10. For you, what is the most difficult part of starting a new novel? Is it hard to say goodbye to your characters after you’ve finished writing?
Starting a new novel is always exciting and fun. I begin by finding photos of my characters, making idea boards and brainstorming scenes. It’s five chapters into the actual writing when I realize I have thirty-five or more chapters to go that things get difficult. I always hit a wall just a few chapters in, then once I get a dozen or so chapters down, it starts to feel like “I can do this!” I hit another wall closer to the end when I’m trying to tie everything up in a neat bow. And yes, it’s difficult to say goodbye to my characters. I usually cry when it’s time to type “the end.”
11. How has your writing changed from your first book until now?
I hope I’ve grown in skill as a writer––learned some tricks that engage my readers more, make the actual writing recede in favor of the story. It’s all about the story. I’m not as “flowery” of a writer as I was in the beginning. I’ve learned that adjectives and adverbs are not necessarily my friends, and that many times less truly is more. More than that, I hope I’ve grown in my faith and as a person, so that I can bring that depth of wisdom to my writing and endow my characters with some of the wisdom I’ve gained over the years. At the same time, I can’t let all my characters be wise from the beginning. They must have room to learn and grow over the course of the story. And face it: some of my characters are just jerks. ;-) Ultimately, although I write primarily to entertain, I hope the underlying themes of my novels reflect my maturity as a Christian, and my growth as a writer.
About the Author
DEBORAH RANEY dreamed of writing a book since the summer she read Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books and discovered that a Kansas farm girl could, indeed, grow up to be a writer. After a happy twenty-year detour as a stay-at-home mom, Deb penned her first novel, A Vow to Cherish, which won a Silver Angel Award and inspired the acclaimed World Wide Pictures film of the same title. Since then, her books have won the RITA Award, HOLT Medallion, ACFW Carol Award, National Readers' Choice Award, as well as three times being finalists for the Christy Award. Deb teaches at writers' conferences across the country. She and her husband, Ken Raney, recently traded small-town life in Kansas ––the setting of many of Deb's novels––for life in the (relatively) big city of Wichita. They have four children and a growing brood of precious grandchildren who all live much too far away. Visit Deb on the Web at:
www.deborahraney.com
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