By Kathryn Haueisen Until I retired, most of my writing was work-related non-fiction. Critique groups, beta readers, and launch teams were all new concepts to me. I wrote my first novel without a critique group; didn’t yet know what a beta reader was; and didn’t get help with a book launch until the book was at the printer. I had …
Dealing with Depression
by Elizabeth Musser I just launched my new novel, When I Close My Eyes, last week at the Atlanta History Center, a novel about mental illness and God’s grace. The novel opens with a hitman failing in his attempt to assassinate a middle-aged novelist. No one has ever tried to assassinate me, but I share a lot in common with …
Tis the Season To Remember
by Gail Gaymer Martin As autumn passes, we remember our gratefulness as we celebrate Thanksgiving. Soon everyone’s mind turns to the next holiday, Christmas, as we again give thanks for the gift of the babe born in Bethlehem, our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. Yet sadly our focus often shifts to the traditions of Christmas—gift buying and wrapping them, Christmas …
A Writer’s Prayer
By Sarah Hamaker I’ve been thinking a lot about prayers and writing these past few years. I’ve always loved that ACFW has a prayer room staffed with volunteers during the conference, and I’ve taken advantage of both praying and volunteering. Prayer is also top of mind because a local writer’s group I’m involved with is working on an anthology of …
Six Reasons Why Authors Edit Their Manuscripts
By Glynn Young Editing has been much on mind lately, and I’m learning that editing requires more of my time and focus than drafting the original manuscript. I’m working on the fifth, and final, novel in a five-book series. This one has taken more time to write; I’m aiming for something more ambitious than its four predecessors. I’ve been through …
Skydiving – Shifting Our Writer Expectations
by Deborah Clack My stomach dropped, but my feet were still on the ground. Staring at a man who was four inches shorter than my five feet nine, all I could think to myself was, “This is not who I thought I would be jumping out of an airplane with.” When I initially decided to do the insane and go …
What if We Could Start Over?
by Frank DiBianca Are you a relatively new writer? What most new writers need isn’t learning to write perfect prose. Line or copy editors can easily fix those errors unless the language has been murdered. The problem is writing prose that’s stylistically appropriate for the modern reader, which editors can’t fix unless they rewrite large portions of the manuscript. My …
Write What You Know
By Lynn Hobbs Have you ever read a book that kept your attention? Was it informative? I have been fortunate enough to read many and I can assure you, they will remain in my library to be shared and reread later. What are the writers secret to writing such terrific books? Simple. They are writing what they know. They may …
Is it Faith or Is it Trust?
By Davalynn Spencer I am not the first person to realize that ninety-nine percent of the things I’ve worried about never happened. Nor am I the first to discover that God is never late. Oh, He’s really good at working close to deadline, at least from my time-constrained viewpoint. But He never fails to show up. So why do I …
To Enter or Not to Enter: The Author Life and Awards
by Kimberley Woodhouse Writers ask me all the time about the benefit of entering book award contests. This is a tough one to talk about, because a lot of the contests require the author to enter their own work. And that’s just a bit weird. (Although there are contests that the publishers enter on our behalf.) Let’s go back to …