Short Fiction

by Jeanette O'Hagan

Christian Writers Downunder anthology

 2015

Less is more - or so they say. Often when we think about writing, we think about novels or memoirs, full length books that may take months, or more likely, years to write.

However, short fiction can often be a good way of honing writing skills and may be easier to have something accepted for publication.

Why bother with Short Fiction?

For Readers

At conventions, people often say they love to read but don’t have the time to do so. In a time-pressed word, short fiction can be enjoyed in one sitting. Readers an also sample a range of both known and unknown authors in an anthology.

Short fiction may leave a reader wanting more character development and/or world building or plot complexity. At its best, short fiction can be thought-provoking, evocative, original, experimental.

For writers:

Writings shorts can be a great way to break into the market, as there are many opportunities for competitions or anthologies or to self-publish.

While not necessarily easy to write , short fiction requires less investment of time and money (for editing etc) than a full length novel. It can give the freedom to experiment with subject, genre, approach without a huge investment in time (so it's not so critical if it doesn't work out).

Short fiction can help a writer to hone their skills - to write powerfully with less words, to set the scene or show character without the fluff, to better understand plot and story structure. 

And when short fiction is tied into the author’s other longer works or story world, it can be used to introduce the novel, continue momentum between books, fill out the story world or give greater depth for characters, and/or it can be offered as a freebie in promotions.

Short fiction can come in any genre - and a range of sizes, from six words up to 50,000 words. And while it may seem easier to write less, short fiction requires its own set of skills to do it well.

Types of short fiction:

Mirco-Fiction

Mirco-Fiction - up to 100 words.


Hard to write well, they fit well with the world of mobile phones and texting and twitter (240 characters). Clearly, every word must count.

 

Ernest Hemingway's famous example of a six-word story is as follows

'For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.'

Flash Fiction

Flash Fiction - between 100-1000 words.

Flash fiction can be used as 'palate cleansers' between longer stories or collected in anthologies (as with the Mixed Blessing books).

 

The Australia Writers Centre has a monthly Furious Fiction challenge – 500 words written between Friday and Sunday, and incorporating required elements (theme, words or some other element)

Writing flash fiction helps tighten one's prose. The focus is usually on one or two scenes or on the climax of the story. My Ruhanna’s Flight was originally a flash fiction (less than 1000) words which I later expanded to a 7000 word story.

Short Story

Short Story - between 1,000 - 7,500 words

This is often what we think of as a short story. Many competitions, periodical, 'zines and anthologies require this length - often around 2000 to 3000 words. Speculative fiction (sci-fi and fantasy) have bigger words counts of between 7000-10,000 words.

The Starlit Realms fantasy anthology edited by Elizabeth Klein

There is more room (or words) to manoeuvre, but focus and tight writing are still essential. It's important to streamline — limit the story to a short period time, small cast of characters, with few if any subplots, and start the story close to the finish.

Novelette

Novelette - 7,500 - 20,000 words

A novelette falls in between a short story and a novella. My Heart of the Mountain started life as a short story (my original attempt at the 7000 word limit for submissions for Glimpses of Light anthology) but blew out to over 11,000 words. Later, I expanded HOM to 15,500 words as the first book in a novella series.

 

The term 'novellette', is not well known and tends to cause confusion. For some, it means a novella. Many others have never heard of the term. So, I've called Heart of the Mountain 'short novella'.

Novella

Novella - 20,000 - 50,000 words

A novella (and to some extent a novelette) allows more complexity, with perhaps more characters and twists and it develops over a longer period of time.

 

Some famous classical works are novellas - for instance Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), H. G. Well's The Time Machine (1895), Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol (1843), Geroge Orwell's Animal Farm (1945) and many others. 

The other four books in my Under the Mountain series (sequels to Heart of the Mountain) are novellas.

Opportunities

Who Publishes Short Fiction

Periodicals, zines, collections and anthologies are usually the home of short fiction. However, short fiction can be published on its own either as e-books or even in print. Short fiction can also be collected in boxed sets.

Another innovative approach is publishing short fiction as a series (similar to TV series) in which 'episodes' within a 'season' are published with individual story arcs plus an over-arching series arc. Adam David Collings is taking this approach with his Jewel of the Star series, having recently published the third in the series, Legacy of War. Amazon's Kindle Vella also takes this approach - with authors publishing episodic short stories. In some ways, it's a return to the past - Charles Dickens books were published this way, serialised in a magazine rather than online.

Current Calls for Submission

Interested in having a go at some short fiction. Keep an eye out for various competitions. Here are some ideas to start with:

Furious Fiction - check it out here.
Elizabeth Klein is look for retellings of lesser known fairy tales for an anthology (due 1st April 2023)
Wombat in Rhiza Edge Short Story Competition want dystopian or steam punk stories for their anthology (open until May 2023) - More info here. 
Inklings Press are looking for Mystery stories for their next anthology - until 30 April 2033. See more here.

Please share in the comments below (or on the CWD FB page) if you know of other opportunities.

Have you written (or read) short fiction? What do you like (or dislike) about this form? Who do you think does it well?

Jeanette O'Hagan with Lynne Stringer

Jeanette O'Hagan has spun tales in the world of Nardva from the age of eight. She enjoys writing fantasy, sci-fi, poetry, and editing. Her Nardvan stories span continents, millennia and cultures. Some involve shapeshifters and magic. Others include space stations and cyborgs.

She has published over forty stories and poems, including the Under the Mountain Series (5 books), Ruhanna's Flight and Other Stories, Akrad's Children and Rasel's Song, the first two books in the Akrad's Legacy series - and new short story in the Starlit Realms: Fantasy anthology.



To get a free copy of Ruhanna's Flight - sign up to Jeanette O'Hagan's newsletter here.

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Highlighting Blogs and Blogging

 by Jeanette O'Hagan

Each week CWD's faithful team of bloggers share wisdom and inspiration, challenge, inform and entertain on the Christian Writers' Downunder blog (aka here!)

What is a blog and why do we do it?

A blog (shortened from Web Log) is a site that shares regular entries or posts on a website. Generally, the latest blog is posted first, with blogs available in a chronological order - though Labels, the Search box or the Menu Bar (to your right) can help you access particular topics or posts. 

Blogs can be personal like a web diary sharing certain aspects of a person's experience - say about a trip around the world, or daily (mis)adventures as a parent, or an interest in a hobby.

Blogs can also be used by businesses, organisations,  or creatives as part of a platform - i.e. to build a presence or visibility, to engage with clients or fans, and to share relevant information - like new releases or achievements.  

They can also be group blogs (like Christian Writers Downunder and the Australasian Christian Writers blogs), where bloggers take turns to blog sharing their experiences and knowledge on a common subject or interest. 

What about Christians Writers Downunder Blog?

The CWD blog's primary aim is to serve our members through posts from our member bloggers (and the occasional special guest) with inspiring and practical blogposts about writing and the writer's life as informed by our experiences and faith. 

It also provides a platform for our members - to share our triumphs and wins (as in the quarterly Highlights posts), help introduce our members (in the Meet Our Members Posts) or share information from our sister groups (Cross posts with Omega Writers and Australasian Christian Writers).

And for our bloggers - it gives an opportunity to find and develop a voice through blogging and to help visibility in the vast trackless ocean of the interwebs. 

Comments can also encourage the blogger and provide interaction between members. Though in recent years, comments on the the Blogger platform has become more difficult to some. We also share the link to the blog in the Facebook group, and responses can be made in the comments of the post, sparking interaction in the group.

Personal Blogs

Many of our members have their own personal blogs that are worth checking out. 

*Paula Vince blogs about books and always has an interesting take on the Vince Review
*Nola Lorraine (aka Nola Passmore) gives tips on craft, interviews other authors and put interesting quizzes at Nola Lorraine. 
*Jo-Anne Berthelsen's inspirational blogs Jo-Anne's Berthelsen's Blog gets one thinking.
*Adam Collings not only has a blog but also regular You-tube blogs and podcasts.
*Mazzy Adams also adds her Musings to her website - Mazzy's Musings
*Lynne Stringer includes a blog about sci-fi and writing - Lynne Stringer Author and Editor
*I also have a blog (a little neglected of late) with updates, interviews, reviews etc. Jeanette O'Hagan Writes (by the Light of Two Moons)

Some Changes A Foot

Christian Writers Downunder started as a Yahoo group in 2009, with the very first blog post in 2010. CWD is on Facebook, and over the last 13 years,  CWD has expanded from a few enthusiastic members to over 1300 members.  The blog has over one thousand posts. It has had a few minor changes in format over that time in terms of frequency of blogs, different feature bloggers, and new members of the blog team, but it has basically continued in the same format. 

This year we will be making a few minor changes. 

While Monday mornings have been the primary time for our Blog team share posts, we will be switching this to Thursdays, with every second Monday reserved for the Highlight, Behind the Scenes , Meet Our Members, Fifteen Great Picks, and Admin announcement Posts and the Omega Writers Cross-posts. 

So, remember to keep an eye out on Mondays and Thursdays for the CWD blog - be inspired, encouraged, informed and challenged in your journey as a writer.  

Are you a blogger - what joys and challenges have you experienced? Do you have some favourite blogs you would like to share with others?

Btw - Did you have a new release or event or brag point that didn't make it to the Highlights Post? Keep an eye out for the next call for information from members - the next Highlights post will be in about 4 weeks, on 3rd April 2023 (for January-March 2023).

Jeanette O'Hagan has spun tales in the world of Nardva from the age of eight. She enjoys writing fantasy, sci-fi, poetry, and editing. Her Nardvan stories span continents, millennia and cultures. Some involve shapeshifters and magic. Others include space stations and cyborgs.

She has published over forty stories and poems, including the Under the Mountain Series (5 books), Ruhanna's Flight and Other Stories, Akrad's Children and Rasel's Song, the first two books in the Akrad's Legacy series - and new short story in the Starlit Realms: Fantasy anthology.

She is also an avid reader and enjoys tracking down family tree conundrums. 

Facebook |Jeanette O'Hagan Writes | Twitter | Instagram

Omega Writers | Calling Unpublished Authors!

Calling Unpublished Authors!

The 2023 CALEB Award will open for entries in April 2023. This year's award will welcome entries in the following categories:

• Unpublished Adult Fiction
• Unpublished Young Adult Fiction
• Unpublished Adult/Young Adult Nonfiction

Omega Writers created the CALEB Unpublished contest to support and encourage unpublished writers towards the pursuit and achievement of excellence.

The CALEB Unpublished Award therefore considers unpublished authors, not unpublished manuscripts.

There have been a couple of minor rule changes this year. The main change is that only completed manuscripts will be accepted. This year, entrants will upload two files:

• Their first 10,000 words, plus a synopsis of up to 1,000 words.
• Their full and complete manuscript.

The opening and synopsis will be judged in the first round, while finalists will be judged on their full manuscript. Only the contest coordinator and final-round judges will see the full manuscript.

So it's time to get writing, to ensure you have a full manuscript and are therefore eligible to enter the 2023 CALEB Award.

Why should you enter a writing contest?

I can think of several good reasons:

Honest Feedback

Writing contests are a great way to get honest feedback on your writing, and we all need honest feedback. Feedback is a gift which can show us what we’re doing well, and where we need to improve on.

Feedback from Writers

But it’s important to get feedback from the right people. We can ask family and friends for feedback. While they might give encouraging feedback (You’ve done a great job! Keep it up!), it might not be accurate. Family and friends will be proud of you for having written a book, and may be able to tell you what they enjoyed and why, but they probably can’t tell you what needs to be improved (unless they happen to be successful writers who know your genre).

In contrast, contest judges are fellow writers, usually people who write in the same genre. Some will be fellow unpublished authors, some will be published authors, some will have won awards. All are willing to give up their time to help other writers improve their craft.

Targeted Feedback

Because they are writers (or editors, or agents), they know what good writing looks like, and they will judge accordingly. Most contests use a score sheet which looks at different aspects of the writing, such as the opening, the characters, the plot, and use of point of view or showing vs telling. Entering a writing contest will show you if you have issues in some of these areas.

Finding out you’re not using point of view well may be painful, but it’s better to find out from an anonymous contest judge early in your writing career than to polish the manuscript for months (or years), submit to a publisher and be rejected because of your point of view. (And point of view isn’t your opinion on a subject. If you’re a fiction writer and don’t understand what I mean by point of view, you need to learn).

Anonymous Feedback

Judging in unpublished contests is blind, which means the judges don’t know whose entry they are reading and judging. Most contests for unpublished writing ask writers to say who has read the entry so the contest organiser can avoid assigning the entry to a judge who may be biased. In addition, judges are encouraged to notify the organiser if they have seen any entries before so they can be reassigned.

Blind judging means judges can give feedback without worrying about that feedback potentially affecting a relationship (as can happen if you ask family or friends to critique your writing).

Bragging Rights

Finalling in or winning a contest gives you bragging rights aka a line in your query or proposal to an agent or editor. Many well-known Christian writers credit contests with helping them land an agent and/or publishing deal.

Genesis Contest

If your fiction manuscript is already complete, you might want to consider entering the Genesis contest.

The Genesis Contest is run by American Christian Fiction Writers, and judges the first fifteen double-spaced pages plus one-page single-spaced synopsis. Entries “must be consistent with a traditionally accepted understanding of Scripture and Christian world view.”

The award has the following categories:

• Contemporary
• Historical
• Historical Romance
• Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
• Novella
• Romance
• Romantic Suspense
• Short Novel
• Speculative
• Young Adult

Yes, these are all fiction categories ... American Christian Fiction Writers contests are for fiction manuscripts only. However, ACFW isn't just for American Christian writers--international authors are welcomed, and become part of the Beyond the Borders zone.

Entries are currently open, and close on 15 March 2023. The entry fee is USD 35 for ACFW members and USD 95 for non-members.

If you are looking to publish in the US market, then I recommend entering the Genesis Contest. Many Christian authors are previous Genesis winners or finalists, including David Rawlings (who went on to win a Christy Award for his debut novel, The Baggage Handler.)

Click here to find out more about how to enter.

Click here to check out lists of previous winners (I'm sure you'll recognise some names.)

Will you enter the 2023 CALEB Awards?

Will AI (ChatGPT) Kill the Writing Star?—by Susan J Bruce

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Back in the late 70s there was a hit single called Video Killed the Radio Star, a one-hit-wonder by The Buggles. It was the first song played when MTV debuted in 1981 and it’s about the concerns and mixed attitudes toward the use of 20th-century inventions and machines for the arts. 

 

Fast forward to 2023 and technology continues to grow exponentially—especially artificial intelligence (AI). 

 

From Siri to self-driving cars, AI technology is quickly becoming ubiquitous and changing the way we live and work. It’s not just making our lives easier but it’s also unlocking new frontiers in fields such as medicine, finance and space exploration.

 

It’s also impacting the arts.

 

One of those AI programs, ChatGPT, is currently generating a lot of discussion—inspiring conversations all over the internet. 

What is Chat GPT?

ChatGPT is a new language model program that has been trained on a large amount of text from the internet and beyond. It can generate words and ideas in a conversational tone about almost anything. 

 

I’m a copywriter as well as an author. We talked about it as a team at work and I’d seen some chatter about the program in various writing groups, so I thought I’d better check out what it could do. 

• Was ChatGPT going to put me out of a job? 
• Was it going to kill off my author career?

I decided to sign up to the free version of ChatGPT and have a play with the program! 

 

First impression? Wow! The conversational nature of the chatbot was scary-good. At times I felt as if I was talking to a real person.

 

Second impression? My job and writing career were safe—for now!

What ChatGPT can and can’t do 

When you sign up for ChatGPT, the site gives you some warnings about the program’s capabilities and limitations:

• It remembers what you said earlier in the conversation
• It allows you to give follow-up corrections       
• It’s trained to decline inappropriate requests (Not sure what that means, so I didn’t test it!)       
• It may occasionally give you incorrect information       
• It can sometimes produce harmful instructions or biased content       
• It has limited knowledge of the world and events after 2021 (which is obviously when it was programmed)

It also isn’t private—anything you enter could be read by one of their technicians—so don’t give it any information that’s deeply personal or anything related to your security, online or otherwise.

 

I decided to check out the program’s abilities for myself.

ChatGPT writing experiments

Writing copy

To begin with, I decided to check out its copywriting capabilities. I asked ChatGPT to write an advertising blurb for my young adult novel, Running Scared. I gave it the book description and asked it to generate several responses. The first few were simply awful, but I gave it more information and it finally gave me this copy. It's still pretty iffy—I wouldn’t use it as is—but with time I could tweak this draft to come up with something I liked:

 

Experience the heart-wrenching and thrilling journey of Melinda in "Running Scared", the latest novel by Susan J. Bruce. When the boy she loves is hiding a dark secret, Melinda must confront her worst fears and uncover the truth. With themes of first-love, friendship, and bravery, this captivating story explores the power of standing up to bullies and the consequences of keeping secrets. Perfect for young adult readers who love stories filled with emotion and mystery, "Running Scared" will keep you hooked from beginning to end."

 

Verdict: Don’t rely on ChatGPT to write great copy, but it can be used to give you something you can work with and refine.

 

Writing poetry 

I then switched to poetry and asked it to write a ‘happy sonnet’. I reasoned that asking for both poetry and emotion would test its writing abilities. The result was four simple quatrains like this one:

A world of joy, a heart of gold, 

A smile that shines, a story told, 

Of happiness that overflows, 

And laughter that forever grows.

 

I then asked ChatGPT if it understood the structure of a sonnet. It said yes and explained the sonnet structure accurately and defined an English (Shakespearian) sonnet as having three quatrains and a rhyming couplet—all in iambic pentameter. I then asked the program to rewrite the poem according to its definition of an English sonnet.

 

Once again, it gave me four quatrains.

 

I explained that it wasn’t writing according to the rules it gave me and it apologised profusely (yes, really) and had another go. After several attempts, the best it came up with were three quatrains and two rhyming couplets. I gave up and moved on.

 

Here’s another example of inaccuracy that made me laugh: 

 

An amusing ChatGPT chat I found on reddit—used with permission

 

Verdict: Don’t ask ChatGPT to help you with your poetry (or other) homework! 😎

 

Things became more interesting when I asked it to help me with my novel.

Novel writing

I’m writing a mystery novel and I’m at a point where I need to thread subtle clues to the identity of murderer throughout the story. I gave ChatGPT a couple of paragraphs summarising my story and the character of the antagonist. I then asked for hints regarding how I could thread these clues throughout the narrative.

 

I won’t list them here because I don’t want you to know whodunit 😊, but it gave me some good suggestions. Then I asked the program how I could make my antagonist a more rounded character. Nothing it said was new, and I had to ask the right questions, but it was surprisingly helpful. I felt as if I was brainstorming with another author in my genre. 

 

I could have got this information from a Google search, but it would have taken a lot longer. I could also have chatted with an actual author friend, but we are all busy, right? 

 

Verdict: If you ask ChatGPT the right questions, it can be a useful tool in plotting your novel.

The emphasis here is on the word “tool”

I’m sure this program can do a lot more. When I asked Chat GPT to tell me how it could be useful for authors. This is what it said: 

 

ChatGPT is … an excellent tool for authors who are looking for feedback and suggestions on their writing. Simply provide your draft to ChatGPT and ask for suggestions, and it will respond with insightful suggestions and recommendations, tailored to your writing style and tone. This real-time interaction with an AI model offers an exciting new opportunity for writers to improve their craft and reach their audiences in new and engaging ways.

 

We already have AI tools that are used extensively in the writing world. Editing programs such as Grammarly and ProWritingAid are a form of AI, as are search engines like Google and DuckDuckGo.

 

If we see AI technology as a tool that can help writers create better work, faster, it can be an excellent resource. As long as we treat ChatGPT as a resource and not as a ghostwriter. 

 

The reality is that technology is developing exponentially. In a couple of years GPT3 (on which ChatGPT is based) will become GPT4, so AI isn’t going to go away anytime soon. It will only become more powerful. 

How do we respond?

I think in the future we’ll have three choices as authors: 

• Let programs like this do our writing for us (meh…)
• Ignore it completely
• Harness the technology like we do every other tool (computers and internet, anyone?) and use it to our advantage.  

Photo by Martin Shreder on Unsplash 

My vote is for the third option. I don’t think using an AI tool to write your whole work, or even significant sections of your book is a good idea, from either a craft or ethical perspective. But, like all technology, it can be a handy tool.  

If, like me, you’re the kind of person who likes to bounce ideas off someone to clarify your thoughts, but you don’t always have access to another writer right then, tech like this can be really helpful. It’s fun to play with and it can help you look at your story in a different way.

 

The good news is that even with further technological advances, I don’t believe ChatGPT will take over our roles as writers and authors anytime soon. 

 

Even if AI can one day generate commercially viable stories and books, these books will lack the human creative spark. And I sometimes wonder that if technology uses the internet as its source and AI works take over the internet, will all the information one day devolve into the literary version of grey goo? 

 

There has to be some safeguards. Somehow we need to make sure the dystopian future Roald Dall hypothesised in his book, The Great Automatic Grammatizator, doesn’t happen. In this story a man creates a machine that can write a prize-winning novel in about 15 minutes. More and more of the world’s writers must license their names to the machine—so killing human creativity.

 

As Christian writers (this is a CWD blog after all), whether we write for the Christian community or for mainstream audiences, we have a secret weapon: the Holy Spirit. It’s amazing to think that the God who brought this brilliant and beautiful world into being, also made us to be creators in his image. Our heavenly dad loves to help us make things.

 

I wouldn’t swap that for any AI 😊.

 

But back to that song I mentioned… 

Video didn’t kill the radio star—video and radio are two different media sources. Video music clips entertain by blasting both the visual and audio senses, while radio is a more intimate, invite-the-announcer-into-your-living-room kind of experience. 

 

I don’t think ChatGPT will kill the writing star, either. If AI can help us organise our thoughts and brainstorm ideas, that’s pretty cool. And if we harness the power of AI programs in the right way, it can help our star rise.

 

What about you? Do you think there’s a place for ChatGPT and other AI in an author’s toolbox? What do you think are the ethical issues of using AI?

 

Let’s talk in the comments!

 

Susan J Bruce is an author, artist and animal addict who writes mystery and suspense books—with heart. Susan is a former veterinarian and animals often run, jump, fly or crawl through her tales. Her writing group once challenged her to write a story without mentioning any animals—she failed! Susan’s first novel, Running Scared, was awarded the 2018 Caleb Prize for an unpublished manuscript and is currently available on your favourite online retailer books2read.com/u/3RLoLB. 

Visit Susan at www.susanjbruce.com.

 

 

By Your Love for One Another

Our collaboration from 2012

John 13:34-35 (NIV)

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

What a wonderful community we have as Australian Christian Writers.

 Having lead Omega Writers for four years, I’ve had the privilege of seeing connections made, friendships formed, cooperation enacted, partnerships agreed upon. In the few years since I passed that mantle onto Penny Reeve, that glorious network has continued to grow. It warms the heart to see a thriving community of Christian writers. As our region of the world is small (in numbers) there is so much to be gained by standing together to encourage and promote creative writing.

But that doesn’t mean we will always experience roses and sunshine.

 The closer we become, the more chance there is of us finding out each other’s faults. This likelihood is increased when authors choose to work together in cooperation on certain projects.

Just like every other family or community, there is going to be diversity of character, personality, experience.

Each of us will have a different way to write; a different way to discipline our process; different achievement goals; different perceptions of God’s Grace, and how it works; different social justice understandings, and how they should work. Goodness, we will barrack for different teams in sport, or won’t follow sport at all.

The thing about this wonderful colourful depth of experience and personality is that it is like two echidnas falling in love. How they come together must be done very carefully.

The thing we all have in common is our love for God, through the wonderful saving power of His son, Jesus Christ. That, and our passion for engaging a message of hope through writing.

Through my work with various Christian leadership and creative teams, I have found that this diversity means I work with leaders who don’t always agree. But so far, the grace of God in our midst has allowed most leadership teams to find consensus and move forward in grace and peace.

Most writers are leaders. A person who can discipline themselves to learn and apply from conception through to product is a person who has the ability to lead themselves, and most likely others around them.

I’ve worked in Christian leadership situations since I was sixteen. I’ve seen the good, the bad and the beautiful over forty something years. Sometimes we can be ugly. Sometimes we are offended. Sometimes we are reactive. Sometimes we are tired. Sometimes we are frustrated. And sometimes others see a version that is not our best self.

What do we do in these situations?

The opening Scripture: “…everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” sounds like good advice, but if we are honest, we don’t always feel very loving. Sometimes we’d like to give someone a piece of our mind.

In my long experience of conflict management (can you believe I’ve ever had conflict in my life? Joke) loving someone means submitting everything to God and asking for his wisdom and grace. We need His strategy in how to navigate towards restoration and His peace.  It isn’t always easy. Actually, I’ve never found it to be easy. 

That is the thing about love. If it is easy, it probably isn’t deep, abiding, Christ-like love.

I have a strong and bossy personality. A number of people have told me this over many years. I don’t like hearing it, as it’s usually delivered in a derogatory sense. Sure there might be a chuckle to go along with it, but I want to believe I’m a sweet easy-going personality. Needless to say, there has been more than one occasion when I’ve put my foot in my mouth, and followed it up by opening my mouth to change feet.  I don’t want to hurt anybody. But it is an inevitable part of being a strong and confident personality. So what do I do when someone reacts.

My human nature wants to fire up and shoot back, but the grace of God, which has grown to some degree in my life, calms me down, and I pause to reflect.

What have I done to cause this reaction? Has the other person got the wrong end of the stick, or have I been insensitive? Either way, I need to open up dialogue when the time is right, and apologise. Sometimes the apology goes like this: “I’m sorry that you were hurt by what I said. I perhaps didn’t express myself properly. This is what I really meant.”

Sometimes I realise I have been insensitive and what I said was a trigger or unnecessarily harsh. I just need to straight up apologise.

I have learned, however, that waiting for the right time is important. Blundering into a volatile situation, even with the best intentions, often adds insult to injury. Best to wait on God for His timing. But I keep the situation before him in prayer, and ask for the courage, grace and wisdom to reach out when it is right.

As our Christian writing community continues to grow, and as many of us form connections and working relationships, I encourage us all to reflect on the love and grace of God.

 One thing I know we would all want is for those around us to know we are Christians by our love for one another.

Blessed be the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ.

 

Please look out this month for the release of 'My Funny Valentine' box set of sweet clean rom coms (NB not Christian Fiction). Our romantic comedy 'Daring Mr Darcy' is featured in this set. Loads of fun from Carolyn Miller and myself. Available for pre order now.

Also, a group of Australian Christian authors (+ one Kiwi and one American) have banded to release a series of contemporary Christian romance novels. The Trinity Lakes Romance series will start at the end of February with Narelle Atkin's 'Never Find Another You'. Available for pre-order now. 

My title, 'The Ocean Between Us' will be released next month.

 Meredith Resce, author of the 'Luella Linley - License to Meddle' series and the 'Heart of Green Valley' series. For more information please visit her website www.meredithresce.com