Blog #3:
"The power of story is potent, and that's why historical fiction can be an extraordinarily significant way of teaching people logical truth propositions, moves you along, moves your emotions as well as informs your intellect." ~ Hank Hanegraaff
I confess that I have no basis to support any claim to being a writer. I am the most amateur of amateurs, a garage band drummer. I have two semesters of English in my freshman year of college to back me up. There's nothing more except a long shelf of how-to books whose messages I took seriously yet fell short of mastering.
Oh, and Grammarly, though I still can't figure out commas even with the confusing help of software.
It may be reasonably argued that I had no business writing a novel. Most of my reading efforts are devoted to non-fiction: history, contemporary topics, biographies. I felt I had something unique to say about a subject, and perhaps an essay could illustrate my message accurately, but would it be convincing? I realized through experience that academic writing, informing the intellect, can easily grow stale and wring native interest from almost every subject. Any essay or article outlining my points would likely fall short of conveying my meaning, never mind reaching an audience of any size.
I had to learn how to accomplish something very sensitive and complicated: to combine appeals to intellect with appeals to emotion to leave a more permanent impression on readers. When presented well, stories will inhabit the mind, become meaningful, and impact readers in ways the author hadn't anticipated. If ultimately successful, stories will prompt the reader to think in unaccustomed ways.
I decided I must write a novel of historical fiction.
I had never written a novel – not even a short story. To repeat, I consume non-fiction, so I wasn't familiar with any of the tastes and guidelines of fiction writing. I read volume after volume on how to write, how to write novels, and how to improve writing. That is why constructing my novel required seven years. Sure, there was plenty of research to do concerning ancient history and the Bible, but I also needed a thorough education on how to write meaningful fiction. And, professional editing.
Writing is hard. I found some of the accepted practices discordant with my unrefined ear for prose and, on rare occasions, overruled editing advice and stuck with my gut feeling. As with art, my tastes differ with some accepted "truths." I find Normal Rockwell's work fascinating (mere "illustration," I'm told by my betters), while Picasso would have died poor and unknown in my universe. I suspect my novel won't delight the literary folk. But if the story sticks, and I hope it sticks with many, it may prompt readers to consider their own thoughts and beliefs. If so, I will have met my goal.
That is what story can do.
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