By Jennifer Hudson Taylor In fiction, a hook is an opening line or paragraph to a story that grips a reader’s interest and lures them into turning the pages to keep reading. Most authors think of a hook as the beginning of a story, but there are several other places to use a hook besides the beginning. I call this …
Adding Life Elements into Your Story
by Cara Putman One of the things I love about writing is the ability to incorporate the things I love into my writing. As a gal right out of college I headed to Washington, D.C., to launch my career in public policy. You see, there weren’t a lot of jobs in Nebraska for a girl with a degree in political …
To the Author of Life
By Jill Williamson A new year always feels like the start of a new journey to me. And each year I’ve had different things that I’ve wanted to tackle in my writing career. Resolutions. Plans. Hopes. Goals. I always start out, heart overflowing with anticipation. I want to improve. I hope to make changes. And I long to succeed in …
What a Character!
by Donna L. Rich If I had a photographic mind to capture the multitudes of personalities I’ve encountered over this Christmas season at the malls, I’d have enough characters to fill a book a month for the next ten years. Nevertheless, I don’t have that amazing mind, and it takes much work for me to craft my characters into dynamic, …
Tim Tebow and the Christian Writing Life
by Jordyn Redwood Okay, I confess. I am a Tim Tebow fan. As of this writing, the Denver Broncos just stunned the Chicago Bears in a 13-10 overtime defeat. There is something magical happening and several in the media are beyond speaking about what that something might be. What I know is that I love to watch Tebow play because …
Newbies Checklist
By Carrie Fancett Pagels As a fairly new zone director (spring 2011) I keep getting asked questions about newbies to ACFW or to Christian fiction writing. The best advice I got four years back when I joined was from Rachel Hauck. I will try to offer my own take. 1. If you are not an ACFW member – JOIN. 2. …
What Makes a Fictional Character Believable?
by Ane Mulligan What makes a fictional character believable? It’s how real they are. Does the writing pull you, the reader, into the story enough for you to experience it? Do you feel like you’re part of it? That this character is your friend? That comes a lot from deep POV. And to get deep, you have to know the …
One Message – Many Stories
by Lillian Duncan Writing Stories of Faith…Mingled With Murder And Mayhem is the tagline on my email signature and my website. I like it, but when I tell people I write murder mysteries and suspense that are Christian Fiction, I often get a blank stare or one of disbelief. After all, how can a book where murders, mayhem, and bad …
My First Booksigning Tour
by Rose Allen McCauley As I began this piece about the Georgia trip my husband I made Oct. 28-Nov. 6, 2011, I was reminded of how well our trip turned out, in spite of the many changes along the way. I know that was because God had His Hand over our trip guiding us much better than our TomTom did! …
Keeping Our Focus
by Janet Lee Barton April 2005 we got news that was the beginning of a very hard year’s time for my family. We found out my brother-in-law had stage 4 cancer in both lungs that month. He declined treatment. In June, one of my best friends passed away from cancer and by the end of the month, my brother-in-law passed …