Rebecca Davis, one of our speakers for "Write at the StART" writing and illustrating conference
Pam Zollman: What were your favorite books as a child?
Rebecca Davis: I loved Nancy Drew. Probably read them all. But my mother kept giving me biographies and other good books, and I enjoyed them too. I read a lot of the Childhood of Famous Americans series and loved them. But I didn’t learn to appreciate great literature and nonfiction until I was a young adult.
Pam: What are your favorite books now (both adult as well as kid)? What are you currently reading?
Rebecca: My favorite children’s book, which I think is really a YA, is The Bronze Bow, by Elizabeth George Speare, which won the Newbery in 1960. Excellent characterization, plot development, descriptions, and especially an excellent theme: only love, as found in the salvation of Jesus Christ, can “bend the bow of bronze.”
As far as my favorite adult books go, there are many, but with the exception of Stepping Heavenward, they’re all nonfiction. Some others are The Pleasures of God, The Gospel According to Jesus, and The Heavenly Man. My Facebook page lists several more and tells why they’re important to me. Besides the Bible, I’m currently reading Tozer’s The Pursuit of God for the third time and studying it with my two daughters. I’m also perusing a few missionary memoirs in search of another children’s book.. I also almost always have several books that I’m trying to read when I get a chance scattered in various places around the house. All nonfiction.
Pam: You write biographies for children, but do you ever write for adults?
Rebecca: Yes, I love to write for adults. That’s what my blog is (though there’s a tab there that links to descriptions and sample chapters of my children’s books). Much of my writing through my first fifteen years of homeschooling was monthly columns with counsel for mothers regarding homeschooling and child-raising.
Pam: You have a wonderful blog (www.heresthejoy.com). How long have you been blogging? Does this help keep you creative? If so, how?
Rebecca: My website has been up for only a couple of months, though I’ve wanted one for a long time. No, I would have to say that the blog doesn’t help keep me creative–it’s the other way around. My writing fuels my blog, rather than my blog fueling my writing. A.W. Tozer said something about his writing bursting out of him like a volcano, and that’s how I feel sometimes. It has to have a place to go. What I put on my blog is drawn from my own personal Bible studies and journals and from emails I’ve written to explain aspects of the Christian life. I’ve written a lot of very long emails.
Pam: Do you ever write fiction? Which do you prefer? And why?
Rebecca: I have written fiction–several of the stories I wrote in the Bob Jones reading book were fiction–but I prefer nonfiction, because I think of myself as more of an editor than a writer. I love to take stories other people have written and change them to fit a certain purpose. So when I write biographies, for example, I’m taking the stories God has already written and putting them in children’s form. I’m acutely aware that these stories already have an Author. I’m just an amanuensis, as it were.
Pam: How did you start writing biographies?
Rebecca: This is a great story! (God wrote it, by the way.) I wanted to go to grad school at Bob Jones University–I hadn’t done my undergrad work there–but the cost seemed prohibitive. I had just read a very inspiring biography of George Mueller, a man who wanted to proclaim the faithfulness of God by undertaking gigantic tasks and then trusting God to meet his needs without telling anyone. I was so inspired by this story that, after much prayer and counsel, I decided to go to grad school without the necessary funds, trusting God to meet my needs, telling no one, and continuing to pray. About three weeks into the school year I was called into the office of Mr. Big, who offered me the possibility of a job working as a writer at the fledgling Bob Jones University Press, which I didn’t even know existed. I was astonished. It was like a dream.
What had happened was that my resume, which I had circulated in hopes of getting some teaching position or something, contained one line saying that I had written a lesson for a well-known educational publisher (because my former English teacher had gone to work for them and given me a little freelance work). Bob Jones University Press really needed writers at the time, though I had no idea of it. But God did! I sweated and prayed over a sample story for the second-grade reading book, and I got the job.
My first biography, though, was written several years later. I was researching Amy Carmichael for a short paragraph in a workbook, and as I read about her, I thought, “I would love to someday write a children’s book about this lady.” It was very shortly after this that the Boss announced that BJU Press would begin publishing trade books (as opposed to textbooks only) and would consider freelance manuscripts. Yes, because I was already employed there, my manuscript was given serious consideration. But the amazing thing to me was the fact that I was even employed there.
Pam: Some people are intimated by doing research. Tell us how you do your research? What types of resources do you use?
Rebecca: This has been my basic modus operandi: I found a well-written adult biography that was done from primary research (that is, visiting the place the person lived, reading his or her letters, etc). Then I sat with the book open in my lap in front of the computer. As I read, I translated into child-ese, especially choosing incidents about a child–either the main character or another child–in which I could easily incorporate conversation and description. Then, when I finished the first draft, I read several other biographies and some primary source documents, to add more details.
I think of a biography for children as just an introduction to the life of the great individual, so it wouldn’t need the kind of meticulous research that’s necessary for a biography for adults. I still read many biographies, both for children and adults, but I read them with different goals. I read the children’s biography to get an overview of the great person’s life; I read the adult biography to find out more about what really made that person tick. Obviously one needs more detailed research than the other.
Pam: What are you working on now?
Rebecca: I recently wrote a book of missionary stories based on the ministry of a missionary in Ethiopia. Now I’m hoping for more books in a potential series, so I’m gathering information about various missionaries who have served on the mission field for many years. I’m sure there must be dozens of wonderful stories out there just waiting to be told for children.
Pam: What advice do you have for beginning writers?
Rebecca: This one’s easy: humility. As writers, we can tend to think that our words are inspired and shouldn’t be changed at all. But someone else will see weaknesses that we can’t see. One of the first stories I wrote for Bob Jones University Press was virtually torn to shreds by my boss. She went through it with several different colors of pencils, each one to point out the weaknesses of a particular characteristic of the story. By the time she finished working through that story with me and strengthening it, it was completely unlike the thing I had started with. What a huge education! But it was good.
Even recently, my friends Vonda Skelton and Pam Zollman reviewed a fiction manuscript with me (remember, fiction isn’t my strength, but it is theirs) and they both had multiple suggestions. I mean multiple. Hours’ worth.
I could have said, “Ladies! I’ve been writing for years! I even won an award! I can’t believe you don’t treasure every golden word on these pages!” But then I wouldn’t have learned anything, and my manuscript couldn’t have improved the way it needed to. But when a friend speaks with grace and gentleness, corrections are always easier to take.
It can be hard for us when people criticize the words that pour out of our very souls. But humbly receiving that criticism is a necessary part of writing well.
Pam: Tell us why writers should attend your workshop at the “Write At the StART” Conference on August 15th.
Rebecca: Biographies of the truly great. . . sound stuffy . . . like something children would read only if they’re forced to. In my workshop I want to talk about the key ingredients that can cause a young adult to say—about a biography—“When I was ten years old, that was my very favorite book. I kept it under my pillow for a whole year.” I’m looking forward to sharing these ideas, drawn from principles of good writing and from my own memories of what I enjoyed in a book as a child. I even want to encourage my attendees do some writing projects on the spot. Then we’ll gently, kindly help each other become better writers. Get ready to be humble!
Pam: Thank you, Rebecca, for your thoughtful answers. I know your session on “Writing Biographical Narratives for Children” will be great!
If you want to find out more about the “Write at the StART” writing and illustration conference, click on the navigational tab “Events.” You can also hold a spot by registering on line. Just click on the nav tab “Register.”
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at pam.zollman (at) gmail.com.