Interview with J. M. Hochstetler, Part Two

Today we present the second part of the interview with our own J. M. Hochstetler.

Describe for us, if you will, your writing style, as in plotter vs. seat of the pants, and do you put more time into developing characters or plot or are they equal?

Oh, goodness, as hard as I try to force myself to plot my stories in advance, those rascally characters always manage to pry my neat little outline out of my fingers and go scampering off in some unexpected direction. I do start with a general idea of what the story is going to be about and what some of the major events will be. Sometimes characters come to me first, sometimes a storyline, and sometimes a period of time. The epic medieval tragedy I’ve had on the back burner forever started as a dream I had to flesh out to find out what was going on. Daughter of Liberty started as the Jane Seymour-Anthony Andrews TV movie The Scarlet Pimpernel. I rarely have a coherent idea of the theme at the beginning, however. That amazingly seems to develop on its own while I write just as if it had always been there.

I do what a dear friend calls “chunking.” I don’t write stories from beginning to end. I write wherever the passion is at the moment—whatever scene is uppermost in my mind and agitating to be written. I figure if I’m excited about it, then my readers will be too, so I try to get it down before that fickle muse flies off. I’ve started stories in the middle or even at the end and then gone on to do what I call backfilling. What would logically happen before this scene? What would happen after this scene? I’ll write chunks of scenes at the beginning, middle, and end—not necessarily in that order—and then fill in around them until the chunks meet.

One project I’m working on right now is Northkill, the family saga I’m writing with my cousin. It’s about our pacifist Amish Mennonite ancestors who came to this country seeking religious freedom, only to get caught up in the French and Indian War. Because I’m co-authoring this book, I’m supposed to work straight through from beginning to end using the chapter synopses Bob and I wrote when we began. It’s a new experience, and I’m not sure if I like working that way or not. In some ways it feels too confining, but in others I have to admit it does help my focus. To be truthful, though, unbeknownst to Bob, I have accumulated a lot of chunks for upcoming chapters, some of them recorded on the little digital voice recorder I carry with me. But don’t tell anyone …



At the same time I’m also working on book 3 of my American Revolutionary War series, Wind of the Spirit, which I’ve chunked like mad. Right now I’m doing a lot of backfilling. I confess I also have a very bad habit of editing as I write. I know, I know—not supposed to do that. But, hey, I’m an editor. What can I say? Bad, Joan, bad!!!

Plot and character development seem like all one piece to me. I’m always wondering how my characters’ actions reveal who they are and what motivates them, and I try to weave that into the plot. Of course, with historicals, a large part of the plot is dictated by actual historical events; however, those events were not only affected by, but also affected, the people of that day. I try to reflect that in my characters’ lives. So there’s always this tugging back and forth between the events that take place in the story and the characters’ interior development.

I hope this is making some sense!

Was there a person who inspired you to write?

I don’t think there was a person as such. I was inspired by all the excellent stories I read as a young person—and sometimes too by those that weren’t quite as excellent. On a number of occasions I’ve thought, “I can do better than that!” Haven’t we all? Well, at some point I finally decided to try.

Do you consider writing a calling or more of a season of your life for right now?

Writing must be my calling. Over the past thirty years or so I’ve tried repeatedly to quit, but every time I ask the Lord if he REALLY wants me to keep writing, he gives me another storyline that’s just toooo intriguing. Or several all at once. Sigh. I’ve stopped asking except on my very worst days, and then I duck and run for cover.

What do you do when you find yourself overwhelmed with all the stuff that goes along with writing and publishing?

Well, I pray a lot! I try to focus only on what is the most important thing for me to do right now and allow the Lord to take care of the rest—with varying degrees of success, unfortunately. A friend of mine said that you should go where the peace is, that if you’re not feeling peace deep down inside about what you’re doing, then it isn’t the Lord’s will for you to do that even if it’s a good thing or something that others tell you that you’re supposed to do. I try to keep that firmly in mind whenever I begin to feel pressured.

Can you name a novel (preferably historical) that has stayed with you that you couldn’t shake, and that changed you in some way?

I have three, actually. Green Dolphin Street by Elizabeth Goudge, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I read each of them as a teenager—and have reread them a number of times since then—and have been deeply affected by the spiritual themes woven throughout each story. They are entirely different in many respects, but all of them represent my ideal of excellent writing. And in their different ways, they inspired me tremendously in my Christian walk.


Do you have a life verse or a mission statement that guides your writing? If so, will you share it with us?

As a young teenager I was strongly attracted to Isaiah 6, where Almighty God appears in his glory to Isaiah in the Holy of Holies. Verse 8 spoke to me very powerfully, and I claimed it as my own: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’ ” In fact, I wrote that verse in the front of my Bible long before I’d ever heard of choosing a life verse.

Thank you for your time and for the privilege of interviewing you for Favorite Pastimes.

Thank you so much for inviting me. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed talking with you!

Joan will be giving away one copy each of Daughter of Liberty and Native Son in our drawings at the end of the week, so don't forget to post a comment to enter. Also, coming up, this Friday, is a review of Native Son!