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Episode 104: Improve Your Writing with Framing

“I’ve been framed,” she said, casting her hand across her brow.

“What do you mean?” he asked, “do you mean someone put a rectangle of wood around you and hung you on the wall?”

“Of course not,” she snapped.

“Do you mean someone has nailed yo to two-by-fours and other wood in order to make the foundation of their future domicile?”

“Don’t be silly!”

Hey Christian Indies,

You’ll likely agree with me that this is a ridiculous premise. Still, when the topic of “framing your story” came up, all of us Co-hosts were not sure exactly what we should include in the episode. We all sort of scratched our heads and asked, “what do you mean?”

Well, Indies, we’ve since wrapped our minds a bit more around the concept, and we’ve determined that what each writer could use, on occasion, is a bit of a “refresher” on what actually makes a story stand as, well, a story.


So tune in and learn more about what it means to frame a story.

See you there,

Jamie

Episode 103: Exhortation: Encouragement and the Christian Writer

Confession time, Christian Indies,

I almost quit writing twice last year.

Twice, it was the encouragement of a fellow writer that pulled me through.

It wasn’t expected – these were not people I regularly corresponded with – they were out of the blue messages of, “I believe in you.”

That was all it took to propel me forward.

I’ve tried to express my thanks to those folks who took time to reach out to edify and encourage me, but somehow I don’t think they will ever understand the deep gratitude I have for that one act of kindness, that moment when they were a beacon of hope in my otherwise dark career world.

Wouldn’t it be great to be that light for someone else?

Tune in this week for ideas of how you can be an encourager.

See you there,

Jamie

Episode 102: Pinterest for Writers

Confession time, Christian Indies,

I almost quit writing twice last year.

Twice, it was the encouragement of a fellow writer that pulled me through.

It wasn’t expected – these were not people I regularly corresponded with – they were out of the blue messages of, “I believe in you.”

That was all it took to propel me forward.

I’ve tried to express my thanks to those folks who took time to reach out to edify and encourage me, but somehow I don’t think they will ever understand the deep gratitude I have for that one act of kindness, that moment when they were a beacon of hope in my otherwise dark career world.

Wouldn’t it be great to be that light for someone else?

Tune in this week for ideas of how you can be an encourager.

See you there,

Jamie

Episode 101: Social Media Etiquette for Writers

Hey, Christian Indies,

When I was around ten years old, I joined a youth softball league. I’ll never forget the nervous anxiety I had – I was new to the sport, and enthusiastic, but very unskilled. I was nervous about whether I would field the ball well, or hit well, or, most importantly, fit in with a bunch of girls I perceived to be nothing at all like me.

Of course, I was sent to play right field. I noticed my Dad, watching from behind the home team bench, just as I’d expected – my parents were always at all of my extra activities.
Practice started. The coach was serving pop flys. The first fly went to left field. The next went to center. I took the ready stance – my turn was coming.

From somewhere near third base, a voice floated over to me.

“Hey, kid,” my Dad’s tenor pierced the air with the tang of sauerkraut through saliva. “Your fly’s down!”

You can only imagine the humiliated horror I felt as I quickly remedied my wardrobe malfunction.  

My ensuing tearful breakdown is the stuff of Nichols family lore. my poor father was confused by my reaction. He’d only trying to give me information he thought I would find helpful after all. As he tells it, “guys would have no problem calling something out like that.”

Of course, I was thankful my Dad had let me know about my embarrassing condition, though I would have appreciated a lighter touch. That’s what we have for you this week, dear reader, a gentle touch to let you know there might be a bit of internet spinach in your teeth, or a piece of bathroom tissue stuck to your shoe, in a virtual sense.

Tune in to find out how you can keep from being the online equivalent of a kid with her fly down.


Until then,

Jamie

Episode 100: Celebrating 100 Episodes

Hey, Christian Indies,

In some ways, this is just another week, and producing and performing on Friday’s episode will be “old hat,” to us hosts: but somehow, the fact that this is the 100th time we are getting together to do this wild and wacky thing we call the podcast makes it seem like a time to celebrate!

Because we know that God deserves all the glory, we would like to first and foremost thank him for the podcast and for you, our audience. We would also like to thank him for the gift that is creation and our own ability to create, as well. We would like to thank him for our stories, our inspiration, and truly, for our very lives.

We also want to thank you, dear listener/viewer/reader! We would not exist, much less have made it to 100 episodes, if it were not for your continued support. Whether that be your encouragement after a particularly tough writing week, or your cheers as we manage to somehow limp across the finish line – it’s meant the world to us.

So here’s to 100 episodes, and looking ahead to 100 more.


See you there,

Jamie

Episode 99: Indescribable, #2 – Improving Setting Descriptions in your writing

Hey there, Christian Indies,

The first time I really thought about descriptive language was when I learned the song “America, The Beautiful.” I loved the phrases, “amber waves of grain,” and “purple mountain majesties.” The impact of those beautiful images set to that tune wells up inside me whenever I see something majestic and grand in God’s creation. I understand that the composer of the song was trying to find a way to talk about that feeling, and the best way to do that was to describe what he saw.
I want to be able to capture a scene in that sort of poetic way. Alas, I find it difficult to get beyond, “the pavement was slick,” or some such thing. How can I flex (and grow!) my scenery description muscle?

Tune in to find out.

See you there, 

Jamie



Episode 98: Indescribable: Improving Physical Descriptions in your writing













Hey Christian Indies!





Have you ever stared into a swimming pool? Or a pool of rainwater, collected on the sidewalk? What about the pool of condensation on the corner of your coffee table?





You haven’t?





I haven’t, either.





But, I’ve noticed my protagonists love staring into pools – big brown ones, icy blue ones, deep amber ones – they seem to delight in lovingly gazing into them all.





Of course, I’m talking about human eyes, so often described in literature as “pools.” 





The other hosts and I were talking about this oddity, and it seemed the situation was chronic – their characters, too, spent an inordinate amount of time staring into pools. Eventually, we discovered the problem was not with our characters, but with us, the writers. We’d gotten into an eyeball description rut: we’d run into a staring scene, and, well, the word, “pools” was just convenient. It was also familiar, “tried and true,” if you will, guaranteed not to raise brows. 

The more we  examined this issue, the more we realized that  eyes were not the only physical feature we had difficulty describing with any sort of originality whatsoever.





Thus, episode #98 was born. In it, we hope to broaden your (and our own!) horizons, so to speak, when it comes to providing physical descriptions of characters in (y)our novels.





See you on the podcast,





Jamie


Episode 97: Finding Your Social Media Stride













A recent foray into the world of social media has brought a sad fact of reality profoundly to my attention: I have a boring life.





You see, I primarily peruse social media in order to read.





I enjoy reading about the happenings in the lives of other people, the opinions of my peers, or  chronicles of events which obligation or distance prevented me from attending, often reacting with “care” or “love.” 





But that is the extent of my participation: I’m not really much of a poster.





In fact, I think I’m more of what you call a “lurker.”





So, when I was recently challenged to increase my participation on social media (and, thus, build my “author’s platform,”), I found myself with quite a dilemma:





I had no idea what to say.





I mean, not on my author’s account, anyway. On my personal accounts, I have no issue. It’s easy enough to think of areas in your life your Mom or your Aunt Sally would like to receive updates about:  but surely, my future audience – and new social-media-platform acquaintances – are not interested in the fact that my daughter’s prom pictures got rained out, or that I tried a new muffaletta recipe last weekend. 





So, what are they interested in? Nothing that I could think of to post from the world of Jamie Hershberger. Thus, I reached the sad conclusion of my introductory announcement: I have a boring life.





Ever intrepid, I wonder now, “How can I overcome my interesting-life deficit sufficiently in order to  connect with these people*, thereby creating from them connections, which eventually leads to ‘fans’, when I honestly, secretly, don’t even believe I am a writer, yet?”





Could that, perhaps, be the majority of the problem?





Tune in to find out,





Jamie





PS – Sheesh. Since I’ve become a writer, I’ve discovered I am both a “pantser” and a “lurker”! I’m going to need a notebook page dedicated to keeping up with all my nicknames!





*Jen has told me I am not allowed to call them, “twits,” no matter how many times they may, “tweet.”


Episode 96: Plodding Through Plotting













Hey, Christian Indies,





You may or may not know this, but I am a “pantser.” This means that instead of plotting my books out, I am  committed to “fly by the seat of my pants,” so to speak, a “die-hard” devotee to the idea of discovering the story as I write it. Therefore, I have never found myself in the peculiar position of being bound up in a never-ending plotting nightmare.






However, even with my limited experience, I can see how someone who has discovered the benefits and utility of the process could be inclined to “over do” plotting.  How tempting would it be to just keep adding things to the outline, when you’ve created these characters that you know oh so well: you know in which hand they hold the body pouf in their hand when they shower, what their favorite brand of microwave popcorn is, and that they’ve always wanted to drive a luxury sedan.  Thus, you (wrongfully!) conclude your novel must – whatever the cost to story structure – include a crying jag in the shower, a pajama party/movie night, and a trip to the Lexus dealership. Or, you find it impossible to turn off the spigot of setting or plot ideas once you’ve opened it, and you keep inventing little scenarios in which to position these unfortunate creations of your maniacal imagination.





In both scenarios, your plot just grows bigger, and bigger, and bigger  and you never get around to actually writing the book, or, worse, you do attempt to write this book, and end up with something that  isn’t a novel at all, but just a big wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey mass of weakly strung together occurrences.





So, how does a plotter know when “enough plotting is, (FOR REAL!) ‘enough’?” Tune in this week as our resident plotters, Jen and Rhonda – as well as Tina, who’s a self-professed “plantser” (plotter/pantser hybrid) – try to navigate this tricky topic. For special fun, we’re bringing on Rhonda’s mom, Barb, the other half of the mother/daughter writing team “Dee Dee Bouman.” They’ll talk to us about their book, “Use this Workbook to Plot Your Novel” 





See you there,





Jamie





PS – Just for fun, you can hear us talk about the difference between “plotting” and “pantsing” on  episode 11 of the podcast to figure out which is more your style!







			
			

			
		

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