Rachel Starr Thomson

Based on my road trip last summer, my reflection on America, God, and real change, entitled “The Road to Change,” is the feature article on Boundless.org today. Here’s the link:

http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001884.cfm

"Why?" may be the most revealing question we can possibly ask.

I’m starting a new coaching relationship with an author, and in the first lesson I’m writing for him, I’m tackling the issue of motivation. We don’t care about characters who don’t care about anything; so when you write about a character, you have to know–and show us–what drives him. Why does he do what he does? When obstacles come up, why does he bother to overcome?

At the same time, for the last several mornings I’ve been dumping a lot of thoughts about conviction down on paper. It started out as an essay on legalism and morphed; I’m hoping to base a series of articles about the role of conviction in our lives on it. But it’s got me thinking about motivation again, because living by conviction means knowing WHY we do certain things, don’t do other things, and ultimately care.

I’ve heard this question asked of writers before, and it’s one I have to ask myself: why do I write? What is my motivation? When obstacles come up, when my work is rejected, when I don’t make enough money at it, why do I keep writing?

How about you? Why do YOU write?

And if you don’t, but would like to someday, why? What motivation is burning in you that wants to translate into words on paper?

In a recent comment, Libby asked, “Just curious, what are some of your favorite books? What books have influenced your writing? I’d love to read some of them!

That is such a great question, and I’m never sure how to answer it. I love books! I love discovering new ones, perusing old ones, rereading passages … I practically sleep with books under my pillow. But for some reason it’s very difficult to pick favourites.

When it comes to fantasy stories, C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books and Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles gave me the fantasy bug. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is unmatched, of course, but I’m not sure I’d really say they’re an influence on my own work. (Terry Brooks’s Shannara books, which I read years before LOTR, are definitely an influence. The Sword of Shannara practically is Lord of the Rings without the genius, but I didn’t know it at the time; and after that, his work gets a lot more creative.) I also like Robin McKinley’s fairy tales (Beauty , Rose Daughter , and especially Spindle’s End ), Susan Cooper’s Dark is Rising Sequence, and Stephen R. Lawhead’s Song of Albion and Pendragon Cycle. And George MacDonald’s Lilith is amazing.

For bringing God into fiction, no one equals George MacDonald. I also love Amy Carmichael’s writings. In general fiction, I’m a big fan of pretty much everything by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Charlotte Bronte, and P.G. Wodehouse. I love Hard Times by Charles Dickens, The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling, Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne, and various children’s books by Madeleine L’Engle.

Since my latest trip to the used bookstore, I’ve been riveted to Essays and Essayists, edited by somebody named Newbolt, and I had great fun the other night skimming an introduction to Robert Browning’s poetry. Which just goes to illustrate my firmly held belief that writers should read widely, in all sorts of veins.

(A disclaimer: families and individuals will have their own standards for what is acceptable and what is not; if you are interested in checking out some of MY favourites, do be aware that not everything will necessarily suit you.)

I’m making a few Web site changes in preparation for the release of Burning Light in December. (Currently with proofreaders! Yay!) Today I learned to use Google Analytics — very cool, and just as user-friendly as SiteMeter — and tinkered with a couple of things. In particular, you are no longer REQUIRED to sign up for my mailing list to download the free Worlds Unseen and Tales of the Heartily Homeschooled ebooks. You are, however, very politely asked to . This is to help me manage my mailing list and to make people aware that actually, signing up really helps me out.

If you haven’t signed up for my mailing list, please do . I send out monthly updates on my writing and upcoming books and things of interest.

At noon today, I met with a writer at one of my favourite local coffee shops. It was a fruitful meeting; I’ll be doing some one-on-one coaching for him, and possibly editing his book once it’s gone through revisions. I arrived an hour early, planning to park myself at a table, sip a hot mug of rooibos with lemon, and get some work done.

But alas and alarm bells! They had posted a sign imposing “strict 45-minute” sitting limits per customer. I asked the girl how strict that actually was, and she said, “It’s not,” but the very idea horrifies me. Coffee shops are the writer’s natural habitat! In the unwritten rules of coffee shops, it is clear that writers are supposed to be able to sprawl, sip, and work — without pressure to get up and leave. After all, coffee shops and writers were made for each other! More than one famous writer uses a local coffee shop as an office. If we’re forced out of our natural habitat, how on earth are we supposed to turn out the world-enriching prose we were called to write?

Of course, truth be told, I spend way more time in coffee shops marking student papers than I do actually writing. But I wrote a chapter of Taerith in a local Starbucks (not this post’s Shop of Notoriety), and I have fond hopes of churning out more material in such friendly environs.

Hopefully they’ll change this rule when they realize it’s a tad unfriendly and out-of-step with the whole coffee shop aura. In the meantime, I lodged my financial protest. I left without buying a second tea. They’re out a whole $1.86.

I have mentioned, I think, that I love writing for Boundless.org. The biggest reason for that is that I love reading Boundless. Today’s article, Todd Temple’s “Lessons from Sneetches” struck me as an excellent explanation of several of our culture’s biggest downfalls, economically and socially. I especially loved its insight into age segregation. Read it! I also really enjoyed Todd’s recent “How to Wallow in Debt,” and have been bringing it up in conversation ever since it was posted last week.

I also enjoy writing for Homeschooling Today. This week, I’ll be working on a review of two recent literary guides to Prince Caspian. I flipped the first one open and was instructed by the authors, in no uncertain terms, to put it DOWN until I had read Prince Caspian again. It’s been about 16 years since I last read C.S. Lewis’s classic, so I took their advice. There’s a scene near the end where Aslan leads a wild, holy procession of revelers through the villages. I had completely forgotten about it.

“If you don’t attend, Gwendolen,” said the mistress, “and stop looking out of the window, I shall have to give you an order-mark.”

“But please, Miss Prizzle–” began Gwendolen.

“Did you hear what I said, Gwendolen?” asked Miss Prizzle.

“But please, Miss Prizzle,” said Gwendolen. “There’s a LION!”

“Take two order-marks for talking nonsense,” said Miss Prizzle. “And now–” A  roar interrupted her. Ivy came curling in at the windows of the classroom. The walls became a mass of shimmering green, and leafy branches arched overhead where the ceiling had been. Miss Pirzzle found she was standing on grass in a forest glade. She clutched at her desk to steady herself, and found that the desk was a rose-bush. Wild people such as she had never even imagined were crowding round her.

Which goes to show that it pays to give attention to really important things, like holy lions, and argue with school teachers when necessary. It also goes to show that you should read Prince Caspian if you haven’t yet, or if it’s been a long time.

Commenting on my last post, my fellow Waysider and good friend Britt said,

That was very interesting to read. Editing! I would dearly love to try my hand at that. Is it mostly proofreading, or is it actually editing material? Either way, that sounds like a fun thing to do without me actually having to produce something. It does seem that you have to have a certain gumption and perseverence to get your foot in the door, though.

It does–but gumption and perseverance are necessary in any profession having to do in any way with words . As to the actual work, it depends on the client’s needs. I can be hired to do a substantive (or developmental) edit, where I work a great deal with shaping and critiquing the material; a copy edit, which has to do with wording and grammar and saying things in the best way possible; or a proofreading, which just checks for errors. I also ghostwrite, but that’s another matter altogether, and coach writers, which is fun.

Commenting on the least popular people club , Elisabeth asked, "I’ve been wondering…how did you get into editing? I’ve toyed with the idea of trying it myself and I’ve been meaning to ask you where you started out."

That’s a good question, and a very relevant one right now — for me! I’ve set some financial goals for this year that require me to pursue editing aggressively again. For the past two years, I’ve been fairly laidback about it. So this post is a good chance to remember how I got started!

I had a strange youth full of obstacles to actually working; that is, working a job for someone outside of my family. But obstacles pass, and in 2004 I realized that I was 21 years old and I needed a job. I also realized that I didn’t want one. For the first time in my life, really, I knew that I wanted to write. And I wanted a job that would allow me to do that while actually making money.

So hey, I thought, why not become a freelance editor? Many people need editors. I happen to be good at editing. I have spent the last umpteen years giving myself a really solid education in writing; I know what to look for and how to work with words.

Thus, I trekked out into the world. First, I joined email lists of writers and small publishers. I introduced myself to them as a freelance editor, making sure they knew my services were available. Most email lists frown on constant self-promotion, but many will allow it on certain days or in specific ways. And you can learn a TON from other members! Try searching Yahoo or Google Groups for likely candidates.

(The payoff may not always be immediate, but networking is smart. Soon after I joined the Christian Self-Publishers list on Yahoo, I did a sample edit for Home School Enrichment Magazine . It was almost two years before they were able to hire a copy editor, but when they could, they hired me!)

Speaking of email lists, I also joined the general mailing list for the Christian Proofreaders & Editors Network, aka the Christian PEN. You can find them at www.thechristianpen.com . This is a wonderful list for networking and learning! When I joined, the list regularly referred writers who were looking for editors. I found several of my first clients this way. At this point, you must become a Contributing Member in order to receive these referrals, but I’m not complaining — member dues are extremely reasonable. The PEN also offers regular online courses on various aspects of editing.

Clients were still few and far between, so I paid for ads in several email newsletters for writers. One of them, I believe, was Angela Hoy’s Writers Weekly (www.writersweekly.com ). I didn’t find the response to be fantastic, but the ads paid for themselves.

Eventually, I came across an ad in one of the newsletters for a coaching service called Write At Home . They were looking for one-on-one tutors to work with mostly homeschool students. The fit couldn’t have been better! I’ve been with Write At Home ever since, enjoying an ever-expanding roster of students. If you’re interested in coaching, W@H is always looking for new coaches. Check out the "Coaches" link on their Web site. (That picture is me, by the way!)

That, in a nutshell, is how I got started as a freelance editor.

Coming Up Next Time, the editor’s essential tools .

I wrote an article the other day on being self-published (coming to print soon, hopefully), with an expression of joy in my readers:

“Last week a young lady sent me a picture she drew of Maggie Sheffield, the main character in my fantasy novel Worlds Unseen. My characters are alive in other people’s heads. I have succeeded.”

And that’s really one of the things I love best about publishing my own work. Here’s the picture of Maggie, drawn by the Elisabeth of this recent blog post:

I’m putting it up in the Gallery as well. Check out the rest of the fan art there! I’ve also added a couple more pictures of me to the author gallery. One of them is me with Carolyn Currey, my cousin, cohort, and co-author. We appear to be having, if not exactly the War of the Roses, then perhaps the War of the Weeds, more Properly, the Queen Anne’s Lace.

P.S. Yay, I just remembered how to put this up in better quality! Task accomplished .

When P.G. Wodehouse, possibly the best comic writer who ever lived, had his first novel published, he sent a copy to his friend Bill Townend with these words inscribed:

To Villiam Townend

these first-fruits

of

a

GENIUS

at which

the

WORLD

will

(shortly)

be

AMAZED

(You see if it won’t)

from

the author

Sep 28. 1902 P.G. Wodehouse

To an aspiring writer, I think a little hubris is helpful. Provided, of course, that it’s regularly dosed with reality’s tonics, like hard work, honest relationships, and the staggering genius of other writers to which we could never possibly measure up.

I got a small shipment of books in today: five copies of Worlds Unseen and five of Tales of the Heartily Homeschooled . Even though I have these things around pretty much perpetually, I never tire of opening a new box. Maybe because Deborah did such a great job with the artwork. Worlds especially is just gorgeous to look at. The colours are so rich. (It would make a great Christmas present. Hint hint.)

I use a POD (Print-On-Demand) printer, so inventory isn’t something I deal with much. For Canadian orders, though, it saves me a bit on shipping to have stock I can mail myself. Plus, it’s oddly fulfilling to have real books with my name on them in my hands!

I ran a quick financial check on Tales of the Heartily Homeschooled yesterday and discovered that we are almost at the point of making a profit on it. I’ve done more promo for it than any other book, so it’s nice to know it’s going to pay off. I’m hoping to cross that line over Christmas!