This is a two-day posting. For today's topic it's about the "feast" in writing. Have you ever sat down to write something and story after story is sitting there ready to write. In fact, you have so many of them you're overwhelmed with were to start. This is like the feast. As writers we have to discern what we need to write about. A great place to start would be to pray asking for God's help in knowing what should be written about first. So discernment is the key. We need to listen closely … [Read more...]
Day 60: Showing Up
I think this has been my exact problem these past several months. To be reliable to my own writing muse. Ever since last July when Mari's 5 year mark came and went, I've had a hard time trying to motivate myself to do any kind of writing. Whether it was writing something for Mari's website or this one, writing something for her book, or just writing for my fiction book, I just couldn't find the motivation. I kept being told by others that even if I only write a sentence a day I needed to … [Read more...]
Day 54: The Beginning Writer
It's interesting to think that when you are staring at a blank piece of paper, or in many cases today, a blank document on the computer screen, that we are all beginning writers. As far as literally, someone who's had several books published or been writing for several years is not a beginning writer. A beginning writer is someone like me. Someone who has recently begun to write. I have no published books. I don't have several books I've written waiting to be published. I just have two books … [Read more...]
Day 53: On Work and Sentences
When I was young and growing up, English was a hard subject for me. I always had a hard time knowing when a run on sentence became one and was I supposed to use there, their, or they're. (To this day I still struggle with homophones.) My dyslexia always made it more difficult. Today it has gotten easier but it's still hard work. I've been able to learn to compensate. For example, when I take a college class I probably spend a lot more time than most to get the same 'A's as someone … [Read more...]
Day 51: Nothing New Under the Sun
Stories. There are literally thousands upon thousands of stories out in the world today. So, let's say you have a great, new idea that pops into your head while you're eating breakfast. You have to get it written down right away so you don't miss one word of it. You put the idea in your box/basket/folder, or wherever you keep story ideas, and you continue what you're doing. A couple of days later you decide to pick up a new book to read. You start to read it and sure enough, right there in front … [Read more...]
Day 50: The Narrative of Your Life
We all have a narrative we live by. Our morales. Our ethics. Our beliefs. Our likes and dislikes. Plus many others. All the things make us who we are. And through writing, we can find ourselves through the words we write. I know I do in my characters. They come alive in my head and I try transferring that to the best of my ability to paper. The narrative of my life has been anything but easy. The positive through all of this is I can use those experiences in my fiction. Maybe somehow, … [Read more...]
The Journey with Patty Smith Hall
Please welcome this weeks guest Patty Smith Hall for The Journey. She answers the question: How have you seen God work in your writing journey? My writing journey has been one long and winding road(a nod to the Beatles there) full of twists and turns, stopping and starting on a moment’s whims depending on what daughter needed me at the time. But 2004 was a pivotal year for me, the year I was awarded a scholarship to the ACFW National Conference in Denver. At that time, I had been writing … [Read more...]
Day 46: Frou-Frou in Your Head
I love this quote from the book. "Remember this: there is nothing until there’s something on the page." We can all have a million and one thoughts and dreams rolling around in our head, but until they are written down they are all frou-frou in your head. If you have thoughts or ideas, no matter how silly or strange you may think they are, write them down. Nothing may ever come from them. But what if something does? What if one of those ideas happens to become the next great American novel. … [Read more...]
Day 40: Inspiration
I think inspiration can come from anywhere at anytime. It just hits us. I still remember being up in my bedroom when the story idea came to me and that very night I started my first attempt at writing fiction. To take a simple idea and then turn that into a 100,000 word book is mind-boggling. Not many people have the patience or stamina to do it. You really have to want to be a writer to do it. The amazing part about all of this is when you type out that first novel you'll find out what so … [Read more...]
Day 35: Eight Ways to Sabotage Yourself
Distraction. We can be so easily be distracted over some of the silliest things. Here is a list below from the book: "1. I have nothing original to write because everything interesting has already been written. "2. I don’t have enough time right now. I’ll start writing later. I’ll write someday. "3. What if someone reads what I’ve written? "4. What if nobody reads what I’ve written? "5. I have to mow the lawn, clean the closets, wash the car, run a load of laundry right … [Read more...]
