The #1 Question I’m Asked Most Often:
“How did you get published?”
Though it sounds cliche`, I have to answer: “It was totally a God-thing!” There is no golden ticket, no magic potion, no secret society. It was a painful, glorious, excruciatingly long process that–now as I look BACK–was completely guided by God’s hand. However, in the midst of the journey, it felt incredibly lonely and confusing. My advice to all those who write, whether waiting to be published or multi-published authors: Keep writing. Keep praying. And stay close to the Creator who makes you creative.
#2 Most Often Asked Question :
“How do you come up with your stories?”
I wrote a blog post on the subject last month called, 3 Ways I Choose A Book Topic, but I’d like to go into more detail with you about how I develop the plot lines for the stories. Let’s take a look at one of the Deep-O-Tional Scriptures we studied in our devotional a few weeks ago, and pretend we’re writing a novel about Moses and his two mothers.
Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe…She saw the basket among the reeds and…opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”“Yes, go,” she answered. And the girl went and got the baby’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”Exodus 2:5-10 NIV
To Ask Good Questions, We Must Know The Passage
If you don’t know what happened in the chapter before this and the chapter after, stop now and go read it! Knowing that the Pharaoh had ordered all Hebrew baby boys executed makes a BIG difference in what kinds of questions we ask!
Place Yourself In the Scene and Ask a Question as One of the Characters
Are you Pharaoh’s Daughter? What would your father do if you saved a Hebrew baby? Are you the baby’s sister? How would you feel when speaking to a woman who held your life–and the life of your baby brother–in her hands? Are you Jochebed–Moses and Miriam’s birth mother–watching from afar?
