By Dana Mentink Advice is worth what you pay for it, as my father would say. Famous writers are brimming with advice. Let’s take the subject of inspiration. Author Frank McCourt said in a Writer’s Digest issue, “Sit and quiet yourself. Luxuriate in a certain memory and the details will come. Let the images flow.” Luxuriate? Frank must not have …
Be Still
By Gabrielle Meyer Recently, I learned that one of the publishers I write for is closing their historical line. It was a blow I didn’t see coming as I watched my well-laid plans crash at my feet. After working for five years to get where I was, it felt like I was back at square one. I’d faced rejection letters …
Five Reasons to Write Flash Fiction
By Leslie DeVooght Six months ago, I had no idea Flash Fiction existed, and much less considered that it could help my writing career. All that changed at the Florida Christian Writers Conference, when I attended Lindsey Brackett’s class on writing Flash Fiction. By the end of the class, I was intrigued. When I got home, I ordered two books …
Self-Editing
by Lynn Hobbs The technique I use on self-editing a novel is different when I self-edit a short story. Seems like it should be the same, right? For many it is. Whatever works best for you is what I recommend. On a short story, I write the first draft, use spell check, and print the pages. I look for repetitive …
Twisting “Write What You Know”
by Gail Gaymer Martin When writers search for plot ideas, seasoned authors often respond write what you know, but I’ve found that this phrase means more than I’d thought. If we stick with what we know, our books could become boring, but one way to write what I know is through experiences. I’ve done this more than once. Being a …
Finding the Motivation to Write
by Susan A.J. Lyttek I love writing. You’d think after that statement that I would jump out of bed and head down to my notebooks and laptop with unbridled enthusiasm each morning. Not so. In fact, I will often putter around and do anything other than write. I will suddenly need to spend a lot of time in Bible study, …
Story First, Novel Second
By Dennis Ricci “Literary talent is commonplace. Storytelling talent is rare.” Robert McKee, the Hollywood story guru who’s trained many of the great filmmakers and screenwriters of our generation, made that statement within the first hour of his Story Seminar, which I attended last March. McKee defined the differences between literary and storytelling talent: Literary: the ability to convert ordinary …
The Way of Words
By Christine Sunderland Christians know that when the Word was made flesh, mankind was changed forever. Just so words that move from speaker to listener, from writer to reader, are also incarnate creations, fleshed with sound and sight. Christ the Word of God, the expression of God, took on human form. Christ was and is God’s love letter to man. …
Change Your Character, Change the World
By Victoria Buck I wrote approximately a thousand pages about a game show host who becomes the world’s first transhuman who becomes a fugitive who becomes a believer who becomes a hero who becomes an evangelist, sort of. Book three of my trilogy releases in September, and Chase Sterling’s quest culminates in front of a worldwide audience who, ready or …
The Cost of Freedom and the Cost of Writing
By Hannah Conway I cried when a news broadcast confirmed the death of Osama Bin Laden. The tears came from some place deep within me, perhaps some dark and dry cavern of my heart I had not fully explored. What was that place, that cavern, that feeling? Avenged. Relief. A sense that justice had been served to those who lost …