Daily Archives: February 23, 2012

Leap of Character | CWBC

Posted on February 23, 2012 | 33 Comments

Christian Writers Blog ChainIn acknowledgement of it being a leap year, the writers of the ChristianWriters.com Blog Chain have chosen ‘Leap’ as this month’s subject. All have been wonderful posts, offering insights into writing, the life of a Christian, or even utilizing scenes from their collection of work. ‘Leap’ is such a wonderfully broad topic… and yet, at the same time, the broadness of it caught me a little bit unable to handle the possibilities. It was a good thing I had a majority of the month to ruminate on my particular approach.

What did I come up with?

Such is rather hard to explain, mostly because it feels to me as if the subject lingers just outside my mental capacity to simply and succinctly break it down. The lives of each one of us consist of a leap here, a jump there, a baby step over here… all coming together to create our identity as a Christian, a writer, a mother, a sister… you get the picture. But what was that first leap into the void of the unknown future which set you on this particular path?

In my 20′s, I learned a harsh lesson about the importance of treating others with respect and care. One of my… friends tended to treat me with harshness and criticism. I continued to keep myself in his realm of friendship because I knew the harshness of his past. Understanding and compassion were not known to him, and I tried to do my best to show him that. Later, God used my experiences with this friend to reveal to me how I treated my family and friends. The realization was hard to take, but the shock helped motivate me to seek a heart after God. To seek re-invention.

In my 30′s, God revealed another aspect of my character which needed to be broken off in order for me to find my future happiness. My heart needed to be re-made. Redefined. So many aspects of my heart and soul needed redefinition that I cannot put it to any specific words. I only remember heartache, remorse, regret, and then finally the peace of forgiveness and the calm of releasing myself to being reformed. My one prayer was for God to create in me a heart after Him.

I wanted to be a woman with His heart. I still do.

Alice & Gau from Heart of the Hinterland

Alice & Gau from Heart of the Hinterland

And then there is the leap of my character as a writer. From my earliest memory my soul suffered a press upon it. A need. One that I put into words in the form of songs and skits or fantastical adventures with my siblings. Nothing became committed to paper, although I recall creating loose-leaf booklets of lined paper fastened by yarn and colored with crayons.

Then, when I was but sixteen, I stared down at the old typewriter my older brother borrowed from a family friend. In the mechanical whirring I heard an intense whisper of a name. The white page pulled at my imagination, bringing into my mind the life a family with desires and loves and losses similar to my own.

I scooted my chair closer to the table, my fingers resting upon those wonderfully metallic and cool keys… and leaped into the telling of Vicki Modine’s story. It was my first experience as a “pantster”, allowing the characters and the images in my imagination the freedom of telling their story.

Maree & Galen from Ace of Diamonds

Maree & Galen from Ace of Diamonds

Most of the time I stumbled blindly ahead, a slave to those same characters and images, but there was always another life in the story to be touched and healed. Another enemy to be rescued from themselves. The thought of stopping never entered my head, and it was then the heart of the writer blazed to life within my soul, with that first fateful dive from my chair into the reckless abandon of becoming a writer.

Twenty-four years later, I cannot imagine my life without these characters and their stories. God used them to show me my own identity, to open my heart to the possible pain and joy of others. He injected these stories so deeply into my heart that, for the first time in my life, I found a purpose. A way to touch others. A testimony. A witness.

Ahndra & Marshal from Few Words

Ahndra & Marshal from Few Words

Some days are harder than others, as is the case in anything worth undertaking, but my characters are always there patiently (and some not-so-patiently) waiting for their own leap to the page. Their own rescue. Their final rest. An introduction to happiness or peace. They afford me the opportunity to speak to people outside my small sphere of influence, and I thank God for that. If just one life is affected at all by words on a page, then my characters and their life story was worth that first, terrifying leap onto a blank page.

Nona King

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