Merging Fiction and Nonfiction: A Busy Intersection

In my previous blog I described how the combination of fiction and nonfiction came about in my book Living Between the Ditches: When God Makes No Sense. Although the idea originated with my son, Mark, the idea took root and began to grow right before my very eyes.

I soon discovered problem one: the story line didn't keep up with the content, or—was it the content that didn't keep up with the story? Interspersing them proved more difficult than I would have imagined. For example, Layton's visit to the gift shop on p. 49 was added after the chapter was finished in order to break up the teaching into chewable bites. As it turned out, the bear Paychunts became part of the character development of Brianne, as witnessed by her dialogue on p. 138.

A second problem was transitions. How would I get from Layton's story into the biblical truth and back again? Would the reader feel that he or she had been pulled from one world into the other in jerking motions, or would the manuscript flow? My copy editor, Bethany, helped immensely. All she had to do was insert the words, say what?—or some similar comment to let me know I had lost her. Occasionally, she'd guess at the invisible link!

A third problem was distinguishing the dialogue of the story from the text of the content. By putting the dialogue in italics, the fictional portion looked different. Thinking up subtitles was harder than you might imagine because again, they had to help with the transition. A last minute idea was almost my undoing. By labeling each fictional portion with a day and hour, I attempted to help the reader keep track of the time line. Unfortunately, my due day to the printer came around before I had adequately proofed the text. Did any of you catch the error on page 49? It should read "Tuesday." (I've had it corrected for subsequent copies.)

The fact that the fiction and nonfiction came together at last into a cohesive whole (or am I being too optimistic?) is proof that God is still in the miracle-working business! I learned a lot in the process, and now I'm putting what I learned to good use in my second book. The main character is Parker, and like Layton, he's having some trouble wedging himself into to this book's paradox. Pray that he makes it!

Speaking of main characters, we'll talk about the development of Layton's character next.