier topics. So, what does a writer do?

I've read a few blog posts recently that have addressed this and have given me much to think about.

In the November 18th post on the Novel Journey blog, Athol Dickson writes about Trouble in a Writer's World. As always, he offers excellent insights.

Literary agent Rachelle Gardner addresses authors being Torn in her November 17th post on her Rants & Ramblings blog.

As for my opinion? Well, after writing one novel with the market in mind, I've decided to Surrender and go back to writing my passion. While my first readers and critique partners have enjoyed my attempt at romance, the story feels flat to me.

Last week I wrote a new scene for a novel I'd completed about three years ago, a scene about a 17 year old Christian boy facing the siren's temptation of a girl eager to give herself away. As I wrote it, I was energized. I could literally feel the young man's conflict and I couldn't leave the computer until the scene was complete, some 3000 words later. Not once did I experience that while writing the romance. When we're passionate about what we're writing, we can't stop. More importantly, the reader can feel our passion.

I read that above-mentioned scene aloud to my 18 year old daughter and her boyfriend. She was incensed that my male character didn't once think about his girlfriend's personality. But, my daughter's boyfriend? He said it was spot on. That's how teenage boys often think. He wasn't proud of that fact, but he was being honest. Now, he wants to read more. Why? Because that scene was authentic and passionate. If we want to reach people, we have to be real with them and meet them on their level. That's what I intend to do.

So, what's your take? What do you think authors should write?

Fairy Tale or Gritty Reality ...

With the economy struggling as it is, the Christian reading market is longing for stories they can get lost in, books that offer escape from the struggles of life. They want the happily-ever-after fairy tales where the handsome hero marries his princess. So, what's an author to do when their passion lies in writing the gritty tales of life? When they want to write books that teach about life's injustices, stories that compel the reader to think?

In today's Novel Journey blog, When the World Wants Happy Endings, Mary DeMuth eloquently ponders this question.

What do you think as a reader? A writer? Should authors write to the market or their passion?

The Miracle of Mercy Land

by River Jordan

Waterbrook Press
352 pages

Like Reading a Work of Art

Mercy Land was “born in bolt of lightning on the banks of Bittersweet Creek.” So begins Mercy’s life. A down-to-earth, traveling preacher’s daughter in the 1930s, raised in an Alabama town that was barely a town. Mercy leaves home for the bright lights of Bay City and eventually lands a job at the newspaper with newspaper veteran, Doc Philips. For years she trains under the wing of the steadfast owner/editor.

Then the strange book appears at the newspaper office. Not just any book, but one that gifts the reader with insights into the lives, past and present, of Bay City residents, and may give the reader the ability to right the past’s wrongs. But is that a blessing or a curse?

Upon the mysterious arrival of the book, Doc decides to retire and he hires a stranger, John Quincy, a man with Hollywood looks, to take his place. A man Mercy is dangerously drawn to.

The lives of Mercy, Doc, and John weave together and apart until the purpose of the book is revealed, in the process exposing the reader as well.

Have you ever read a book that, when you reach the end, you hold that story in your hand and believe you’re holding a masterpiece? That’s how I felt when I completed The Miracle of Mercy Land. It’s an amazing work of art. I love River Jordan’s Southern prose. The story flows quickly with dancing eloquence, and your heart bleeds right along with the characters’. All throughout, Jordan gives readers peeks inside our own soul. In the end we discover maybe the story isn’t so much about Mercy Land, but ourselves.



Credit: Chris Blanz

 Meet River Jordan

River Jordan is a critically acclaimed novelist and playwright. Her fourth novel, The Miracle of Mercy Land, a southern mystical work set in 1938 features a protagonist full of moxie and a ‘backbone of worthy’ in this suspenseful story about love, mystery, and the choices we make. Jordan’s first non-fiction narrative, Praying for Strangers, An Adventure of the Human Spirit arrives from Penguin/Berkley in Hardcover April 5, 2011. She speaks around the country on the “Power of Story,” and produces and hosts the radio program, Clearstory on 107.1 FM from Nashville, TN where she makes her home.

http://www.riverjordan.us/

White Roses

debut novel by Shannon Taylor Vannatter
(White Rose Trilogy #1)

Heartsong Presents
174 pages

More Than Romance

Back cover:
Grayson can't seem to move on.

Pastor Grayson Sterling loves his wife. The problem is, Sara was killed by a hit-and-run driver two years ago. Grayson knows he needs to move on, that the continuing depth of his grief is not healthy for him or his young son. Desperate, he convinces his church to hire Mark Welch as associate pastor to relieve him of some of his load. When Adrea Welch arrives at his church with her brother, Grayson cannot deny his attraction to her.

For years, florist Adrea Welch has been artfully arranging white roses for Sara Sterling. Now those flowers are carried to the cemetery by a faithful, grieving husband. How can Adrea be so attracted to a man still devoted to his dead wife?

When secrets from Adrea's past collide with their budding relationship, both she and Grayson must learn to lean on God's abiding wisdom.

Review:

As a Literature major, I’ll be the first to admit that I tend to be snobbish in my literary tastes. While I love strong romantic elements in a story, I typically cringe at the thought of reading straight romance. Give me lyrical prose or action/adventure or messy contemporaries, but please no romance. I want more than that.

Well, God has a way of opening my eyes.

A few years back I was blessed to be placed in a critique group with two other excellent writers: Shannon Taylor Vannatter and Lorna Seilstad. (You can find my review of Lorna’s debut novel, Making Waves, in a previous posting.) Lorna writes historical romance, and Shannon, contemporary romance.  Both Shannon and Lorna proved to me that you can write a sweet romance AND include authentic, broken lives.

White Roses begins in Romance, Arkansas, on February 14. The heroine, Adrea Welch, is a floral designer who dreads this day every year as it's the anniversary of the day she and her ex-fiancé were to be married. A marriage called off when she caught him with another woman shortly before the wedding. Ouch.

As Adrea’s arranging flowers at a church for a wedding, she meets Pastor Grayson Sterling, a man who still grieves the death of his wife Sara. A few years back, Sara was killed by a hit-and-run driver. Grayson still remembers her every year with a bouquet of white roses. Unknowingly arranged by Adrea.

When reading a romance, you already know the basic storyline. Girl meets boy. They fall in love and live happily-ever-after. What you don’t know is how Girl gets to that fairy-tale ending, and it’s the journey that makes the story worthwhile. Shannon Vannatter is an engaging storyteller who isn’t afraid to take unexpected paths in her works; she isn’t afraid to include broken people. Her characters are real, their lives complex, their faith genuine.

Her stories are more than romance.

So, thank you Shannon, for educating this literary snob and teaching me the diversity of story.

Meet Shannon

Central Arkansas author, Shannon Taylor Vannatter is a stay-at-home mom/pastor’s wife/writer. Like Janette Oke, she views her work as a ministry and her books as paper missionaries. Vannatter hopes to entertain Christian women and plant seeds in the non-believer’s heart as her characters struggle with real-life issues. Their journeys, from ordinary lives to extraordinary romance through Christ-centered relationships, demonstrate that love doesn’t conquer all, Jesus does.

White Rose Trilogy
White Roses, now available in stores
White Doves, currently available through Heartsong Presents. In stores, April 2011.
White Pearls, available through Heartsong Presents, Jan 2011, in stores, July 2011

http://www.shannonvannatter.com
http://www.inkslingerblog.com
http://www.inkspirationalmessages.com