By Shirley E. Gould According to the calendar, today is the first day of winter. With the variety of weather conditions across America you could have three feet of snow on the ground or be basking in the warm sunshine along the coast. We, in middle Tennessee, had an endless summer with a serious drought, basically two weeks of fall …
Can God Use Your Writing?
By Tammie Fickas Can God use you for His glory? Do you ever wonder about that? Writers are often their own worst critics, and the enemy loves to capitalize on that. He can get your thoughts all tied up in knots until you are certain that your life has nothing of value to offer in written word, and that God …
Battling the Chickenhawks of Writing
by Laurel Blount Let’s talk about chickenhawks–and writing. My sister and her husband recently adopted a beautiful little girl, and our whole family fell in love. Hayleigh is spunky and and refreshingly honest–as three year olds tend to be. My sis, previously blessed with an adorable, rough-and-tumble little boy, has entered the world of pink dresses and oversized hair ornaments. …
A Writer’s Whisper
By Shannon Redmon Writers run scared sometimes. Like my friend Chelsea. She loves to write, but her fear of rejection has kept her fiction writing hidden away in the cave of her desk drawer. When I encouraged her to let others read her stories, she refused with the reason she was to afraid she wasn’t good enough. Elijah, God’s chosen …
Perfectionism: How Can Something So “Perfect” Be So Wrong?
by Kathy Harris I’m a perfectionist. And that’s not a good thing. Taken to the extreme, perfectionism can lead to serious psychological issues and is, in fact, on the rise, especially among young people. (See, Harvard Business Review, January 26, 2018.) But, even those of us who have a casual acquaintance with perfectionism will find that our work can suffer …
Six Tips for Defeating Self-Doubt
by Kathy Harris Fear. It can paralyze. And no one knows that better than a writer who is filled with self-doubt. We may sit down to put words on the paper, but nothing comes out. Or, even worse, we may not sit down at all. If you’ve ever had this happen, you’re not alone. Almost every writer will deal with …
Introvert’s Conference Survival Guide
By Leslie DeVooght As we prepare for the ACFW conference, I wanted to share my tips for introverts attending for the first time. Two years ago, I attended my first Christian writers’ conference, and like many writers, I was scared to death. Being an introvert in a crowd of hundreds of strangers seemed like a cruel joke, but everything I …
Battling the Self-Doubt Virus
By Laurel Blount When I was in college, the local water supply became contaminated with a particularly unpleasant parasite. Soon the infirmary was jammed with moaning students, all of us dealing with the tummy bug to end all tummy bugs. Because the illness was linked to the water system, nobody was immune. Pretty much everybody got it. See where I’m …
Surviving the Sophomore Slump
By Laurel Blount When I sold my debut novel A Family for the Farmer to Love Inspired in August of 2015, I was over the moon. I had finally stepped through the golden door of publication, and I felt sure from now on I’d be dividing my time between signing books, signing contracts and signing royalty checks. But then my …
Courage in the Battle
By Sarah Sundin The writing life takes courage. Courage to declare yourself a writer when the world tells you to do something “useful.” Courage to set your words before strangers. Courage to speak to professionals who could make your dreams come true or dash them to pieces. Most writers are sensitive souls, and courage does not come naturally to many …