Interview with Christian writer Diana Wallis Taylor

Award-winning Christian novelist and poet Diana Wallis Taylor has been writing since she was twelve – poetry, short stories, and articles – and is now working on her fourth book of Biblical fiction for Revell. She and her husband have six grown children and ten grandchildren between them and enjoy such activities as fishing in Alaska, traveling to other fun places with Elderhostel, and spending time with the grandchildren. To order her books or find out more about her writing life, visit her website.

What do you most want to say to Christians who write?

Diana: Be true to your faith. To quote the founder of our San Diego Christian Writer's Guild, Dr. Sherwood Wirt, "The world doesn't need more Christian writers. It needs more Christians who write." Let your writing, even for the secular market, reflect the values you hold.

What changes do you see in Christian publishing?

Diana: More e-publishing and self-publishing are prevalent. Traditional publishers are depending more on sites like Writer's Edge and on agents to screen submissions for them. Secular publishers are buying Christian publishing houses because of the lucrative Christian market.

How do writing conferences or workshops help Christian poets and writers?

Diana: Pay your dues. If you are a beginning writer, go to the workshops, get in a critique group, read the books on writing and keep honing your skills. It will pay off in the end.

How can poets and writers improve their writing?

Diana: Get in a critique group and get feedback on your work. Even if you feel God gave you the poem, story or ___? He doesn't have poor grammar. Even with poetry, be prepared to write and re-write. Be gracious about accepting criticism as these fellow writers represent a cross section of readers who might read your work. Edit. Edit. Edit.

Thank you, Diana, for giving us the benefit of your experience and a glimpse into your Christian writer’s life. May God continue to bless you and your work.

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If you need professional feedback for a minimal fee on your poems, devotionals, children’s picture book or book proposal of a full-length novel or nonfiction book, contact me through my website.

(c) 2011, Mary Harwell Sayler

Writing talent and spiritual gifts

You probably weren’t too surprised by the name change of this blog, but discovering spiritual gifts can be very surprising! I’m not talking about your natural writing ability or God-given talent as a writer, but more:

The people of God have spiritual gifts specifically for strengthening the people of God.

What gifts? According to I Corinthians 12, the Holy Spirit gives a whole list of gifts you might want to check out in a wide variety of translations to get a full view of what God has in mind.

Once you have identified the spiritual gift(s) you have been given, you will most likely see ways to use those gifts in your writing life. For example, a spirit of wisdom might lead you to write insightful Bible study materials, prayer-poems, devotionals, or an advice column for teens, young marrieds, or other readers with whom you identify.

A spiritual gift can also help you to identify your most likely readers. For instance, a gift of evangelism lets you know to focus on non-Christian readers in your genre of choice, depending on your personal interests. Years ago, for example, I read romance novels by the box-load then wrote inspirational romances, not with the typical plot toward a “conversion experience,” but with story people whose faith or closeness to God had ebbed then flowed back before The End.

As you use your ministry gifts to encourage and up-build God’s people, your writing may gain a new sense of purpose. This can be exciting! So feel free to tell us about your discoveries in the Comments section below. If you aren’t sure what ministry gift you have been given, Comment on that too.

May the Holy Spirit guide you as you discern your spiritual gift(s) and use your writing for the common good of all good peoples of God.



(c) 2011, Mary Harwell Sayler

Writing children’s picture books

Picture books may seem easy to write, but writing them for actual kids to read and enjoy requires work. Why? There's a lot of competition in this genre, so you not only have to come up with a fresh idea, you have to write about it in the simplest terms, yet keep it lively! To give your manuscript an edge, try these tips:

Study the genre. 

Talk to children in the age group that best suits your ideas.

Read stacks of children’s picture books and note your preferences.  

Ask the librarian in the children’s section of your public library which books parents and teachers like and, more importantly, which ones kids return to again and again.

Make a list of interesting, kid-appropriate topics that might need to be covered.

Keep an idea file.

Read your manuscript to children in your chosen age group.

Study catalogs and guidelines of publishers whose picture books you like.

Notice how a successful picture book has simple sentences, kid-friendly vocabulary, and only a few words on each page.

Each page needs to be visually-oriented to lend itself to illustration.

The total page length – including front and back matter (title page, copyright page, dedication, bibliography, notes to parents or teachers, etc.) – should be divisible by four since a sheet of paper, folded in half, adds four pages.


For more ideas and information, see these related articles:

Keeping Your #KidLit User-Friendly

Writing Winner Nonfiction for Kids

Writing Children’s Stories With No Pink Fairies Or Old Fads



(c) 2011, Mary Harwell Sayler

Turning stones into building blocks and bread into bread

A Bible reading for this first week of Lent takes us into the wilderness where Jesus had to decide whether to turn stones into bread. He certainly had the power to do so and would have settled an empty stomach right away, but the temptation for the immediate and expedient had no long-term appeal. Why? Jesus knew where He came from and knew where He was going, so hunger pangs, though uncomfortable, did not throw Him off course or trip Him up.

If we trip over stones, maybe we can write about overcoming obstacles.

If we trip over stones, maybe we can write about making a barbecue pit.

If we even see a stone (in Florida they’re rare!), maybe we can find the kind of flat, round, pita-bread-shaped stones that our readers can use to skip-toss across a pond.

Stones of all shapes and sizes can be great tools. Many have a hefty purpose, but if people need bread, they need stones mainly to grind the corn or wheat.

Jesus knew that stones can be a solid foundation for building, but not for making meals. He fed hundreds of hungry people, for example, by turning fish and bread into more fish, more bread.

If you fish around your Idea File or main areas of interest, what fish do you have to share with other people?

If you have even a little bit of anointing oil or oil used for healing or oil of gladness or oil to stop a squeaking door, might it be enough to lubricate a thought, a worry, a spiritually dry spot your readers have?

What grains of truth can you write about to feed someone who's hungry?

What natural God-given ingredients do you have to make hearty loaves of bread or books or poems or stories?

Thank God, Lent gives us time to give who we are and what we have and where we’re going some time and thought and prayer. No hurry, but just so you’ll know: Our readers may be famished for something wholesome, something nourishing, something they can really sink their teeth into, preferably without breaking their incisors on a stone.



(c) 2011, Mary Harwell Sayler, all rights reserved.

Protect your writings, photographs, and valuables before disaster strikes

As disasters fill the news today, prayers undoubtedly fill the air. The first concern, of course, is protecting yourself and your loved ones. If you’re in no immediate danger, though, please take time now to protect the records and valuables in your most valuable life:

Email your poems, writings, and/or works in progress to yourself, so you can retrieve them directly from the website of your Internet service provider.

Scan beloved family photographs and important documents. Save to a DVD and mail to siblings, children, or other family members, including at least one person who lives in another region of the U.S. or in another country.

Upload your prized photographs to a photo website such as Flickr or Picasa, making sure the security settings show as private rather than public.

Investigate free services on such websites as Google Docs and GMX.com that let you privately store your word files with easy retrieval from any computer, assuming you recall the user name and password.

Print out and/or backup copies of your poems and writings on a CD or DVD, and seal in waterproof Ziploc bags.

Seal other valuables too, including important papers, address book, and email contacts in watertight containers. Place them in a large purse, briefcase, or waterproof bag that you keep on your person or close enough to grab.

Although every contingency cannot be covered, consider as soon as you can the type of disaster most likely to occur in your area. In Florida, for example, we often prepare for water-related events, but for some time now, we have experienced drought conditions, so fire poses a threat too, making nonflammable containers a wise choice for storing valuables. If there’s a potential for evacuation, we also try to keep the car gassed up and stocked with water, appropriate clothing, flashlights, and snacks.

At other times, tornadoes and lightning storms have zipped overhead, causing us to stay put with our Ziploc bags, water jug, flashlights, and ourselves in the little basement room beneath our house.

I cannot even imagine what a tsunami must be like, but I have felt the impact of thunderstorms, snowstorms, and a 7.3 earthquake. I’ve seen tornadoes zig-zag overhead and ashes float into my living room from fires thirty miles away, and I’ve been in Hurricane Camille. Thanks be to God, my family and I survived with valuables intact, and, right now, I pray you do too.



(c) 2011, Mary Harwell Sayler, all rights reserved.

You are what you read: reading to write well, think well, and have something to say

The old adage, “You are what you eat,” contains many grams of truth for weighing physical health, but when it comes to healthy thinking and the development of writing skill, you are what you read or don’t read.

Think, for example, of the books that have influenced you in some way. Chances are, you would not be a writer if you had never read a book, but writer or not, the books you loved during childhood, teen years, and last week have shaped your mental outlook and, very probably, your character. That’s power!

So let’s think about books that made us think and make us thinkers.

If you’re a guy, some of your choices most likely differ from mine, but as a young reader, The Secret Garden showed me the healing power of honesty and persistent love, while Anne of Green Gables encouraged belief in a creative voice and spirit. Almost before memory, though, The Little Engine That Could laid the tracks for those later books to carry strong beliefs in caring, persistence, and faith. Later still, such inspirational novels as The Robe and Christy put similar values into the forefront of my forehead.

Before we even begin to read by ourselves, book choices shape our thoughts.

Books continue to shape the well-read life.

Books also help us to develop as writers.

From childhood on, the King James Version of the Bible shaped my thinking, first for the content, which I better understood in the many newer translations that followed, but also for the poetry and musicality that still make me want to go for a poetic flow even in writing nonfiction.

To develop my writing skill on purpose, however, my initial choices came from books published by Writers Digest. Their magazine and also Poets & Writers continued to supply useful information and ideas as has my long-time membership in Writers-Editors.com. 

Hopefully, you will gain some useful information about writing on this blog and about poetry on the Poetry Editor & Poetry blog. Such resources help writers in general, but our book choices show our individuality as we become what we read. So, let's:

Read ourselves well before choosing books to read.

My writings, for example, went from inspirational romances and devotionals to a picture book for preschoolers and life-health encyclopedias for college students. Sounds nice, but the fun of writing about all sorts of topics in all sorts of genres did not win a consistent readership nor help me to develop a voice that can be heard above the crowd.

Our books influence readers who stop to listen.

Our books help readers become what they read.

Our books also give us what we most want to read.

For years, I devoured novels, but I rarely read them now, so, for now anyway, I no longer write them. Thanks to my grands, I still read children’s books, especially well-written picture books, and I still like to write them. Most often though, I read stacks of poetry and every reputable translation of the Bible, which I also review on the Bible Reviewer blog.

As I put together my love of the Bible and of poetry, I asked myself this question, which may help you to read yourself well too:

What book(s) will be most likely to help me at this particular time in my writing life?

For example, my response led me into studying a classic that combines my particular interests: The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. I read it years ago but did not get the literary references, spiritual themes, or political purpose of that book, which is primarily a treatise on the separation of church and state – a division that had not been fully realized in the early 1300's.

When Dante wrote his book, the current title had not been accepted. He did not call his manuscript “divine” since that might have been presumptuous enough to land him in a low level of Purgatory! Within a couple of centuries, however, readers added the word, but the original title was simply The Comedy, which has nothing to do with the comedic laughter of today but, rather, means the opposite of a tragic tale. To define quickly:

A tragedy is a story that starts well but ends badly.

A comedy is a story that starts badly but has a happy ending.

To keep my reading of this classical work from being tragic, I needed help! When I previously read the slender volume, I had somehow missed the heft of its meaning. So to help me “get it” this time, I ordered all three volumes with contemporary free verse translations by Robert M. Durling and heavy-duty footnotes and articles by him and Ronald L. Martinez. Yes, it's a little intimidating – okay, a lot. But reaching the half-way mark has gave me a larger view than I would have noticed on my own, helping me to reassess my biblical values, poetry, and life.

Undoubtedly, my choice of reading material will help to shape my thinking and my approach to future writing projects. And, isn’t it best to think about and assess our dearest beliefs before we sit down to write? It’s not that we want to tell people how to think or what to feel, but our clarified thoughts and beliefs help readers better clarify their own priorities as they continue to become what they read.

(c) 2011 and 2019 revision by Mary Harwell Sayler, poet-writer


The Divine Comedy of Dante, Vol. 1, paperback



Purgatorio, Dante, Vol. 2, paperback



Paradiso, Dante, Vol. 3, paperback



Dante, three-volume set, hardback

Your writing success can soar with an honest but kind first reader

You’re your own first reader of course, so, hopefully, you make a habit of reading aloud every word you’ve written, listening closely to what you say and how effectively you say it. If something seems “off,” change it! Then, when your manuscript feels and sounds ready to you, find a good first reader.

If you just want a pat on the back, fine. Pick whoever knows and loves you a lot to read your manuscript and tell you how great it is.

If, however, you want an honest assessment of the strengths and weaknesses in your work so you can improve your writing as you revise, excellent! This means you’re aiming for professionalism, so your requirements for a first reader now need to be higher too.

But, where do you go or to whom do you turn?

For that important first reader, look for a friend, family member, or writing peer whom you trust to speak truthfully without putting you down.

If you’re fortunate enough to have several people in mind, pick the person who likes and often reads published works in the genre you have chosen.

As you choose your first reader, age will be a factor too. For example, if you write for preschoolers, read your story, poem, or nonfiction picture book text to young children who enjoy being read to in this fun Read-To-Me stage.

You do not even need to know your first reader! For instance, ask your local librarian about reading your work to the appropriate age group who regularly meets in the public library. This may be a weekly story time for preschoolers, a daily after-school program for older kids, or a literary discussion group for adults who get together each month. Regardless, take notes of the feedback you get, writing down exactly what was said, so you can carefully consider each comment later when you’re alone, ready to revise.

If your area offers a writing or critique group, this can provide yet another option for you to find a good first reader. Just give yourself time to get to know the individual members and the quality of their writing as you look for someone with whom you connect.

Look, too, for someone who shows respect for your work. Although you want to find someone you can count on to give you an honest assessment, you certainly do not want or need a first reader whose “honesty” is actually cruelty or jealousy in poor disguise!

Often, a first reader can spot rough spots in a manuscript, pointing them out matter-of-factly, which can help you to see what to do to improve the work. If this doesn’t happen, try putting your manuscript aside long enough to be able to return to it objectively.

If your first reader writes in your genre, s/he will be better equipped to advise you about ways to revise more effectively. If not – or if you know something is not working but do not know what to do to correct the problem, it’s probably time to get a professional critique.

Mary Harwell Sayler

Artistic, creative people get creative at any age

In high school days of English lit, teachers of teens loved to extol boy-or-girl-wonders such as the poet William Cullen Bryant, who reportedly wrote Thanatopsis at the young age of 18. Thanks to the Internet, a little research not only showed this information to be verifiable and true, but the kid actually published poems years earlier!

Now decades past my expiration date for being a wonder, I wondered what happened to Bryant. Not much went on with his poems, but the boy-poet advanced into his 80’s as an editor and writer of prose.

I’ll take that as an encouragement and hope you will too, because, at any age, creative people can and do find outlets for creativity.

What interests me even more than age or art genres, though, is how one artistic endeavor often leads to another. Take Thomas Hardy, for example. He started out as an architect and somehow that visual art helped him to write artistically in all literary genres.

Or consider the Reverend Gerard Manley Hopkins, who, besides studying theology, studied art and music – all of which he then combined into poems still loved and bought by the book-load today.

In investigating how one art informs another, I also discovered that W.B. Yeats studied art too, whereas G.K. Chesterton reviewed books about art. In and on other artistic stages, James Joyce sang professionally, and Dylan Thomas tried writing movie scripts.

How successful those creative acts were, I do not know, but each of those poets and writers wrote memorable manuscripts for years, some even into old age – timeless, tireless poems and stories still studied, collected, and recollected with ageless honor. What a wonder!


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(c) 2010, Mary Sayler



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Writers Write. Writers Learn. Writers Work.

Writers need to write.

“Real writers” have to write, but getting published is not the starting place if you want to become established as a freelance or assignment writer. The first step comes, plainly and simply, in writing. However, publication is a natural step toward improving your work.

That might not be what you expected to hear, so I will say what I just said in another way in hopes of being clear:

Getting published can help you to improve your writing.

Notice that I did not say writing for publication brings you closer to the fame-and-fortune fantasy that distracts many writers from the real adventures of the writing life. Thanks to everyone’s overnight Internet potential for renown, writers may be more likely to become poor and famous!

So, at first anyway, forget about money. Forget about a celebrity life. Forget about marketing and developing a platform, and simply focus on what it takes, realistically and professionally speaking, to get really, really good at your job:

Writers write. Writers learn. Writers work.

If you keep on writing and revising, your work will improve with practice, and getting published will help. How? Why? Besides activating, energizing, and employing your writing skills, publication encourages you to:

Thoroughly investigate topics that actually interest you.

Develop resources you can count on to be accurate, update, and precise.

Develop the discipline of a regular working schedule.

Research “the other side” of almost anything.

Find a balanced perspective beyond beliefs or unsubstantiated opinions.

Find your voice.

Find your preferred genre – the one in which you’re “a natural.”

Find out what’s being published and still needed in your field.

Become more aware of what publishers, editors, and readers seem to like.

Become acquainted with print and Internet markets for your chosen genre.

Follow writers guidelines with no amateurish demands to be the exception.

Meet deadlines with the same professionalism people usually show in being on time for an important engagement or business appointment.

Get input, including constructive criticism, from potential editors.

Get feedback from readers.

Get the encouragement you need to keep on writing.

Give your writing career the respect you'd show for any worthwhile endeavor.

Give yourself specific, manageable goals adjusted to fit you first as a person, then as a writer.


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(c) 2010, Mary Harwell Sayler

Writing a job description for the mature writer

Mature writers can be described and often recognized as those who have gained experience, found ways to reach out to readers, and begun to develop proficiency in their work. They probably have acquired at least a few publishing credits too.

Contrast that portrait with the very first stage of writing when we started to write with little thought of anything else. To be fair, though, in our writing infancy, that’s really all we need to do – just write.

So we write and practice at being grownup writers, and we write some more. We don’t worry too much about the needs and concerns of our potential readers or editors. We just write and hope they will love every jot and dot.

Before we know it, we’ve started toddling along, trying to gain our balance in the big, sometimes overwhelming world of publishing. Then a rejection slip trips us up, or we feel shocked that no one picks us up right away as the next great poet, novelist, or nonfiction sage. Like, who do they think they are?

Most of us whine awhile. Some of us decide to do things ourselves, and some of us keep on trying. Then, with or without an occasional good cry, something starts to happens.

Sometime somewhere for some – no, for most of us – a creative spurt with new growth occurs. Suddenly we start to take ourselves and our work seriously, enthusiastically, even studiously. We start to read as if we have just discovered reading. We start to study works in our genre.

We study journals, magazines, and books to see what we like and why.

We study guidelines produced by publishers we like.

We study markets to see what’s hot or where there’s a gap our writing can fill.

We study terminology, techniques, and tools of our trade.

We study words – how they sound together or how their connotations add layers of interest, mystery, and meaning.

We study our first drafts and read them aloud to hear if anything sounds off in sound or sense, and if so, we fix whatever needs fixing and go on.

We study ourselves to find out what we’re especially interested in writing about and to whom we most want to speak.

We study our potential readers – from the titles and topics that draw them to the ads that intentionally target their specific priorities, interests, and needs.

And we read.

We read books, journals, e-zines, anthologies, and information on a variety of reliable Internet sites.

We read our poems, novels, children’s stories, and how-to books out loud, and we read aloud each revision.

We read the publishing industry by what’s up or down or undecided.

We read editorial responses as personal words of encouragement as evidenced by even the tiniest personal note.

We read our readers, whom we care about and have gotten to know as friends.

We read ourselves, honestly but matter-of-factly, as the writer or poet we are gradually becoming – the mature writer, the mature poet whose maturing work we just love to read.


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(c) 2010, Mary Harwell Sayler



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Writers and stress

Everyone knows what stress is. Without it, fiction would have no plot. Most of us would be bored, and nothing much would change. Sometimes, though, poets, writers, and other sensitive people perceive stress as, well, a burden.

In the last couple of postings, we discussed (okay, I did) the importance of sitting in a neutral position at your desk but also leaving your computer or dropping your laptop (not too forcefully) and walking away to exercise your muscles and bones, to flex your joints, and to strengthen your whole body. But sometimes that’s still not enough.

At any desk at any age, the body of a writer is more than a machine, more than a computer, more than a body of writing. Separating ourselves from our work can be difficult, but the simple act of doing something different will often bring a new perspective or a burst of creativity.

Without exercising that healthier outlook, stress becomes a culprit, rather than an interesting plot. The body clamps down in a protective mode that can be self-defeating and not at all creative.

So, what’s a body to do? Change intents. For instance, consider:

Stress may be a sign we’ve taken on more than we can handle.

Stress may be a sign we’re working on a project to which we are not drawn.

Stress may be a sign of exerting our own importance into our worries or work.

As a writer and poet, I still get caught up occasionally in productivity and deadlines, not because of the demands of editors or of readers but because I want to share what I have learned. I want to make a difference. I want to inspire readers. Or, to put it another way, I get caught up in my own sense of self-importance.

Poets and writers seem especially hopeful of helping the whole world become its better self. Ironically, though, my outlook and my writing seem to improve dramatically when I become a conduit for words, writing them down, as I am now and seeing where they lead. Because I’m a Christian as well as a poet-writer, I suspect that leading has to do with the power of God, whose importance can not be overstated, but who puts up with me, stress and all, just waiting – waiting for me to take a breath and listen, stress-free, and hear.


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(c) 2010, Mary Harwell Sayler, all rights reserved.













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Sedentary writers need to exercise self-awareness

Spending a lot of time at your desk can produce many manuscripts but, often, many neck or backaches too. If you use a laptop instead of a desktop, you might get comfy then feel achy later. So, next time, check to see if your neck and spine remain in a neutral position as described in the last posting.

Besides keeping your back and joints neutral as you sit, practice self-awareness. Most writers and poets get so caught up in their work, they don’t even notice when fatigue sets in or aches begin to nag, but if you train yourself to listen to your body, you can give more attention to weaker areas then work to strengthen them. How?

Take a break every hour (two at the most) and notice how you’re feeling.

Stir around.

Swing your arms.

Roll your shoulders.

Notice which muscles or joints ache or have tired the most.

Concentrate your exercises on those areas.

Most exercises requires at least enough energy to get out of bed, but some work well on a mattress. For example, rest on your back with your arms at your sides. Lift one leg and hold that position for a count of 10. Do this five times then repeat with the other leg. This exercise will help to strengthen your hips, tighten your stomach, and ease stress in your lower back.

If you have a backache, rest on the bed with your knees bent and your feet flat on the mattress. As you cradle your neck in a pillow, bring your knees toward your chest. With your knees bent, lower your feet to the mattress again. Repeat this exercise five times.

Forget the adage, “No pain! No gain.” Use movements that do not strain.

Throughout the day, stretch like a cat to increase flexibility.

Maintain correct posture.

Assuming your doctor approves, find activities you enjoy.

Swimming and bicycling do not provide enough resistance for strength-training or weight-bearing, but they exercise the body in general and are fun.

To tone muscle and strengthen bones, carry a small weight in each hand as you walk around your home or a mall.

For general strengthening, climb stairs, jog, play ball, or dance around instead of just sitting at a desk, waiting to be inspired. A fun exercise or activity will strengthen your body and increase overall circulation, helping your good mind to find its peak performance too.


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(c) 2010, Mary Harwell Sayler 

Also see the related article, "On the Ball: The Ergonomic Writing Life."

 
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