by C. Kevin Thompson At the Academy of Achievement,1 Sue Grafton spoke to a group of college-age attendees, encouraging right-brainers in the crowd to consider a life in the Arts. As I listened to this presentation, I was struck by how similar writer’s lives are in so many ways. No matter how fledgling or how established, it seems all writers …
Top Ten Things I Learned about Business Success from Binging on Real Housewives
by Traci Tyne Hilton When I have a hard time getting words on the page, I don’t make the wisest decisions. That said, I’ve watched a lot of the Real Housewives of Everywhere this summer. And you know what? I’ve learned an awful lot about how to succeed in business! 10. Don’t be afraid to look foolish. The Real Housewives …
Time Marches? No, it Sprints!
By Dana Mentink “We are not the father of time. We are the children of time.” – Ilya Prigogine, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, 1977 Did you ever notice how the older we get the faster time goes? Seriously. Sometimes I think time is not marching but galloping! Now I know what you’re thinking. Nobody has enough time, Dana. Get …
Seasoning the Seasons
by Christine Sunderland We are told that we, as Christians, are to be the salt of the earth. We are, therefore, to season our world, add flavor by spicing it with the love of God. The root of season is the Anglo-French season, to bring to a desired state. The same “desired state” became our calendar season, with the root …
Please With a Tease! Using Social Media to Tease Your Readers
by Janice Thompson So, you’ve written the book of your heart. Now you need to get the word out. How do you do so without appearing pushy? Easy! One thing I’ve learned over the course of seventeen years in the publishing business: Readers love to be involved in the process. They enjoy the interaction and the feeling that they’ve somehow …
Trusting Your Gut
by Suzanne Woods Fisher A few years ago, I was staying in a nice hotel-very safe, oriented to business clientele. As I went into an elevator, a hotel employee came in behind me. He waited until I pressed a button for my floor, then he smiled, as if that was just the floor he needed. Something just didn’t seem right. …
Story Chasers: A Twelve-Step Program for Not Becoming a Successful Writer
by DiAnn Mills We fiction writers chase our stories like toddlers on a sugar-high. I’m one of them. I can dream and plan and plot all day long. Yet sometimes I get sidetracked. For writers who live and breathe their addiction but have a problem staying on task, I’m offering a twelve-step program call Story Chasers (SC). These are writers …
Stick with the Story
by Jill Elizabeth Nelson Any novelist who has spent much time in the fiction-writing world has probably heard the term “sagging middle.” Sags develop when a story loses momentum and begins to meander or bog down. I’m of the opinion that the issue usually isn’t so much a single sag as a number of sags, clustered or scattered throughout. Envision …
Be a Critter-Getter
By Linda Robinson If I were forced to choose only one blessing I’ve gleaned from my membership in ACFW, it would be hard. After much thought, I would have to say it occurred when I chose to become a part of Scribes, their critique group, which resulted in an even greater blessing. While submitting chapters and critiquing others’ submissions, a …
The Wait
by Ian Acheson We writers wait a lot. I expect for most of us the production process of drafting a manuscript is an active one, however, there will be times we will be waiting for feedback from others before we proceed to the next stage. When we’ve completed the manuscript we can expect to wait a lot. Critique groups, editors, …