Joists—Characters of Strength By T. L. Wiens

My renovation project is moving forward. I reached the point where I needed to remove a load bearing wall. There’s a lot of work to be done before you start swinging the sledge hammer on this particular job.
First, we opened the wall to expose the complications it would present. Heating ducts and electrical greeted us. These were easy fixes. We rerouted the circuit for the electrical and removed the ducts which we planned to relocate anyway. Everything was going along fine.
We built temporary support walls on either side of the load bearing wall. These would serve as supports until we got the beam in place. That’s when things got complicated.
Upon closer inspection, we discovered whoever put the duct work in, removed a large chunk of the joist beneath the floor. To add to the issue, the main heating duct line was directly below so we didn’t have access to the joist from the basement. A simple job just became quite complicated.
We had no choice but to remove the basement duct work that would later have to be rerouted. Then we had to fix the broken joist. Because of the weight this particular area would be bearing once everything on the main floor was finished, we set in a post to support the now repaired joist. With all that done, it was easy to get the beam in place.
What does all this have to do with writing? For me, the joists and wall studs of a book are the characters. Main characters need to be well built, holding the plot together; the joists of the structure. Minor characters are more like the wall studs, also important but they can be moved and changed with a lot more ease than a joist.
Like the house, a weak main character will put the entire structure in jeopardy. As writers, we need to make sure we have this part of our book working well. It’s funny how a poorly developed main character can cause a minor character to bend and bow the structure of a book. Sometimes we have to go back and rewrite, restructure our characters.
For me, characters often develop as I write. Most of my early manuscripts have at least four chapters that will never see print. They’re my character development stage.
I do other things to develop characters like in depth character sketches. I like to use some of my video games—usually my Wii and put a real face on these people. Or I’ll look at images on the internet until I find the look I’m going for. To have a visual helps me to see other characteristics like facial expressions.
Most writers, myself included have a purpose when we write. We fall in love with certain events. But sometimes our characters don’t fit the actions. There’s nothing worse than a book where suddenly the shy quiet main character becomes some party animal for one chapter and one chapter only. Worse is if there’s not any given reason for the change. I’ve come to understand the stories I write aren’t really about my wants for the plot but rather learning to listen to the characters to develop my theme.
When you have strong joists and well built walls, you have a structure that will stand for a long time. When you build strong main and minor characters in a book and stay true to who they are the plot will almost write itself.

5 Ways to Pay it Forward at Christmas with Your Children - Ruth L. Snyder

Many of us parents struggle with how to pass our faith on to our children in meaningful ways. We understand that if our children do not personalize their faith and make it their own, they will discard biblical beliefs as they grow older. My husband and I have discussed ways of making Christmas real to our children. We continue to try different approaches.

Here are a few of our favourite ideas:

1. Have each child purchase items and pack a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child with Samaritan's Purse. We explain to our children that we are sending toys and other items to children who have no toys. This project has opened up discussions about helping less fortunate people and learning about other cultures.


2. Help out at a local shelter or soup kitchen. We have made trips to the Mustard Seed several times to cook and serve an evening meal. It is enlightening to talk with people who access services. Some people are there due to poor personal choices, but others are victims of unfortunate events.


3. Sponsor a child. Our family sponsors children through Compassion Canada and the Dalit Freedom Network. For a dollar a day, we can give hope and education to a child. Both organizations encourage correspondence between the sponsor and the child. This provides great opportunities for learning skills like letter writing and learning about other cultures. Compassion Canada also welcomes sponsors who want to travel overseas and meet the child they are sponsoring.


4. Go caroling in your neighborhood. We've discovered this is a dying tradition, but people appreciate hearing carols at their doors. We have also baked cookies as a family and then distributed them to our neighbors after we sing. (Make sure you have a list of ingredients in case people have food allergies.)


5. Write thank you notes to people who give gifts. This is almost a lost art today. Unfortunately, we have so much that often we are not thankful for what we receive. Writing thank you notes encourages us to stop and think about the person who took the time and spent money to buy us something. Hand written notes are few and far between and will mean a lot to the people you send them to. It is easier and faster to send an e-mail, but the extra time, attention, and cost you put into writing a note will demonstrate your gratitude.

This year we received an Adventures in Odyssey activity calendar from Focus on the Family. We didn't do all the activities, but we really enjoyed the ones we did. For example, before opening our gifts this year, we played the "ABC Advent game" where we came up with 25 things related to the Nativity. Our whole family (with children ranging in age from 5 to 16) participated and it was interesting to hear the different creative contributions each person came up with. For instance:

• A is for angry - King Herod was angry when he heard about Christ's birth
• E is for excited - the shepherds were excited to hear about the birth of Jesus
• V is for the shepherds who came to visit Jesus

It is encouraging to see our children not only learning, but also sharing what they are learning with others. A couple weeks ago I wrote about how my one son made me cry in church - happy tears.

What have you done with your children or grandchildren to teach them about Christ and Christmas? Please share :)

Ruth L. Snyder

Ruth L. Snyder lives in north-eastern Alberta with her husband and five young children. She enjoys writing about her journey of faith, special needs, and adoption. Her novella, Cecile's Christmas Miracle was released on December 4th and is available from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

http://ruthlsnyder.com

God's Big Picture - by Marcia Janson

I’ve been writing since I was a child. My first self-publication was a folded and stapled booklet of very bad poetry that I printed and illustrated with crayons that were in dire need of sharpening. I was eight years old and my readership was comprised of two people – my parents. Many decades later, I have to admit that I still tend toward creating and publishing things on my own. I’ve co-published and edited local church magazines and also started a multi-denominational paper that we circulated in our town’s local churches, cafes and doctor’s offices.

I’ve learned a lot through these small ventures, not least of which is that God is more interested in my character than my mission. I tend to be a tad idealistic and wade into literary ventures with a vivid “big picture” in mind. Concerning the multi-denominational paper I mentioned, my heart’s goal was to help a very divided Body of Christ to develop a stronger sense of communion with one another. That sounds good, don’t you think? In one of his last recorded prayers, Jesus asked for unity among believers.

I don’t know if my two years at the helm of that little paper contributed much to unity among the local church bodies, but I did discover that there was a certain disharmony within my own heart that had so far escaped my awareness and which God wanted to address. It was in the crucible of some challenging and painful experiences during those years of working with others on that publication that God started to refine my attitude.

Until that time, I’d considered myself to be a peaceable and fairly easy-going person who was learning to love others. As an editor, I tried to be sensitive toward my largely inexperienced group of contributing writers. Some of their pieces were very rough around the edges and it was difficult to balance my desire to publish a paper full of clear, well-written articles with my equally strong wish to encourage and help up-and-coming writers. There was lots of e-mailing back and forth in addition to phone calls with people who hadn’t yet joined the computer age. I understood well that God cared about those people and that I must try to see them through His eyes, but a considerable chasm stretches between the knowing and the doing in such matters!

This juggling act, though difficult, was going pretty well until a challenge came along that was just a bit too large for my heart to accommodate. I’d asked a friend to help me edit the paper and we had a disagreement about something that, looking back, seems rather unimportant. At the time, I felt that the ideals underpinning the paper’s “mission” would be compromised if I allowed her to include a certain item in the paper. We ended up dissolving the partnership and she moved on to other activities. The friendship faded too.

Has that ever happened to you? Perhaps, like me, your ideals or pet viewpoints have trumped God’s call to love and exercise peaceful unity with other believers. These things tend to rise to the surface and show themselves when our passions are involved. If writing is your passion, then it’s likely this will happen at some point. Maybe an editor wants to cut precious material from your book or a fellow writer suggests improvements to an article. Bloggers have the unique opportunity to hear immediate, unsolicited criticism of their writing and/or ideas in the comments section.

The only advice I will offer is this: consider the crucible opportunity and go from there. God be with you!

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beginasyouare/2302816052/