by Ian Anderson My anxiety level increased as I approached the open door for the early-bird “writing skills” class. I hadn’t written anything for weeks and felt very unprepared for the session. Fortunately, when I walked into the large room 100+ people were already sitting down. I was happy that I could easily slip into anonymity. This class was just …
Seeking Soup Perfection
by Shelley Shepard Gray I made French Onion soup today. My husband has had bronchitis and feeling under the weather. I’ve felt so badly for him I ran to the store, picked up 5 yellow onions, and started slicing. Hours later, I brought him a bowl of something I’m inordinately proud of. There’s a story here. See, I really like …
Why Write?
By Michelle Arch I’ve spent nearly every weekend this year (and many weekends of the previous four years) working on my novel-in-progress and MFA thesis, Time of Death. To date, only a handful of workshop peers, a few contest judges, two editors, and one trusted writer friend have read excerpts from this body of work. When I’m not writing or …
The Care and Feeding of Readers
By Suzanne Woods Fisher A few months ago, I was tracking the traffic numbers on the Amish Wisdom blog and noticed a significant spike during the course of one week. An interview with a well known, bestselling author had been featured. Naturally, I assumed that interview was the cause for so many hits. But then I looked a little closer …
Top 3 things I’ve learned about Brand from Reality TV
By Traci Tyne Hilton That’s right. Blogging TV again. Why? Because there is no better place to learn about brand right now than Food Network Star, and because I love watching TV. #3: Your brand is your unique point of view and voice. The Meat on the Side girl, from a season or two back, cannot star in the same …
ACFW Rewind: Stop, Drop & Roll – Adding the Crisis Scene
(Editor’s Note: Today, ACFW re-runs a worthwhile blog from the past, in this case from May 2012. This is what we call ACFW Rewind: highlighting previous posts that deserve a second look.) by Janice Thompson You’re at the 3/4 point in your novel and facing that all-important crisis scene. The Supreme Ordeal. The Black Moment. The Big Gloom. You know …
Demystifying Contest Scores
By Lisa Godfrees We’re writers. At some point in our careers, we entered a writing contest. Some of us found encouragement there. Maybe we received kind remarks from a judge that gave us courage to continue. Maybe we semi-finaled, finaled, or won. Maybe an agent contacted us because they were impressed with our entry. Some of us came away discouraged. …
Making Research Fun
By Donna Schlachter I’ve seen the way some authors’ eyes nearly roll up into their heads at the word, “research”. After all, that’s just dry, boring stuff. We’re always told to ‘write what we know’. If we have to research a topic, we aren’t writing what we know. I used to write what I knew. My first yet-unpublished novel was …
Writing Effective Book Club Discussion Questions
By Sarah Sundin Book clubs. As readers, we delight in socializing with book-lovers. As writers, we delight in connecting with avid readers. Since I belonged to a book club long before I was published, I knew the importance of a good set of discussion questions. While some groups fall naturally into discussion, some don’t, and good questions stimulate conversation. I …
Research Surprises
by Susan Lyttek One of the first things I do when I get an idea for a story is research. I enjoy the process. More often than not, its results surprise me, taking the story in a different direction or changing the focus. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I often approach a book project with preconceived …