The Christian Girls Club

    

     I've known Jen for over a decade. She is a beautiful, talented, and fun young lady. But what sets her apart from most girls is her love for Jesus.

     Several years ago, Jen decided to create a newsletter for Christian girls (told you she was talented). It started with her circle of friends. Now it has expanded into a published magazine sent to girls all over the world. God has really blessed Jen's work.

     If you are a girl or a guy who knows of a girl (brothers!), you might want to look into the Christian Girls Club. It's encouraging. It's fun. It's interactive. And, whoopee, it's FREE! There really isn't any good reason why you shouldn't click here to go to the CGC website.

     By the way, (cough, cough) my story The Battle Surrendered is going to be featured in upcoming CGC issues. And it's edited and improved. With an alternate ending. Just sayin'.

     And if that isn't exciting enough, Jen loves involvement. This means, Christian writers, artists, and so on, that you can share your gifts with other Christian girls through the CGC.

     Did I mention that the CGC magazine is FREE?

     The best way to sign up for the CGC is to email your name and address to cgc(at)frontiernet(dot)net (cgc@frontiernet.net).

     If you would like more information, email me (storytellerjourney@hotmail.com) or Jen at the frontiernet address above. Please make sure you put "Christian Girls Club" in the subject box.

     By the way, the CGC is FREE. Epic, I know!

     Tell your friends.

     It's FREE! It's FREE! It's FREE, FREE, FREE!

     Ahem.

     Seriously, check out the Christian Girls Club. Email me or Jen. Do it. What do you have to lose?

Post Tenebras Lux!
-ST

RUN!

    

     I can be picky about games. But once I find a game I like, it’s easy to become addicted.
     Right now, I’m addicted to Temple Run. It’s basically a chase scene on an ancient temple wall. Simple. But here’s the thing:

     It never ends.

     You run and run until you are caught by the obstacles or the evil monkey creatures. The point is to collect as many coins as you can before you die so you can “buy” upgrades to help you run farther next time. Poor Guy Dangerous the explorer never makes it out of the Temple.

     There’s another thing about Temple Run. It’s fast. You can’t look away from the screen for a second or splat. Dead. And you need close-to-ninja reflexes to jump, turn, and slide on time.

     So the games whizzes by at Millennium Falcon speed and the runner never actually escapes except by death.

     Sounds like life, doesn’t it?

     At least, that’s how my life feels, lately. As I mentioned before, I spent last year at Word of Life Bible Institute. But now I’m back home, and sometimes it feels like nothing ever changes. I’m busy, but what am I really accomplishing? Or, to put it in Temple Run terms, I’m running, but it’s only a matter of time before I trip and fall off the wall. It’s easy to be discouraged.

     But I read something encouraging a while ago, and I want to share it with you. It was written by Paul Enns in his new book Heaven Revealed. Dr. Enns’s wife died suddenly a few years ago, so he did a study on Heaven and wrote the book. Here’s what he said:

     “Think of the words. Heaven. Earth. Heaven is always better, in every realm, in every dimension. How could heaven be heaven if there was one arena in which heaven would be poorer and inferior to conditions on earth? It wouldn’t be heaven! You and I cannot think of a single realm or phase of living in which life would be poorer in heaven. Health? Better! Knowledge? Excessively better! Relationships? Much better! Everything will be better in every area of life.”

     Yes, our run through this crazy life will end in death. But we have the expectation of better at the end, if we trust Christ. I hope this encourages you today in your run. It gives me hope when I remember it.

     Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us….
Hebrews 12:1

Post Tenebras Lux
-ST

Character Development Part 2

"3-D"

     One of my writer friends asked me how my writing was going. I told her that I haven't been writing much. I've been developing my characters. I expressed my frustration over my antagonist. My story, at the moment, has no antagonist. The old  manuscript had your average evil villain, but I am striving for more. 

     My writer friend asked if I had tried character boards. After I displayed my ignorance, she explained that character boards are when you write down character information on index cards. "Sometimes the 3-D, being able to touch the cards, triggers something in your mind to help you find what you're looking for," she said. 

     So I tried it. I wrote down different traits for my antagonist on pieces of paper. Some of them were obvious: "Prideful," "Selfish," "Vain." Some were contrasting: "Male-Female," "Rich-Poor," "Easily Angered-Not Easily Angered." Then I picked out the ones I really liked and wanted to see in my story. I had a "Eureka!" moment after looking at them for a few days and wrote down some possible motives. 

     Since the antagonist board is going slowly, I also wrote down each of my characters' names and made a "main cast" character board. I found that the characters naturally fell into pairs. After a while, I felt that something was missing. Then I realized I had forgotten the most important "character." Jesus. I wrote His Name on a paper and it really helped me figure out how each character relates to and views Him, which of course affects their personalities entirely.

     Have you ever used character boards? How did yours work?

Post Tenebras Lux!

-ST

Scared Stiff

    

     I have many fears when it comes to writing. I'm afraid I'll never finish my book. I'm afraid no one will like my story. I'm afraid that I am wasting my time. And I am especially afraid someone will have the same idea I have and publish before me.

     My Dad has told me many times that fear is the opposite of faith. Faith is trust, after all; so I am afraid when I am forgetting to trust God.True, but there is another reason for my fear.

     Pride. Ow, just reading the word hurts. I get caught up in this work I am doing and forget Who I am doing it for. I get competitive with my fellow writers and then I feel bad for not measuring up. Then that still and quiet Voice reminds me that it doesn't matter what the world thinks. It is all going to burn in the end. What really matters is what HE thinks.

     Do you ever feel insecure about your writing?

Post Tenebras Lux!
-ST

Character Development Part 1

“A Day in the Life”

     I have decided that developing characters is much harder than developing relationships with real people. With real people, all you have to do is ask them what they like to do for fun or what their opinion is on something, but with characters you have to make up their response. And all the characters have to be different.

     I want my characters to feel like real people. So I decided to write them in different situations that would be normal life to them. For example, I wrote a short story about one of my characters taking a trip to a mall to go shoe shopping. Not a thrilling plot, and the story has no real “point,” but it really helped me discover more about what he thinks about himself and others, what he fears, what he likes, and, most importantly, what he wants.

     I wrote the story from 1st person POV, as if the character was telling me his story. I also purposefully avoided listening into the characters thoughts; so not only am I learning about my character, I’m also practicing my writing skills in “showing” instead of “telling.”

     That particular character is a new one I am adding to the story. For one of my original characters, I went through the old manuscript and pulled out everything that would tell me what kind of a person he is. It was tedious, but now I have a list of characteristics for him.

     How do you develop your characters?

Post Tenebras Lux!

-ST