More than Writers

The other day I got to thinking about writing histories, and how those histories make up both who we are as people and how we write today. Sometimes reviewing our personal writing museums can motivate and encourage us when we are weary, or short on ideas, or not sure what direction God is leading us in our writing journeys. I've been very lacking in my writing discipline lately; I've been more ill than usual for the past six months, and particularly over the last few weeks. It's so easy to lose confidence when that muscle isn't being regularly exercised, and anything to get out of the slump can help. So today I'd like to share my Writing Museum for you (some of it a tad cringeworthy, but it's all part of the journey) - and to ask about yours. What do you keep in your museum? What's your writing history? 1. Your first marks on paper I have this poetry book from when I was very small indeed. My mum tells me that I tried to mark the poems I liked best. This one...

There are many challenges to including a significant historical background when writing mysteries: getting the details accurate, making the history an integral part of the story, not an add-on, and allowing the reader to experience the historical as well as the contemporary parts of the story are some of my major concerns. Most often, my stories start with the setting— either a place I have long loved or someplace I’m longing to visit. One of my goals as a writer is to give my readers a “You are there” experience so I try never to write about a place I haven’t actually been to myself. And the more ancient and crumbling the location the better for my purposes. This sometimes presents an extraordinary logistics challenge since I live in Idaho— 7000 miles away from the settings of most of my books in Great Britain. I begin my research with the widest reading I can do at home and keep narrowing it until I have a good grip on my setting, characters, major plot points and theme. Then t...