Please welcome this week's guest Angela Strong for The Journey. She answers the question: How have you seen God work in your writing journey? Becoming a Strong Writer I’ve always been a writer. Whether it started when my mom sold a story about me as a five-year-old to Women’s World or in my 4th grade creative writing class or during my position with the high school newspaper or after I sold my first story to a national magazine for $100 at the age of 16, it doesn’t matter. That was the fun … [Read more...]
The Journey with Melissa Finnegan #acfw
Please welcome this week's guest Melissa Finnegan for The Journey. She answers the question: How have you seen God work in your writing journey? As probably is the case with most writers the dream to write was planted in my heart at a young age, but for me it would be over thirty years before I heard God instruct me to write. That call couldn’t happen until I died to self and dealt with long hidden wounds from my childhood. I can’t remember a time I wasn’t writing a story or making plays … [Read more...]
The Journey with Kathy Nickerson
Please welcome this weeks guest Kathy Nickerson for The Journey. She answers the question: How have you seen God work in your writing journey? Thanks to Kristena for sharing her space to let me talk about my writing journey. In the late eighties, I wrote a personal experience piece about my battle with depression for Christian Herald Magazine. I was thrilled with the check that came in the mail and excited by the opportunities Editor Dean Merrill offered me for more articles. We worked … [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...]
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 105: PERFECTION! #acfw
I don't think there's a single person out there who wouldn't want to do something and know they did it perfectly. The thing is we are human and we will never be perfect. As parents we try our very best to be the best parent we can. We want to raise our kids to one day be adults and be as successful as they can be. But no matter how hard we try we will never be perfect at it. We will make mistakes along the way. We will doubt ourselves. We have to learn from both our own mistakes and also from … [Read more...]
X is for eXpectation #AtoZchallenge
In life we have so many expectations that we'd like to see happen. From watching our children grow and hoping they become successful adults in whatever we do. To being successful in whatever job we do. To so many things in life. As a writer I have several expectations I want to do or have happen for myself. Like, continually being ready to learn how to improve my craft of writing. The more I focus on this the better my writing has become over time. I know I still have more to grow, but the … [Read more...]
U is for Unsolicited Manuscript #atozchallenge
Have you ever gone to a literary agency's website or to a traditional publisher's website and looked up their guidelines to find out how you could send a query or proposal for your work only to find out it says something like this: We do not take unsolicited manuscripts. So exactly what is an unsolicited manuscript? It's one that is not represented currently by an agent or for a writer who has never been published before. In other words, agents and publishing houses don't want anyone to just … [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...]
S is for Slush Pile #atozchallenge
The dreaded slush pile. No one ever wants their manuscript to be tossed into this pile. All their hard work given up to chance that maybe someone just might pull your manuscript out and read it thinking it was the next Nicholas Sparks or Nora Roberts best-selling novel. Unfortunately, for most of us, we will either end up in this slush pile or, quite frankly, no pile at all. I'll be honest. As most of you know, I've never been published so I'm, as they say, relatively green behind the ears … [Read more...]
