Too Much Cheese Can Block You Up

And no one wants that.

Likewise, no one wants to read something super cheesy because...well, it's lame.

My aim in Picture Perfect is to tell it how it is. I want every bit of the story to feel real to my readers. Thing is, I also want to include God in the story because He's a huge part of my life and part of the story I want to tell.

I'm not saying God is cheesy--because He's not at all. But...if you haven't noticed, a ton of Christian stuff is super cheesy. T-shirts. Movies. Books. Bumper stickers. Websites. While I appreciate the meaning behind all of it, I do wish it didn't trigger my gag reflex. (Is that harsh? I mean, Christians have gag reflexes, too.)

One of my favorite authors and inspirations, Melody Carlson, does a bang-up job of writing Christian YA fiction. If you haven't read her, and you like the sound of my book, you should definitely give her a try. I love everything she writes.

The Bible is another example of non-cheesiness. It's not all rainbows and sunshine, after all.

Even having read Melody Carlson and the Bible, it's hard to write God parts of the story. I want my book to appeal to Christians as well as non-Christians. It's easy to write the real-life stuff, but not so easy to not write cheesy Christian stuff.

I find myself stuck on a God-part as I write tonight, so I thought I'd share this with you. Here's what I have at the moment:

[Note added 3/4/14. Excerpt has been removed.]

This is leading up to a huge God-moment for Adira, and I want it to feel huge to the reader. The God moments also need to be real, so I'll tell that exactly how it is, too.

Now, I might crawl into my toasty bed and think back on all the sweet--none of them cheesy--things God has done with me. I'll imagine how He'd be with me if I were in Adira's situation. Maybe I need to stop thinking about cheese, and if need be, clean it up later. Or add some fiber... What's the literary equivalent of fiber?

Film, negatives, spools, and darkrooms. Oh my!

Adira is, as I said in the first blog post, an aspiring photographer. Naturally, she knows a lot about the art.

I do not.

During editing, I've come across a lot of this:

I stepped into the darkroom and turned on the safety light. I felt the pressure and adrenaline that always comes with developing a perfect role of film. [INSERT STUFF ABOUT DARKROOMS AND DEVELOPING FILM]

I've known, since I chose this hobby and aspiration for Adira, that, at some point, I'd have to learn about photography. So that's what I'm doing! Via YouTube. How-to videos are just the best.

After a couple videos. I'm going to test out my new knowledge and try to make it seem like Adira actually knows what she doing. And you get to see it first. (Oh, dear.) 

I stepped into the darkroom and turned on the safety light. I felt the pressure and adrenaline that always comes with developing a perfect role of film. From just under the table, I pulled out the three water jugs I needed. The smell of Rodinal tickled my nose pleasantly, like walking into a house that smells of freshly baked cookies.
With the chemicals ready on the counter, I wound my camera and took out the film I'd used at the park. Careful not to crinkle the film, I held my breath and wound it onto the 120 film spool, holding the edges lightly between my forefinger and thumb.
Wound. I let my breath out and felt the flawless work I'd done. I hoped these pictures would be the ones I'd send in. I was out of ideas.

There you have it! I hope it sounds natural.

Your researching blogger,
Jessie

We're Not Dead

Neither I, nor the novel, is dead.

I just wanted to let my readers know this because after I said I'd be making new posts every Monday, I stopped posting. Tsk tsk on me.

I'm so very sorry.

Reasons:
-Slacking. (I'm done with this one and will get back to work now.)
-My computer has the blue screen of death, and it's quite annoying when it randomly blue screens and I have to shut it down. This hasn't gotten fixed yet, but my computer and I are learning to work together on this...somehow.

You may be wondering how the novel is going. I'm currently editing, which is tricky business since it's easy to skip over my own mistakes. I figured since I've been slacking, it would be a good idea to read over what I already have before I write any further, so I can get back into the story. And while I'm reading over it, I may as well edit.

Special thanks goes out to those of you who have asked me how it's going in person. You're a huge part of the reason I realized I should stop slacking.