How a Troublesome Manuscript Was Saved

ACFWAdvice, Authors and writing, Characters, Encouragement, Perseverance, revisions, writing 2 Comments

by Glynn Young Hold on to those unfinished or problematic manuscripts. You never know when they’re due for a rebirth. You pour everything into creating a manuscript. You type “The End.” You smile and give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back. It’s done. You finished it. You set it aside for a few days, and then you reread it. …

The Author’s Stir Fry

ACFWAdvice, Authors and writing, Encouragement, Faith, writing 5 Comments

By Kathy Maresca @so_tweet Have you ever taken a look at a menu and asked the server to hold a particular ingredient? Sometimes it’s possible, but other times the mix has been prepared and cannot be separated. Let’s consider a stir fry entree. It’s nutritious and well balanced, looks fabulous and smells great. But the sensational Asian spices, rice, chicken, …

Make Them Believe

ACFWAdvice, Authors and writing, Encouragement, Faith, tips, writing 8 Comments

by Tanara McCauley @TanaraMcCauley Long Beach, 1997. I sat in a movie theater with a friend doing something I’d never done before in my life: ugly crying in public. I couldn’t pull myself together, and the frustration of trying made me cry even harder. My only consolation was that my friend didn’t let me cry alone. At the conclusion of …

Five Things I Learned from Launching a Book

ACFWAdvice, Authors and writing, creativity, Encouragement, marketing, Social Media, tips, writing 4 Comments

By Felicia Ferguson @Felicia_writer 1: Marketing a book is more than hosting a launch party. From guest blogs, to book reviews, to social media posts and ads, the author must be 70% marketer and 30% writer. Yes, I know. Most of us writers didn’t major in PR or Marketing in college. If you’re like me, you have nightmares that book …

Troublesome Characters

ACFWAdvice, Authors and writing, Characters, writing 2 Comments

by Susan A. J. Lyttek  @SusanLyttek Several years ago, I took a course on character development from a well-known Christian writer. Through the multiple session course, we were taught to create a psychological profile for our character, find pictures that looked like him or her, and create brief histories for prior to the story’s commencement. It was all good and …

Average, But Obedient

ACFWACFW, Advice, Authors and writing, Encouragement, Faith, Fear/Doubt, writing 9 Comments

by Heidi Gray McGill How do I stand out and reach the top in the Christian Indie world when I’m average? There are authors with English degrees and years of experience under their belt. Others don’t need to choose between paying for an editor or rent. I have a decent number of followers on social media, but Twitter and TikTok …

A World of Inspiration

ACFWAdvice, Brainstorming, research, tips, writing 8 Comments

by Deborah Raney Last Wednesday I returned from the dream trip of a lifetime, one I wasn’t sure would actually happen before I died. It was our first time to travel overseas and we spent three glorious days in Paris, then wound our way through the United Kingdom—England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland—over the next ten days before returning to London to …