by Kathleen Denly This year has been full of surprises, and few of them pleasant. It can be difficult to understand what God is thinking during times like these. It can be tempting to believe what we are going through is so terrible it cannot possibly result in something good. Take my hair for example. It’s very thick and dense. …
How to Be a Real Writer in Four Easy Steps
By Kimberley Woodhouse Step One: Write. The best way to become a real writer is… you guessed it: to write. You might have one thousand amazing ideas but you’ve flitted from one to another and never finished one of them. My suggestion is to keep a journal of all of those fabulous ideas and then sit down and focus on …
Festina Lente
By Kay DiBianca I read a cute little mystery recently entitled “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore.” The book mentioned a term I had never encountered before: “Festina Lente.” This Latin term means “make haste slowly.” The Renaissance printer Aldus Manutius adopted the phrase and its symbol of a dolphin wrapped around an anchor for his publishing business. This symbol has been …
Combating the Solitary Life of Writers
By Tema Banner Writing is a solitary activity – as writers we have heard this and known it from the beginning of our journey. Outside influences provide the niggling of an idea that can not be displaced, and from this will grow a story that we hope and pray touches other hearts and lives, for the Glory of God and …
Sit! Stay! Write!
By Melissa Bennett Greetings fellow Christian fiction writers! The last time we met, I encouraged those of you having difficulty writing in these unsettling times to have grace with yourselves. Well, times haven’t changed all that much in the last two months. We still need to be gentle with ourselves and others. But if you’ll allow me, I’d like to …
Of Woodpiles and Word Piles
By Davalynn Spencer I recently had a cord of firewood delivered to my home. A cord is roughly a stack that is four feet high, four feet deep, and eight feet long. The depth of the stack or length of the logs varies and, therefore, affects the price and identifying name: full cord, face cord, stove cord, etc. However, my wood …
Fiction Writing from A-Z
By DiAnn Mills Reminders about our craft burst our imaginations into creative mode. From A to Z, we find sources of inspiration to keep us writing. I’ve chosen the first word that entered my mind as a means to keep my imagination in full gear. A – Adventure Penning our stories is an exciting journey for the writer and the …
Fat Books, Tolkien, and Resurrection Power
By Michael Jack Webb Someone once said, “Inside every fat book is a thin book trying to get out . . .” I can’t help myself—I write “fat” books! I’ve tried to write books under one hundred thousand words, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to lose the weight. My very first novel started out at …
Inspiration is Everywhere
By Suzanne Woods Fisher I listen to a local classical radio station while I write. One morning, the radio host made a casual remark about that day in history: “On September 5, 1911,” he said, “the Moonlight Schools began.” The host explained a few brief facts about the literacy campaign, mentioning Cora Wilson Stewart as the educator who spearheaded it. …
Effective Communication
By Henry McLaughlin Effective Communication… …Or not so effective communication. Back in the 1960s, we had what’s called the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Russians placed missiles in Cuba, which could easily reach many cities in the United States. Our government could not tolerate such a threat and we demanded the Russians remove the weapons. The situation escalated to where war …