Chapter Length

Angela Benson September 30, 2008 5 Comments

In my book, Telling the Tale: The African-American Fiction Writers Guide, I devote a chapter to a discussion of how I develop chapters from scenes.  Since my first book, I’ve roughly gone with 15 page chapters with 3 5-page scenes. That’s just a rough guides. Some of my chapters are longer, some shorter, some have more scenes, rarely do they have fewer.  The rule-of-thumb really worked for me.

I’m also a scene-sequel writing, even though many of my sequel are implied and not explicit.

When I was on the Soul Expressions Author Tour, I had the chance to discuss book construction with some other authors.  Victoria Christopher Murray shared that she wrote her scenes as chapters. That really intrigued me so I decided to try it with my work-in-progress. Guess what? It’s working pretty well.

What I’ve found is that there is no room for sequel; they’re all implicit rather than explicit.  I also think the “scene is chapter” construction makes the book move faster.  We’ll have to see what readers (and my editor) think.  I may end up having to combine of the scenes into chapters during the revision process, but that will be pretty easy to do.

Tonight I took a few minutes and when back and looked at one of Victoria’s books.  She’s not a strict “scene is chapter” writer.  Some of her chapters consist of multiple scenes, but most of them are single scene chapters.

What I also found in Victoria’s book is that her chapters tend to be much shorter than mine. I’d guess her longest chapters were 10 pages, most were shorter.  I also checked books by Jacquelin Thomas and Kimberla Lawson Roby.  Their longest chapters tended to be around the 10-11 page limit.

When I looked at my books, I found that my shortest chapters were around 10 pages.  Most of them were around 14 but there were some with 16 pages and 18 pages.  In general, my chapters tended to be longer than the chapters of the other writers that I investigated.

So what do you like best — longer chapters or shorter chapters?  Do you even notice chapter length when you’re reading? To be honest, I hadn’t noticed and I read all three of the aforementioned authors on a regular basis.

Let me know your thoughts on chapter lenght

Tell us about the ACFW Conference

Angela Benson September 25, 2008 2 Comments

Okay, I’ve waited a couple of days to give the conference attendees time to get back and re-claim their lives.  Now I want to hear about it — and I want details! So if you attended, share your experience with us.  If you’ve visited a blog with a conference report, let us know the URL so we can visit, too.

I especially want to know the Award winners!

CFBA Tour: Faking Grace by Tamara Leigh

Angela Benson September 24, 2008 1 Comment

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Faking Grace
Multnomah Books (August 19, 2008)
by
Tamara Leigh

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

After Tamara Leigh earned a Master’s Degree in Speech and Language Pathology, she and her husband decided to start a family, with plans for Tamara to continue in her career once she became a mother.

When the blessing of children proved elusive, Tamara became convicted to find a way to work out of her home in order to raise the children she and her husband longed to have. She turned to writing, at which she had only ever dreamed of being successful, and began attending church. Shortly thereafter, her agent called with news of Bantam Books’ offer of a four-book contract. That same day, Tamara’s pregnancy was confirmed. Within the next year, she gave up her speech pathology career, committed her life to Christ, her first child was born, and her first historical romance novel was released.

As Tamara continued to write for the secular market, publishing three more novels with HarperCollins and Dorchester, she infused her growing Christian beliefs into her writing. But it was not enough, and though her novels earned awards and were national bestsellers, she knew her stories were lacking. After struggling with the certainty that her writing was not honoring God as it should, she made the decision to write books that not only reveal Christianity to non-believers, but serve as an inspiration for those who have accepted Christ as their Savior. Her inspirational romances are peopled with characters in varying stages of Christian faith, from mature believers to new believers to non-believers on the threshold of awakening.

Tamara Leigh enjoys time with her family, volunteer work, faux painting, and reading. She lives near Nashville, Tennessee with her husband, David, and two sons, Skyler and Maxen.

Two of her latest books are Splitting Harriet and Perfecting Kate.

ABOUT THE BOOK

All she wants is a job. All she needs is religion. How hard can it be?

Maizy Grace Stewart dreams of a career as an investigative journalist, but her last job ended in disaster when her compassion cost her employer a juicy headline. A part-time gig at a Nashville newspaper might be her big break.

A second job at Steeple Side Christian Resources could help pay the bills, but Steeple Side only hires committed Christians. Maizy is sure she can fake it with her Five-Step Program to Authentic Christian Faith–a plan of action that includes changing her first name to Grace, buying Jesus-themed accessories, and learning “Christian Speak.” If only Jack Prentiss, Steeple Side’s managing editor and two-day-stubbled, blue-jean-wearing British hottie wasn’t determined to prove her a fraud.

When Maizy’s boss at the newspaper decides that she should investigate–and expose–any skeletons in Steeple Side’s closet, she must decide whether to deliver the dirt and secure her career or lean on her newfound faith, change the direction of her life, and pray that her Steeple Side colleagues–and Jack–will show her grace.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Faking Grace, go HERE

I’ll tell you why

Angela Benson September 23, 2008 3 Comments

I must say that when it comes to making fun of Christians it’s open season. It has been that way for a long time. Why are people allowed to get away with making fun of the Christian faith?

I found this quote on another blog. I won’t bother to link to it because it has to do with politics and I don’t want this to be a political discussion. Can you answer the question?

I think the answer is that people aren’t really making fun of the Christian faith. They’re making fun of folks who call themselves Christians. Unfortunately, all some folks know of the Christian faith is what they see in our lives, and let’s be frank here, sometimes it ain’t pretty.

I also think outsiders like to pounce on us because we pounce on them. It’s like we’ve drawn this line that makes sin among sinners REALLY bad while sin among saints is “well, nobody’s perfect.” Then we want to come back at folks with “sin ain’t what you do, it’s about the relationship.” Yeah, right. I’m sure they get that and the word they use to describe it is “hypocrite.”

At the core of the issue, I think, is the way Christians dole out compassion. I sometimes feel that our compassion is reserved for other Christians, usually Christians we know personally, and we have very little for the world-at-large.

So I don’t really get bummed out when people mock Christians because sometimes we deserve to be mocked. Many times it’s not them defaming the name of Christ, it’s them calling us out because we’re defaming His name.

I think this relates to our writing as well. How we draw our characters, the situations we put them in, and the way they resolve their issues all speak to how perceive Christian life. I think that’s why there’s such a diversity is what folks call “Christian fiction.” If I call myself a Christian and a book speaks to me where I am in my faith, then to me it’s Christian fiction. You’ll notice the definition is built around the person, not the book.

Anyway. That’s my nickel. What’s yours?

Memorable book endings

Angela Benson September 22, 2008 3 Comments

I did a booksigning at Borders in Lithonia, GA a couple of weekends ago.  One of the folks who stopped to visit with me had purchased a copy of Victoria Christopher Murray’s Joy.  When I saw the book, I immediately thought of the ending, which I thought was flat-out wonderful.  I get emotional thinking about it. It was the perfect ending for a very good book.  If you’ve read it, you know what I mean.  If you haven’t read it, I can’t tell you the ending.  All I’ll say is that it relates to the title.

What books have you read that have endings that were memorable for you?  Let’s make this memorable, as in warm and emotional, as well as memorable, as in shocking or surprising, and memorable, as in disappointing.  Just so you know many of the Oprah books had disappointing endings for me.  I’m thinking of one right now but I can’t remember the title.  Note that just because a book has a disappointing ending doesn’t mean that it’s a bad book.

So what say ye?  What books have you read with memorable endings?

What makes it Christian?

Angela Benson September 19, 2008 4 Comments

You know, I asked this question a while back in reference to Christian fiction.  Today, I’m asking it about a post I read over on CBNNews. For those of you who don’t know, CBN is Christian Broadcasting Network.

I read David Brody’s blog, The Brody File, fairly often.  While David and I support different candidates, I read him because he gives me insight into the perspectives of evangelical Christians who identify as social conservatives when it comes to politics.

I recently found a post on his blog that disturbed me a bit. Here’s an excerpt:

Call it half truths, misleading, downright lies, or even mostly true, whatever. John McCain has gotten inside Obama’s head. It’s not pretty but it’s true. Look, let’s talk political strategy here ok? If your opponent’s campaign is great at organizing and is tapping into a new political enthusiasm not seen for quite some time then you need to figure out how to bring him down a peg or two.

You can read the full post HERE.

This post bothered me.  I’m an Obama supporter so it’s possible that I’m being overly sensitive.  That’s why I want your feedback.  Does it bother you that this post is on a Christian news site?  If so, why?  If not, why not? Would you feel differently if it weren’t a Christian site? 

A broader question would be, Should reporting by a Christian organization be different from reporting by the mainstream media?  If so, how?  If not, why not?

Please read David Brody’s full post before you comment. I don’t want to take him out of context. And I want to keep the comments made here to the post.  I don’t want want this discussion to turn into a bashing of any person or party.  Let’s keep it Christian.  I’ll have to shut off the comments off if we can’t.

The 100-Minute Bible

Angela Benson September 18, 2008 2 Comments

I’m not sure how I feel about this Bible. Have any of you read it?  What do you think of it?  Do you recommend it?

I was leery of The Living Bible so I’m really leery of a book that condenses the Bible to a 100-minute read.

If you haven’t heard of this Bible, you can read about it HERE.

After thinking about it, I think my problem is that the book is referred to as a Bible.  I’d probably be more open to it if it had another title.  Unfortunately, I can’t think of one.

What do you think?

I’m in an overstock situation

Angela Benson September 17, 2008 3 Comments

The Amen SistersNot me, exactly.

I received a letter in the mail today from an editor at Grand Central Publishing informing me that they had an overstock situation with the hardcover version of The Amen Sisters.  I think this is code for the hardcover is being taken out of print, but don’t quote me.

Anyway, given the overstock situation, I’ve been given the opportunity to buy copies of The Amen SIsters for $2.00 plus $0.50 shipping for a total of $2.50.  Pretty good deal, huh?  Well, it depends.

Guess how many copies I get to purchase from this excess inventory?  You’ll never guess, so I’ll tell you — 8.  Yes, 8.  I had to do a double-take myself.  They must not have had much of an overstock, huh?

I guess I’ll go ahead and buy the 8 but it hardly seems worth it.  I may make a call tomorrow to make sure the 8 wasn’t a typo or something.