By Kariss Lynch We’ve all experienced these seasons: the endless waiting for a dream to come true. We wonder if God hears, or if we heard him wrong when He called us to this crazy writing gig. Wait—the word that can make us squirm with anxiety and doubt our stories and our skill. Or it can make us hope. I’ve …
Four Observations from an ACFW Conference Newbie
By Lauren Gail The 2018 American Christian Fiction Writers Conference held in Nashville, Tennessee was my first ACFW conference. The amazing Frank E. Peretti and the awesome town of Nashville were two of the main reasons I was compelled to register. Add to those the number of agents, editors, publishers, and authors available to network with and the decision was …
Post Conference Blues
By Dani Pettrey I’m excited to be guest posting today. It’s been a while since I’ve been on the blog and I’m really happy to be back. I gain so much insight and wisdom from the posts here and am just thrilled to be taking part. I hope all of you who were able to attend the ACFW conference had …
5 Things to Do After Attending a Writers Conference
By Beth K. Vogt We writers talk a lot about how to prepare for a writers conference, don’t we? We discuss our elevator pitches and our one sheets and how to polish our manuscripts, all the while planning our travel itineraries and our roommates and our wardrobes. Hundreds of you attended the ACFW conference in Nashville a couple of weeks …
Writing: Still Alive and Well in the Next Generation
By Sarah Hamaker Have you heard the news about the death of words? Every few weeks or so, a story pops up in my Facebook feed about how people aren’t reading like they used to, how texting is obliterating writing, and how the Generation Z will kill off books. But I don’t believe them, and you shouldn’t either. Consider my …
Waiting, Writing, and Why You Must Not Quit
By Cynthia Herron Most writers will tell you the in-between seasons are the hardest. Because I’ve promised to tell you the truth, I won’t sugarcoat it. They are. Waiting (especially a prolonged season of waiting) is like a knife to the weary writer’s heart. As each hope-filled day passes, so does a tiny bit of our resolve. We struggle to make sense of …
For Those of Us At Home
By Chandra Lynn Smith I sit at my desk on Tuesday morning, two days before the ACFW Conference begins. Many of you may be traveling today. This is the first year since 2012 I have missed the conference. It’s funny, before I started writing this morning I read my blog post from last September in which I wrote the top …
Got Conference Nerves? You’re Not Alone!
By Grace Hitchcock Three years ago, I attended my first writers conference and I cannot tell you how nervous I felt! Doubts flew through my head: I’m a poser. These men and women have so much more experience than me and I think I can write? I just finished my novel three weeks ago…. I’ve never pitched to an agent before! …
Am I a Real Writer?
By Christa MacDonald In the news recently an actor who had been on a successful TV show was seen working at a grocery store. Someone took a surreptitious picture of him and posted it online saying how surprised they were to see the actor working such a lowly job. Then the shaming began. The only thing social media loves more …
Introvert’s Conference Survival Guide
By Leslie DeVooght As we prepare for the ACFW conference, I wanted to share my tips for introverts attending for the first time. Two years ago, I attended my first Christian writers’ conference, and like many writers, I was scared to death. Being an introvert in a crowd of hundreds of strangers seemed like a cruel joke, but everything I …