By Cynthia Ruchti I admit it. I’m hyper-interested. I find everything fascinating and what isn’t fascinating is distracting. So imagine trying to focus to write a synopsis, a proposal, a chapter, a grocery list. Maybe you can identify. Melting icicles drip from the eaves troughs as I key in the words “icicles drip.” And although their rhythm and sparkling beauty …
Mining Your Life for Stories
By Marta Perry A number of years ago, I taught an evening adult class on journal writing. When the time came at our second session for participants to read their work, I felt a little apprehensive. What if nobody was willing to read? Would I be left with an hour of class time to fill? I shouldn’t have worried. The …
Discouragement Prescription
by Becky Wade Just four short syllables, but discouragement can have enormous destructive power in the life of a writer. Most of us who’ve been writing for any length of time have encountered seasons of it. Here are just a few of the things that can cause the onset of a case of discouragement. Do any of these sound familiar? …
What if we Plot a Writing Path for the Year Ahead?
By Judy Christie Many writers start terrific stories by asking a simple question: What if? “What if?” leads novelists down the merry story path, scene after scene, chapter after chapter. Those words ignite fiction magic. Anything can happen. As you assess your writing for the year ahead, “what if” can also bear fruit in a practical career way. That question …
Letting Go…
by Katherine Reay You’re suffering from a double dose of me. When I signed up to be today’s blogger, I didn’t know I’d be yesterday’s interview. So if you want to know more about me, I think I am lurking in the archives from yesterday… But today, we chat writing and letting go. In fact, as of about an hour …
Island Girl
by Jennifer Sienes Almost seven years ago, I quit my “day job” as a middle school teacher to write full time. I’m well aware that it’s a blessing to be able to devote entire days to my writing endeavors when so many of my contemporaries must snatch an hour here or there between work, kids and life. Or as Monk …
Do We Judge a Book By Its Cover?
by Jill Elizabeth Nelson When we are choosing our next novel to purchase, how much of our decision is influenced by the cover? For me, covers certainly play a part in first attracting me to pick up one book over another. However, I like to read the back cover copy and perhaps sample a bit of the contents before I …
From Russia with Love
By Susan May Warren This year marks the tenth anniversary of my first novel being published. “Happily Ever After” came out in 2003 just as we returned home from the mission field in Russia, and I still remember staring wide eyed at the cover thinking…how on earth did this happen? See the truth is that I never set out to …
Ten Wrongs Don’t Make a Writer
Ten Wrongs Don’t Make a Writer How to Avoid the Top Ten Fatal Flaws in Fiction By Kathleen Y’Barbo We’re a little over a week into the 2014, the time when New Year’s resolutions begin to lose their shine and some of us begin to wonder if we should have resolved NOT to make any resolutions. But what if your …
Tell the Story
by Shirley Gould Scripture tells us in John 21:25 in the Message Bible… There are so many other things Jesus did. If they were written down, each of them, one by one, I can’t imagine a world big enough to hold such a library of books. Though I would never be in favor of adding one ‘jot or tittle’ to …