I normally don’t like to quote from the book but I like what this had to say: “I learned to swim from a magazine article I read when I was eight years old. It told me to grab my knees, duck my head, form a tight little ball in the water, and then float. The next step was to stretch out and continue to float. I did exactly what the article said to do, and lo and behold, it worked. I got my arms going at some point, and I was a swimmer. It’s kind of like writing: get a paper and a pen, start with … [Read more...]
The Journey with Jeanie Jacobson #acfw #thejourney
Please welcome this weeks guest Jeanie Jacobson for The Journey. She answers the question: How have you seen God work in your writing journey? An old Verizon commercial showed a man striding through various locations, from cornfields to city streets. Everywhere he went he'd hold out his phone and ask, "Can you hear me now?" For me, it seemed like everywhere I went God kept calling out, "Jeanie, can you hear me now? Write." To be honest, I ignored Him. Fear held me back. Negative thoughts … [Read more...]
Day 114: The idea That Won’t Go Away #acfw
Have you ever had one of those moment when you're writing where your characters just won’t shut up. They continue to talk and talk and talk. They won’t quit until you write what they're telling you to write down. This has happened to me a few times with the fiction novel I’ve been writing to the point I have a major rewrite in the works that'll need to be completed by the time I go to my first writer's conference in September. If you aren’t a writer you may think that we have something … [Read more...]
I’ve been nominated for a Liebster Award #acfw
I was just going through comments left on this site and Suzanne Ong nominated for the Liebster Award. This is a pleasant surprise to find. So you might be asking, "What is a Liebster Award?" Basically it is an award given by fellow bloggers to other bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers. It's a way to help bring them more exposure so that really great blogs that might other wise be missed can be more easily found. Here are the simple rules for accepting the award: List 11 random … [Read more...]
The Journey with Shannon Vannatter #acfw
Please welcome this weeks guest Shannon Vannatter for The Journey. She answers the question: How have you seen God work in your writing journey? God Sent Encouragement God called me to be a writer in 1996 when I went to the library looking for clean romance and couldn’t find any. At the same time, it hit me that the story I’d had in my head since my teens could be a book. But I didn’t have a computer and I wasn’t a great typist. I told myself that if I ever got a computer, I’d write that … [Read more...]
Day 109: Just Reading #acfw
For years I have read romances and they are my favorite to read. I can remember thinking as a teenager, and even as an adult sometimes, that I'd love to write one but had no clue how to or, for that matter, any desire to do so. Today, I not only read books but I also have been doing a lot of writing. I've been working on both my fiction book as well as Mari's story (which is basically done and almost ready for beta readers). I've learned so much in the last few years. I understand better what … [Read more...]
Day 104: Writing Your Own Front Yard #acfw
Think about this for a moment. When we write or talk about things do we use our past experiences during those times or do we just guess and hope what we say makes sense to others. Personally, I think our best writing comes from the things we have personally experienced. I'm not saying that those who haven't experience something they've written about is good. What I do mean is when we write from things that have happened in our past, we're able to put part of ourselves into what we write. There … [Read more...]
Z is for ZZZs #AtoZchallenge #acfw
The dreaded ZZZs. It's exactly what we don't want to do to our readers. That is make them fall asleep as they are read our books. We want our novels to be so engaging that they have a hard time putting it down so much so they don't want to go to sleep. This has happened to me so many times where I'm so into the book that it's hard to put it down. I still remember waking up not to long ago and my Kindle was on my bed beside me. I was so close to the end of a book the night before that I wanted … [Read more...]
The Journey with Sylvia Bambola #acfw
Please welcome this weeks guest Sylvia Bambola for The Journey. She answers the question: How have you seen God work in your writing journey? Years ago God spoke to me about writing a novel for the secular world. I believed it. I received it. There was no doubt in my mind that it was God even though He sounded nothing like Cecil B. DeMille. So, for two years I worked feverishly until finally the great American novel was ready. I had amassed a list of all the publishers I planned to favor with … [Read more...]
T is for Tagline (Dialogue Tags) #atozchallenge
Taglines, or better known as dialogue tags, have been used in writing clear back to the Bible. They help the reader to know exactly who is talking during a scene. However, today, many publishers are moving away from dialogue tags as this is more telling than showing. Adding an action beat for whoever is talking is a way to show that person is the one talking instead of saying so-in-such said. As a reader, to be honest, I never really noticed that kind of stuff and it never bothered me. But … [Read more...]
