It's Not Them, It's Me: Figuring Out Why I Dislike the Writing Style of the Older Generations of Writers

 "Show, don't tell."

"Start your story with a hook, or the reader won't want to continue."

Advice that, as a new fiction writer back in my late twenties, I took to heart. I always begin my novels with an engaging "hook," and I never write page after page of "telling" what a character did. I'm an awesome author 😉, and do my best to "show" the action. If it's not important enough to show, I'll either tell it in a brief paragraph or through a brief dialogue between characters.

Because I don't want my work to be boring.

SCREECH! Wait a minute. Hold everything. "Boring." Sounds like a subjective judgment, doesn't it?

It began with Grace.

Grace Livingston Hill, that is. J and I have been listening to the narration of her classic, Marcia Schuyler, a couple of chapters every evening, and for the first few days I had nothing but criticism for it. The story drags on. There's hardly any dialogue. Too much telling. I thought it must have been one of her earliest books, because other of her books that I've read were much more engaging.

Though, at certain places in those books, I've had similar criticisms.

Come to find out, Hill had been publishing for almost thirty years when Marcia Schuyler was published. And though it was still somehow one of her earlier books (when did she start getting published, at age ten??!), it was actually published the same year as The Girl From Montana, one of her other novels that I read and thought was a lot better written.

But wait! That's not all. I also discovered that the novel J and I have been listening to was her first big success! Readers back then loved it!

Even though she'd done it all "wrong."

My revelation.

This got me to thinking. First, I thought about my husband's criticism of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, how the romance between Edmund and Fanny was only implied, never shown (I've never read Jane Austen myself, so I can only take his word for it). Then I thought about Danielle Steel. She is notorious for telling instead of showing in large sections of her novels. But being twenty years older than I, she would have read books written more in the style of Grace Livingston Hill, because that's how authors wrote stories back then.

Moreover, back before the 1970s, and even a little later, readers enjoyed stories with more detail and slower pacing.

And, it hit me: The writing style of these authors wasn't "wrong." I've been viewing their work through the current line of thought about what makes for a good story. Come to find out, there's nothing objective about that. But because someone back in the '70s or '80s decided on the story formula that is most likely to turn into bestselling books, authors began writing that way, and those of us born in the 1970s and later got used to that style of writing, that type of formula (which is called "The Hero's Journey," in case you didn't know).

Add all that to the fact – yes, the scientific fact – that the intelligence of the human race is declining, not to mention our attention span, the sum of it is that there is nothing wrong with the way authors of one and two centuries ago used to write.

It's not them, it's me. It's my perspective, my bias, my education. My brain has been inundated with the modern style of writing, the Hero's Journey. And I've been taught that lengthy descriptions and glossing over long periods of time by "telling" what happened is evil.

A time to criticize, a time to enjoy. 

I've been immersed in judging and criticizing other authors' works based on my narrow perspective. Time to stop thinking that my way is the right way, and anything else is wrong. I decided I'm done with that. Time to enjoy the types of entertainment around me. After all, what fun is entertainment if you don't let it entertain you?

How Do I Know What I’m Called To Do?

 “How do I know what God’s calling me to do?”

“Does everyone have a calling on their lives?”

Spiritually-minded people, whether they refer to themselves as Christian or not, tend to have a strong sense that they’re supposed to be doing something worthwhile with their lives, to be helping the world become a better place in some way. As a result, they ask themselves about purpose and calling (click here for my thoughts about finding your purpose).

Because of that, just as has happened with the question of purpose, motivational speakers and preachers and self-proclaimed gurus have muddled the concept until you’re either convinced you’re a spiritual dumbbell, or that you have to go through five years of expensive retreats and-or fifty mind-bending steps in order to figure out what you’ve been called to do.

The big, fat lie regarding calling.

Many people end up falling into a pit of dismay when they’re trying to wade through all the philosophy and theories surrounding the idea of being called, because they hear about all sorts of people who declare that they’ve always known their calling, whether it be of the religious type or not. They talk about all the decades they’ve spent following their calling, and how fulfilled and joyful it’s made their lives. And because this one particular type of lifetime calling is continually thrown up into our faces as The Prototype of what it means to “be called,” the rest of us are left to believe we’re either not called to do anything, or that we’re too dense to figure it out.

Some people with a certain belief system even fear burning in hell for eternity because they can’t figure it out.

And thus, the purpose-and-calling gurus take advantage of this fear and make loads of money in the process.

But though God may call some people to participate in a certain ministry or career for their entire lives – I’m not entirely certain that He does; more on that in a later post – He doesn’t call most of us in that way. The truth is, for most of us God’s calling on our lives regularly, and sometimes frequently, changes.

Calling isn’t about passion, interests, or money.

Before I write another word, let me make this one thing clear:

If you hear someone say that either your purpose or calling is tied up in how much money you can make from it, run, don’t walk, in the opposite direction.

More than one Christian leader out there has begun preaching a message that goes above and beyond the prosperity gospel. They are saying that if a particular thing you’re interested or skilled in won’t make you a living income, then it can’t possibly be your purpose or calling.

That is complete and utter cow dung. And, if you're a person of faith, completely contrary to what the Bible teaches.

That settled, allow me to explain to you how to discover and walk in God’s calling for you. There are three simple, even easy, steps. The first is to live your life to the best of your ability, with the intention of making the world around you a better place.

The second is to keep your eyes open to opportunity. Each moment provides a unique opportunity to show and spread love and encouragement.

The third step is to examine the opportunity before you and ask yourself a couple of questions. Number one, do you have the skills to step into it? Number two, when you consider availing yourself of the opportunity, does it sit right deep inside you? 

If God is calling you to take hold of any particular opportunity, contemplating it should bring a sense of joy and peace, if not enthusiasm. While God's leading sometimes feels like a strong urge, it's most often a delicate, warm, silent, peace-filled, "Yes."

On the other hand, if, on thinking about the opportunity, you sense some kind of warning inside, or you feel a guilt-laden compulsion to do it, then it’s probably not something you’re supposed to do.

Examples of “callings” you’ll never hear the gurus talk about.

A calling can last a moment, or it can last a lifetime. For most of us, they consist of many moment-sized ones with longer, albeit short-term, ones in between. You may be called to:

**Smile at the stranger you’re passing on the street.

**Pick up the phone and talk to a family member or friend.

**Lend a listening ear to an acquaintance, perhaps even a stranger, at the grocery store or other public place.

**Volunteer with some kind of community service or non-profit organization.

**Lead a project in your community.

**Lend a hand to one of those projects.

**Play ball with the neighborhood kids whose dads have gone AWOL.

**Be a stay-at-home parent.

**Foster children

**Adopt children.

**Work a particular career for a certain period of your life.

**Partner financially with a given charity.

**Downsize your belongings and give what you no longer need to charity.

**Participate in a local fundraiser.

I could go on almost forever with this list, but you get my drift.

How to recognize your calling.

If you’re addicted to formulas, here you go:

Calling = opportunity + skill/knowledge to participate in opportunity + internal inspiration or divine nudge toward the opportunity.

But if you’re living life the best you can, with a heart to serve, you don’t have to worry about looking for callings. You’re going to walk right into them without even trying.

Peace to you, and may blessing abound in every area of your life.

Encouragement For Hard Times

 

I recently published an article explaining the small blessings I discovered in my garden, despite the worst drought we'd experienced in about ten years. What I didn't talk about there was the worry that had begun to plague me. You see, our only source of water comes from four water storage tanks, and by August, they were getting low enough to strike dismay into my heart. 

The drought of a decade ago lasted around two years. Was this one going to be like that? If not, we would be fine. Even if I'd gardened this past summer, we would be fine. But if the weather wasn't going to change, we were going to have to really buckle down and be even more conservative with our water usage than we already were.

And then...

And then, it started to rain. Small amounts, here and there. Then, after the first week of November, El Nino took over in all his splendor. And just like that, we were having normal mid-fall weather. The tanks began to refill. The ground began to turn greener. The temperatures cooled, and I was able to take a nice, long break from watering the kale and lettuce that I'd planted a couple months earlier.

Thousands of years ago, the third king of Israel, King Solomon, wrote that to everything there is a season. A time to laugh, a time to cry, a time to live, a time to die. 

A time of drought, a time of rain, may I add.

In other words, no season of life lasts forever. The world is in a constant state of change. 

Having experienced this ebb and flow of life for so many years, I now feel more than a bit silly for having worried so over the weather. I knew deep down in my heart of hearts that eventually, the rains would return. 

This, too, shall pass.

You might find yourself in a difficult season of life right now. You may be grieving, struggling to find or keep a job, fighting your way out of debt, facing unfair legal action against you, wrestling with a relationship, seeking answers for a recent, dire diagnosis. 

Or perhaps you simply feel dry inside, as if you're just going through the motions, treading water without any sense of purpose or direction. Whatever situation, whichever circumstances you find yourself in, let me encourage you that this, too, shall pass. Your season of life will change. And chances are good, the next season will bring as much joy as the current one has brought worry and heartache.

 Chances are good, your next season will be a time of relief.

Peace to you, and may blessing abound in every area of your life.

Life's Little Blessings

 Dandelions abound within the perimeter of my vegetable garden. I've allowed them to flourish, for three reasons. First, their taproots go down deep and bring calcium closer to the topsoil where more shallow-rooted garden crops can access it. Second, all parts of the plant can be used both for culinary and for medicinal purposes. Finally, blending a handful of dandelion leaves into a smoothie adds a flavor that is more than reminiscent of dark chocolate. 

Hold on, you say. I didn't click on this article to get a lecture on dandelions. Hang on, because I'm going to make an important point in a couple of minutes that will help shift your perspective on the trials of life.

Back to the lovely plant which is all too often demonized by control freaks and HOAs requiring lawns consisting of grass, and only grass. Until this summer, I hadn't been able to use the dandelion leaves past the month of May, because every year they'd develop powdery mildew. Health experts recommend against consuming leaves with that fungus, as it can cause an allergic reaction in some people. 

Imagine my delight, then, when I went into my garden in the middle of July, hoping but not expecting to find a few healthy dandelion leaves to throw into my afternoon smoothie, and discovered that not a single of the several dozen dandelion plants growing there contained a single leaf with powdery mildew. 

There were two reasons the dandelions were disease-free. This past summer, I decided not to garden. We live in a land-locked area with high humidity and mild winters, the perfect environment for nurturing the appearance and spreading of fungi, such as powdery mildew. I was hoping that if I didn't grow the plants that were helping the fungi to persist - cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers - at least some of it would die off, allowing me to grow less-diseased crops the following summer. Because there were no cucumber plants that developed powdery mildew, it didn't blow around and affect the dandelions.

The second, and perhaps more pertinent, reason for the fungus-free dandelion was that for several months, La Nina took over the globe in all her splendor, bringing an unusually hot and dry spring and summer. It didn't end until El Nino showed up in August and pushed her out of the way. In the meantime, the dry air and dry ground discouraged fungus formation of all kinds, including powdery mildew. 

Temperatures had hit surpassed 103 degrees many days. Going outside felt like walking into a pre-heated oven. The water in the local lake was more like that of a small, stagnant and therefore stinky pond. By late July, probably a quarter of the leaves on the deciduous trees had turned, or were turning, brown. Dried to a crisp. And the wildflowers we'd been allowing to grow in our front yard? They were dead before Independence Day, and the yard was an ugly, brown mess.

But because of La Nina, I was able to harvest dandelion leaves. Two times, several weeks apart, I cut a bagful of them and put them in the freezer, just in case the rains from El Nino brought back the mildew. In the midst of the worst drought for a decade, there was this little blessing. 

But that wasn't the only blessing I found as I looked around my garden. There was purslane, a nutritious, edible weed that actually is pretty tasty. The asparagus, with a little bit of watering, was still going strong. The Egyptian walking onions, which had dried to a crisp earlier in the year, came back after we received a couple inches of rain.

The garden is constantly teaching me important life lessons. This year, it showed me that even when my life is going through a dry period, when I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels, when it seems I can't get anything productive done, there is still an abundance all around me. I just have to look a little harder for it.

"What Is My Purpose?" The Answer May SHOCK You!

“What is my purpose in life? is a common question for the spiritually-minded to ask, Christian or not. Through the years, motivational speakers and writers have taken this desperate question and run with it, teaching us the “7 Steps To Finding Your Purpose” and “Ten Steps to a Fulfilled Life.” Even religious leaders have come on board with the idea that each of us has been put here to fulfill a specific purpose unique to the individual. I once read a book by one such leader who taught that if you missed that purpose, your eternal destination was a hot place void of God’s presence.

I’m not here to condemn anyone who seeks to put their life into positive action. Rather, I’m condemning the deception that has sent countless people into a mire of confusion, dismay, and discouragement because they couldn’t (can’t) figure out what their purpose was (is). And what happens because of that?

The tragic consequence of the Purpose Obsession.

They feel less-than. Unworthy. They read a certain book, and become convinced that thus-and-so is their purpose. Then life happens, and they’re no long able to pursue that purpose. They spend thousands of dollars on a conference, and think they’ve found their purpose…only to realize after wasting possibly years of their life and a lot of money that the “purpose” had been an idea born out of pride. Or, at least equally as often, greed.

You know what I mean. You’re supposed to be a missionary in a foreign country. Or turn your talents into a professional career. Or be the mom in your neighborhood with the best-behaved, most together, most successful children. Or climb the corporate ladder so you can be a witness for Jesus to all the minions under you. Or be a medical professional so you can save lives.

Did you ever notice that all of the steps in the books, blog posts, videos, and conferences that explain how to find your purpose are completely self-centered and self-serving? Yes, even those that come from the pulpit, that are supposedly based on the Bible.

May I make a confession? I used to be one of those people who ran after purpose. I used to be convinced that if I couldn’t find The One Thing God wanted me to do in my life, He would punish me. After all, God sent all the gurus, right? So we should follow all their different steps and get it together! If we don’t, we’re lazy and don’t care about living for God.

Seriously, that’s how a lot of people think, because the Purpose Deception Doctrine has insinuated itself into our lives so completely. Even among non-Christians.

The truth about purpose.

If that’s you, if you’ve been struggling to find your unique purpose, and thus struggle with feelings of unworthiness, I have good news for you: it’s all a bunch of poppycock.

I figured this out, in part, by looking at the majority of the world. The majority of the world lives in relative squalor compared to most (all?) who will read this article. They were born with certain talents, but they’ll never become singers or actors or writers or chefs because they’ll never have the opportunity. They don’t have the money to become a doctor or nurse or whatever. They make an income however they can, thrilled if they can spend fourteen hours a day working in a sweatshop, many of them unable to find a job and having to dig through garbage just to find a morsel of food to eat.

The truth is, our idea of purpose is an invention of wealthy, first-world society. It’s not godly or scriptural. When it comes right down to it, it feeds greed and pride.

It took me a lot of years and a lot of feeling like a failure before the message of God’s grace finally got through to me in all its purity. That message is that He loves us no matter what.

No. Matter. What.

More than that, He LIKES us. Just the way we are, right now, sin and all, failings and all, odd quirks and all. And because He loves us so much, He’s actually made the whole purpose thing easy. We all share the same two-fold purpose: to love, and to experience life the best we know how.

Some examples.

The job you have now may not be your favorite. However, it’s teaching you things you’ll need later in life. In the meantime, God’s will is for you to do the job with excellence, and to show His love to everyone you come into contact with through that job.

Say you love playing the piano, and not only volunteer your talent here and there, but have made some money from it. Then, you have a freak accident that causes you to lose several of your fingers. It’s okay, because entertaining or ministering to people via music wasn’t your purpose. It was what you did, how you expressed your creativity, and while you were doing it God used it to help others, perhaps including yourself. Now that you can no longer play the piano, you find other ways to serve and to work that will help the world become a better place.

How about this? You get bored easily, so switch jobs every year or two, and start small side businesses along the way which you eventually hand over to other people so you can do something else. One day you find yourself with a small nest egg saved up, and decide to quit your current job to travel the world for a few months.

You don’t lack purpose. Rather, your path leads you to experience a wide variety of people, places, and tasks, and as long as you’re living out of love as you go, learning and growing along the way, you are walking in purpose.

What about calling?

At this point, I hope that I’ve eased a huge burden off your shoulder. But even so, you may be wondering about that thing we refer to as “calling.” What are the differences between calling and purpose, if any? If they’re not one in the same, do we have to worry about hearing God’s call to one particular duty or career, whether temporary or lifelong?

I’ll address that issue in another post. Spoiler alert: those who are doing their best to follow God’s leading don’t have to worry about that, either.

Not that anybody has to worry, ever.

Because of this thing called grace.

A new definition of purpose.

Your purpose is everywhere, with everyone you meet. It’s being the most loving person you can, along with being the best person you can be given the current moment and all it's bringing to the table.

So relax. Enjoy life. In that enjoyment, “What is my purpose?” melts away, evaporates into a mist, and disappears as it becomes automatically incorporated into every step you take.

My Decision To End Paid Webhosting

 Authors, self-published or otherwise, are supposed to have a website. And not just any website. They’re supposed to have a website built by a professional developer, using paid hosting, with a paid domain name.

I had such a site for several years. Oh, I never paid anyone to put it together. I never had an “author” theme with book covers expertly placed on the home page. But I did own a one hundred-dollar Wordpress theme.

And, I paid a webhost and owned a domain name to go along with it.

That domain name expired several months ago, sometime in early 2022. In 2024, my webhosting service is supposed to renew. I’m going to cancel it before then.

Instead, I’m going to make this blog that you’re looking at right now my home on the web. Why?

The vast majority of novel readers never visit the author’s website.

Sure, if you’re Danielle Steele or some other huge-name author, you might make a few extra sales by showcasing your work on a pro site. But for most of us, owning a website ends up being like a beauty contest. Whoever has the most stunning and/or most professional-looking website wins.

Wins what? Oh. Hold on. So, it’s not like a beauty contest, because with a beauty contest, a woman actually makes money for showcasing her appearance.

Most authors don’t. Not directly. How they indirectly make money is by capturing e-mail addresses. But, guess what? An author can put a sign-up form on a free blog just as easily as they can on a paid blog.

I know, I know, there are five hundred sixty-three benefits to using paid webhosting. I’ve heard them all. And maybe for some authors, the benefits truly outweigh the so-called lack of professionalism of having “blogspot” or “wordpress” in your domain name. I happen to not be one of them. I’ve decided that instead of paying a webhost eight bucks a month, and instead of paying $15 a year to hang onto a domain name, I’d rather see a slightly higher profit margin.

Hi, I’m faith-based author, Emily Josephine. I think differently about life than a lot of people. I’m largely a non-conformist.

Including in how I choose to present myself and my business on the Internet. Because I’ve finally realized that I’m not ashamed to have “blogspot” in my website’s domain name.