A Walk 'Round the Block to Talk

"Let's take a walk," she said, "and talk about this." It wasn't an "oh no" moment in the relationship, at least not between me and her. And it was a lovely day. So we walked around the upper part of town, my fiancee and I, and talked plot and conflict. Conflict should more drive the plot, after all; and plot should at best add to the conflict, not make up the conflict. And, see, when I first sat down to write my novel as an immature writer, I sat down to write a plot. As a maturing writer, I knew I needed conflict. And I've been trying to wrangle a conflict from the plot. Write and tell me how many professional writers think that's a good idea.

Making Disciples

I started thinking a little while back about the posts I do on Fridays about my faith, and the Christian faith. I wanted to make something clear, something I feel very strongly about: and that's about how my views relate to you, the reader.

Putting On A Voice

I can remember back in Iraq, I was there for a year on the Army plan. For nine months we were in a place called Camp Victory. They pulled me in to watch radios and work for the First Sergeant. Twelve hours on, twelve off. It went through phases, kind of: it was six to six, either am or pm; or noon to midnight. Day after day, seven days a week, for nine months.

A Salvation Issue

I know I'm wading into dangerous waters here, but I will try to be as reasonable and humble as I can. Last Sunday in our small-group we got off on a major disagreement on salvation: can you lose it, what defines its gaining, things like this. My baseline question for this discussion is this: if a man or woman "says the prayer" at a young age, then during college falls away, eventually stating: "I no longer believe there is any such thing as God"; is that person saved? John 3:16 says, in part, "whoever believes in Him shall not perish." So if you stop believing, are you still saved? But after several conversations, and much time to think, I'm thinking this may still be the wrong question.

A Glimpse

Today I decided to share an excerpt from my novel with you guys, one that's shaping up as a fairly critical part of the story -- a hinge, as it were, upon which a fairly significant part of the plot swings. The beauty of it is, outside of its context, you can't necessarily tell that. Which means I can share it without giving away a huge part of the novel. Taken from a moment about halfway through the novel, this excerpt includes three of the novel's four main characters: Haydren, Geoffrey, and Pladt. They've been travelling, lost, for an indeterminate time, but probably weeks in a forest of complete darkness. To keep track of intersecting trails, they began laying bark arrows along their route of travel, with other strips to mark them by numbers. They had spent this last day chasing the call of a bird known to inhabit fringes of forests -- that is, a bird that should be living near their exit. Two of their three torches have run out of fuel and extinguished, and they paused to eat...

Here Comes Daniel, God On Tail

Hopping down the bunny trail. Did you hear that in the subject-line? That's cool.

God took me down the bunny trail on Monday, illuminating both James 1:2-3 and Psalm 25:3, and passing through Psalms 23 and 24. Let me show you the way.

Officially Official

If you like what you find here, you can also go to www.facebook.com/DanielDonovich and keep up-to-dater on the goings-on of querying agents and generally trying to become published. Sound like fun? If nothing else, it's a road full of excitement, anticipation, hope, and sometimes a little despair and frustration and waning patience just to make it interesting. Check it out, and follow along!

A Writer....

...fill in the blank. Reads? Writes? Doesn't make much money? Potentially all of them. But here's one not many people might think of: A writer watches movies.

Really, a writer needs to experience life. Reading is good to see what other creative people are doing, and maybe feel alternately good and bad about yourself. Writing is obviously good; all professionals do their profession to get better. A baseball player may read all the self-improvement books in the world, but if he never steps on the field he won't get any better. And you watch movies to learn dialogue.

Home School or Public School?

Don't let the title mislead you: this will be about faith. I came to this topic when speaking with my "agnostic" friend (who admitted to me that true scientists could never be anything but agnostic or believer -- atheism requires proof, which doesn't exist.) I was trying to relate a good story in which I experienced God -- because I truly believe that is the only "proof" someone will ever get. Unfortunately, my story had to do with God's providence. I say "unfortunately" because it immediately brought up the question: why you, and not this other person? This person who died, for instance. And I don't want to be glib about this, because these are serious issues. But I think we miss the point about God.