By Ane Mulligan When I first started writing, I did what most new writers do. Believing the reader couldn’t understand my story or like the heroine without knowing her back story, I loaded the first chapter with all that information. It didn’t take too many critiques to learn the error of my ways. But why is it not necessary? I’m …
Fall down, get up. Again.
By Davalynn Spencer When we hear that people have experience in a particular field or endeavor, we often equate that experience with success and only success. However, if that were the case, their experience would not be genuine. Experience bleeds. Last month at a multi-author event for the local college, I met a woman who is a licensed pilot. She’s …
Four Approaches to Character Names
by Christa Kinde Whenever I’m invited to talk about the Threshold Series, one question keeps cropping up. How do you pick names for your characters? While it might sound like I’m dodging the question, the honest answer is … it depends! I don’t have one set rule. But I do have four different approaches. I’ll even throw in some bonus …
Take Me Out to the Ballpark
By Tamara D. Fickas I’m not a big sports fan. I don’t really follow any of the big sports teams, although I do sometimes root for a team based on being the underdog, or the favored team, or because I like a player. Despite not being into sports, I do love baseball. I managed the baseball team in high school …
Characters or Story: What Drives Your Writing?
by Glynn Young I was having an email exchange with a writer and poet who had just published a novel. Specifically, we were discussing how each of us wrote fiction. She had trouble, she said, with multi-viewpoint novels. Her stories tended to be character-driven, and especially lead character-driven. She said she found multi-viewpoint novels confusing. Multi-viewpoint novels are what I …
Changing the Past
By Loretta Eidson Last Sunday, Steven Goudeaux, pastor of our East Memphis church, made several powerful statements during the morning service, but one, in particular, caught my attention. “You can change your past,” he said. I lifted my eyebrows and listened while I waited for his explanation. My curiosity piqued. There’s nothing too difficult for God, but how would Pastor …
Let’s Go Back! Flashbacks and Making Them Work
By Cindy Patterson As writers, it’s our job to transport our readers into our stories so deeply, they feel as though they’re no longer reading. This is no easy task. We spend so much time working out our plots, scenes, conflict, and most important, creating our characters, that sometimes we want to spend more time in the history of our …
Change Your Motive, Change the World …and the industry
by J.A. Marx If you’ve been around ACFW for any length of time, you’ve heard the one question every agent and editor asks: “Who’s your audience?” The tighter we narrow down the audience for our story, the happier we make the marketing department. But at what point in writing a new book do we start thinking about our readers? God …
Novel Preparation 101
By DiAnn Mills We writers have habits, some quirky, that help us get started on new writing projects. Today I’d like to share with you how I organize my thoughts and preparations before writing chapter one, line one of a new novel. I’m mostly an organic/pantster writer, but some things I have to know before I begin. Idea. Oh, these …
Your Character’s Voice
by Sarah Sundin (@sarahsundin) I’m a California girl. I’m ashamed to admit I use the word like as filler on a regular basis. My young-adult children use vocabulary not even known in the rest of the country. If I were to write all my novels in my natural voice, I’d be very limited in geography and era. When we speak …