Chris Fabry: Writers Corner

Chris Fabry is a writer and broadcaster who has written more than 65 books for children and adults. His first novel for adults, Dogwood, received a 2009 Christy Award.  Chris is the host of the nationally syndicated program Chris Fabry Live! on Moody Radio.  He is also heard daily on Love Worth Finding, as well as the weekly broadcast of Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman, which he co-hosts with his wife Andrea. Chris is a graduate of the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia and the Advanced Studies Program of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.  He and Andrea are the parents of nine children and make their home near Tucson, Arizona.

Favorite Verse: Colossians 3:23-24 : "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving."

 "If I could just find the time, I’d do it," by Chris Fabry

I want to ramble a little and hopefully give some encouragement here. I meet a lot of people who love the thought of writing. “If I could just find the time, I’d do it,” they say. What they mean, of course, is that writing doesn’t take much skill, anyone can do it, if they only have the time.

Not true. Writing is hard, difficult, laborious work. I think it’s akin to working with concrete or digging a ditch. If you have to do it, you’d better show up in the morning on time with your shovel or trowel (or whatever you use for concrete).
What people like is the thought of having something published with their name on it. I was that way. Here’s what happened. My first book was published. I picked the book up from the publisher in five boxes. I went to the car and my family gathered around. The sun came out from a cloud, I opened the box, pulled out the first book and thought, “I wonder when the next one will come out?”

It’s insidious, this desire for more. We dream of having one book published and then ten. So what I want to say is, if your dream is to write, not have your book published and read by millions, but to express yourself with the written word, you are in a good place. Now, if God has given you this desire, I would hope that you would want the widest audience possible to be exposed to your ideas. I meet people who say, “I write, but it’s just for me.” If you’re journaling, I understand that. But if this is stuff God is giving you, don’t hoard it. Let it get out there.

Another common fallacy I see with people who begin a writing career is to think that you have to begin with a book. I had a friend write not long ago who I’ve been friends with for more than 20 years. He actually gave me a stack of Writer’s Digest Magazines from his basement that really helped me as I was getting started. He said something like, “I remember when you took that columnist position at the local paper and how diligent you were with each of those weekly columns.” I’ve had 68 books published now. None of it would have happened if I hadn’t taken that columnist position for the small, weekly paper in Bolingbrook, Illinois. I wrote my stories on the side, wrote my columns each week, went to my day job, went to church, was a father/husband/citizen, but in the back of my mind I had a dream of actually being a published author.

There is no substitute for hard work. Write for your church newsletter. Blog. Write for online newsletters. Write stories for your local paper. There are endless opportunities to write in this digital age. Take advantage of them. Never think of a writing job as beneath you, because you can use any experience for your career. Write obituaries. Write letters to soldiers. Write late notices for your library. Just write.

“But what do I write?”

That’s a common place to get stuck. Do I write legal thrillers? Romance? Amish fiction? Amish legal thrillers? That is why you write. You discover what makes you click, what makes your heart skip. I love reading mysteries and police procedurals, but I don’t see that as my niche. There are parts of my books that are mysteries and have police involved, but at the heart of my stories are characters who have some longing of the heart that is yet assuaged. I try to find that hole and fill it with something, good or bad, and then see the consequences in the rest of the story.

Now, let me tell you a bit of my own journey. As a child in WV, I wrote all I could. I wrote poems, songs, stories. I told my friends about my latest stories. I read them to kids in class until their eyes glazed. One friend suggested I show one of my poems to the English teacher. I finally did. Her response was, “So, you want to be Dr. Seuss?”

I shut down. I didn’t write for a while, but the well bubbled up and I got into radio where you’re writing while you’re talking all the time. It wasn’t until I was in a forensics competition in high school that I had some positive affirmation. I was in a TV News competition where you had to read one minute of prepared news, do a commercial, and read one minute of “cold” news, meaning you hadn’t read the copy at all.  I muffed the commercial (dropped my tube of Preparation H) and came in 2nd in the competition. But the thing that really jazzed me was what one of the judges said. I can still remember it to this day. Four words changed my life.

“Hey, you can write!”

That’s all it said. Just that encouragement from that judge meant so much. So find someone you respect, someone who will cheerlead as well as edit. Someone you trust to be objective about your stories and not just Grandma who thinks everything you do is on par with Shakespeare. Someone who has been published, preferably. Someone who will tell you what stinks and what sticks.

I had the pleasure and joy of finding Jerry Jenkins before he became a NY Times bestselling author. He’s still the same today, working with The Christian Writers Guild, as he says, re-stocking the pool of Christian writers. But he did that with me for many years and I am richer for it. Find someone like that who can mentor and encourage you and in those times when you feel like tossing everything out the window, you’ll have a shoulder to lean on, cry on, and rejoice with down the road.

The Christy Awards were given in July. My book, Dogwood, was in the category of Standalone novels. Jerry Jenkins wrote a story called Riven that is, in his estimation and many others, the best thing he has written. It would have been nominated in that same category, but he wasn’t nominated. He was hurt, of course. When my novel actually won in that category, it was as if Jerry had won. He was so excited. That kind of friend and mentor is not easy to find.

Bottom line, if you really want to write, you will do it. Doesn’t matter if you’re twelve or 95, if this is something God has laid on your heart, you will find a way to do it. Don’t let anyone discourage you to the point of quitting. Don’t let anyone puff you up and make you think you’re the second coming of Victor Hugo. Be yourself. Follow the stories God gives you. And sit down in the chair and write.

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