After several years on this writing journey and from talking with others on the same path, I’ve found six things I wish I had done differently. Maybe you share some of them. 1) Following trends instead of my heart We all have stories in our hearts. Stories that we need …
Matthew 12:36-37 NLT tells us we will be called to give an account of every idle word we speak. Our words will either acquit us or condemn us. Pretty heavy message, isn’t it? As writers, I think we also need to include every word we write. The questions are: As …
Did you ever have a character who wouldn’t leave you alone? Sometimes, she wants to steal the scene. Other times, she wants to hijack the story into a completely new direction. One you never intended to follow and one you’re not sure you could get back from. In other blogs, …
If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you know I view the first draft of a work as crucial. My emphasis on the first draft is intentional. Rarely, if ever, is a first draft sufficient for our purpose. I’ve even learned to review my emails before I hit send. …
Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Over the last couple of years, I spent a large amount of time working on a novel. The …
Back in November, James Scott Bell posted a blog on The Kill Zone called, What I Wish I’d Known When I Started Writing. He covered a whole range of topics and sparked my own thinking. Now, I wonder why didn’t somebody tell me this at the beginning? I’m just going …
Here are a couple of proverbs I believe apply to all of us, but especially those of us who are pursuing the dream of being writers. Proverbs 3:12 (NLT) For the Lord corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights. We are writing for the Lord …
I’m sure we’ve all participated in or heard stories about horrible experiences with critique groups. I’ve had a few myself. Unfortunately, I may also have contributed to some of them. To any writers I did this to, I apologize. I’ve been writing seriously for over ten years. During this time, …
The Final Frontier—The Professional Edit Over the past few weeks, we’ve done a lot of work revising and rewriting our manuscript. We’re ready to submit to our dream agent, or the agent who requested a full manuscript at the conference we attended last month. Our finger hovers over the send …
We covered a lot of territory over the last few weeks. The previous blogs in this series are at these links: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3 Now, we’re coming toward the end of preparing our manuscript for submission or self-publishing. Revise—Again It’s time to write the third draft. Or maybe yours is …
