Writing the Wizard of Aaaahs

by Carrie Stuart Parks

I never thought I could write fiction. Non-fiction, how-to draw books, absolutely, but make up a story? Never. That is, until I actually tried it.

Thomas Nelson, 2014

I wrote the first draft of my novel in 2004. I felt it was quite brilliant. Steller writing. Quite Extraordinary. I proudly shared it with a writing friend of mine. She gently told me it was good for a start. 

Huh? A start? I worked hard on it. Couldn’t she see how terrific it was?

I passed the manuscript on to my mentor, NYT best seller Frank Peretti. He would obviously be in awe of my talent. He told me that I needed to discover the dead body in the first chapter, hopefully on the first page. I just couldn’t see how to do that. The reader needed three chapters of backstory to understand how the body came to be a . . . well, a body. 

Thus began a nine year journey to publication. I had soooo much to learn. High school and college English classes, even creative writing programs, didn’t prepare me for the world of novel writing. Learning to craft a compelling story, create characters with depth, and the fine points of showing, not telling, were some of the writing challenges I faced. 

I had a vision in my head. I was competitive and wanted to be published by a major publisher, not self-publish or even go with a smaller publishing house. I wanted my writing to be unique enough (in a good way,) and riveting enough to catch the eye of “the big guys.”

Like all adventures, this one had wicked witches, winged monkeys, and fields of poppies. One month after Frank agreed to work with me to teach me to write, I was diagnosed with stage II breast cancer. My mom was already dying of emphysema and I was her caretaker. I was under contract to write and illustrate a drawing book, and I was teaching forensic art. Getting through some days was all I could hope for.

Chemo ended September 15, 2004, and I could spend more time learning to write. I attended writer’s conferences and learned more. Mom died April, and I wrote through the tears. I found an agent who sent me back to the editing phase. Completing the manuscript, my agent sent it off to thirteen publishers. Thirteen rejections.

Putting that story aside, I began on the second novel. My agent closed her agency. I wrote on. I found a new agent. He offered to represent me the day after he received the proposal.

Had I finally done it? After years of research, writing, reading books, critique partners and groups, conferences, on-line classes, mentoring, and edit, edit, editing, had I finally learned the craft?
It would seem I had. My first novel, renamed “A Cry from the Dust,” sold at auction to Thomas Nelson/HarperCollins Christian. It went on to final in the Christy, Carol, and Selah awards.
If there is a lesson in all this, it’s to keep going down that yellow brick road. Don’t let the winged monkeys, wicked witch, or poppies pull you off track. Look for snow, good friends, and Munchkins to help you along the way. And keep your eye on going home to success in your publishing vision.

God Bless

Carrie Stuart Parks is an award-winning fine artist and internationally known forensic artist. Along with her husband, Rick, she travels across the US and Canada teaching courses in forensic art to law enforcement as well as civilian participants. She has won numerous awards for career excellence. Carrie is a popular platform speaker, presenting a variety of topics from crime to creativity.

Animals have always been a large part of her life. Her parents, Ned and Evelyn Stuart, started Skeel Kennel Great Pyrenees in 1960. Carrie inherited the kennel and continues with her beloved dogs as both an AKC judge and former president of the Great Pyrenees Club of America. She lives on the same ranch she grew up on in Northern Idaho. Visit her at http://www.carriestuartparks.com.

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Developing a Work of Fiction by Author Carrie Stuart Parks

I didn’t think I could write. 

Not fiction at any rate. Over the course of several years, I discovered I could write nonfiction. I’d successfully written and illustrated several how-to drawing books. When I visited the publisher, North Light Media, my editor said I had a great voice. I grinned, thanked her, and asked, “what’s ‘voice’?” 

I decided to write a non-fiction book about signs of deception from a Biblical perspective. As a forensic artist and law enforcement instructor, I experienced and studied deception displayed by certain ‘victims’ of crime. Each chapter started with an illustration from my forensic work: a young man who claims to have been attacked by a ninja, a bank robbery case where the robber was the bank teller, a killer who murdered his wife and said it was two other men. I had great stories. But … I needed to fictionalize them. I discovered it wasn’t that hard.

I pondered the ease of working in fiction. I also thought about my childhood. I grew up, and still live, on a 685 acre ranch in the mountains of North Idaho. We had a lot of horses. Every chance I had, I would gallop madly through the woods on horseback imagining I was a French resistance fighter pursued by Germans, or Velvet Brown about to win the Grand National, or an early pioneer chased by an irate Cheyanne war party. I could be very creative in inventing reasons to roam through the woods on horseback.

So maybe I wasn’t so unimaginative…and I loved to read…I did write poetry in college…so what’s so hard about writing a novel?

Boy howdy, was I in for a learning curve! Show, not tell. Passive language. Plot points. No tension. Thin characters. You name it, I had to learn it. I really believed I was writing well. And I had an awesome mentor: NY Times best-selling author, Frank Peretti. But I was blind to the errors in my writing.  I finally decided to study each writing point I should be doing automatically and study it until it was second nature. This took years. Ten to be exact. In between I suffered discouragement, tears, and occasional moments of above average writing. 

The payoff finally came. Terry Burns of Hartline agency signed me a day after reading my finished manuscript. Thomas Nelson expressed interest twenty-seven minutes after receiving a book proposal. Five out of eight publishers receiving the proposal wanted the full, with two major publishers vying for publication rights in a three book deal at auction. Pretty heady stuff. 

So, let me share some hard-learned advice: keep writing. There are only two types of writers: those who have been discouraged, and those who will be discouraged. Listen to other writers who tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. Keep growing and learning. Everyone starts down that long journey to publication the same way. And God Bless.

Carrie Stuart Parks is an award-winning fine artist and internationally known forensic artist. She teaches forensic art courses to law enforcement professionals and is the author/illustrator of numerous books on drawing. Carrie began to write fiction while battling breast cancer and was mentored by New York Times best-selling author Frank Peretti. Now in remission, she continues to encourage other women struggling with cancer. 

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