By JPC Allen There is a difference between writers and people who write. One of my favorite writers, Patrick F. McManus, brought this home to me in his humorous essay, “People Who Hunt”, from the book Kerplunk! Mr. McManus writes that hunters and people who hunt are two different species. People who hunt love the sport, but they have other …
What’s Your Season?
By Kathy Parish My birthday is May 29th. I’ll not mention the year of my birth, but be assured that for all of those Facebook posts about “Share if you remember this” or “Do you know what this is?” I can answer affirmatively. (I don’t share, though. After all, who needs to know that I remember days pre-microwave and DVD …
Defining
By Christine Sunderland Writing a novel of ideas is not for the faint of heart. In the writing of my novel-in-progress, Angel Mountain, I find that I have too many stories to tell. The files containing what I don’t use are far fatter than the wee little file containing what I end up using. How does a writer abandon some …
The Miracle of Hope
By Catherine West Today I’m celebrating the release of my sixth novel! My third published book through Harper Collins Christian Publishing, and since the title is Where Hope Begins, I thought hope would be the perfect topic for today’s post. “Hope begins in the dark. The stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right …
Goals You CAN Achieve
By Cindy Patterson I’ve been thinking about Goal Setting and how it could change the success of many aspects of our life. Especially writing. But where do you start? Where do you WANT to see yourself tomorrow, in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years? The biggest challenge in setting goals is Fear Of Failure. What if it doesn’t work? What if …
Have You Ever Fallen in Love with One of Your Characters?
by Glynn Young Something strange happened to me as I was writing my third novel, Dancing King. I fell in love with one of the characters. Perhaps “fell in love” is too strong. “Became fascinated with” might be more apt. It was a character who came seemingly out of nowhere, a minor character, in fact, one whose presence wasn’t crucial …
7 Qualities to Look For in a Writing Mentor
By Beth K. Vogt Almost every writer I know is looking for a mentor – or was looking for a mentor at one time in their writing career. And yet, when asked what we’re looking for in a mentor, how many of us go beyond “I want someone to help me become a better writer” answer? We all want to …
Tips for Fighting the Dreaded Writer’s Block
By Amy Clipston Through the years I’ve found that my book projects fall into two categories—they either write themselves or writing them feels like having my teeth drilled. In other words, the characters either tell me the story or I push them through the story as if they were dead weight. My book Room on the Porch Swing, which releases …
Were You Called to Write?
by Kathy Harris How can I really know if I’m called to write? Haven’t we all wondered from time to time? Your answers to the following questions may help you decide. Do you write because you can’t not write? Do you love to play with words—to spin stories? Do characters and plots and scenes fill your head, sometimes to the …
Observations from a Writer
By Denise Hunter Most writers are observers by nature, aren’t we? We observe ourselves, we observe others, then we use what we observe in our writing. Like the other day. I was driving down the road alone and had to brake suddenly for a cat. What was my response to potential disaster? (Yeah, some people don’t consider a dead cat …