Writing…

I thought I would post a little about one of the things I love to do the most… Write! First, I will give a little history:

I started trying to write books and poems when I was quite a little girl. Before I could write I made picture books. After I learned to write, I tried my hand at writing books, but never got very far.

Then when I was eight or nine I saw a poem that my aunt had written for my Mom when she was a girl. I thought it was very neat. So I tried writing poems myself. I had almost no poetic ear and wrote very poorly, but I had fun. It would be years before I started to rhyme my poems. A few months after the poem incident, I started a book called “What Happened When Rose Came. It was to  be the first in a series called “Rose Showalter Minks”. After awhile it was neglected, but when I was 11 I started on it again and after much hard work, finished the first draft.

Since that time I have begun several other books, the only problem is… I never very many of them. I am in the middle of so many that I finally came up with a plan for finishing them: I am going through all my books one at a time and writing a complete first draft of each, unless I decide that the book has no value. If I decide that I will just throw it away and not waste time and space over it. Once I have completed that first draft I will type it out, making any revisions that I wish. Then I will print the book out and give it to my editor to edit. (My editor also happens to be my Mom.) Then I will move on to the next book. Later when I have gone through all (or most) of my books in this fashion, I will go back to the books that Mom has edited and make revisions based on her suggestions and my own ideas. Then I will give it to Mom again and so it will keep going through the cycle until we are both satisfied that the book is polished enough, then I can pronounce it as done.

I have gone through the drafting procedure with two of my books already.

The first of them is called “Princess Grace; An Allegorical Tale for Girls”. The book is an allegory about a  Princess named Grace. “She was not born a princess, for this is a role of action she must choose to take.” (quote from chapter one) The way to become a Princess is to be adopted by the King of the land. To be adopted by the King you must allow his one perfect son take the blame for all the wrongs you have committed. After Grace has become a Princess, she must go through training in a cottage. When she has learned all her lessons, she will be able to enter the palace of the King. This is to be the first of a series written expressly for girls called “A Princess in Training Series”. Other characters you will meet include: Faith, Faithless, Upright, Knowledge, Simpleton, Glory and Honor.

The second book is entitled “ The Tale of the Say’s Phoebe” It is a true story about some birds nesting on our front porch that I embellished. The story is in the words of a mother bird relating a tale form her childhood to her young. I added adventure, yet tried to not add anything that would have been impossible in the true circumstances. For instance, one of the baby birds disappeared from the nest for two days. We had no idea where it went. In my story, I had it stranded on the roof. She was rained upon and attacked by a hawk while she was there.

The book I am currently engaged in writing is called, “The Encounter’s of Christopher and Christina Howard”. It is by far the longest. The other two books are just a few chapters long and do not exceed 30 pages. This book has reached 7 chapters and is around 50 pages long! And I am not half way through!

The outline of the book is as follows: The story is set in olden times. Christopher and Christina Howard find an entrance to an old house in their kitchen. In the old house they meet an old broken down woman, whom they bring to the Lord.

There are a few subplots. For example their Father, a merchant is undergoing the loss of his ship and crew. He is stuck in England while his family are living in America. You hear about his trust in God even at the hardest times, through his letters he sends to his family.

In this book I have tried to be very descriptive in some areas. An example is as follows:

“They slowly advanced to the door. Opening it they went inside. It was a dining room. It had a long table with many chairs around it. On it lay an old dusty tablecloth. In the middle of the table was an ancient filthy tray of old shriveled fruit. Once it must have been a beautiful centerpiece, now however it only made the table seem filthier.

“A large hutch stood on one wall, behind whose glass doors was a very dusty china tea set. On the wall to their right was a huge window with dingy lace curtains. Cobwebs hung in the corners of the room from floor to ceiling like a thick veil.”

I have so many books to finish after this one that I think I have enough to keep me busy for at least a full year! One of them is about my life, beginning when I was eight years old. It includes such events as the birth of my sisters, the death of my grandmother, lessons I have learned, vacations we have gone on etc… I have not quite reached my 10th birthday and it is already really long! I do not know where I should end it. I also can think of NOTHING to name it! Dear, dear!

My hope and prayer is that all my writings (books, stories, poems, essays, etc…) will first: bring glory and honor and praise to the Lord whom I serve. Secondly, that they will be a blessing to others and thirdly, that I may be able to instruct and encourage young girls. I pray the Lord will use all my writings for His glory.

“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” First Corinthians 10:31

Rebekah ~ The Lord’s Daughter