by Dana Mentink Settings! They are one of the things that compel me as a reader and writer. Bring me to a new world, a place I’ve never been and I’m fascinated. My early years found me steeped in Middle Earth, Oz, and Narnia. More recently, the Life of Pi swept me away to a mysterious carnivorous island. Ironically though, …
Setting the Scene
by Christine Sunderland I often say I came to the writing of novels “through the back door.” While it is true I earned a BA in English Literature and loved reading, I never considered that I might become a writer. But time and grace has a way of changing things. As has been said, If you want to make God …
The Crucial First Chapter
By Anne Greene The last time I wrote, I discussed how to Make Your Manuscript Sparkle. I trust you all learned more about deep point of view from that lesson. Down through the years of writing and being a charter member of ACFW when it was ACRW, I’ve learned so much of the craft of writing that God nudged me …
Homophones (And yes, I see my errors)
by Donna L. Rich Everyone has his or her pet peeves. Won of mine is finding incorrect spelling of a commonly used word. Nevertheless, on page too on my last submission to an editor, I misused the word it’s (instead of its). Horrors! I couldn’t believe that after combing threw the manuscript a thousand times I didn’t sea the error …
Help–I’m stuck!
by Denise Hunter If you’ve been writing novels for any length of time, you’ve gotten stuck. I’m not talking about writer’s block, I’m talking about STUCK. When this happens to me, it means 1 of 2 things. Here they are, and here’s what I do about them. 1. There’s a foundational problem with my plot. (Goal, motivation, conflict, stakes, etc.) …
The Best Writing Partner
By Nancy Ellen Hird About the time I began writing for publication, I heard a businessman say he realized God wanted to be his business partner and so the man wrote up a contract. It occurred to me that God was inviting me to join His business, to be a Kingdom builder with my writings. I was awed by the …
If Kids Don’t Read Like We Read. . .
By Nancy Ellen Hird In her book Writing Irresistible Kidlit (Writer’s Digest Books, 2012), industry insider and former agent Mary Kole writes that kids read differently than adults. She writes they read: • Voraciously • Communally (Friends pass books to each other.) • Socially (Kids talk about books to each other and it is important to be reading what your …
Transitions: Getting From Here To There
by Winnie Griggs Have you ever heard any of the following about your work? • It’s choppy, abrupt or jarring • It seems to jump around too much • It’s hard to follow • The individual scenes feels as if they were written in ‘chunks’ and then pasted together These are all signs that you may need to work on …
Life Happenings Can Lead to Ministry
by Bonnie S. Calhoun Many of you probably aren’t old enough to remember….yeah…I’m dating myself…but there used to be a TV show called “This is Your Life.” In that show the subject would sit and watch a big screen that rolled pictures of their many life events and people from those pictures would sit back stage narrating the scenes. Of …
Make God a Part of Your Dreams
God calls us many times to delight in him. Paraphrased, from Psalms 1: Blessed is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord. And the one I want to talk about today, that I always hold close when I think of getting a book published, from Psalms 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD; and he will give …