Ask the Author: D.L. Yoder
Answered Questions (6)
D.L. Yoder
My first book, So Into Her began with one sentence that had been following me around for a couple of days. So I wrote it down and the story came so fast that each day I wondered what was going to happen next. I could not wait for each new day to see where this thing was going. Writing is magic.
"He was being watched, he could feel it." I wrote those eight words, which was all I had and the story laid a hold of me. The rest was magic.
"He was being watched, he could feel it." I wrote those eight words, which was all I had and the story laid a hold of me. The rest was magic.
D.L. Yoder
One morning in the kitchen I told myself a joke with my coffee cup in hand, "I am going to write a romance novel." I probably said "Romance Novel" like it was a lesser section of the literary world. Shame on me. I love romance stories now, what happens between men and women as they face difficulties together. Their is a Christian element to my outlook, so when I look at the Bible with fresh eyes I see the God of the Bible is into romance stories too. Jacob served seven years for his Rachel, and had to do another seven years on top of that in order to get her, but it was "as a day to him for his great love for her." Ruth, on the bottom of the financial world, got married to Boaz, who was on the top.
So I told myself a joke and the right side of the brain took it seriously and i began to write. For me, writing is magic.
So I told myself a joke and the right side of the brain took it seriously and i began to write. For me, writing is magic.
D.L. Yoder
I am currently working on the last part of the trilogy that began with "So Into Her." Those that have liked the series have been very patient. It probably would have been smarter to write all three and then release them, snip, snap, boom. Well, we got the snip and the snap, still working on the boom. Life has gotten really busy and so i am moving forward slower than the first two in the series. After the three are finished, I am wondering about continuing further with the adventures of Marty and Yakiesha. The could become my version of Nancy Drew, solving future mysteries and crimes.
D.L. Yoder
There are so many different writing styles; you are the best you there ever was; oh, so you are not C.S. Lewis or Charles Dickens? Find your voice and share it. You are a pro at being yourself. If you make five other people happy by what you have written, you have succeeded. If you make everybody mad and disagreeable by what you have written, you have at least helped them cement their own beliefs and convictions, so you are still a success. Writing is magic, the more you do it, the better you become.
D.L. Yoder
Two things; first the joy of releasing your imagination to build, paint, and create something beyond the circular track we all are pinned to. Everybody has a track they have to run on to make life happen, you pass the same landmarks over and over. When you write or even read, you escape the circular track.
Second, you get to invite others to come on the journey you have started. Writing is a journey, it has a beginning and it takes us to an end. There is a certain joy sharing the journey with others. They read the same thing you wrote or even the same thing you have read and often they see things different, so not everybody likes your story. But the ones that do brings a smile to the writer's heart; a journey started, a journey finished, a journey enjoyed together.
What if you sat in a room and wrote and wrote, but no one was ever allowed to follow your journey? No one was ever allowed to see what you had written?
They may not like you, they may not like your story; how safe do you want to be? Cowards do not write.
Second, you get to invite others to come on the journey you have started. Writing is a journey, it has a beginning and it takes us to an end. There is a certain joy sharing the journey with others. They read the same thing you wrote or even the same thing you have read and often they see things different, so not everybody likes your story. But the ones that do brings a smile to the writer's heart; a journey started, a journey finished, a journey enjoyed together.
What if you sat in a room and wrote and wrote, but no one was ever allowed to follow your journey? No one was ever allowed to see what you had written?
They may not like you, they may not like your story; how safe do you want to be? Cowards do not write.
D.L. Yoder
I just start writing knowing that I am writing something I don't like, something really blah and destined for the delete file. But as I do that, there might be a seed buried in the mud that is worth transplanting somewhere else.
Sometimes we feel that we have to have something to show for our time spent. One day I spent an hour writing something that was going nowhere. You kind of feel cheated and that you wasted a portion of your limited time. But then if you think of it as going to the gym; you exercised. To be writer you have to exercise; you might not have anything of value to keep at the end of your session, but at least you exercised.
Sometimes we feel that we have to have something to show for our time spent. One day I spent an hour writing something that was going nowhere. You kind of feel cheated and that you wasted a portion of your limited time. But then if you think of it as going to the gym; you exercised. To be writer you have to exercise; you might not have anything of value to keep at the end of your session, but at least you exercised.
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