Timothy's Thoughts

O ne of my favorite flowers is the Dogtooth Violet. You might say that I prefer it to some other flowers, such as the African Violet and yet, I have an African Violet growing in my living room window, but no Dogtooth Violet anywhere. The important thing to note here is that our preferences don’t keep us from recognizing the beauty of something else. The other day, I mentioned 5 Favorite Plot Devices . These are things that when they appear in a book, I want to read the book. In response to that post, Michelle wrote, “There’s several of those that I actually avoid.” What I prefer, she doesn’t. Music is the same way. Some people might like Country, others might like Rock, and still others might like Classical or Jazz. I pretty much like any kind of music, as long as it isn’t Country or Southern Gospel. That is my preference; you don’t have to agree with me. It’s subjective and so are our preferences where books are concerned. You’ve heard that beauty is in the eye of the beholder . But w...

W here should a book begin? I don’t mean the story. I mean the book. One of my pet peeves is that so many books are numbered incorrectly. Pick up a book and look at chapter one. What page is it on? Zondervan begins Frank Peretti’s The Oath on page 3. They begin Terry Blackstock’s Line of Duty on page 11. Kregel begins Miralee Ferrel’s The Other Daughter on page 9 and Maureen Lang’s Pieces of Silver on page 7. Oddly enough, some publishers get it right on one book but not on another. It’s like that don’t care. I will say, however, that some publishers do seem to get it right, allowing for the occasional mistake. I randomly looked at some of the books published by Thomas Nelson and they each began Chapter One on the proper page. Which page is that? Page one, of course. What many publishers are doing is that they numbering from the first page in the book, rather than the first page in the story. This makes the book look sloppy because by they time we include all of the front material,...

S peaker attributes tell the reader who is speaking. Some writers believe that readers often skip over the word said , seeing it briefly only to ignore it. Others try to avoid speaker attributes as much as possible. Some writers like to use speaker attributes to indicate how a person said something. Rather than just, “he said,” such an author might write, “he whispered” or “he shouted.” Some writers will extend this and write such things as “he laughed” or “he smiled” in their place, but some writers and editors will strike out these statements, saying that laughing is not a way of talking, so it should not be included as a speaker attribute. They would prefer, “he said as he laughed,” or something like that. The writers who would strike out speaker attributes all together would likely tell us that we should replace speaker attributes with an action beat . Instead of the following: "Fascinating," he said as he walked through the door. They would have us write: "Fasc...

N ow for the question from the 20 questions for leaders that Michael Smith of ClearView Baptist Church in Franklin, Tennessee asked Mike Hyatt that I should probably dread, but I shall rush in. Today's question is What is the one behavior or trait that you have seen derail more leaders’ careers? Adultery. That's not a trait, but it is certainly a behavior. I don't hold to the idea that people are born adulterers. Several (many?) years ago, just before my adolescent years, there was this pastor that I admired. He was working with a church that was small, but growing. They were meeting in a store front and working with college students. I remember us visiting their church frequently, primarily to give them support, I suppose. I was too young to know, but I thought him an elquent preacher. I remember one of his sermons, it was about David and Bathsheba. Looking back now, I can't help but wonder if it might have come from a guilty conscience, because he got involved wi...

E ditor’s Note: This week I’m interviewing a character who doesn’t exist yet. In other words, this character may change before he makes an appearance in a book. All the same, I sat down with this non-existant character at Ellen’s Café and we had a nice talk. Timothy Fish: David, it’s good to see you here. It sure beats me going out to California. David: Glad to stop by. I was going to be in town anyway. I understand that I may be spending a lot of time around her for a while. Timothy Fish: Yes, I heard that you guys are looking at filming a movie here. Is there a reason why you would pick here over some other location? David: We thought some of these old buildings would look great on camera. But the main reason is that when the boss says he wants you to film a movie in a certain location, you film a movie there. Timothy Fish: I take it you aren’t happy about filming here. David: I wouldn’t say that. I’m the one who suggested we consider it, but I didn’t expect us to just ignore the ot...

I decided to change one of my characters. I was afraid that she looked too much like a certain character on a television show and I didn’t care to mess with that, so I changed her story. But by changing her story, I changed that of her two best friends and another character. That caused me to change the plot of a book I plan to write in the future, but by changing the plot I wonder if it is worth writing. If it isn’t then I question whether I should introduce this character in my current WIP . If I take her out, then her story is all just back-story that won’t be going into the book and it doesn’t really matter if I change it or not. So here I sit, wondering which direction to take and it all seems to go around and around in circles.

W ith thousands to choose from, it’s hard to pick a plot device and call it a favorite, but today I want to talk about five plot devices that I have a hard time passing up. I won’t say that I read every story I find with these plot devices, but base your story around one of these and you’ll be a whole lot closer to convincing me to buy your book. Secret Identity You know these stories. There is Superman , Cinderella , spy stories, undercover cops and Hannah Montana . What can I say? These stories are everywhere. They even show up in the Bible. Abraham tried to pass his wife off as his sister. Tamar once played the part of a harlot to get pregnant by her father-in-law, Judah. There’s just something I find interesting about stories where people pretend to be people they are not and as popular as some of them are, I think other people must too. I figure it has something to do with the inherent conflict in the story. Premature Marriage When a couple get married before they fall in love, wh...