On Mentoring

by Sariah S. Wilson

Yes, I am aware that there is some sort of sports event happening today. But as I know nothing about either team (other than a vague rumor I heard about a BYU graduate playing for the Colts) I will have nothing to say on the subject. Other than that I DVR'ed it so that I could watch the commercials.

So, I was thinking the other day about how important mentors are in certain fields. We don't expect surgeons to glean all their knowledge from teachers and books - they have to practice with mentors who teach them for a long time before they go off on their own. Master carpenters can teach an apprentice more than he'd ever learn from studying a book.

My thoughts went this direction because I wanted to write a character with a certain personality trait that I do not possess and I thought I should get a book on it. I then thought of all the things I've tried to learn from reading books - how to potty train my kids, how to get them to sleep through the night, how to write a book, how to be a more positive person, etc., etc.

Then I thought that the best teaching methods came not from a book, but from another person. Moms who had already potty/sleep trained their children were far more help than the best book. Reading the work of other authors in my genre taught me more than any instructional book could have. Happy, positive people are better examples and more motivating for me than the written word.

I considered that I hadn't had an actual mentor when I wrote and sold my first book. I didn't belong to a writing group; I didn't have any critique partners.

But then I remembered the help I did have - Rob Wells pushed me toward my current publisher and encouraged me to send my work there; Julie Bellon read my first chapter, made a suggestion that made the first few lines even better, and answered any questions I had about the publishing process; once my work was accepted Jeff Savage became my go-to-guy on questions I had regarding the LDS market. I met these three authors at Latter Day Authors, and in big and small ways they acted as mentors for me.

I've also had the help of many generous authors along the way who did blurbs for my books or sent me kind words regarding my work. I had more help from real people than I'd ever imagined once I stopped to think about it.

What do you think - are mentors necessary to help you succeed? Or do you think you could learn all you need to know from books or websites?

2009 Whitney Awards Finalists Announced

The Whitney Awards committee today announced the finalists for the 2009 Whitney Awards, a program which honors the best novels by Latter-day Saint writers.

To be eligible for consideration, a book must have received at least five nominations from its fans. More than one hundred works by new and established authors in both the LDS and national markets met the preliminary criteria. Once a book is nominated, juries of authors and critics narrow the nominees down to five finalists per category.

This year’s nominees are listed below in alphabetical order by author:

BEST ROMANCE: Counting the Cost, by Liz Adair; Illuminations of the Heart, by Joyce DiPastena; All the Stars in Heaven, by Michele Paige Holmes; Santa Maybe, by Aubrey Mace; Previously Engaged, by Elodia Strain.

MYSTERY/SUSPENSE: Lockdown, by Traci Hunter Abramson; Methods of Madness, by Stephanie Black; Murder by the Book, by Betsy Brannon Green; Lemon Tart, by Josi Kilpack; Altered State, by Gregg Luke.

YOUTH FICTION: Princess of the Midnight Ball, by Jessica Day George; Fablehaven IV: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary, by Brandon Mull; My Fair Godmother, by Janette Rallison; Bright Blue Miracle, by Becca Wilhite; The Chosen One, by Carol Lynch Williams.

SPECULATIVE: Servant of a Dark God, by John Brown; The Maze Runner, by James Dashner; Wings, by Aprilynne Pike; Warbreaker, by Brandon Sanderson; I Am Not A Serial Killer, by Dan Wells.

HISTORICAL: Tribunal, by Sandra Grey; The Undaunted, by Gerald Lund; Alma, by H.B. Moore; The Last Waltz, by G.G. Vandagriff; In the Company of Angels, by Dave Wolverton.

GENERAL FICTION: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford; No Going Back, by Jonathon Langford; Gravity vs. The Girl, by Riley Noehren; The Route, by Gale Sears; Eyes Like Mine, by Julie Wright.

This ballot now goes out to members of the voting academy, a select group of LDS publishers; bookstore owners, managers, and employees; LDS authors; print and online magazine publishers; reviewers; and others working in the field of LDS literature.

Unlike previous voting, this year the academy can choose from any of the thirty finalists for the overall award, Best Novel of the Year. Similarly, any of the finalists who meet the eligibility requirements can be chosen for Best Novel by a New Author. (Those eligible this year: John Brown, Jamie Ford, Jonathon Langford, Riley Noehren, Aprilynne Pike, Dan Wells, and Becca Wilhite.)

Winners will be announced at a gala banquet on Saturday, April 24 at the Marriott Hotel in Provo, Utah. Tickets are now on sale at WhitneyAwards.com.

Special awards will also be presented that night to two persons whose bodies of works and tireless efforts have made a significant impact on the field of LDS popular fiction. Gerald Lund will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award, and Dave Wolverton will receive an Outstanding Achievement Award.

My Love Affair with Writing

by Julie Coulter Bellon

As a wife, mother, teacher, friend, daughter, church member, and writer, I almost always have to squeeze in time for writing because of all the things going on in my life. It's not that I don't love writing, I do, and I want to spend a lot of time with it, but sometimes writing and I have a long-distance relationship because of my schedule.

For example, I was on the Whitney committee this year and have been reading a lot of books recently. (The finalists will be announced tomorrow. I can’t wait to see it!) But while I’ve been reading, reading, reading in the past week alone, my father has come to visit from Canada, I’ve had six basketball games to attend for my children, planned a surprise birthday party for my daughter, the writing muse came back and gave me the first chapter to my work-in progress, I started casting and rehearsing the road show I wrote, while a billion (or at least twelve) BYU students were breathing down my neck to get their portfolios graded. I’m also getting everything ready for my new book, Dangerous Connections, to launch in just over three weeks.

Sometimes my schedule leaves me feeling overwhelmed and wondering if I’ll ever finish my work in progress. But it’s when I’m doing something totally unrelated to writing that the ideas seem to come (and usually someone else is on the computer so I have to go over and over it in my mind so I don’t forget). Lately, I’ve been struggling with a character in my work in progress because she just didn’t seem to have a solid foundation. One day, I was driving down the road fairly early in the morning to drop one of my kids off at school and all of the sudden, there it was. I clearly saw how I was going to start my book out with her, and the first chapter just sort of flowed through my head. I couldn’t wait to rush home and write it. It took me about half an hour (I’m used to writing quickly because of my limited computer time due to my older kids being on it, or my one year old needing me), but that half an hour was definitely the highlight of my day.

For some reason, even with my hectic schedule, writing for a small amount of time grounds me. It fills my bucket, so to speak. I have so many demands because of my job and large family, but my writing is something that de-stresses me, that focuses me, and makes me feel like I am doing something for myself by trying to develop a talent. With my schedule right now I can’t write every day, but I notice a difference on the days I do write.

Even with all that said, there are days when I simply don’t want to write. I know I should, but I don’t. I’m too exhausted, I feel like giving up, or there are just too many things to do and I feel like I can’t justify sitting down at the computer. And sometimes, my mind just feels like there’s nothing up there even worth typing. But even with those days, I know that tomorrow will be better, or that if I can just squeeze in a little tiny bit of writing time today, I would feel better. If I do sit down and at least write a paragraph, I always remember this quote:


“I have forced myself to begin writing when I've been utterly exhausted, when I've felt my soul as thin as a playing card…and somehow the activity of writing changes everything.” - Joyce Carol Oates


Writing can change everything. It can change your mood, your perspective, and how you react to what’s going on around you. I love writing. I love creating something. And even in a very busy time of life, I find writing to be a solace, something that calls to me and has helped me find myself.

Maybe this doesn’t make sense to anyone but me, but I am grateful for writing, even when it’s hard. Writing is my antidote for stress, my ointment for a wounded heart, and my doorway to possibilities. It gives me a sense of fulfillment and is another way for me to share myself and my view of the world. I think it was always meant to be this way for me. And while I don't always make the time for it, I'm glad when I do.

Stoking the Fire

by Stephanie Black

A friend asked me the other day how I got motivated to write my first book. She’s interested in writing, but the problem for her is that “gap between thinking and doing.”

I find this a very interesting issue.

I wonder if sometimes the difficulty in getting fingers to keyboard can stem from the difference between wanting to write and wanting to have written. It’s very possible to want the finished product—a book—but at the same time to lack the motivation for the actual lengthy process of writing it.

I have the same motivation problem with a lot of things in my life. For instance, I’d like to be organized. I’d like to have my library books back on time and to always be on top of everything, and so on. But I don’t want these things badly enough to go through the process of getting organized. It’s not until something becomes painful enough that I want to change more than I don’t want to bother that I take action. For instance, I passionately hate trying to find all the forms we need for our taxes. So each year, as tax documents start arriving in the mail, I put them into a Ziploc bag. Then when my husband is ready to do the taxes, I can hand him the bag. There’s always something I still need to find—for instance, the paper showing how much we paid to renew the car registration—but it makes it so much easier for me to have most of the papers all together. Because the problem bothered me so much, I was motivated to fix it. And, of course, there’s the classic example—I’d like to be skinnier. But I only want to BE skinnier—I don’t want to go through the process of GETTING skinnier. And until I want to lose weight more than I want to eat what I want when I want, it’s not going to happen. The motivation just isn’t there yet. I’m motivated enough to exercise, but not to count calories.

Back to the original question—for me, finding the motivation to write my first book was NOT a problem. Stepping away from the computer when I really needed to stop writing and go pay attention to something else--THAT was tougher. I was so excited about the story that I rushed for the computer every chance I got. I had young children, so the baby/toddler naptime after lunch was my golden writing time. Unless there was some unusual situation—like visitors coming to town—no way would I spend that precious time doing housework. If a friend came to visit during naptime, I would be internally twitchy because this was my writing time slipping away (but I would have been way too embarrassed to say, um, hey, I really want to write right now; could we visit later?) If my husband was gone on a business trip, I would sometimes stay up very late writing. Since I was not yet published, I had no one waiting for my book—no editor, no fans. There was no need to hurry so there wouldn’t be a huge gap between releases, and there were no deadlines. I could take as much time as I wanted, and I did. I spent years learning how to write and working on that book, and the fire didn’t dim. I loved it.

Subsequent books—well, that’s a somewhat different story. I’m still motivated, but the roaring fire has cooled a bit. I still love writing, but I don’t rush to devote every spare second to my story like I wanted to when I was working on my first book. I admit that I'm not as disciplined as I should be. But I am motivated enough to keep those books coming, knowing that if I want to be successful, I need to keep on typing.

So how can you motivate yourself when the fire alone isn’t enough to get your fingers to the keyboard? Here are a few suggestions to stoke the flames:

*Set small, concrete goals. Instead of a big monster-goal of “I am going to write a book”, break it down. “This week, I am going to write 250 words per day.”. That’s about one page. Or if you’re really feeling stymied, set a goal to write just 100 words per day. Or, if you prefer to set goals in time increments instead of by word count, you could say, “This week, I will spend twenty minutes a day working on my book.” Or an hour, or whatever works for you. Bestselling author and Whitney Award winner Josi Kilpack said the following about getting out of a writing slump:

“What works best for me is forcing myself to write. I will set a timer for a prescribed amount of time and make myself write, no matter how much I don’t want to. I do about 30 minutes. Sometimes by the time the timer runs out I’m on a roll and I keep going. Other times I am so glad to leave the computer, but I am glad I did it.

"I think most writing slumps, at least for me, come from lack of confidence—either in my story, my ability to write it, or that I’ve taken care of other things in life enough to be able to feel good about writing. But it’s brutal trying to gain confidence when you’re not feeling it. I find making myself write gives me something to feel better about: “I’ve written three days this week, that’s better than last week” and eventually I find myself back in a groove.”

Following up on Josi’s comment about lack of confidence, my next tip is:

*Don’t demand perfection in that first draft. Get those words written and tell yourself you can fix them later. Of course you want to write your best and stretch yourself, but I think perfectionism can be the death of a first draft. If you worry too much that what you’re writing is awful, pretty soon you’ll sputter to a halt, or you’ll revise chapter one forty-seven times and never get anywhere near The End. Repeat after me: First drafts can be dorky. First drafts can be fixed. That’s what revision is for. There’s a lot to be said for gaining momentum, so don’t keep screeching to a halt to criticize yourself and redo everything. If you realize something in the story isn’t working, sometimes it helps to just make a note saying “fix this” and then keep moving forward.

*Give yourself little rewards. I’m an e-mail addict, so I often use that to kick myself in the pants, telling myself I have to write 200 words before I can look at my email again. It really works for me, and those 200 word increments add up. What little rewards might work for you? Chocolate? A favorite TV show? That novel you’ve been wanting to read? The chance to check your favorite blogs?


*Get a writing buddy or join a critique group. If you have to regularly submit pages to a critique group, that’s some serious motivation to get to work. Or if you have a writing buddy, you can share your goals and follow up with each other—a little accountability can go a long way. Or join a writing challenge, like the ones author Tristi Pinkston holds regularly on her blog, where you post your progress.

Now I’d love to hear your suggestions. What helps you stoke the fire and get that story written?

The Fourth Nephite

Thanks for all the birthday wishes here and on Facebook. I had a great 47th with family. And I got new games which is always a plus! Sorry about missing posting yesterday. I am in head down writing mode which always makes things a little crazy.

But I thought I'd share the cover from a new book coming out in July. The goal of a cover is obviously to hook the reader. But it can also tell you a lot about the genre, age group, story, etc So without knowing anything about this story, what would you guess from the cover?

If'n You're Interested

The latest issue of Mormon Artist came out this weekend, and it features a big long interview with me as well as the always-awesome Julie Wright.

The interview is a little different from previous interviews I've done around the interweb. It's a little more serious, I guess. When they contacted me I decided that I wasn't going to treat it like a marketing interview, since I'm not really promoting anything at the moment, but that I'd answer the questions as openly as possible. I think it turned out pretty well.

Go and partake.

Happy Birthday to Jeff Savage!

Today is Jeff's birthday - so please stop in and wish him a happy one!