By Katherine Reay A reader recently reached out to ask how she could know if she was ready to pursue publication. Did I have any advice? Wow! Tough question. Here’s what my advice boiled down to… 1. Give your work to beta readers – They can be family or friends, but they need to be honest. My first reader is …
Different Strokes, Different Folks, Different Paths, Different Maths
By C. Kevin Thompson To say the writing life is a “one size fits all, write the same, market the same, sell the same” society is naïveté at its finest. Take Tom Clancy, for example. Ex-military. High-ranking Naval officer. Decides to write a story. Has it published via the Naval Academy’s press…a press which strictly published non-fiction, military-type books on …
Writers’ Plans
By Carrie Fancett Pagels Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. When the New Year came around in the Pagels household, we made a resolution of “no surgeries” for 2015. The previous year, I had Achilles heel surgery (that wasn’t successful), my father-in-law had a triple bypass, and our …
Roller Coaster Life of Writing
By Darlene L. Turner “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1 NIV) Picture this . . . you’re sandwiched between friends, holding onto the safety bar with a vice grip. The car moves up and up. Your jaw is clenched. You reach the top and- Do you remember the thrill of a good …
The Lost Art of Hand Writing
By Kim Gilliland Stone, clay, copper, silver, parchment and papyrus were all used to write upon during biblical times. I can’t even begin to imagine the tedium in writing just a quick note to a friend. If I had to produce the clay or cut down the reeds to make the papyrus, I would probably forgo any written communication. I’ve …
Stand Therefore
By Ian Acheson One aspect of the writing vocation that I wasn’t really prepared for was the frequency with which negative emotions surfaced. Whether it’s the number of rejections one receives, the often daily struggle of putting words on a page, the discouragement when questioning the quality of one’s story, to those disappointing sales figures and reviews, to name just …
Waiting
By Dawn Crandall People who don’t know me might not realize that I signed my three book contract with Whitaker House when I was (finally) six months pregnant with my first child. What they also wouldn’t know is that I’d waited twice as long to have a baby than to get published, and that they both, unfortunately, happened to come …
A Brainstorming Session
By Lillian Duncan So, I’m sitting at my computer pondering what to write for the first of my four ACFW blogs for the year. Time for a brainstorming session! I could try to find a sneaky way to promote my newly-released mystery novella, DEADLY INTENT. But would that really help anyone but me? Probably not so…REJECTED. I could pontificate about …
Setting…perhaps more important than you think!
By Roxanne Rustand Where do you start, on your journey toward a cohesive and sellable story? There is no single right or wrong way. Ask most writers, and they will say they use a consistent starting point each time they start a book. Some to start with a general plot idea, as in “I want to write a book about …
Being Equipped
By Henry McLaughlin God has a will, or a plan for each of us. Psalm 139:16 (NLT) tells us, You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. Each of us is on this earth for a specific reason. We may …