LORILYN INTERVIEWS Author Marcia Lee Laycock About Her New Book ”One Smooth Stone”

Marcia’s novel, One Smooth Stone, won the Best New Canadian Christian Author Award in 2006. Marcia is also a sought-after speaker. 


LORILYN: How did you come to be a writer?

MARCIA: I started writing short stories and poems for my dolls. They didn’t complain so I kept it up. Then my aunt gave me a copy of Emily of New Moon for my eleventh birthday. I discovered you could call yourself a writer and determined that someday that’s what I’d be. 

It took many years but I published my first short story in 1990 and began writing articles for a local paper about that same time. I self-published a compilation of my column in 2002 (a second edition has just been released), a second devotional book in 2005, and then my novel, One Smooth Stone won me the Best New Canadian Christian Author Award and was published in 2007. The sequel should be available sometime this spring.

LORILYN: Tell us how you come up with characters.

MARCIA: Characters often grow out of something I hear or see. For instance, the main character in One Smooth Stone developed after a woman asked me a profound question – “Can you imagine what it would be like for someone to discover that his mother had tried to abort him?” I did imagine and the character of Alex Donnelly emerged. He’s very much a composite of many people I knew while living in the Yukon, in Canada’s western Arctic.

LORILYN: Where do you write?

MARCIA: I share an office in our home with my husband who is a pastor. Our office chairs are literally back to back. When he shifts I feel it! We’re church planting right now, so we don’t have a church building where my husband would ordinarily go to work each day. It’s been an interesting adjustment and a challenge for us both!

LORILYN: What are you currently writing?

MARCIA: I just finished working on the sequel to One Smooth Stone and am hoping it will be published this fall, which means I'll be working on the final edit soon, if all goes well. At the end of One Smooth Stone the main character discovers he has a sister. The second book, A Tumbled Stone, deals with his struggles with faith as he searches for her. It is  his sister’s story.

I also just published two ebooks:  One, a devotional for writers called Abundant Rain, and the other a devotional for travelers called A Traveller’s Advisory. They are both at Smashwords along with a few short stories and devotionals that can be downloaded for free.

LORILYN: What accomplishment(s) are you most proud of, writing-related or not?

MARCIA: I’m probably most proud and humbled by the fact that my husband and I, in spite of all our flaws somehow managed to raise three wonderful daughters who are a joy to us in many ways. God’s grace is evident in their lives and I’m very thankful for them. There was a time when I believed I would never have children (see my website for the story) so to have three beautiful daughters continues to amaze me.

Also, I’m quite proud of the fact that I managed to complete the NaNoWriMo challenge – 50,000 words in one month - and I now have five books available to readers.

LORILYN: Your favorite scripture and/or quote?

MARCIA: Scripture - Hebrews 10:24 – Let us consider therefore how we may spur one another on to love and good deeds. I titled my weekly column The Spur – from this verse. It also seemed a good fit because I live in the heart of Alberta cowboy country.

Quote – “Writing is not a performance. It is generosity.” ~ Benda Ueland.

LORILYN: What kind of planning do you do before writing a novel?

MARCIA: Very little. My stories usually come to me in scenes. I outline a bit as I go, just a timeline of sorts, but when I sit down to write I usually have very little idea where the story will go. I find it exciting to see it unfold. I do research along the way as needed.

LORILYN: In your opinion, what is the greatest danger or pitfall in the life of a writer?

MARCIA: Believing that it’s your talent that changes lives. I’ve had many people tell me amazing stories about how something I wrote changed them in some way. It’s important to remember that only God can do that. He uses our words to affect His purposes. We’re just being obedient in putting the words on paper. It’s an incredible privilege and blessing to be used in that way.

LORILYN: Why did you choose to write this book?

MARCI: I’ve met many people like the main character. In fact, at one time I was a lot like him. I know the kind of prison people like Alex are trapped in – partly of their own making, and I also know the joy of being set free by the love of Christ. My prayer is that many more people will understand that no one is beyond the reach of God and no matter what you’ve done or where you’ve been or what’s been done to you, God loves you deeply and unconditionally God has already been faithful in honoring that prayer. The very first book I took out of the box I gave to a friend whose daughter was raped when she was a teenager. She called her mom in tears, after staying up all night reading it, and told her that now she does believe God loves her, in spite of everything. It’s that kind of response that makes it all worthwhile and that’s what keeps me going.

LORILYN: What one thing about writing do you wish other non-writers would understand?

MARCIA: That writing is a ministry. It’s a hidden ministry that takes hours of sitting in a room alone but the end result can be lives changed for Christ.

LORILYN: Can you give us one do and one don’t for those aspiring to be a writer?

MARCIA: Do you go to writers’ conferences and take courses to sharpen your skills. Find a good critique group where others will give constructive criticism. Don’t let the rejections stop you. Keep writing.


One Smooth Stone can be ordered from any Christian bookstore or online from Amazon or Barnes and Noble or the publisher, www.castlequaybooks.com

CREATIVE WRITING INSIGHTS: “Freedom of Chaos,” by Lorilyn Roberts

We want freedom in writing within a framework of orderliness. A house can have many different looks, but without a solid foundation, it won’t stand. I homeschool my younger daughter Joy and the first chapter in her English book is about how to construct a sentence. The topic is covered in detail, beginning with the definition of a subject and a predicate.

The foundation of a good story must have good sentence structure. The sentences need to be woven together to form a well-written paragraph with a main idea. The paragraphs build over a page, and eventually, the pages come together to make chapters. An entire book emerges from one sentence. But if you don’t have structure, usually built from the skeleton of good grammar and an outline, you will end up with chaos.

God is a God of order. But we don’t need to be legalistic or rigid. Once we understand the idea of structure, we have the freedom to build on that structure and create fabulous stories.

CREATIVE WRITING INSIGHTS: “The Art of Conflict in Writing Conflict,” by Lorilyn Roberts

 

I should be an expert in writing conflict. After all, I was on the debate team in high school, and a seventh grade boy wrote in my yearbook, "You would argue with a sign post if you could." I've had my share of personal conflict--family problems, ex-husband, relationship disappointments, and yes, my own report card of failures.

As if that wasn't enough, I've had a first-class seat to some of the most spectacular conflicts on the planet. I worked for twenty years as a court reporter. The adversarial nature of the job left me exhausted. I would sit at my stenograph machine for long hours each day, between attorneys and hostile witnesses, recording the barrage of questions about lost reputations, cheating husbands, financial ruin, and hearts broken--high-powered lawyers bent on winning at all cost.

Conflict raged within me as I hated being at the center of it all. The louder they argued, the more nervous I became. Please don't ask me to read this back. It's hard to write well when everyone is yelling at each other. If I could count the number of strokes hit on my stenograph machine, the amount would not be measurable. Conflict abounds and sometimes borders on murder in a courtroom, where truth isn't always the ultimate goal. Because experience and memories shape our worldview, to this day I cringe at the thought of going back to that life--please God, never again. I don't want that conflict.

Today I work as a broadcast captioner for television and write as little news as possible. Very few upbeat stories get reported and I have grown weary of captioning sensational beats about kidnapped children, victims of abuse, Washington bureaucracy, and a world at war--at the gas pump, in the Middle East, and a host of ideologies that scare me. I cherish my freedom and don't want it taken from me. (Yes, I do feel much of what I love about my country is eroding). But most of all, I hate captioning tragedies that could have been avoided. Life can be very depressing and steeped in conflict.

As much as I hate conflict, as an author, how do I use it in fiction? Or do I even want to create painful conflict for my protagonist? Do I shy away from building a story that needs high-stakes conflict to create a fabulous, climatic ending? Or can I use conflict to remind me of a nobler purpose in God's eternal plan?

Put into the context of life, is there a reason behind the conflict which we encounter every single waking moment of our lives? Is it not the result of the stinking sin in myself and others? How do I resolve this paradox in my writing?

Fortunately, as writers, we have the freedom to go where our heart and art takes us. Unless I write poetry, however, I won't have a story without conflict. Acknowledging that the dénouement is what makes a story remarkable, I can set the scene for redemption before I begin the first page.

In the 1990's, Hollywood released a lot of box-office films that had downer endings; the bad guy won, the problem wasn't resolved the way I wanted, or the main character died. I quit going to the movies.

My mantra now is I refuse to write, read, or see movies where there is no redemption. If I feel stuck without a good moral choice in life, I will search for it. God can bring redemption out of the worst possible circumstance. There is good in the world if we look for it.

In writing a great book, there should be something in the dénouement that causes the reader to grapple with the story's action-idea. The unraveling of the conflict must result in a satisfying conclusion.  I don't want the reader to feel as though he has been cheated by mediocre creativity or immorality that wins.

While our stories imitate life, the climax needs to reach a higher level of "being." When I read a story, give me more. Give me excitement worth remembering, knowledge extraordinaire, and thought-provoking ideas. I want to relate to a protagonist that overcomes incredible odds and wins. Beauty, love, peace--we are not sufficiently redeemed to appreciate this trilogy of goodness in all its meaning, but because writing imitates life, we can catch glimpses of it in a redemptive ending.

As an author, my passion is to bring a "taste of heaven" to this earthly kingdom inhabited by kings and peasants, and all of us in between. That means what I write must linger. I must create meaningful connections in the reader's mind after his eyes have read the last page. I wield incredible power--to bless or curse. As a Christian, I want to captivate the reader with words that are uplifting, powerful, thought-provoking, and life-changing. That might seem impossible, but the greatest stories ever written have those qualities; unique characters engaged in mortal conflict, either internal, physical, or both.

I write where my heart takes me, digging into my past, and seeing what God stirs up from within. I write for myself first and then for others. It's up to each of us to decide how we use the "rules of writing," acknowledging that those words will live on long after we are gone--for good or evil. History is replete with both.

I can't dilute the plot to avoid conflict. I want redemption to reign supreme in the last chapter. I must weave the nature of fallen man into the story through conflict, knowing that I have the answers that a sinful world craves. I can do it subtly or not so subtly, but if I compromise on either, I will weaken the story that God has given me. Great conflict deserves great redemption.

How does conflict work in writing? The conflict must propel the story forward and relate in some way to the protagonist's nearly unreachable goal. There must be clear turning points (three-act structure works well), and there should be a main goal and at least one minor goal. Often the minor goal relates to character development (so the protagonist can reach his main goal).

With "up" endings, the protagonist wildly succeeds and goes through a metamorphosis in the process. He is not the same at the end as he was in the beginning. Despite his character flaws and numerous obstacles, he overcomes the odds and achieves his dream or even something better. Surprise endings are always the best

I have wondered if there is a higher standard for writing novels than the Aristotle tradition of dealing with conflict, but for a different reason. I want to write great stories in heaven, and in heaven, there is no conflict. What shall I write? Maybe I will become a poet. If you are one of those saints, pursue your calling with passion; keep writing those beautiful sonnets and songs. When my world becomes steeped in shadows, I turn to the Psalms and relish those soothing words of comfort and security.

In the Bible, Jesus knew the evil tentacles of life would strangle his listeners if they succumbed to their base nature, so he told amazing, redemptive stories, steeped in conflict, to reveal profound truths. If I follow that example, perhaps I can conquer my inner conflict of wanting to avoid conflict and write a great redemptive story--which must abound in conflict to end in perfect redemption