By Christine Sunderland We are in the season of prophecy, of Advent, in which Old Testament lessons foretell the coming of the Messiah in Bethlehem, and also envision the Second Coming, the Apocalypse, the End of Days when Christ returns “in a cloud with power and great glory.” (Luke 21:25+). A third “Advent” is the coming of Our Lord into …
Three Aids to Successful Writing
By Stephanie Prichard Ten years ago, my husband asked if I’d like to write a novel with him. Mind you, this is a man who rarely reads anything other than the Bible. Don’t get me wrong, he loves fiction—but only in the format of movies. What did he know about writing books? I snorted and told him to go ahead …
Making It Real
by Kathy Harris In a plot twist few had fathomed––although Dean Koontz predicted something eerily similar in his 1981 novel The Eyes of Darkness—a tiny organism too small to see without a microscope has turned our lives, and our livelihoods, upside down, setting off a giant conflict in the story we call day-to-day life. Although this real life “inciting incident” …
How Can YOU Reach a Broader Audience?
By Mesu Andrews When I was choosing dates to write for the ACFW blog, I noticed that today, May 21st, is Ascension Day. Now, I’m a theological mutt. Mom’s charismatic. Dad was Quaker. My grandparents were Pilgrim Holiness ordained ministers—both grandpa AND grandma even way back when. Since my spiritual heritage is Evangelical, I don’t know much about Ascension Day. …
Chapter Endings: Keep your Readers on her Toes, not her Heels
By Suzanne Woods Fisher A while ago, I read an interview in my local newspaper featuring a woman who had just turned one hundred years old. The reporter wanted to know this centenarian’s inner motivation. What had given her that “oomph factor” to live so long? “I want to know,” she said, “what happens next.” That comment hit me like …
Christmases that Rock Your Characters’ World
By Susan A.J. Lyttek When I signed up to write this Christmas blog post, I had dozens of ideas on what I would write about. I knew, somehow, the star of my post would be my seasonal mystery Plundered Christmas. It still will be, just not in any of the directions I had originally considered. For instance, I had notes …
Plot Twists: The Paralegal Chronicles
By Kathleen Y’Barbo Next year I will celebrate twenty years of being a published author. This year I surpassed the 90-book mark and reached more than two million copies in sales. Where have the years gone? When I sat down at my Canon StarWriter word processor, I had no idea that someday I would be looking back with a body …
Springing into the Next Story
by Jan Drexler Spring is here, and it’s time to start my next book! With this new beginning, I’ve already spent hours of preparation. I’ve cultivated the bed of ideas, throwing out stones and stray roots. I’ve poured over research materials as if they were seed catalogs, each with their own versions of the standard offerings. I’ve studied maps, terrain, …
Tips for Fighting the Dreaded Writer’s Block
By Amy Clipston Through the years I’ve found that my book projects fall into two categories—they either write themselves or writing them feels like having my teeth drilled. In other words, the characters either tell me the story or I push them through the story as if they were dead weight. My book Room on the Porch Swing, which releases …
Characters or Story: What Drives Your Writing?
by Glynn Young I was having an email exchange with a writer and poet who had just published a novel. Specifically, we were discussing how each of us wrote fiction. She had trouble, she said, with multi-viewpoint novels. Her stories tended to be character-driven, and especially lead character-driven. She said she found multi-viewpoint novels confusing. Multi-viewpoint novels are what I …