by Susan A.J. Lyttek I love writing. You’d think after that statement that I would jump out of bed and head down to my notebooks and laptop with unbridled enthusiasm each morning. Not so. In fact, I will often putter around and do anything other than write. I will suddenly need to spend a lot of time in Bible study, …
When Social Media isn’t Social Anymore
By Norma Gail Any writer who handles the majority of their own social media is frustrated. Facebook was fun when it was just family and friends. Now that it’s a necessary part of my platform as a writer, I’ve developed an intense dislike for it. I can’t take the sting out of hours spent on social media instead of writing. …
Story First, Novel Second
By Dennis Ricci “Literary talent is commonplace. Storytelling talent is rare.” Robert McKee, the Hollywood story guru who’s trained many of the great filmmakers and screenwriters of our generation, made that statement within the first hour of his Story Seminar, which I attended last March. McKee defined the differences between literary and storytelling talent: Literary: the ability to convert ordinary …
The Way of Words
By Christine Sunderland Christians know that when the Word was made flesh, mankind was changed forever. Just so words that move from speaker to listener, from writer to reader, are also incarnate creations, fleshed with sound and sight. Christ the Word of God, the expression of God, took on human form. Christ was and is God’s love letter to man. …
Change Your Character, Change the World
By Victoria Buck I wrote approximately a thousand pages about a game show host who becomes the world’s first transhuman who becomes a fugitive who becomes a believer who becomes a hero who becomes an evangelist, sort of. Book three of my trilogy releases in September, and Chase Sterling’s quest culminates in front of a worldwide audience who, ready or …
The Cost of Freedom and the Cost of Writing
By Hannah Conway I cried when a news broadcast confirmed the death of Osama Bin Laden. The tears came from some place deep within me, perhaps some dark and dry cavern of my heart I had not fully explored. What was that place, that cavern, that feeling? Avenged. Relief. A sense that justice had been served to those who lost …
Holding to High Standards
By Angela Beach Silverthorne Books are powerful instruments to entertain, teach, learn problem solving strategies and coping mechanisms. As a writer I cannot underestimate the impact my words can have on readers. Knowing this, I take being a Christian author very seriously. Before I began writing the Cries series, Cries of Innocence and Cries of Grace, I began to pray. …
Being Equipped
By Henry McLaughlin God has a will, or a plan for each of us. Psalm 139:16 (NLT) tells us, You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. Each of us is on this earth for a specific reason. We may …
Pros & Cons – plus a few tips – for Writing a Novel Series
by Deborah Raney The fifth and final book in my Chicory Inn Novels series released recently, and I’m now working on the first book in a new series. Having written mostly stand-alone novels for most of my writing career, this has been an interesting experience and one I’ve learned so much from. First let’s look at the pros and cons …
Keeping Up with the Joneses
By Tamara D. Fickas We are bombarded with opportunities these days to compare ourselves to others. The media is resplendent with pleas to see how you stack up against the hotshot writer, the most awesome athlete, or the most influential politician. It runs rampant in the workforce also. One worker is compared to another when it comes time for raises …