Challenge Given by Carol Harrison

When I began writing, I only wrote non-fiction memoir style stories and one book. It became my comfort zone. I had no intention of branching out into other genres. Then one of my grandsons challenged me to try and write fiction – any type. He didn’t give up on checking on me. I decided to accept his challenge and attempt to write a fiction book. I did it.

Now I had two genres to play around with and I thought that would be the end of the story. I would work on the craft, learn what I could, and hopefully continue to improve. Then one of my granddaughters challenged me to attend a poetry writing workshop with her at our local library. I went with her and discovered we wouldn’t just learn about poetry but be expected to write some. I didn’t think I could fulfill this part of the challenge but what do you do but try as a grandchild waits for you to step up and keep trying.

Now maybe my family could be satisfied with the diversity of my writing. I continued to attempt more poetry, write several fiction books, as well as more memoir style stories and devotionals. I thought that should be an acceptable range.

But before my husband passed away he threw out several challenges. One was a memoir style story. Okay. I had written that genre before. But the other one would be new. He challenged me to write a Love Inspired style romance novel.

I enjoy the light reading of this style of books and had read many of them over the years. Now with Brian’s challenge fresh in my mind, I signed out stories from the library and curled up to read for pleasure and for research. I went to the guidelines for writing and submitting these stories and studied them carefully. I joined the Facebook group Write for Harlequin and found feedback from others who were published and those, like me, who might try and one day have a Love Inspired book. The writing guidelines provided the accepted formula they are looking for in each book, the word count, and the types of stories they are seeking.

Could I actually attempt this? Should I accept the challenge thrown out to me? I must admit to wanting to forget the challenge and yet it kept coming up in conversation. I started a story and finished a few chapters before getting stuck. I researched some more and came back to write a little more. It wasn’t as easy as it sounded and I put it away just before my husband passed away. I must admit it sits on my computer, unfinished. I haven’t looked at it in two years. Maybe it’s long enough to see it with fresh eyes. Will it ever get further than sitting on my computer? It depends on what the finished product is like, whether I choose to submit it or not. For now it is a venture into a new genre I had never written in before. Maybe this blog post theme will push me to go back to the waiting story and see where I’m at with it. Challenges can be good for a person. It moves them out of their comfort zone. I know it has me over the years.

Carol Harrison loves to do the reading more than writing in a different genre. Yet the research aspect of the reading is great fun. Her favourite chair at her home in Saskatoon begs for someone to curl up with a good book, a fun story, or something to make a person think. 
 

Engaging A New Genre by Bryan Norford

I generally focus on non-fiction, and, if I’m honest, I’ve always been sceptical of fiction as “telling stories” rather than “telling the truth.” You can interpret that anyway you wish! That, despite the fact that Jesus was perhaps the greatest recorded “story-teller” of history.

Jesus’ genius was finding spiritual application from the everyday things that surrounded him: sheep, seeding, and so on, and the endless variety of human foibles. In contrast, an inadequate imagination has always been my handicap.

But back to my non-fiction fixation. I wanted to write a book detailing the reasons I’m a Christian. I’d have no difficulty in filling many chapters. And if I did, I’d eventually have one book in ten thousand that no-one wanted to read, and perhaps exalted me well above my rank.

But slowly the ideas of fiction began to gel in my mind, partly as Ann and I started writing our war stories. It was necessary to include some fiction categories to complete the stories and make them readable. Something towards, but, I hoped, short of full dramatization

The idea of combining the virtues of the faith with a novel began to take root and make sense; something centuries of fiction writers already knew. First, I wrote a short story—about 6000 words, perhaps not so short—in response to a competition, for which I received a polite “thankyou.” Damned by faint praise!

Then I wrote a novel—about 70,000 words—incorporating my ideas. It was an enjoyable experience; with the characters and the plot often taking on a life of their own. A good writer friend read it and suggested it “wasn’t a page turner,” and I should “reduce it by a third”!

However, I was already beginning to see major problems with it, and a few fiction workshops confirmed my concerns and added a few more. I was finding out, by the writing itself, and what I learned since, fiction has a lot more constraints surrounding it that at first thought.

Surprising, for surely, here is a genre where even the sky isn’t the limit; it gives freedom to go beyond imagination, and liberty (license?) to say whatever I want. Yet even fiction must follow guidelines if its intended audience will pick it up and read. And those guidelines change constantly, decade by decade.

However, the idea of a novel lives on in my bucket list, but next time with far more wisdom and appreciation of the art. And with the numerous recognized fiction writers as mentors in InScribe and The Word Guild, it could become a meaningful creation.