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Learning Cool Stuff Through Writing #IWSG


Woo hoo, I love summer. Time for June's Insecure Writers Support Group, hosted by Alex Cavanaugh

Alex's awesome co-hosts for the June 3 posting of the IWSG are M. Pax, Tracy Jo,Patricia Lynne, Rachna Chhabria, Feather Stone, and Randi Lee!

Writers, join us HERE



There are so many cool aspects about writing, but one of my favorites is learning something new.

I just wrote a chapter in my work-in-progress Aced where the hero attends confession with a priest. I like to write moments when my characters grow and challenge dysfunctional behaviors. Typically this involves throwing my characters into therapy. But Aced's hero Alejandro is a Catholic Latino good boy, and I wanted to try a new space for healing and development outside the therapy office.

Although I attended Notre Dame for grad school, I'm not Catholic, and I've never experienced confession myself. Luckily, my critique partner is Catholic, and she provided a helpful link explaining the process. I also found this list of sins that blew me away. Jeez... I sin all the time!

Did you know that pirating ebooks is a sin? :-o

Both confession and therapy involve reflection and sharing secrets. But one unique part of confession is FORGIVENESS. I love the idea of seeking God's mercy in an effort to forgive ourselves.

What cool stuff have you learned through writing?

Comments

Anonymous said…
I like a lot of fighting and battle scenes in my stories and I constantly quiz my boyfriend who comes from a weapons/military type family about how this would happen or that. He’s definitely NOT the internet but I still feel like I’m learning!!
Sounds interesting. I'm big time Catholic and seeking Gods mercy is always a good thing. Good luck with your new book!
Nicki Elson said…
Thank God (literally) for His forgiveness!

I like the research parts of writing too---whether it's learning more about a place I haven't been or about archaeological proof of the Bible, which only ended up figuring minimally into one of my stories, but that didn't stop me from spending hour on it once I got going.

P.S. Your crit partner will be getting back to you that chapter sooooon.
M Pax said…
I love the research/learning in writing too. I learned there's a huge fungus in my state. I have to go see it sometime soon.
Glad your critique partner could help you. And I think we all sin all the time.
Sher A. Hart said…
I can't count the things I've learned through writing. Mostly, I'm glad I learned editing, better way to earn money to keep hubby from giving me flak about reading books and spending time online book blogging. I wish I had time to go to critique group... that was great until we moved.
Seeking God's mercy is definitely the way to go.
Gotta love all the things we learn while researching for stories.
Cherie Colyer said…
It's always fun to mix things up a bit, and seeking God's mercy is a nice alternative to therapy. With each book I research I learn something new.
Tess Julia said…
Your books sound really interesting! Right now I'm in deep with psychology, but not by choice.
Tricia Clasen said…
I love the research process. I've learned a fair amount about ghosts, and had some fun researching ghost stories on the web. Of course, I don't actually like ghost stories.