TURNING POINTS

Decision Time!

Joshua 24:15 – “But if the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (NIV)

The Novelist’s Bootcamp by Todd Stone says that turning points are decisive moments. Donald Maass in his book, The Fire In Fiction, speaks of that moment when everything changes. Maass says that scenes have outer turning points and inner turning points. The outer turning point is the way things change that everyone understands, while an inner turning point is the way the POV character changes as a result.

Choose a scene from your work in progress. Identify the decisive moment, the moment of change. Do you show the effects of the turning point on the POV character? Try rewriting the scene by putting yourself into the POV character’s shoes. Express the effect.

This verse in Joshua is a popular one seen often framed and hung in homes. But when Joshua said that he and his household were going to serve the Lord despite what others did, he wasn’t just turning a cute phrase. He was challenging his fellow Israelites to a decision that he had already made.

Have you been decisive in your commitment to write for the Lord? Have you experienced a “turning point” in your writing? Describe that decisive moment.