By Kathy J. Perry After my dad passed, I began evaluating what I was doing with my life. Suddenly, it seemed all too short. I just didn’t feel like what I was doing really made a difference. I felt like impacting youth was really what I wanted to do. I had been a teacher earlier in life and feel that …
Dialog, The Fuel Of Your Story
by Rachel Hauck I’ve written a lot about dialog over the years but it’s a topic worth repeating. Dialog. Is. Key. Talking is how we learn about people. The words they use, the tone of his or her voice, as well as interpreting someone’s body language, is how we form our opinion of people. As authors, we have to resist …
7 Critical Questions to Ask Your Character
By DiAnn Mills Writers are bombarded with how to prep for writing an unforgettable character. We want every story to be deeper than the previous one, and that means depth of character. Over the years of writing, I’ve gathered many valuable resources. While I use an extensive character sketch that fits my method of writing and personality, the following are …
Your Roots Are Showing
By Shirley Gould Working as a hairdresser for five years, I covered up a lot of roots. In those days when the bleached blonde hair grew out revealing their natural color, I’d apply bleach and toner to bring her back to the desired platinum shade. Today, it’s the popular style to let it grow out…they call it ombre. Later in …
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 …
Making Personal Celebrations Impersonal
By Susan A.J. Lyttek I intentionally chose this date to write a blog because it’s the 35th anniversary of my (and my husband’s) church wedding. You might notice that I’m oddly specific. We had eloped in June of the same year, so it’s not technically our marriage anniversary, though we do celebrate both dates. Our story is almost strange enough …
Social Media Missteps
By Rondi Bauer Olson One of the first things I heard as an aspiring writer was that I needed to be active on social media, and if I wanted to attract an editor or agent, I needed lots of followers. The problem was I didn’t have a book out yet, and I couldn’t imagine anyone being interested in following me. …
Post Conference Blues
By Dani Pettrey I’m excited to be guest posting today. It’s been a while since I’ve been on the blog and I’m really happy to be back. I gain so much insight and wisdom from the posts here and am just thrilled to be taking part. I hope all of you who were able to attend the ACFW conference had …
5 Things to Do After Attending a Writers Conference
By Beth K. Vogt We writers talk a lot about how to prepare for a writers conference, don’t we? We discuss our elevator pitches and our one sheets and how to polish our manuscripts, all the while planning our travel itineraries and our roommates and our wardrobes. Hundreds of you attended the ACFW conference in Nashville a couple of weeks …
Got Conference Nerves? You’re Not Alone!
By Grace Hitchcock Three years ago, I attended my first writers conference and I cannot tell you how nervous I felt! Doubts flew through my head: I’m a poser. These men and women have so much more experience than me and I think I can write? I just finished my novel three weeks ago…. I’ve never pitched to an agent before! …