By Frank A. DiBianca Whether one is a beginner, a recently contracted novelist (like yours truly), or a seasoned, book-a-year pro, it’s hard to overstate the importance of having a writing partnership. A look at my own writing partnership may be illustrative. Now, I’m not speaking about professional (i.e., paid) services, which are unquestionably valuable and indeed indispensable. I mean …
Freeing Righteousness
By Christine Sunderland My latest novel, Angel Mountain (Wipf and Stock, 2020), calls each of the four main characters to seek meaning in their lives. It says despair not, for your Creator loves you. Despair not, for the law of love will free you. Despair not, for angels of righteousness are on the mountain and in the caverns, lighting the …
Famous First Words: The Power of the Opening Sentence
By Tara Johnson “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” ~ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Lewis, 1952) There’s nothing that sets mood, reveals character, raises intrigue and invites readers into your story like a power-packed opening. When I was editing my latest release All Through the Night, I studied the first chapter, sensing …
It’s All About Perspective
by Katie Powner As an author, I spend a lot of hours on writing-related endeavors. And I do mean A LOT. Not only working on stories—brainstorming, outlining, researching, drafting, editing, REPEAT—but also on social media, marketing, interviews, newsletters, and other similar activities. I can start to think that’s all pretty darn important some days. Pretty darn…real. But then a day …
Research Blahs
by Darlene L. Turner Research—a chore or fun? Doesn’t matter the genre. Every writer has to do some sort of investigation in order to get facts straight and make their stories authentic. Some writers love research while others get the blahs when it comes to this aspect of the process. Why? The number one reason is probably because it takes …
Don’t Quit Your Day Job – Some Ideas to Write Around Real Life
by Tammie Fickas Ah, the life of a writer! You get to sleep in, enjoy your morning coffee on the back deck, spend a few hours at your desk, and boom, you have success. It’s enough to make a girl quit her day job and call herself a writer. Okay, before you stop reading, we all know it doesn’t work …
Are We Taking Our Medicine?
By Terri Gillespie TODAY’S PROVERB: “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” Proverbs 17:22, TLV A cheerful heart . . . What cheers us? Good news? A baby’s smile? A parking space close to the entrance? A beautiful sunrise? Getting what we want? These moments can be like doses of a spiritual elixir …
When Surrendering Our Work to God Leads to Unimaginable Destinations
By Donna Wichelman The writing life can sometimes feel like an uphill battle. Most of us who’ve been writing for any length of time know the discouragement that comes from any number of places as we seek to put words on a page that mean something—anything—to an audience who will read them. But at times, we can be so consumed …
God’s Timing: Simple as ABC
by Patti Jo Moore If there’s one thing I’ve learned on this writing journey, (okay—I’ve actually learned a lot of things!), it’s the truth that God’s timing is always best. Always. No exceptions. We might think we’ve got a great plan, with all the details and timing worked out. Some writers make short- and long-range plans for their writing, including …
Stranger Than Fiction
By Davalynn Spencer We’ve all heard it said: Truth is stranger than fiction. I’ll not argue about who first made that observation, but I do like Mark Twain’s tongue-in-cheek defense of the premise: “… it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; truth isn’t.” Possibilities were what I needed last year as I researched a protagonist’s goals and …