I just finished a major rewrite of a novel that was first published over a decade ago, using everything I’ve learned to go back and relive that part of life …

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With everything you’ve learned over the years, have you ever thought how wonderful it would be if you could go back in life and have a “do-over”? Well, I just did exactly that. I just finished a major rewrite of a novel that was first published over a decade ago, using everything I’ve learned to go back and relive that part of life, and this time I did it better.

Not that there was anything wrong with the first time. They Shall See God was good in 2002. In fact, it was a Christy Award finalist because it brimmed with page-turning suspense and fascinating characters. Plus, you know you’ve god a winner with every single Amazon reader review is five stars. But I’ve learned a thing or two about storytelling and writing in the years since then. And with electronic books and print on demand technology, for the first time in the history of publishing it’s feasible to revise a novel that’s already in print. So I thought, “Why not?”

Most of the changes I’ve made were about polishing the language to make it read more elegantly, but some of what I did went further. To improve the way the plot flowed, I worked on the transitions between some scenes, repositioned a few scenes, combined some scenes together, and changed the point of view in others. I put chapter breaks in new places to increase suspense. I improved and strengthened the characterization in many subtle ways.

All in all, I’m as excited about this new edition of They Shall See God as I ever was about a brand new novel. I’m excited because I know all the readers who enjoyed it so much the first time will absolutely love this new and improved version, and I’m proud to recommend it to anyone who never read one of my novels, as an excellent place to start.

But I do wonder if this will be a little controversial. Some people think a novel should be like a work of art in a museum: once it’s presented to the public, it should never change again. What do you think?

 

COMING IN AUGUST: They Shall See God and three other new and improved Christy Award finalists and winners, with new forewords or afterwords by the author.

One of the pleasures of preparing to re-release Winter Haven has been to add a new forward. Here is a brief excerpt.

People ask how I get ideas for novels. It’s not an easy question to answer. Each story is different, and comes in its own way. I’m not even certain when or how some of the ideas start. Sometimes I just seem to notice them already fully formed and waiting in my imagination.

But every story idea does begin somehow, of course, and thinking back I realize the idea for Winter Haven was planted many years ago when a journalist with The New York Times interviewed me about one of my early novels. The interview did not go well. At first the journalist seemed pleasant enough, but I sensed something was bothering him. Eventually he got around to it.

“In your story,” said the journalist, “You have this man accused of murder and he tells his wife about it, and she says they should pray. Do you seriously think anyone would bother praying at a time like that?”

To this day it remains the most surprising question anyone has ever asked me in an interview. Of course one expects creative twists and turns from a journalist with such rarified credentials. But I wasn’t startled by the question’s creativity. On the contrary, at first I thought he must be joking. Surely nobody would be sincerely skeptical that a character might pray in a dangerous situation. Then I realized he was actually serious, and the atmosphere between us seemed to roll back like a curtain to reveal a topsy-turvy world. He didn’t merely have a different point of view; he came from a kind of Wonderland where the basic facts of life are utterly ignored.

I wouldn’t have been much of a novelist if something like that didn’t show up in a book someday.

Learn more about Winter Haven

The best friends of beauty in a novel are deep contemplation, honesty, intentionality, originality and love.

Deep contemplation, because lasting beauty is never superficial. Honesty, because duplicity is ugly. Intentionality because true beauty comes only from beautiful motives. Originality because again, nature’s variety proves it inseparable from beauty. And love, because it is both the purpose and the Source of all things beautiful.

Sadly, our culture values instant gratification above everything, even at the cost of ugliness and mediocrity. Television, fast food restaurants and tract houses testify to this. Even more sadly, Christian readers are as guilty of it as anyone. The popularity of simplistic answers to the many paradoxes in the scriptures is one proof of this.

Only pride or money could explain why a novelist would pursue readers who demand easy answers to the vast enigma of the Godhead, who have no time for sunsets, who find an ocean view too empty, who barely see the roses, much less stop to smell them.

We are told no one can serve two masters. Write for pride or money, and you do not write for love or beauty. Yet we are also told our novels must burst upon the reader’s mind with all the urgency of a fire drill. We must hook them. We must do it right away or they will rush off to the next shiny lure, and we must keep them on the hook, wiggling like a dying fish until the bitter end. But beauty does not operate that way. Beauty demands nothing. It does not insist. Beauty whispers. It entices.

For those who love in spite of the unknown and unknowable, for those who gaze in awe at sunsets, ocean views and roses all ablaze with color, there is another sort of hook.

Just to pick one fine example, consider One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Marquéz. I found little in the plot to justify so many pages, and today I do not recall a single character’s name, but the words . . . the words! Contrary to the usual advice, for me it was no page-turner. Instead my mind lingered, dreading the coming end because each page turned meant one page closer to the ceasing of those beautiful, beautiful words. The joy they sparked within me will not die until I do.

How I wish the world was filled with novels of such beauty! How I strive and strive to write such words, every single one an offering without blemish to the Source of beauty. And how I search for those who also strive to write that way, that I might have a chance to read them when the Lord is done.

An excerpt from an article which first appeared at Novel Rocket in 2011