By JPC Allen Author’s Note: This article first appeared on Rebecca Waters’s site A Novel Creation at WatersWords.com. After I finished my YA Christian fiction novel and edited it a few hundred times, I looked into publishing it. All agents and editors gave the same advice, “Know your audience!” It seemed so overwhelming to me, getting to know the reading …
A Narrative Orphan Becomes a Favorite Child
By Glynn Young I’m writing a fiction series. Two books have been published. The fourth has been sitting in manuscript form, some 70,000 words, for quite some time. There was too big of a story gap between No. 2 and No. 4, so I couldn’t simply skip the third manuscript and cover it with some narrative filler or explanation in …
When the Reader Tastes the Salty Sea Spray
By Leslie DeVooght Readers want to be transported and experience your characters’ world. Your setting should elicit an emotional response from your readers. To achieve this kind of intimacy with the place, a writer must visit the place. Setting isn’t just a location. In our first meeting, my fantastic writing coach Lindsey Bracket said, “you must evoke the island.” This …
Creating a World
By Susan A.J. Lyttek One thing I love about writing speculative fiction is the opportunity to imitate my God and create worlds. There are entire books written about how to design your universe. Obviously, I cannot going that far in a blog post. Even so, I will include some basic pointers on the process. Anchor it in reality. Unlike our …
Everything I Need to Know About Writing I Learned from a Tom Hanks Movie
By Tamara D. Fickas It’s no surprise to those who know me that I’m a huge Tom Hanks fan. This started with a little known sitcom from the late 70s called Bosom Buddies. At that time, Tom looked like a guy at school I had a crush on. The Tom appreciation lasted even as the crush didn’t. Over the years, …
Learning from the Pro Writers without Stalking Them
By DiAnn Mills We all want to be called pro writers and to raise our status to bestselling. In our excitement, we follow the award-winning, best-selling writers whose success make us drool. Their books are read and reread, often with highlights. Their blogs are ingested like candy, and whenever they speak, we’re there. At conferences, we sign-up for one-on-one appointments …
Between You and SME: Resources for Fiction Writers
by Angela Arndt As a corporate trainer for an insurance company, I wrote the curriculum and trained new hires to ensure they used correct procedures. But my degree was in education, not computer programming. How could I teach them when I needed someone to teach me? The answer? A subject-matter expert, or SME (pronounced “smee,” like Captain Hook’s bo’sun in …
When Characters Start Talking
by Ann H. Gabhart Several years ago I had a part time job that allowed me to work from home, one I hoped would give me more time to write. It was a bear of a job. As the substitute coordinator for my county’s school system, I spent hours on the phone scheduling replacements for absent teachers. Okay, so you’re …
How Not to Write a Series
By Linda W. Yezak I usually invite another author to join us when Billy and I work the Blueberry Festival in Nacogdoches, Texas. Having someone to display their covers helps draw readers to our table, but it also gives us someone to talk to during the long periods when nothing is happening. One year, my husband watched carefully as one …
Staying Dependent
By Ian Acheson A couple of recent online discussions made me reflect on my writing journey. At the same time, I had been reading Exodus 33 where Moses on being commanded to leave Sinai demanded of God that he wouldn’t go anywhere without His presence. Let’s have a look at the passage: “Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say …