I’d like to emphasize a couple of points today:
1) You don’t need to sell to EVERYONE in the whole world to be a successful writer. The Harry Potter series sells something like 40 million copies per book (give or take 10 million). There are 7 billion people on the planet. Doing the math, poor J.K. Rowling is ignored by more than 99 percent of the population. How tragic! But she scrapes by. If you sell to 1 percent of 1 percent of the world, that’s still 700,000 people! If you sell to 1 percent of 1 percent of 1 percent, that’s still selling MORE COPIES than 98% of all books sell.
2) US readers will consider just about any spot on the globe exotic, if the story is made to FEEL exotic. GORKY PARK was set in Russia. THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD was set in East Berlin, among other places. (Many great spy novels have been set in Europe.) WHALE RIDER was set in New Zealand. THE NAME OF THE ROSE was set in Italy. The James Bond movies are set just about anywhere.
Whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever you are–that’s what you are. Use that as part of your brand.
Now to some of today’s questions:
Cristophe wrote:
I live in Brussels, Belgium. My native tongue is dutch, then french. English is only my third language. I know I want to write novels in english, so I can just about forget publishing a book in Belgium.
It will be hard for me – probably harder dan most people – to get published in the USA. But I’m thinking now that branding could seriously help me here. Am I wrong to use my home country as part of the brand? It might scare people of instead of attract them.
Randy sez: Yes, use your European location to your advantage. It depends exactly what you’re writing, of course. If you were writing a World War II novel, for example, being on location in Europe would be a huge help. Or a contemporary spy novel. Or a novel about international banking. Tell us more about what kind of novel you write and we’ll pool our brains to come up with a brand for you. This is a great group of brains here!
Steve wrote:
Can you have a brand that crosses genres? My biggest problem is that I can’t seem to narrow what I write because I read anything that looks good regardless of genre ( I’ve even read literary novels -gasp-). This is probably me still being a rookie but I’m cool with that ( the part about narrowing down my genre not about literary novels :)).
I guess this is just a long winded way of saying how specific do you have to be and is there a process to go through?
Randy sez: It’s good to read multiple genres. I do. Most writers do. It’s OK to mix genres. A mystery with romantic elements, for example. Or a thriller with a coming-of-age subtheme. But a novel should be clearly definable as ONE MAIN GENRE. Reason: Suppose you score big and Barnes and Noble orders 100,000 copies for its chain. And then all those books arrive at the store, and the stockers open them up and say, “Um, where do we put these? The mystery section or the romance section?” That’s a problem. They have to know what to call it. They have to know where to shelve you.
I would say it’s good to be quite specific when you define your brand. A brand is a combination of the genre you write, the person you are, and the angle you take on your writing.
Colleen wrote:
Well, now there are three of us! Although I was born in the United States, I have lived more than half my life in Chile, South America. I also plan to get my work published in the United States, but I want my books to have a Latin flavor.
Randy sez: Yes, that makes sense. Just make sure the publishers know that your book is set in the EXOTIC country you live in. For those of you who are not in the US, an idea that may play well is to bring a US citizen to your country and then immerse them in your culture. But that’s not necessary. The novels and movies I mentioned above were mostly non-US characters.
Remember that readers read to escape their everyday lives. Some of us want to escape to another country. So give us that option. Just don’t treat your country as if it were a boring, everyday place. Show us how cool it is where you live.
Mary (RelevantGirl) finally told us her brand:
Communicating Truth from the Inside Out
Randy sez: OK, that is Mary’s tagline, which is an important part of her brand. But it’s not the whole hot dog. The tagline, in fact, is merely the ketchup. Mary’s brand is far more than that. Let’s start with genre.
Mary writes contemporary Christian fiction that tends toward the literary end of the spectrum. Her books are set in Texas and feature dark, heart-wrenching stories of children who are victims of abuse . . .
I won’t finish this, because it’s Mary’s job to finish it. But a good branding strategy would highlight why Mary writes about abused children and then would give a tagline that captures all of the above in one short phrase. A branding strategy would also include a lot more, such as how to encapsulate all of the above with graphics and a color scheme for her web site that suit her brand. (You can check out Mary’s web site here.
Jannie wrote:
Let’s make it four! I’m a born South African, served as missionary in several African countries for a huge part of my life, but chose to marry Mr. Perfect in Houston 7 years ago. I was told by an editor, a well-known one, that I will not get a novel with an African flavor published, because most readers are not interested in foreign stuff. I believed him, because I didn’t know better. This novel never wanted to leave my heart, though. Now I’m getting so encouraged… Randy, do you think it could work?
Randy sez: I think the book you’re most likely to sell is the one you’re most passionate about. Jannie, one thing that would work very well for you would be take an American character for an adventure into the heart of Africa. I don’t know what you write, so let’s take some examples.
If you write romance, then send an American woman off on safari and meet a mysterious, exotic man. If you write mystery, send her on vacation to somewhere Africa and have her implicated in the murder of her tour guide (or someone else). Does this make sense? If you’re writing for the American reader, it’s good to connect to that reader via an American character, but you really only need one.
My first novel had a young American female archaelogy student (from my hometown of San Diego) on a dig in Israel. I had one other American character, but he could have been any nationality and the story would have worked just as well. Everyone else in the story was either Israeli or born in ancient Jerusalem (it was a time travel novel). The moral here is that you only need one American character for your reader to connect.
Mary H. wrote:
Do you think eclectic reading is beneficial or possibly detrimental in helping writers develop as Steve implies?
Randy sez: I vote for being eclectic. That’s what I do. My bookshelves contain a truly bizarre collection of books. I have read something in practically every genre known to man. Yes, I even have read a few romances. I love Diana Gabaldon’s first few in her OUTLANDER series.
Camille wrote:
So, if I understand this branding thing (and I doubt that I do) it seems we want to define our purpose as a writer and our unique flavor or style? That doesn’t sound easy, but seems more freeing than being confined to a genre.
Could someone share some examples of “brands” or taglines, like RelevantGirl’s…(I’d like to see someone try to top that one)…some you’ve heard of or come up with yourself?
What’s your line, Randy?
Randy sez: For this site, my brand is extremely well-defined and is everything a brand should be. For my novels, my brand has been very bad. So I’ll talk about this one right now and my fiction brand another day.
A brand should always start with a target audience. For Advanced Fiction Writing, my target audience is very simple: novelists. That’s a well-defined niche market, neither too broad nor too narrow.
What do I have for this target audience? Information on how to write fiction. I define that to mean three things: Organizing, Creating, and Marketing. If a writer excels at all three of these areas, he or she is going to succeed. It would be very hard to fail. So the entire goal of my site is to provide info in these three areas. Period. No Amway ads. No editorial services. No ads even for writing software. Of course I have some ads, but so far only for products I’ve personally created and that therefore match my vision of what information I think writers need to know.
But a brand also has a personal element to it. My online persona is “zany physicist writer.” That is exactly who I am, so it’s not hard to create a site that captures that persona. I am also known around the world as “the Snowflake guy” on account of my famous Snowflake article. Recently, I have encapsulated all of the above in the phrase “America’s Mad Professor of Fiction Writing.” I’m not entirely certain that this is the best tagline for me, but I’m experimenting with it.
A branding strategy should also explain WHY. In my case, I never intended to become a writing teacher. It just happened. People asked me to speak at conferences. I tried it, stumbled some, but generally enjoyed the process. And I got enough encouragement that I kept doing it and learned better how to present information. And I discovered something I never expected–I LOVE teaching. I don’t know why, but I do. I think that oozes through into my brand.
I only wish that my branding strategy for fiction had been as well defined when I started writing fiction 19 years ago. But I’ve learned my lesson. I’ll talk more about my fiction brand in another post, maybe in the next few days.
Laura wrote:
Okay, I’m not trying to start an argument or anything, but aren’t there exceptions to this? Nora Roberts comes to mind, with her J.D. Robb books.
And I know an author who’s written over 90 books under a variety of pennames and genres. He’s quite successful.
So did these people ignore branding?
Randy sez: Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb is one of those amazing people who are incredibly productive. I don’t know her publishing history, but I’ll bet she established herself first under one of those names, and then branched out. And the reason she chose a pseudonym was precisely to preserve her existing brand. It’s a good strategy and it works for a few people with way more energy than most of us.
Every pseudonym gives you an opportunity for a different brand. These people don’t ignore branding–they are simply multiply branded. As I look at the landscape of writers today, virtually all the really successful ones are very well branded.
Amy wrote:
So Randy, here’s my quandary: I write romantic suspense about Crimes Against Children FBI agents with my target audience being moms. I have a website dedicated to the Defenders of Hope series. But I don’t have a brand that encompasses my suspense. At least I don’t think so.
My brand that I established through my author site is “Heart Chocolate~ words to enrich heart and soul.” The site is full of chocolate and heart chocolate, which lots of people seem to love~ moms especially. This brand covers my heart as a writer and my non-fiction stories. And in my suspense I talk about heart chocolate both in the novel and in my author letter.
Then I read all of your blogs about branding and methinks I’m in need of some help. So, help!
Randy sez: Hmmm, I looked at your web site. The main page and most of the pages are effectively branded as gritty cop stories. They have that look and feel. It seems like your books would appeal to men too, not just moms. The heart chocolate theme on your discussion board seems to be a whole different personality. That’s definitely targeted at moms. So I’m not sure what to say here. Just how much romance is in these books? Does the heart chocolate theme fit the books? I can’t tell without reading them.
Vennessa wrote:
Randy, I though about your comments on a possible branding, and came up with a rather lame one last night. “Kiwi Scenic Suspense.”
Randy sez: That’s a start. That’s a tagline, and it might work or it might be just one stepping stone on the way to where you eventually want to go. There are questions to ask. What type of suspense do you write? Targeted to men or women or both? Guns? Intrigue? Spies? What kind of personality do you have and how does it tie in to your fiction? What drives you to write this kind of fiction?
All of these questions will help you create a branding strategy that is much more than just a tagline.
Randy sez: Yes, use your European location to your advantage. It depends exactly what you’re writing, of course. If you were writing a World War II novel, for example, being on location in Europe would be a huge help. Or a contemporary spy novel. Or a novel about international banking. Tell us more about what kind of novel you write and we’ll pool our brains to come up with a brand for you. This is a great group of brains here!
I never really considered writing about my home country as an option, but I’m starting to. I’m writing a gothic novel right now, which has its story line about 99% done, and I think setting the sequel in Europe would work amazingly well.
The story of my novel is basically this: A young werewolf wants to avenge the murder of his true love.
Obviously there’s more to this than just that, there’s disasters he has to work through to actually do that, as well as a few sub-plots that interweave in there. The main genre is gothic, since it involves werewolves. But it’s not JUST about werewolves, in fact the number of scenes where you actually see something supernatural happening are rather limited, and I chose that deliberately. I want to give a seemingly real feel to these characters, wether they are just human or lycanthropes. The location is New Orleans, French Quarter, and most of the characters are of European French origin. This allows me to put a lot of my European culture in there.
I’ve been trying to think of some brands, but honestly… I have absolutely NO CLUE whatsoever.
Randy sez: The moral here is that you only need one American character for your reader to connect.
Me sez: Drat. The only way I can fit an American character into my story is to make him the antagonist. 🙂
Okay, I could make the heroine an American. Oh man. Time for ANOTHER major rethink of my novel.
Hopefully I will be able to understand this branding thing better after Monday’s teleseminar. Or rather, Tuesday my time.
Christophe Desmecht Says: The location is New Orleans, French Quarter
Me sez: Christophe, just how well do you know the French Quarter of New Orleans? Have you been there at all?
I ask because I don’t want you to make the same mistake I did with my first novel. I naively set my story in America thinking it would make it more acceptable to publishers and readers. Unfortunately it didn’t work. I had never been to America, my research of the area was minimal, and it showed in the story.
It’s best to write about an area you know well. If you really want to set a story in a place you don’t know well, or haven’t been too, then make sure your research is exceptional.
I’m thinking I’ll call myself “the not-so-quiet Caucasian woman with a sprinkling of freckles.” Oh, man, the with phrase is supposed to be about my writing? Guess I’m not feeling it….
Seriously, I’m wondering if anyone here can help me with a related topic: a tagline for a specific novel.
TITLE: Undiscovered
TAGLINE: Dying to forget; living to forgive.
Can you tell from those two pieces of information what I write? Are you interested at all? Does this sound more sure of itself: “Die to forget; live to forgive?” If you don’t like it, want to share why?
Thanks, all.
Good point, Venessa. As a matter of fact, I’m still actively looking for someone who lives there who can answer my 1001 questions I have about New Orleans. So far, I haven’t been successful, but I keep trying.
I gave your comments to a designer friend who is creating just what you suggested. I’ll let everyone know when it’s done.
Randy, thanks so much for this forum, and your help. I really appreciate this. I’m a newbie when it comes to this stuff!
Hi Randy.
I’ve now decided on a starting brand, dramedy romance, and since I haven’t completed any novels yet, I’m curious how to go about setting that up to ‘announce’ myself. I’m beginning to rebuild my website and would like to incorporate this in now instead of adding it later. I thought about posting some short stories I’ve written and perhaps a few little poetry pieces (I’m no poet and they aren’t very good). Would this be good or what would you suggest to start using my brand even though I have no published work to throw out there?
Continuing on the international theme – my WIP involves a medical student who goes to Thailand to investigate her missionary brother’s death. Turns out he stumbled on a human trafficking ring and was killed for that, and his sister ends up entangled as well. I spent 2 months in Thailand on a YWAM trip, so I have some background to help me right with some authenticity.
The statement about one publisher who won’t accept any international work is a bummer. It’s a big exciting world out there! I’d love to read the stuff by all the “foreigners” here.
If I branded, I might try to write about adventures that relate to missions, so I could always tie Americans in to it. I have trouble deciding exactly what my work is though. It has some suspense, but might not be suspenseful enough. It has some adventure, romance, (no sword fighting, giants, true love, though that might work for a story someday…). What do I call it?
Hello fellow readers.
Whew, this branding stuff is draining. I’m still working on the beginnings of my first snowflake, let alone trying to think about branding and marketing (I’m a newbie/freshman writer).
I wanted to go OT for just a second about the snowflake method – specifically a tool that can help y’all out if you’re interested. (this isn’t a sales pitch, I promise – the software is free) While listening to my recently purchased copy of the Snowflake lecture, my husband (who is a programmer) commented on the lecture and presentation that I was listening to. (Randy, he was impressed, and glad that I’m pursuing my interests through your guidance rather than someone like Strephon.)
My husband suggested a program for me to try while I’m working on my first snowflake called Treepad lite. It’s freeware, and super easy to download from download.com (cnet?). It’s basically an expanded version of notepad with a panel on the left that shows the tiers of your work. You can move it around and work with it easily, and it might better work with some of your organizational habits. Just a suggestion. 🙂
Randy, keep up the excellent site/blog! Thank you for helping us!
Randy,
You posed these enlightening questions yesterday, which I immediately put on a spreadsheet and attacked like a homework assignment. (I wonder if these questions will be on the test – a.k.a. teleseminar?)
1. A brand should always start with a target audience. Who am I writing for?
2. What do I have for this target audience? What information do I have?
3. A brand also has a personal element to it. What kind of personality do I have?
4. A branding strategy should also explain WHY. Why do I want to write this?
After answering these questions, I took a hard look at my current novel. It doesn’t fit with my answers and now I have no idea why I’m writing a serious romance about sweet, squeaky clean, upstanding people.
My brand, if it to be MINE, might focus more on
twisted, witty but seriously insightful stories about recovery from dysfunction and hard knocks, heavy-metal and harleys and other such stuff.
Gives me much to think about! Perhaps you’ve saved me from making a mess of myself 🙂
My branding is anything fae, I think. My artwork, reflects it and now my writing as well. Mermaids, faeries, and the like. It kind of all happened by accident. Do you think it’s enough?
My WIP is a book about a girl who discovers she’s half faerie. I hope to write a series on it. Book one is almost complete. Mostly I write teen fantasy fiction.
I saw this great link to information on branding in a different blog about a week ago, but it’s taken me this long to track down which one and where.
This is an easy way to understand the difference between marketing, branding, advertising, and so forth. It uses pictures, which works better for me than words.
Here’s the link:
http://adsoftheworld.com/blog/ivan/2007/apr/11/the_difference_between_marketing_pr_advertising_and_branding
Thanks for this site, Randy.
Christina Berry Said:
TITLE: Undiscovered
TAGLINE: Dying to forget; living to forgive.
Can you tell from those two pieces of information what I write? Are you interested at all? Does this sound more sure of itself: “Die to forget; live to forgive?” If you don’t like it, want to share why?
Christina, I can’t tell what genre you write just from the title and tagline. If I had to guess, I would say maybe suspense, or drama. The second tagline you suggested is more gripping, but I think it has a slightly different shade of meaning. “Dying to forget” could mean either that a character has to physically die to forget a painful event, *or* that the character desperately wants to blot this event from his/her memory. “Die to forget” sounds like the only way the character can forget this event is, literally, to die. The “living to forgive” makes it sound like the character either chooses or is forced to confront the painful event (and hopefully finds healing). Just my $0.02. Worded either way, the tagline does make me curious what your story is about!
Thank you, Randy, for your comment on my post yesterday. I’m writing suspense, and yes, you read my mind! I am sending a missionary from the US into dark Africa… and hopefully you will get to read the rest in my novel one day in the future! I’m encouraged by you and by all my friends on this blog.
I’m still working on my brand, while learning dreamweaver so I can make my site look the way I want it to instead of the way my husband has time to make it look. But I thought I’d toss in some branding examples that worked for our llama business, where we managed not to lose money even while most people around us did. (In any livestock business, that is about as sucessful as you get, regardless of what it looks like from the outside.)
We did not want to get into the ‘show animal’ scene. We were breeding and selling animals for backpackers. So our name included ‘pack llamas’ and our tagline was ‘working pets for walking people’. Later, when the kids grew older and we started doing rentals and packtrips for groups, we switched to Cotton-Packin’ Llamas! because it was easier to remember from one mention in passing on the trail; and our tagline became ‘llighten your lload’.
I’m still mulling over my branding; animal/ human interactions are what I can do like no one else, but there is a lot more interest nowadays in the understanding of where ordinary Muslims come from that I also write about. But since I am not Muslim myself, I am afraid that should I go that route, my friends who are would feel exploited.
And they read my stuff. A very sticky wicket.
Enjoy the ride! (my tagline) -MLE
Christophe ~ just a note: when in time is your novel set? New Orleans was wiped out last year after the levys broke during a hurricane. They are still rebuilding. Keep that in mind when you are researching.
I’m a published children’s author. I mostly write picture books. However, I’m working at breaking into YA fantasy, so I’m thinking about a brand for that. I agree with everyone … it’s not easy … but it’s a good mind exercise. I want to make sure I understand branding: a tagline is different for each book you write and your brand stays the same. Is that right?
Randy,
I don’t know if this will help anyone, or maybe I’m out of the ballpark here, but, as you know, I was inspired to write a 21 book series with the California Missions as the historical background. I’m branding myself as the MISSION LADY. The tagline, …a lady with a Mission.
Though the books are in the historical fiction genre, the stories run the gamut: romance, humor, drama, mystery, thriller (It keeps me from getting bored). But the themes all show man’s stance versus the character of God.
In each plot I use uncomfortable twists that historical general market readers would find interesting, and make most Christians rather nervous (Remember lunch at Mt.H?). This is the style that will secure my brand.
Since I have a Bachelors from the Art Institute of Chicago, I will be doing all my own artwork for my website, and most likely the book designs. This is a double-wammy-plus for people to recognize/remember me.
I know the Christian Publishing houses will be uncomfortable with my manuscripts and so will the general markets because of the heavy Christian content. So, custom publishing will probably be my answer. Winepress actually OKed the first manuscript.
I’ll plug into the market by getting into the mission bookstores themselves, website links FOR THE PARENTS of CA 4th graders, Catholic dioceses, and several different catagories that each book’s theme will address, eg., the loss of children, rape centers, apologetics, etc.
If I finish all 21 books before dying (hey, quit snickering – think Dekker or LaHaye), I will be able to finish the Southern wips forming into white piles at my feet. I will use the same thematic sceme with those little Southern sweeties (bless their little ol hearts), thus, though the locale has changed, the brand of style is still there. Because I have several Southern characters in the Mission series, the flow to Tennessee stories will be smoother.
Grisham, Binchy, Dallas, they all do it the same, and they’re all on the shelves. The way I figure it, if you listen to the pros, you’ll get to where you need to be. And Randy, you are “very” pro. Thank you for sharing what you know. And, yes, I’m signing up for the teleseminar on Branding.
So, sir, am I on target? Or totally confused like everyone else?
Christophe – if you email me, I can put you in touch with a friend who lived in New Orleans suring the ’80’s. She could answer your questions.
That would be awesome, ML Eqatin. My email address is cd(at)narf(dot)be
Thanks
Thanks, Aly! You helped quite a bit. 🙂
What if you live somewhere boring? What if you’ve never been to an exotic place? What if your life is boring? Can someone write effectively about another culture or place just by researching it?
PS Should freshmans or sophomores brand? Or should they wait until they are Juniors or Seniors? I feel very lost on this issue and am hoping it’s because I’m just getting started.
Would anyone be interested in reading novels set in Western Australia which is where I live. The novel I am writing now is based on a true story, involves, twins, disability and relationships and I suppose would be classed as a drama. I have never left Western Australia but have lived in Perth and some country towns and my novel is set in those places.
Since I am in the early stages of the novel, Randy, I will remember to include an American or two. Thanks for that.
By the way, would it matter if I wanted to also write magic realism short stories. I like short stories with a surreal twist but I doubt whether I would want to write a novel in that genre.
I really look forward to reading this blog so thanks to everyone for that.
Rachel, I would say your artwork certainly defines your genre, and will be a big part of your brand. I enjoyed your site!
Christophe, I would say you have a starting point for your brand with the werewolf/gothic theme. I guess Randy would say “Now what’s your unique angle?”
I have to confess your post totally made me think of a werewolf-crazed androgenous friend I actually have whom we affectionately refer to as”the cross-dressing werewolf”. Oh, now there’s a brand!
ML ~ Good for you for learning Dreamweaver! I’ve heard great stuff about it from my professional web-guy husband.
Debra Says:
“Would anyone be interested in reading novels set in Western Australia which is where I live. The novel I am writing now is based on a true story, involves, twins, disability and relationships and I suppose would be classed as a drama. I have never left Western Australia but have lived in Perth and some country towns and my novel is set in those places.”
Yes, please. Hurry and get it out!
Karla Akins Says:
“What if you live somewhere boring? What if you’ve never been to an exotic place? What if your life is boring? Can someone write effectively about another culture or place just by researching it?”
I live in a community of about four thousand people in the middle of wheat fields in central Kansas. Can you get more boring than that?
But if you scratch the surface, we are on the old Santa Fe Trail route. (US Highway 56)
One local farmer has even been featured in National Geographic because his pasture retains the swales from the Santa Fe Trail ruts. (Ralph’s Ruts – now how exotic is that?)
We have a history component here that includes a “massacre” – although how much is massacre and how much is hype is still in question.
There was a cavalry battle and cemetery just a few miles outside of town.
There are petroglyphs and a serpent intaglio in the area.
There is a monument to Father Padilla, the first Christian martyr in the United States. He was with the Coronado Expedition.
Within easy driving distance is site of one of the first Catholic parishes between Kansas City and Denver.
We have ethnic groups from Scotland, Germany, Sweden and Poland, and communities which celebrate those heritages.
We have an artist community with a concentration of artisans and a college that has performed Handel’s Messiah Oratorio each Easter consecutively since 1896, and draws crowds from all over the world to that venue, because of the perfect acoustics of the Hall in which it is performed.
All of this is within a 60 mile radius of my house.
I guess my point is: If you’re going to do research, start with where you are. You already have a head start on the geography, and how things look and feel and smell. Something exotic can happen in the most mundane places.
Oh, and if you’re looking for a crime/suspense/drama element, sometimes the most heinous crimes happen in the most innocuous places. Check out Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.
Thanks Judith. I’ll work at it.
Hey Judith, your place sounds really interesting. We don’t have that sort of history but then Australia’s not that old, well the settled Australia isn’t.
Christina Berry Said:
“TITLE: Undiscovered
TAGLINE: Dying to forget; living to forgive.
“Can you tell from those two pieces of information what I write? Are you interested at all? Does this sound more sure of itself: “Die to forget; live to forgive?” If you don’t like it, want to share why?”
Christina, my guess is that you are writing about a spiritual problem. The character is consumed with grief and bitterness over a wrong done to her. She is “dying to forget,” i.e. desperately wants to forget, and also knows that the only way to forgive and forget is to “die to self” by giving up pride and resentment and yielding to the Lord Jesus Christ in repentance and trust in him. She then is able to live the abundant life by forgiving as Jesus did. I like the first wording better (dying to forget; living to forgive) because it denotes an ongoing process.