Author: Donna L.H. Smith-Managing Editor

I'm a prairie girl from Kansas transplanted to Amish country, Pennsylvania. I'm married to a wonderful man since 1987, a member of a great church, where I serve as a greeter and on ministry team. On Sunday afternoons, I stand a two-hour prayer watch at our local 24/7 House of Prayer. I also enjoy reading, occasionally reviewing books, and of course, writing. A graduate of Christian Writer's Guild's Craftsman program, and holds both bachelor's and master's degrees in communication. I seek to encourage beginning writers in learning the craft. I am currently the Mid-Atlantic Zone Director of American Christian Fiction Writers and serve as Managing Editor for A3. My debut novel, Meghan's Choice, published in late 2017. Her second novel is in the editing process. She also teaches workshops on writing and inspirational.

Categories
Literary Women in Histor

Beatrix Potter: When Trials Pave a Way to Destiny by Kathryn Ross

There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they’ll take you. Mine took me here, where I belong.
― Beatrix Potter

As a child, Beatrix Potter often wondered where she belonged. It would be many years and more than her fair share of trials before her life’s path brought her to where she belonged.

In keeping with the child rearing trends of the upwardly mobile classes in Victorian England, Beatrix’s parents entertained limited interaction with their children until they came of a civilized age. A nurse was tasked with the daily care of Beatrix and her younger brother, Bertram. In her teen years a governess appointed to mold the girl Beatrix into a lady became her companion, while Bertram went off to boarding school in the elementary years, to begin his grooming for the business world.

On any given evening, as a child, Beatrix would sit forlorn in the third-floor nursery of her family’s London townhouse. Nurse delivered dinner. Beatrix ate alone, as usual. After dinner, Beatrix would bathe and dress for bed before saying “goodnight” to Mr. and Mrs. Potter in the drawing room. Perhaps Mother would inquire about her studies under the tutelage of Nurse. The Potters did not approve of sending their daughter to school. It was inappropriate within their social circles. Father might ask if she sketched anything new that day. She would answer their questions with formal politeness, curtsy, and retire to bed. The next day would be much the same, providing little society other than interaction with the servants.

And Peter and Benjamin, of course.

They were rabbits, you know. Young Beatrix kept a virtual zoo of animals in her room—from mice to bats to the beloved pet rabbits who eventually became the inspiration for characters in her series of popular children’s stories. As an adult, these little books made her famous, a household name, and a woman of independent means by 1906.

But until her mid-30s, Beatrix was a woman of her age, living through a time of limited formal educational opportunities for women in all spheres of society. The upper classes were especially protective of daughters whose greatest aspiration was training to marry well and run a household commensurate with her husband’s social profile. However, the Potters were not eager to see their daughter marry once she came of age. Beatrix had become far too important to the smooth running of their household in the wake of an unending stream of chronic maladies. They had no desire to see their daughter live independent of them.

The trials of Beatrix’s repressive, stoic early years and early adulthood, raised in this controlling Victorian parenting regime, might have produced a bitter, unimaginative, rebellious woman. Certainly, by today’s standards, some might go so far as to accuse the Potters of child abuse and neglect.

But Beatrix used what freedoms she did have to escape and explore the glories of the flora and fauna—both in her own backyard, and for three months each year, the country estate grounds where the family took their summers. With an unlimited supply of writing and drawing instruments, Beatrix kept a daily journal of thoughts and observations on her excursions and the daily lives of all her pets. She filled pages with companion pencil and watercolor sketches of garden and wildlife. Her superior attention to detail regarding the flora, was countered with a whimsical capturing of animal life—suiting them up well in gaiters, waistcoats, aprons, and bonnets. Interacting with God’s creation cultivated her imagination, bringing balance to her otherwise dull lifestyle.

She could little imagine, though, how this personal passion and retreat in nature as a child would one day feed the childhood literary thirsts of millions around the world. Beatrix bore the prison of her daily routines with a quiet resolve to find a personal happy place to offset her responsibilities to her parents. In that place of ofttimes trial, a world of story, in word and illustration, birthed that captivated the imaginations of generations.

Beatrix Potter’s whimsical story world of talking animals, toys, and nursery rhymes, set in restful English country villages, remain a staple in children’s literature over a hundred years after they were inked. In her lifetime, she came to possess a substantial amount of farmland real estate in the Lake District of England from her earnings, purchasing dozens of ancient farms and woodland acreage. She rescued the land from corporate development that would have displaced the people and forever destroy the restful, idyllic landscape of the English countryside with industrial sprawl.

Upon her death in 1943, these preserved acres of land became the foundation of conservation in the National Trust, safeguarding their historical value, simple beauty, environmental wildlife, and the farm and village culture of the people whose families had lived there for centuries. In addition, she contributed to scientific journals with detailed illustrations for fungus studies, drawn from nature, and in her later years became a notable sheep farmer.

That’s quite a legacy for such a sheltered little Victorian girl. But that repressive soil fertilized her discovery of the only trail available to her from childhood. Trial in her life became a pathway guiding her to her ultimate destiny. Beatrix’s journals and letters leave hints as to how she chose to navigate her life to fulfill her place in the world with contentment, humility, and grace:

  • I cannot rest, I must draw, however poor the result, and when I have a bad time come over me it is a stronger desire than ever.

Write. Draw. With passion and resolve. Allow the cathartic nature of creativity to heal through your trials.

  • Thank goodness my education was neglected . . .Thank goodness I was never sent top school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.

Expand the liberating place of self-learning in your life. Own your education. Discover the world around you through self-driven study, observation, critical thought, and experiment to develop original ideas.

  • Everything was romantic in my imagination. The woods were peopled by the mysterious good folk. The Lords and Ladies of the last century walked with me along the overgrown paths and picked the old-fashioned flowers among the box and rose hedges of the garden.

Cultivate your imagination regarding romantic ideals—perfect models of life, principles, and moral values that celebrate peace, goodness, and beauty (Philippians 4:8). Such things, presented whimsically in Miss Potter style, allow a place of escape for mind and heart in troublesome seasons. It also satisfies, to an extent, the desire to see paradigm ideals manifest in a story of substance. The Christian fiction writer understands this to be the seedbed of a story-world—creating place where the protagonist’s best outcomes might be realized, and readers might find something noble to ponder and relate to in their own lives.

  • Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.
    Live a self-disciplined life knowing that, no matter what, all things work together for good and trials can become the trails that lead you onto God’s purposes for your life.

What many people don’t know is that The Tale of Peter Rabbit, the classic that started it all, was actually a little story Beatrix wrote in a letter to the sick child of her former governess with whom she remained close. It was designed to cheer the little invalid and his siblings with a handful of illustrations and the familiar text we all remember of a very naughty rabbit who squeezes under the gate into Mr. MacGregor’s garden in clear defiance of his mother’s instructions. Encouragement to publish the work moved her to seek out a publisher, only to be turned away multiple times. She was a woman, after all. No matter, she would self-publish!

With some savings of her own, she financed the publication of 500 copies of the book with exact specifications through the Frederick Warne Company—the same company that still holds all the rights to Miss Potter’s work today. It sold out of the bookstore where it was placed in short order, smoothing the pathway for Beatrix to take her place as a shining star in children’s literature and illustration. Her legacy. Her destiny. Precisely where she belonged.

Journal Prompt: Make a list of painful periods in your life when you felt repressed or limited due to circumstances. Write down the life lesson you learned living through each season of trial. How have difficult times in your life informed your writing? How did a personal trial, setback, or disappointment become a pathway to greater things in your life? How have you used negative experiences to add dimension to plot or characters in your stories? Are you where you belong? Journal your answers.

TWEET: [bctt tweet=”#BeatrixPotter and Peter Rabbit, birthed out of repression and sickness. Happy endings to sad stories; how writers thrive in trial and limitations. @misskathypwp” username=”@A3writers @misskathypwp”]

TWEET:[bctt tweet=”#Women Writers in Life and Letters—Beatrix Potter: From Pain to Pen—When Trials Pave the Trail to a Life Destiny @misskathypwp” username=”@a3writers @misskathypwp”]

Recommended Reading: Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature, by Linda Lear, © 2016 St. Martin’s Griffin

 Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Productions and Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. Her passion is to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, producing readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.

Categories
Guest Posts

3 Steps to Take You from Stay-at-Home Mom to Stay-at-Home Copywriter By Rachel Schmoyer

My youngest child was almost ready for kindergarten. After being a stay at home mom for ten years, I was ready to think about what I could do to bring in some income for our family. The catch was that I wanted a job that allowed me to be home when my children were home.

I asked my mom friends what they did for income. One friend said she sold product for multi-level marketing company. That wasn’t for me because I didn’t want to be away from the family on evenings and weekends. Another friend suggested babysitting. I didn’t like the sound of that either. I didn’t want to be tied down by someone else’s schedule.

Then one of my friends said she was a copywriter. I had never heard of that job before, but it piqued my interest. I had always received good feedback from my writing in high school and college and I loved writing letters and keeping journals. I asked my friend to tell me more.

First, she loaned me some books so I could familiarize myself with the business of writing. Writer for Hire: 101 Secrets of Freelance Success by Kelly James-Enger defined the terminology that I would need to know. 102 Ways to Earn Money Writing 1,500 Words or Less: The Ultimate Freelancer’s Guide by I.J. Schecter opened my eyes to the writing opportunities all around me. Anywhere there are words, someone was paid to write: cereal boxes, fast-food tray liners, book blurbs, catalog descriptions, etc.

My friend also shared other tips from her own experience.

Here are her top 3 tips which got me started as a copywriter:

  1. Start with who you know. Because it’s hard to get paid for writing without experience, you can gain experience by writing for friends, family, or businesses that you frequent. I started with a local farmer from whom I had been purchasing a weekly share of vegetables for several years. I noticed that he had been trying to write a weekly email letting his customers know what vegetables were in their box, but he was too busy to write consistently. So I approached him with an idea. I asked if I could write a weekly email describing the veggies and giving recipe suggestions to keep his customers engaged in exchange for bread and eggs. To my delight, he took up my offer. I was thankful for the low pressure experience that I could add to my resume later.
  2. Create a website/blog with writing samples. After writing for the farmer for a while, I started to get random ideas for writing about parenting, crafts, or Scripture. So I started a very simple personal blog so I had a place to post these ideas. While creating my blog, I had the nagging thought that I was wasting my time since I wasn’t going to post regularly or put ads on my site, but the blog came in handy for the next step in my copywriting journey!
  3. Don’t be afraid to try something new! One day I overheard another friend talking about how difficult it was to write blog posts about electronic components. I stopped to ask her more. It turned out my friend was working as a social media manager for a digital marketing company. I didn’t know that writing was a part of social media! I blurted out, “That sounds like a fun challenge. I could write about that!” Immediately, I felt my stomach lurch and a cold chill down my spine. What did I just do? Could I really write about electronic components? She told me to send in my resume since they were thinking of hiring a writer. Despite my apprehension, I sent in my resume and the web address to my blog. The boss of the company was attracted to my writing style because of the blog and I was given my first official freelance copywriting job!

It’s been three years since I first heard about copywriting. Now I have enough copywriting to keep me busy for all the time that my children are in school.

If you are interested in becoming a copywriter, think about who you know who could use some writing for their business or organization. It could even been someone’s side hustle. Start a simple, free blog or website with some samples of your writing. WordPress and Blogger are free and easy to use.  Don’t get paralyzed by the fear of the unknown. Pursue copywriting with a teachable spirit and a drive for excellence and, before you know it, you will have clients coming to you.

BIO:

Rachel Schmoyer is a pastor’s wife, mom of four, and a copywriter. She also helps Christians find the simple truths in the complex parts of the Bible at readthehardparts.com. Her other writings and publishing credits can be found on rachelschmoyerwrites.com.

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Here I Am by Martin Johnson

The desire to write has burned in me ever since I was in middle school. I grew up in a military family that traveled the world until we settled down in the South. Daydreaming about the places I used to live and the wonderful sights I’ve seen led me to write about them.

I wanted to share with others my adventure before moving to the South. I can still remember walking the cobblestone streets of Rome—the beautiful fields of flowers that zipped past the windows of school buses while in route to Italian countryside farms.

The serenity of the early morning fishing trips with my father on Pike’s Peak in Colorado. But, my favorite was always having a white Christmas to celebrate the holidays. Writing was just as much an escape for me as listening to the words of Bing Crosby’s White Christmas.

That’s why I chose to major in English during college. I wanted to take people to great places with my words. However, working two jobs and partying in my spare time, left me little time to escape and write. I was stuck in reality.

I had no more stories to tell—I’m not talking about the lies we tell—wait, is that why our parents called lying telling stories?

My Story

We all have a story to tell, it may be fiction or it may be a-real-life, gut-wrenching truth. Sometimes my story seems like a dream… or nightmare.

When I was 22, during college, I died after a severe car accident. At the hospital the doctors had to do emergency brain surgery to remove bone fragments from my brain and I stroked out. After I was revived they removed 30% of my brain so it would rewire itself and I could function.

I remember coming to a week later and having the doctors tell me I would never walk again. Moreover, I still feel the embarrassment I felt when I fell off of the toilet after lying to a nurse about being able to walk.

After eleven months of inpatient and outpatient therapy, I returned to work and even began mountain biking as part of my recovery. There’s nothing like wearing yourself out pushing a bike pedal for hours to make you feel alive.

I spent a decade trying to write my story by pursuing a modeling career in Atlanta. Then, one night on the set of a popular dance movie I was an extra in, the writing bug bit me again.

I wanted to write again, I wanted to tell a more encouraging story. I wanted to tell people about the things I’ve seen God do in my life.

So, I wrote my first screenplay and it won awards. And my desire to write grew more. But I had a problem. My brain injury kept me from being able to type without hurting my hands.

So I prayed for help and got it. I learned that Georgia had a trust fund for people with brain injuries like me. I was awarded grants to pay for speech dictation software to help me write.

I was also awarded grants to take writing classes from Christian professional writers. And I was encouraged to write a book, and then another and still more.

Sure, I’m no big-name rock star writer and there have been plenty of people look down on me because my story doesn’t look like theirs, but that’s what makes it my story.

I was recently reminded by a fellow writer, “Keep in mind that if God is calling you to write, then you only need to do your part and write the book(s) He gives you to write out of obedience. He can make a way for publication in His timing and in His perfect plan!”

God is using my story to write His story.

History?

Now that I look back to my childhood, I can clearly see where God was giving me a story to write and making a way for me to do it. At this point I’m not sure where the climax is or how it ends, but I know it must be written, it’s part of history.

Years ago, when I volunteered in men’s ministry for Promise Keepers I heard, “God doesn’t use the able, He uses the available.”

Dr. Henry Blackaby says it best, “Will God ever ask you to do something you are not able to do? The answer is yes—all the time! It must be that way, for God’s glory and kingdom. If we function according to our ability alone, we get the glory; if we function according to the power of the Spirit within us, God gets the glory. He wants to reveal Himself to a watching world.” So here I am.

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Truamatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at https://spiritualperspectivesofdasingleguy.blogspot.com/ and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mtjohnson51.

Categories
Guest Posts

Word Play A Right Smart of Work by Diana C. Derringer

Many people have never heard the expression a right smart. It has nothing to do with how smart a person is. Rather, it means a large amount.

If I own a right smart of something, I own a lot.

I have a right smart of:

  • Cousins (I love them all.)
  • International friends (I love all of them too.)
  • Allergies (I don’t love them and wish they would go away.)

 If I give a right smart, I give a lot:

  • Hugs to people who visit my home
  • Children’s books to new parents
  • Gifts to organizations that help people in need

Writing requires a right smart of work.

  • Research: I must read and meet publishers’ guidelines. That means I stay within the stated word count and offer only the rights the publishers accept. For religious publications, I check denominational taboos and preferred Bible translations. Otherwise, my manuscript ends up in a rejection stack, replaced by ones tailored to the editor’s expectations.
  • Writing and Rewriting: Writing is fun. Rewriting, not so much. When words first flow, I don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, sentence length, or word count. Like floating down a river on a clear summer day, I enjoy the ride. Rewriting means I check my float for leaks, mildew, and unwanted critters on board. Have I left out significant information? Does my grammar and punctuation stink? Have I rid the manuscript of unnecessary words? If I fail to fix my problems, I may not be invited for another ride.

Writing also provides a right smart of rewards.

  • Release: Writing allows a time of respite from the struggles of daily life. Immersed in the process of stringing all those words together, the rest of the world floats away. Respite comes from writing about difficult life experiences as well. Putting the past on paper offers a therapeutic release from the past’s control.
  • Resources: Although few writers become wealthy, pay can be significant. Taking those checks to the bank or seeing amounts appear on account statements provides both financial and emotional pick-me-ups.
  • Recognition: I might as well admit it. I like to see my name in print. I know God supplies every gift, and God deserves all credit. Nevertheless, an occasional pat on the back feels good.
  • Reminder: I enjoy the privilege of giving others a bit of spiritual insight, a nugget of truth, a moment of laughter, joy for their journey, a reminder they’re not alone in this often lonely world.

A right smart of work yields a right smart of rewards.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters” (Colossians 3:23 NIV).

Diana Derringer is an award-winning writer and author of Beyond Bethlehem and Calvary: 12 Dramas for Christmas, Easter, and More! Hundreds of her articles, devotions, dramas, planning guides, Bible studies, and poems appear in 40-plus publications, including The Upper Room, The Christian Communicator, Clubhouse, Kentucky Monthly, Seek, and Missions Mosaic, plus several anthologies. She also writes radio drama for Christ to the World Ministries. Her adventures as a social worker, adjunct professor, youth Sunday school teacher, and friendship family for international university students supply a constant flow of writing ideas. Visit her at dianaderringer.com.

 

Categories
Copywrite/Advertising

Seven Steps to Get Started or Get Better At Copywriting by Holland Webb

This month marks my one-year anniversary as the copywriting guy on Almost An Author. Have I convinced you yet that writing for business is the way to go? If not, go back and read any of my 13 articles on this subject. I’ll wait for you.

But if this is the year you’re going to earn cash with your wordsmithery skills, here are seven quick steps to get you started.

  1. Make it your habit to work with, not against the client. This tip comes from my friend, former editor, and now novelist Emily Golus. She says, “Your client may not have a way with words or understand advertising, but they DO know their business. Pay attention to nuances that reveal what matters to them. For example, your client may sell widgets, but it’s clear their real passion is helping people save money. Build content around that–it’s advertising gold, and the client will love it.”
  2. Don’t try to be too clever. Writing teachers emphasize creating a powerful hook. So you should. But resist the temptation to fill the page with witty prose. Why? Witty prose is all about how smart you sound as the writer. But copywriting isn’t about you. It’s about your reader. Easy-to-read text filled with helpful information turns readers into buyers.
  3. Learn to do fast and accurate research that helps your client. Remember your client’s goal: to earn the reader’s trust and their business. Smart, spot-on, and simple information does that. Don’t embarrass your client by putting fake news on their site. Instead, make sure your sources are solid. Try to find academic journals, major publications like the New York Times, or even source links on a Wikipedia page. Avoid weird sites or information you can’t corroborate with data from at least three separate sources. In general, websites ending in .org, .gov or .edu are more credible than those ending in .com or .net.
  4. Start with who you know. This tip comes from friend and fellow Almost An Author writer Rachel Schmoyer. She says, “Ask a friend or business you know well if you can write for them. You may not even get paid for the first thing you write, but you need something to put on a resume and get experience. My first experience was for a farmer I know. I wrote a weekly email in exchange for bread and eggs!”
  5. Study the basics of SEO. The acronym SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s the way to draw the right traffic to your site by using keywords that search engine bots can understand and use to index the page correctly. By saying learn SEO, I don’t mean you have to outsmart Google. In fact, it’s foolish to try. But you can use basic tools like Moz to search for quality keyword phrases to build your content around, and you can learn to make backlinks work to your client’s advantage.
  6. Speak your client’s language fluently. Spend time listening to your client. Write down exactly what they say. Clean it up, position it positively, and make it fit the audience. Hand it back to your client. Listen to them exclaim about how smart they sound.
  7. Proofread like your life depends on it. I’ve heard all the excuses: Breaking the odd grammatical rule on purpose can add great effect to your piece. Grammar changes. No one knows if that comma goes there or not. People don’t buy your product because you dotted every “i” and crossed every “t.” I know. I agree. But still spell your words correctly. Remove extraneous verbiage. Punctuate sentences with the right dots and dashes in the right places. And please, oh please, fix your misplaced modifiers. HemingwayApp and ProWritingAid are two of my favorite online tools for cleaning up my writing. You can use them or find other sources that work for you. Remember that basic proofreading will go a long way toward helping you land and keep clients that can pay you for your hard work.

If you want to get started as a copywriter or make the leap to doing this full time, use the seven steps above to get you going. Copywriting is worth the work. I pinky swear it.

BIO

Holland Webb is a full-time freelance copywriter and digital marketing strategist living near Greenville, SC. His clients are leaders in the online retail, higher education, and faith-based sectors. Holland has written for brands such as U.S. News & World Report, iLendX, Radisson, Country Inn & Suites, MediaFusion, Modkat, Great Bay Home, IMPACT Water, and BioNetwork. He is a featured writer on Compose.ly, and his monthly copywriting column appears on Almost An Author. You can reach him at www.hollandwebb.com or at hollandlylewebb@gmail.com.

 

Categories
The Picky Pen

Editing the Scene by Tisha Martin

When I first started writing back in the dark ages, my scenes were terrible. I didn’t have anything for my readers to look at.

No alluring sunset that reminded the reader of a mixed bag of Starburst, no grassy knoll within the confines of a wooden fence, and certainly no Paint horses with ears pricked forward in earnestness at what they saw.

Setting the scene for your writing requires more than asking six general journalism questions (5 W’s and H).

Accurately setting the scene requires three things:

  1. Try to Visit the Area You’re Writing About

If you’re writing about a space abduction, then obviously you are free to use your imagination. But if you’re writing historical or contemporary fiction or memoirs, then accuracy is key. Perhaps you may need to visit the location or setting you’re writing about in your story.

A few years ago, I wrote a short story that finaled in a college commencement contest. In “Puddle of Remorse,” a WWII story set on the American home front, my character was going through the process of canning tomatoes in her farmhouse kitchen. Since I grew up on a farm and canned salsa every summer, I knew the surroundings for the setting I was describing. And for the contest, I scored huge points in the accuracy department because I was familiar with the scene’s surroundings and the location.

The scenes I’m working on now requires much more research because I am not familiar with the location, a polio ward in a hospital in 1943. There’s a trip to my computer desk to search Pinterest and Google for images that suit my setting. Youtube is also a great resource if you’re not able to travel, or if you need visual research for historical details, settings, and places.

What’s even better than Pinterest and Google are the Historical Societies in the area you’re writing about. I contacted my local Historical Society and in just a few questions, I gathered way more information than I needed (which, by the way, is also perfect for future author interviews, blog posts, and making connections with readers who love those little details you had to leave out in your story).

  1. Talk to the Locals

Sometimes a quick chat with a local can lead to a lot of helpful information. As writers, it may be out-of-character to step out of the introvert zone and ask a question or start a conversation, but if you take a deep breath and do it, you’ll find it super rewarding. All it takes is walking up to a local, asking one question, and letting them talk the rest of the time! (I’ve had it happen!)

People like to talk about what they know, and it’s so much fun to listen.

For my hospital scene, I took a trip to Facebook and jumped on the post-polio group that I belong to and asked a bunch of questions. Pleasantly, I received a lot of helpful and detailed information for what I’m trying to describe. And, I’m thoroughly excited for the scenes I have the privilege of rewriting!

  1. Take Photos of Everything

Even if you don’t like to take pictures—which I can’t imagine writers not liking—bring your camera anyway. You never know what you might find that will help give you a visual image of what you’re writing about. (A specific chair that you want to incorporate into the kitchen, or a restaurant that has the perfect table setting for your character’s first date.) And you can even print out the photo and prop it up at your computer desk for inspiration.

Also, if you have access to grandpa’s or grandma’s family photos, this is gold for you. I have a few photos from my heritage, and I love squinting at the black-and-white photos to get a taste for how to describe what my Great Aunt Icy (yes, that was her name) wore, or how to describe Great Uncle Oscar’s horse racing cart. Tangible is always good. Pinterest is also another great resource—you can become a digital hoarder of so many photos and no one will ever know. (I have a few boards of my own. . .)

Over the years I’ve learned a few things about setting each of my scenes. However, I am not a perfect writer and must go back and edit to make sure each chapter begins with my main character and describes what she sees, and that gives readers something with which to resonate with and enjoy.

So, pull up your current trouble-child scene in Word or whatever platform you use, and happy scene writing and making every scene well worth the reader’s and character’s journey.

Discussion: How do you start your story scenes?

Owner of TM Editorial, Tisha Martin specializes in historical fiction, academic editing, and creative nonfiction. An active member of American Christian Fiction Writers and The Christian PEN, she appreciates the writing and editing communities. By being a writer and an editor, she’s tickled to have the best of both worlds. Tisha is editor and proofreader for beginning and best-selling writers, professional editing agencies, and publishing houses. As Assistant Director of PENCON, a conference for editors, she enjoys organizing the conference, networking, and sharing news on PENCON’s Facebook Page. Connect with Tisha on Facebook, Instagram, or follow her Pinterest board for writers and editors.

Categories
Novelists Unwind

Novelists Unwind by Johnnie Alexander

Jane M. Tucker & Family Charm

Genre: Historical Fiction

 

The charm and fascination of her husband’s large family inspired Jane M. Tucker as she imagined the series that begins with Lottie’s Gift.

An Iowa farm,

Family reunions.

A gazillion aunts (LOL!)

All these went into the “idea hopper.”

[bctt tweet=”Join Jane M. Tucker on #NovelistsUnwind @JaneMTuckerAuth #ChristFic” username=”@A3Authors @JaneMTuckerAuth”]

In our interview, we also talk about the dynamic between sisters, the publisher’s suggestion that made Jane laugh, and the Great River Road.

Connect with Jane on her website, Postcards from the Heartland, or on Facebook.

Purchase Links: Lottie’s Gift and Lottie’s Hope

Lottie’s Gift

Despite the Great Depression, Lottie Braun enjoyed a happy childhood in rural Iowa. Her mother had died, but her father and sister, her aunts, uncles and cousins surrounded her with their love. But her quiet, idyllic life ended with tragedy, and a secret that tore the two sisters apart.

Forty years later, Lottie is a world-class pianist with a celebrated career, but an empty personal life. She moves from city to city, guarding her privacy with fierce vigilance, all to protect herself from the past.

One sleepless night Lottie lets herself remember, but she discovers that memories, once allowed, are difficult to suppress. Can she make peace with the past? And will she ever find her way home?

Lottie’s Hope

After forty years as a world class musician, Lottie has come home to Iowa, where a lovely old house and a new job await. Grateful for this fresh start, she sets out to show the town of Collison that there’s an approachable side to The Great Lottie Braun.

Nobody thinks she’ll stay: Not the surly young neighbor whose garage band plays late into the night. Not the stoic contractor who agrees to build Lottie a music room. Certainly not Lottie’s angry niece, who refuses to move her belongings out of the house.

Lottie is determined to prove them all wrong—and then the trouble starts. At first she shrugs off the incidents as random petty crimes, but as they increase in intensity, she must face the fact that someone wants her gone for good.

Can Lottie sort her friends from her enemies before it’s too late?

Your Novelists Unwind host:

Best-selling author Johnnie Alexander imagines heart-tugging stories in multiple genres. Her debut novel, Where Treasure Hides, has been translated into Dutch and Norwegian. She also wrote the Misty Willow Series: Where She Belongs, When Hope Arrives, and What Hope Remembers. Since Johnnie loves to talk about writing, she interviews inspirational authors for Novelists Unwind, co-hosts a weekly online show, Writers Chat, and teaches at writers conferences and on Serious Writer Academy. Johnnie recently moved to Oklahoma with Griff, her happy-go-lucky collie, and Rugby, her raccoon-treeing papillon. Connect with Johnnie on her website or her Facebook Author Page.

Categories
Blogging Basics

Why Should An Author Start A Blog? by Evelyn Mann

Reasons Why Writers/Authors Don’t Start A Blog

Perhaps a friend has suggested you should start a blog, and you reply:

  • I don’t have time.
  • The time I do have, I want to be writing my work in progress.
  • I wouldn’t know what to write.
  • I don’t know how.

Should an Author Blog6 Reasons An Author Should Consider Blogging

These are valid reasons. But, perhaps the better question is why should you, as an author, consider blogging?

  • Potential agent/publisher. From reading your blog, an agent or publisher can discover everything from your writing style to your dedication and commitment to diligently produce a body of work. These traits show you have the fortitude and follow through to produce a completed book. The blog also shows you are able to complete self-imposed deadlines. Think of a blog as a part of your writing resume.
  • Building a platform. When submitting your work for publication, agents and publishers want to know you already have readers in place willing to buy your book. But, what if you don’t have a completed book yet? Start a blog. Get a following. If you haven’t heard the word “Platform” yet, I highly recommend a book of the same name by Michael Hyatt. He shares many ways to build a platform.
  • Create content for your readers, even before you publish. What do you write? How do you draw your readers to, well, read? Look at the themes or topics your book shares with your readers. Then write about those themes. If you write romance, share how your grandparents met. If you write about mystery, tell your potential reader about your favorite Agatha Christie novel or how Perry Mason captivated you and why. Creating this content will not only allow your readers to get to know you, but they will get used to your writing style and hopefully want to read more.
  • Sales funnel. Once your book is published, you can broadcast your first novel on your blog. Provide a sales page to purchase your novel or add your Amazon link in a blog post. Your blog/website can also share your availability to speak, providing yet another revenue stream.
  • Posting a blog on social media lends credibility. When you post your blog on Facebook, the box surrounding the blog title and featured image appears. This not only looks professional but news worthy. You are not a news outlet, but may look like one. This lends credibility to your blog rather than just typing a post with text only.
  • You can get discovered. In late 2016, I received an email asking about my son’s lethal form of dwarfism. The email was from the producers at The Learning Channel. They wanted to feature my son on one of their programs. When I asked how they heard about my son, I was told they found me via my blog. The producers, located in England, searched on the internet and found my blog. The SEO, the blog writing and my website combined to peak the interest of TLC. Now my son’s story is broadcast in the U.S. and worldwide. All from someone seeing my blog.

Many authors recommend a blog as a means to gain an audience and future readers of your book.

“…I think blogging is an author’s best marketing tool.” Anne R. Allen, Author of eight comic mysteries.

“The more time you spend blogging, the more value you build for your readers over time and the more they find you. Your efforts snowball.” Jane Friedman, columnist for Publishers Weekly and author of The Business of Being a Writer.

Molly Wizenburg’s popular food blog, Orangette, was a platform that helped her sell her first book, A Homemade Life, to a publisher because she had a large readership.

Are you convinced to start blogging and add this medium to your author platform? If you were like me, you don’t know where to start or what to do after you created compelling and exciting content to share with the world. I had no one to show me the how to master the art of being a blogger.

I remember thinking, “I wish I had someone to take my hand and show me how to blog.” (Twitter Quote)

That is the heart of this column. To take your hand, month by month, and give you tips and tools you can use. If today’s column has inspired you to start your author blogging journey, post your comment below. I read each one.

 

Evelyn Mann is the author of Miracle In My Living Room: The Story of a Little Mann and the popular blog, www.miraclemann.com/blog. Her son’s story of survival from a lethal form of dwarfism has been featured on The Learning Channel, Christian Television Network, WFLA Channel 8, and has been seen 2.5M times on Special Books by Special Kids. She enjoys giving her son lots of hugs, a hot cup of organic tea, and shrimp sushi.

Categories
Romancing Your Story

Crafting the Hero––Part II by Donna L.H. Smith

[bctt tweet=”Judah is going to be the man for Tovah. A romantic hero should be handsome and strong, sweet and sensitive, equal to the heroine with a sense of humor. #amwriting #RomancingYourStory #AlmostAnAuthor #CraftingTheHero” username=”@A3Authors @donnalhsmith”]

You’ve heard that opposites attract. Let’s list Tovah’s personality characteristics, then see how we can match Judah, our hero, up on the opposite side.

Tovah

Personality: Rejection, stutters when she gets nervous. Kind of shy, yet when she’s comfortable around someone, she can be witty and happy-go-lucky. She’s considerate and kind, but she’s got a temper, too.

Appearance: flowing light chestnut hair with great styling body. Her eyes are dark and beautiful, lips the perfect proportion.

Judah

Personality: Outgoing and friendly. Our hero be able to draw Tovah out of her shell. He’s somewhat laid back, which will help cool her off when she loses her temper. He’s self-confident, which will help her overcome her nervousness, and eventually, her stutter.

Appearance: Dark, curly hair, almost black, and lots of it. As a descendant of the house of David, he inherited the thick, heavy hair that Absalom had. He keeps it relatively short, but in attractive curls all over his head. His eyes are blue, a deep, sapphire blue, and penetrates and pierces her heart.

We’re setting up for conflict, sparks flying, and romantic respect between our two protagonists. There are always two in a romance. There can be three to begin with, until one is eliminated. I did that in my debut novel, Meghan’s Choice, a historical romance western available on Amazon.

Next time, we’ll get to some flaws for both characters. Opposite isn’t quite enough. They need conflict, romantic tension, and weakness.

[bctt tweet=”The romantic hero is always equal to the heroine—whether trading verbal barbs or enjoying a quiet meal. They’re a match, able to go through life together. #amwriting #RomancingYourStory #AlmostAnAuthor #CraftingTheRomanticHero” username=”@a3Authors @donnalhsmith”]

BIO

Donna L.H. Smith is a Kansas prairie girl transplanted to Lancaster County, PA. She is a graduate of Christian Writer’s Guild Craftsman program and holds a B.S. in Telecommunications (broadcasting) from Oral Roberts University and a M.A. in Mass Communication from Wichita State University. She’s been married to a wonderful man named Kirby for thirty years. No children, but a dog and her Mom over an eleven-year period.

She’s been a freelance journalist, and a radio reporter. Now, she blogs, speaks at workshops and retreats and although she is at an age where many begin slowing down, she wouldn’t think of it. She serves as Assistant Managing Editor for Almost an Author.com, and is Mid-Atlantic Zone Director of American Christian Fiction Writers. Other memberships include is also a member of the Protégé program of Advanced Writers & Speaker’s Association and Romance Writers of America’s Faith, Hope, & Love chapter. You can find her at her website, www.donnalhsmith.com, Facebook, and on Twitter as @donnalhsmith.

Categories
Child's Craft

Crafting Characters Readers Will Love Part 1 by Jean Hall

According to Elaine Marie Alphin (Creating Characters Kids Will Love p. 2)

“Kids read because a magical closeness springs up between them and the characters in books and stories—the same magical closeness I felt as a child. They read because a writer has brought a character to life on the page for them.”

Every great children’s story pivots around a character who has a problem, a desire or a need. Through the events and conflicts of the story this character, by personal investment and volition, solves that problem, gains that desire (or loses it) or meets that need. In doing so, that character changes, grows or learns something.

Here we have the elements that define “story.”

A memorable character

A problem or need

Crises that compel the character to make choices and to act

Resolution of the problem or need

Change and growth in the character

Every element involves the main character. That’s why we must create characters that kids love and admire, or like and root for, or detest and enjoy their demise.

So, how do we do that?

Here’s my take.

For me, every story begins with the main character. I’ll be thinking “what ifs” and a character will parachute into my head. This usually gets me pretty excited! I get a rough idea of what’s going to happen to this character and how they are going to react.

Next, I get to know that character really well. Some people fill out complicated character charts or profiles, some sketch pictures of the character. Some writers find a magazine image that looks like their character and post it above their desk or on their desktop. I chat with my character in my head. I get an image of the character physically. Then I hear them talk. I imagine their home, their parents, their friends. I imagine what the kid likes and hates. What kind of personality do they have? I guess I’m creating my own character profile—just not in print. Each of us as writers has to get that character fully imagined in our own heads before we start putting them into a story. We have to get to know that character inside and out.

As I write the first few drafts of the story I fine-tune my character’s actions and reactions. I refer to experts for this like PscheWriter and The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi.

I also try to keep the following in mind as I develop the characters. In Part 2 of this post I’ll expand on this list.

  • Is this really how a kid this age would think? Talk? Act? If not, fix it.
  • Is this really how a kid would react in this type of situation?
  • Does this character have flaws?
  • Does this bad guy have at least one redeeming trait? How else will we love to hate them?
  • Have I created enough CONFLICT in this kid’s life or situation?
  • Have I created a character readers can feel for? Connect with?
  • Is this character bigger-than-life? EXAGGERATION well done makes readers laugh, cry and shriek with your character.
  • Do I SHOW how the character thinks? Acts? Feels? Speaks?
  • Are each of my characters distinctive?
  • Does my main character have one primary trait that the story focuses on?
  • Have I built motivation into this character? Is their need, desire or problem big enough to push them through the story?

Then, I put my character to the test by getting feedback from other writers, and sometimes, readers. They always help me smooth out the wrinkles. Or, sometimes, create more!

Please join me next month for a lot more detail about these bullet points.

Just Wondering…

How do YOU create memorable characters?

Need a little free advice about one of your characters?

Just leave a comment and I’ll respond with great joy!

Scroll to the top of the page and click on CRAFT, then CHARACTER to find other helpful A3 blog posts about creating characters.

 

BIO

Jean Hall lives in Louisville, Kentucky. She is represented by Cyle Young of Hartline Literary. Her premier picture book Four Seasons series was recently signed by Little Lamb Books. Jean is a member of the SCBWI, Word Weavers International, and the Kentucky Christian Writers. Visit Jean at www.jeanmatthewhall.com, on Face Book at Jean Matthew Hall, and on Twitter as @Jean_Hall.

Categories
Mastering Middle Grade

The Time is Now By Kell McKinney

I had grand aspirations for this month’s post, involving a poll, some original photography and maybe even a snappy headline and subhead. Yes indeed. Grand aspirations.

But then the events in Parkland, Florida happened.  I’m going to be real with you here.  I confess that over the past couple of weeks, I’ve spent less time writing. Instead I’ve journaled, prayed, cried, scrolled, prayed again and journaled some more, trying to process this tragedy. As we weep with those who are weeping, we empathize with those who lost loved ones.

My son is approaching high school age. He went through his first lockdown drill three days after Sandy Hook. He experienced an actual lockdown a year later, thanks to an armed robbery a quarter mile from his elementary school.

At the end of that lockdown, teachers released the kids to their parents one at a time, under the supervision of police officers.  We weren’t allowed to get out of our cars, so I white-knuckled the steering wheel and waited for my charge to appear in the doorway. When he did, he had the expression of a determined warrior, not the goofy child I’d dropped off that morning. He sprinted to the car, climbed in, hugged me and announced, “I had my first real lockdown today.” I pray that it remains his only real lockdown ever.

This is the world our kids are growing up in.

My intention isn’t to get political or overly personal.  The point I’m trying to make is this: Kids need to be equipped to deal with the realities of life and stories – the ones we tell – can help them do that.

As writers, we have an enormous responsibility to the children for whom we write. We owe them not just a feel-good snapshot of the world, but a truthful one – one that isn’t necessarily easy, because we aren’t promised a life without trouble, and we must learn how to cope with that.  One way kids learn how to cope with challenges is through identification with characters in stories.

My prayer for all of us writing for middle grade readers (as well as younger kids and young adults) is that we use our voices stories to reach minds and hearts and point them toward grace, truth, and hope. I pray that our gifts of imagination and creativity speak into our young readers and lead them toward the One who created them. There’s no better time than now to plant seeds of peace and understanding.

Kell McKinney earned a B.A. in journalism from the University of Oklahoma and an M.S. in documentary studies from the University of North Texas. She’s a part-time copywriter, double-time mom and wife, and spends every free minute writing and/or hunting for her car keys. Connect with her on Twitter @Kell_McK or kellmckinney.com.

Categories
Magazine and Freelance

How to Give Editors What They Want by W. Terry Whalin

When the slick full-color magazines arrive in your home, many writers would like to write for those magazines and get published. But then a number of objections are raised in their minds like “it’s really hard to get into this publication.” Or “the editor probably already has their stable of regular contributors.”

From my many years as a magazine editor and writing for different publications, I know these objections are not true. In this article, I want to help you understand the needs of the magazine editor and how to write what they need for their publication.

  1. Editors Need Writers. Every magazine editor starts their issue with a blank slate then they fill that issue with quality writing targeted to their particular audience. While you should be encouraged that editors need you, they are also looking for a particular type of writer—someone who understands their audience and can produce excellent writing.
  2. Excellent Writing Is Required. What qualifies as excellent writing? Admittedly this qualification is subjective but excellent writing has patterns and standards that every writer can learn and apply to their own writing. For example, tvery story needs an interesting headline, an intriguing first sentence and first paragraph to draw the reader into the writing. Also the story must have a solid and logical flow or a beginning, middle and ending. The story must also have a single point for the reader which in the magazine world is called a takeaway. If your article doesn’t have this takeaway, show it to someone else and ask them if they got the point of the article. If they did not get it, then you need to rewrite your article until it is there.
  3. Study the publication and their guidelines. It seems simple and obvious that writers need to read the publication before submission. Too often writers will fire off their submission without covering this basic territory—and it is critical. As you read the publication in print or online, think about who is their audience and readers? What is the style of the various articles, length and shape of them? Is your submission similar? It should be. Then locate their submission guidelines and read this information. These guidelines tell you what the editor needs. Are you meeting one of their explicit needs in your submission? If so, you are increasing the possibility of getting published in this magazine.

To get your writing into a magazine, takes planning, thought and finally action. It doesn’t happen just “thinking about submitting your article.” You must take action—even if you get rejected. You need to keep trying to find the right place for your material to be published. Whether you are beginning or continuing to be published in magazines, write your article, then send it into the world. It’s the only way it happens.

________________________________________

Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing, lives in Colorado. A former magazine editor, Whalin has written for more than 50 publications including Christianity Today and Writer’s Digest. Terry is the author of How to Succeed As An Article Writer which you can get at: http://writeamagazinearticle.com/. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. His latest book is Billy Graham, A Biography of America’s Greatest Evangelist and the book website is at: http://BillyGrahamBio.com Watch the short book trailer for Billy Graham at: http://bit.ly/BillyGrahamBT His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com. Follow him on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/terrywhalin

Categories
Guest Posts

Using Ancestors’ Stories in Fiction By Ora Smith

Just how far back into your past can you reach to find new ideas for writing? Family history (genealogy) is the second most popular hobby in America, making it easy to find information online. Have you ever considered using stories or unusual events that happened in your ancestors’ lives in your novel? As writers, we must always be willing to look for new and creative concepts. When writing fiction about ancestors, you can balance facts with imagination.

Learning about your ancestors can be a treasure trove for character building, plotting, settings, and so much more. One of the most famous examples of an author using his progenitors in a novel would be Alex Haley when he wrote Roots. But did you know Nathaniel Hawthorne loosely based The Scarlet Letter on his strict Puritan ancestors? Or that Emily Bronte in the gothic novel, Wuthering Heights, based the unusual and imbalanced character of Heathcliff from an ancestor?

Our ancestors’ stories often hold potential for great plot lines. You can write their stories as historical fiction, or bring their experiences forward into contemporary times or even the future. It’s possible the struggles your progenitors experienced on the Oregon Trail or settling a new land may be the very same experiences a colony in space may come up against. If you’re an American, then its more than likely you have immigrant ancestors. Often their stories are full of learning, strife, hate, fear, and misunderstandings from both the country they left and the one they settled. Assimilation is usually not easy. Finding the motivation behind these issues might be where a story lies.

You can find ideas on how to create well-rounded and interesting characters from people in your family tree. Experiences, hardships, and relationships make us different from one another. Rarely are people all-good or all-evil. Create fully dimensional villains by thinking of the worst person in your family then round them out with at least one redeeming quality. People are always more complex than they seem, as your characters should be. From one of my ancestors I formed a character who steals from his mother, lies without hesitation, has alcohol and drug abuse issues, and has spent time in prison for crimes you shouldn’t speak of in polite society. Yet, he’s partially redeemed by his sensitivity and the memories of his family he holds close to his heart.

People’s life experiences shape them. Find out social, economic, religious, and political backgrounds. Did they grow up in a big family, or were they an only child? How much education did they receive and was it traditional? Were they illiterate? Did they love the earth and farm the land? Did the family carry traits from their homeland brought to the country of immigration? Did their name spelling change? Did they have to learn a new language?

Interviewing the oldest living relatives in your family is a good place to start. Ask what they remember about their parents and grandparents. Writing about family members means researching clues to figure out what kind of life they led, who they loved, how they loved, and what they did with their lives.

To find your ancestors, you could use family history websites such as ancestry.com, chroniclingamerica.com, cyndislist.com, and archives.com. Some of these websites can help you track down living descendants of your ancestor’s siblings. It’s a great way to find photos because people usually didn’t keep their own portraits, but gave them away to family members. A face is worth a thousand words—let your imagination go wild and write those thousand words from your ancestor’s likeness.

Old census records can be valuable information for how many were in a family and what their occupations were. And it’s amazing what can be found in a courthouse. They hold records of births, marriages, deaths, and so much more. Court records can help you find drama about relatives who were criminals, but also those who were victims. Land records could demonstrate an ancestor’s lifestyle and wealth. Perhaps they didn’t own land, but instead followed the migration to uncharted territories of the Wild West.

Researching and writing about your ancestors can help you come to respect them for who they were and the paths they chose. In knowing who your ancestors were and writing about them, you can shed light on their adversities giving their experiences significance and perhaps new insight. Transform them into characters that suit the needs of your story. You could even write yourself as a fictional character searching for his or her past and unlocking family secrets. Don’t forget to leave room for your imagination to take your readers to new and interesting places.

Bio

For more than twenty years Ora Smith has taught family history classes at conferences and given individual instruction. She received her Master of Arts in Nonfiction Creative Writing at Wilkes University. She also writes fiction and recently won the 2017 Phoenix Rattlers contest for historical fiction. You can connect with her through her blog Writing About Ancestors, Facebook, Twitter

 

Categories
Fantasy-Sci-Fi

The Secret of Your Success by Laura L. Zimmerman

Success.

For writers this word can mean different things. One author may feel success has been achieved once their first book is in print. Another may decide it is only once a certain award has been attained.

Because success is subjective, it can reflect different values within each of us. However, the pitfalls of these ideals are that our perceptions of success can change over time to the point that we are never satisfied with our achievements. This can be particularly difficult for fantasy and sci-fi writers because it is becoming more difficult to sell these genres within the Christian market. If we continue to put our value on our work being published or the accolades it receives, we may never feel we’ve reached true success.

As Christian writers, we have the ability to use a different measuring stick. Instead of applying external measures to guide our definition of success, we can focus on how God measures it. Many authors of faith would say they write because they feel that God has given them the words to write. If you choose to change your idea of what success is, then you may be able to avoid those times of frustration.

Celebrate success each time you complete a short story or a magazine article. Reward yourself for every story you complete—whether it’s for a contest or when you finish that full-length novel. Instead of celebrating years down the road when your work is published, choose to celebrate accomplishment in the moment. This gives you the chance to see success every single day or several times per week! God wants to see his children celebrating the words He has given us to write.

There is no need for external measures of success when you write with God.

The book industry can sometimes feel like a roller coaster ride, and it’s changing every year. The idea that it is harder for fantasy and sci-fi authors to get their work published can be a daunting task. But changing your perspective on how you write just might be the answer to the success of your writing, and the encouragement needed to continue to write with God.

Laura L. Zimmerman is a homeschooling mama to three daughters and a doting wife to one husband. Besides writing, she is passionate about loving Jesus, singing, drinking coffee and anything Star Wars. You can connect with her through Facebook and Twitter @lauralzimm and at her website Caffeinated Fiction at www.lauralzimmerman.com

Categories
Literary Women in Histor

Keen Eyes, Core Values, and Jane Austen’s Pen by Kathryn Ross

It is only a novel . . . or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humor are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language.

Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey

Jane Austen, not yet twenty years of age in the late 18th century, penned the novel, Northanger Abbey. The story explored how easily a young mind can be filled with nonsense and ignoble values through the reading of sensationalistic novels. Void of true substance and moral life values, books and stories like this have always been with us. Jane read them—pop literature—and learned early the emptiness of such works. Northanger Abbey’s heroine, Catherine Moreland, walks out in fiction the non-fiction life lessons Jane discovered in her youth regarding the power and value of literature in forming the mind and character.

Jane’s keen eye to identify the noble and ridiculous in her sphere of society and the culture of her day was a foundational asset to her writing life, and the ultimate contribution she made to classic literature. How was she groomed to hold this esteemed place among women writers in the world of Western prose?

Born in 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire in the English countryside, her lively Christian home of six brothers and one older sister filled her youth with creative stimulation and activity. Informed by academic and biblical faith habits, honed under the tutelage of her father, the parish rector of Steventon and headmaster of a boys school, her gifts for clever insight, wit, and writing were enjoyed and encouraged by her family. Many a night found them gathered to hear her read from one of her essays or short stories, sparking approving laughter and engaging conversation.

Eventually, with the aid of her older brother Henry, her novel, Sense and Sensibility, was published under an anonymous byline to national acclaim. Pride and Prejudice followed, surpassing S&S as her most famous work.

In her short life, Jane left six complete novels and was eleven chapters into her final work at the time of her death at age 42 in 1817. Modern doctors, reviewing the scant clues in her letters and journals detailing the symptoms of her debilitating illness have pointed to Addison’s disease as the culprit. Even so, the legacy of her small body of work to contemporary women writers is easy to distill into a handful of tips. The above quote from Northanger Abbey lays the foundation of her work and best practices for writers today:

  • Greatest Powers of the Mind Displayed: Write intelligent, truthful words, telling stories well layered in depth and substance.
  • Thorough Knowledge of Human Nature: Study the underlying truth in people, the inward workings of the human heart, and the effects and consequences of choices in life.
  • Happiest Delineation of Its [human nature] Varieties: Celebrate the most noble core values in humanity that are good, true, and worthy to be praised and imitated.
  • Liveliest Effusions of Wit and Humor: Use winsome words to craft entertaining scenes and engaging characters that compellingly illustrate truth.
  • Best-Chosen Language: Employ proper technical language skills with a rich vocabulary and word usage.

This tip list was employed in every one of Jane’s classic novels, which also included Emma, Mansfield Park, and Persuasion. Each one gave us a host of memorable, complex characters, timeless storylines involving family relationships and the quest for true love, and idyllic country settings providing an escape and refreshment to mind and heart.

But the most captivating aspect of Jane’s writing for me as a reader and writer, is her ability to present the working out of biblical truth and principles within real life scenes, characters, and plot elements. Without the need to preach, Jane’s works teach God’s Word in her illustrations of life and living within the constraints of her era and society. When I read an Austen novel, I easily recognize Scriptures coming to life through the life of the story. Sticky stories—that entertain and educate me in the way of truth.

 It is one of life’s great pleasures to finish a book and feel the satisfaction of not only having read a well-crafted story, but of learning a valuable life lesson about God and human nature.

Steffany Woolsey
A Jane Austen Devotional

 Imagine my delight when I came into possession of A Jane Austen Devotional, by Steffany Woolsey. Ms. Woolsey saw in Jane’s work what had always inspired me, both as a Christian and a writer: Jane Austen’s Christian faith core values were the compass steering her stories and character development.

To that end, there are a host of examples to be gleaned from Jane’s novels that, when pondered, clearly illustrate biblical truth. Woolsey discusses this in the Introduction to her devotional:

Austen’s writing is newly illuminated when held up to Scripture. In probing her novels for biblical insights on living and loving, we are reminded of humanity’s innate desire for relationship with the Creator. Through Austen’s varied and colorful characters, we learn not only about true love but meaningful character. We strive for the humility, wisdom, wit, and grace of a Jane Austen protagonist while learning to recognize the superficial vanity and worldliness of so many other characters who concern themselves only with their own gain.

 Illustrations of the biblical principles of generosity, unconditional love, vanity, faithfulness appearing religious, kindness, contentment, endurance, self-control, setting emotional boundaries, disciplining children, hope in God, servanthood, wise counsel, jealousy, pure motives, tongue taming, noble actions, gossip, forgiveness, poor judgement, teachable spirit, repentance, and more—over a hundred in total—take the reader of this devotional to deeper places within familiar novels. Each devotional includes a theme title, Scripture, excerpt from one of the novels, and a short essay relating them.

Currently, reading comprehension levels in America are at an all-time low because the threshold for reading and literature is, I believe, set low. Literacy is more than just reading words and sentences. Literacy is being able to think critically about what has been read and relate it to the world around you. Reading deep requires approaching each book like a detective seeking clues to discover the hidden substance tucked between the lines, scenes, characters, and plot layers. As I set out upon the journey with the protagonist of a story, I want to grow with them. I want the time I invest in a story to move me closer to truth. God’s truth comprehended.

Jane Austen intuitively wrote her stories layered with eternal truths regarding the human heart. Her books aren’t listed in bookstores on the Christian fiction shelves. She didn’t write Christian fiction, manipulating a storyline to teach some sort of Bible lesson. She just wrote true to the biblical worldview within which she was raised, within the historical time, society, and culture she lived.

When we write what’s true to our core values, employing the highest levels of literary skill and storytelling prowess, like Jane Austen, our tales become pregnant with the potential of a timeless classic.

Explore the following journal prompts to discern the compass settings of your core values to better inform your writing:

Journal Prompt: What is the most important underlying principle that informs your thinking and writing—your worldview? List some of the core values in life that are most important to you. What kind of themes do these core values suggest for possible storytelling? How does keenly observing the inner and outer workings of the human heart affect your ability to create believable characters? If something is true—does that mean it is good? Why or why not? How does writing truth, be it good or evil, persuade the mind of others? What is the measure of truth, and judge of good and evil? Why is it necessary to have both represented in a story? How can you layer core value truths within a story using the tools of plot, setting, and characters?

TWEET: [bctt tweet=”#JaneAusten had a secret to writing timeless tales! How core values separate the chaff from the wheat in crafting stories that stick. ” username=”@A3Authors @misskathypwp”]

TWEET:[bctt tweet=”#Women Writers in Life and Letters—Keen Eyes, Core Values, and Jane Austen’s Pen ” username=”@A3Authors @misskathypwp”]

Reference: A Jane Austen Devotional, by Steffany Woolsey, © 2012 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Nashville, Tennessee, ARR

 

Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Productions and Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. Her passion is to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, producing readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.

 

 

 

 

Categories
Copywrite/Advertising

Sweet Talking Goliath – How to Write for Google, Facebook, and Amazon by Holland Webb

Global digital marketing is a $209-billion-dollar-a-year industry ruled by five titans – Google, Facebook, Amazon, Alibaba, and Baidu. Any business that markets products online needs to understand and work with one or more of these companies in order to win customers.

As a copywriter, your job is to write for your clients in ways that help them slip through the portals these five agencies have created.

How will you do that?

Let’s start with a quick look at each of these digital players:

  • Google is the world’s largest search engine by revenue. It processes 40,000 searches every second, and it owns YouTube – the world’s second largest search engine. Google knows what we want to know.
  • Facebook is the behemoth of social media. It has 2 billion active users and earns $27.6 billion in gross revenue per year. Facebook knows who we know and what we like.
  • Amazon controls the ecommerce market. About 55% of online shopping trips begin at Amazon (people skip Google altogether) and 45% of them end there. Amazon knows what we buy, what we wish we could buy, and what we buy for our friends.
  • Alibaba and Baidu are Chinese companies. If you do not write in Mandarin Chinese, they may not (yet) be relevant to you.

Companies need (and pay) writers who can craft reader-centered copy for each of these platforms.

Small business owners may feel like a rag tag band of soldiers facing five digital Goliaths. They don’t need to worry. You’re there to slay these giants not with smooth stones from a sling but with sweet words from your pen.

Any kind of writing for the internet means crafting a killer headline, using bolded subheadings, putting information into bullet points, providing helpful solutions to readers’ problems, verifying your research, and loving white space. Still, each company needs something slightly different.

How to write for Google. Start with specific, long-tailed keywords. Type your topic into an SEO helper like Moz. It will pull up popular articles and top-ranked keywords. Use these to start defining your article. Next, figure out the questions you want to answer. Some of that is common sense, which is not something you can find on the web. You can, however, use answerthepublic to enhance your ideas for questions. As more and more people use voice search on Google, including key questions in your text will bump you up the results pages.

Finally, write as geo-specific as possible. I just finished a series of articles for a marketing agency on Vancouver Island. They wanted each of the three closest towns mentioned in the article. Sophisticated companies can actually track readers on mobile, determine if they are near their store or a competitor’s location, and send the information or coupons based on their location in real time.

How to write for Facebook. Start with a simple question. Don’t be too esoteric. Facebook isn’t the place to dive deep into the netherworld of the reader’s psyche. Something catchy but short. Answer or expound on that question in a few well-chosen words. You can always offer a link to a longer article. Make sure whatever you say is credible and valuable to your reader. End with a clear, defined call to action. As with all copywriting, strive to be positive and upbeat.

How to write for Amazon. The most personal of the big agencies, Amazon anticipates customer needs and makes offers early. In Amazon’s case, personal means specific. Your titles need long tails showcasing the most relevant keywords first. Remember that Amazon’s buyers are purchase-ready, so they need to know that what your client offers is exactly what they want to buy.

After building your title, describe the product’s features and tell how it solves the customer’s problem. You don’t need to stuff your descriptions with keywords, but you do need to include specific, solution-focused search strings in your text.

Most of writing for Google, Facebook, and Amazon is about putting yourself in the reader’s place. What does your reader want to know? What problem are they trying to solve? Who are they trying to connect with? What do they want to buy?

Help them, and they’ll love your client for it.

Holland Webb is a full-time freelance copywriter and digital marketing strategist living near Greenville, SC. His clients are leaders in the online retail, higher education, and faith-based sectors. Holland has written for brands such as U.S. News & World Report, iLendX, Radisson, Country Inn & Suites, MediaFusion, Modkat, Great Bay Home, IMPACT Water, and BioNetwork. He is a featured writer on Compose.ly, and his monthly copywriting column appears on Almost An Author. You can reach him at www.hollandwebb.com or at hollandlylewebb@gmail.com.

Categories
Songwriting

Songwriting 101 by Matthew Hawk Eldridge

If you read my previous article, I hopefully convinced you to try songwriting. There are a few basics to help get you started, if you’ve never written a song before. I’ve met a few people who tell me, “I want to write a song, but I can’t carry a tune or play a musical instrument.” That’s okay. Your job isn’t to sing or create the melody. Leave that to the musicians. But you do need to understand timing and rhythmic patterns. If you are working with a musician, they can help you with this. Your job is to create powerful, unforgettable, believable, inspiring lyrics. Your instrument is the pen. The instrumentalists will put the paint on the musical canvas. Your words will make the musical painting come to life.

So how do you start? If you don’t have any musical background, this can often be the hardest part. Do you start with the words or the music? It’s the chicken and the egg syndrome. Sometimes I write the music first. Sometimes I have words I want to put to music. I have been in a number of bands where I brought in a raw poem and someone already had an idea for a melody. In a simple hour or two we stripped and shaped that poem into an inspiring song. Other times, I brought in music I had with no lyrics, and someone added lyrics to what I wrote musically. I remember one specific night writing a poem called No Identity. Our keyboard player grabbed it out of my hands and right away started playing chords on the keyboard to match it, followed by developing a sweet lyrical melody. Although he and I both sang in the band, his musical version of my poem became his baby to sing. A few months later we were singing that song for thousands of people on a huge stage at a Christian music festival. Hands were raised all around the stadium as he belted out the chorus. “And I—I don’t know who I am, I have no identity in me. I’m laid bare with no more cares, I only know the face of the one who embraces me—in my mind…” This is the breakdown of No Identity that started from a simple poem.

Verse 1

I’m standing small / I start to fall down on my knees /

Begging please break me

I cry, I crawl / Beneath your grace in weakness I stumble /

My heart it crumbles

Chorus

And I don’t know who I am / I have no identity in me /

I’m laid bare with no more cares / I only know the face of the one who embraces me /

in my mind

Verse 2

So take the weight off my chest / the heavy burdens that steal my rest /

I’m trying desperately to see / Who are you to me /

And who I am to you / and Lord, what can I do to / For you bore my sin /

And gave me life within so I could win / you wipe the tears away / and all my pain…

Sing chorus again

Bridge

Never let me fall again / Never let my life be sin / Come and take this life away /

And give me a new name / Paint it in the stain / of the innocent blood you shed /

for I am dead, but alive in you—

repeat final chorus

The first step in songwriting is to understand the importance of the chorus. The chorus in songwriting is the plot to storytelling. It’s what the song is about. The chorus is often a theme or a point that you are trying to make. If you were to make a logline for your song, it would be obvious by your chorus.  So let’s come up with a logline for No Identity: The song (No Identity) is about a humble, broken man who has lost his identity and only wants to find it in God. Choruses are usually the only part of a song that is repeated to make that point.

While there is definitely not a “one-size-fits-all” way of songwriting, there are some simple guidelines that can help. There are definitely no “you can’t do that in songwriting” rules, although some people may try to tell you differently. When our band attended GMA’s (the Gospel Music Association) conference week, one of the top producers (Reed) in Nashville at the time said, “You can’t do that in your bridge… you can’t put a calypso rhythm in the middle of your song there. Take the bridge out, it doesn’t fit for radio.” Reed was polished, experienced, and older/old school. But we felt strongly about the bridge, so we ignored his advice. As we started playing that song out in public, show after show after show, we received letters from fans that told us how No identity really spoke to them. And several said the funky bridge lifted them up. In fact, we had more fan mail over No Identity than any other song.

My suggestion? Start writing. Don’t worry about rules. Be poetic. Be powerful. Listen to a lot of acoustic-based storytelling songs on Youtube for growth. Yes, there are a few guidelines—I will share some of those next month! In the mean time, think about your chorus—what is it you want to say? Build your song around that!

Matthew Hawk Eldridge is a singer, songwriter, musician, film actor, and author, sleeplessly living in Atlanta, GA. His most recent works include playing guitar in Pitch Perfect 3, his novel, The Pan: Experiencing Neverland, and his album Overcome releasing March of 2018.

Categories
Guest Posts

Sometimes the right road isn’t even on the map by David Rawlings

All roads to the finding an agent and the dream of publishing led through the Conference.

I’d planned, scraped together the money to fly to Nashville (which was significant from Australia, and required some divine help to pull together!) and cleared the calendar.  I had to recover from a 12-hour jet lag in a day-and-a-half, but I was going to make it work.

I had no publisher, no agent and no profile. I was going along as a Genesis finalist – which helped with visibility – but I needed to work hard to make sure I made the most of it. At the Conference I took every opportunity to grab every conversation and lead I could.  I speed-dated a handful of agents and publishers, grabbed snatched pitches while waiting for sessions, and trotted out my elevator pitch that I’d practiced for 13 hours in the air, in between turbulence and in-flight catering.

As I sat in Nashville International Airport on my way home, I was buoyed that there were requests for my manuscript.  I was on the right road to being published. I now had a map to follow with the roads clearly marked – four agents were interested, as well as a publisher.  One of those roads would lead me to the Holy Grail of seeing my book on the shelf. Surely.

When I got back home, I emailed one agent, who politely turned down my manuscript while suggesting I write another. So I embarked on manuscript number two.

Two more agents said no. The other agent just didn’t get back to me.

Then a thought loomed large: how was I going to get published if all the roads to get there were slowly blocked off?

The initial agent – who thought I could write but thought a different story would suit – then turned that story down. Another road closed.

Then the publisher, my final avenue, got back to me. They liked the story and were ready to make a decision on it, when other business conditions shut the whole conversation down.  They declined.

So how do you get to a destination without a road to get there?  I felt like I’d already been on a massive journey (which technically I had), but hadn’t left the driveway.

Sometimes the best road isn’t on the map (and I’m not just talking about Apple Maps). You see, I’d worked hard in Nashville to map out my journey to my destination, but I also did something else. Something that I thought was just something small that wouldn’t lead anywhere particularly. Something almost insignificant.

I’d sent a Facebook message after the Conference. My manuscript didn’t win a Genesis Award, and as I was sitting there at the Gala, shrugging off the uncomfortable heavy cloak of the loser, James L Rubart made a speech that I really needed to hear at the time. He talked about not being validated through our writing or by winning awards, but that we were validated anyway.

So after the Conference, I shot off a message to Jim, thanking him for his words and not really expecting an answer.  After all, I’m an unknown Aussie flying back across the globe crammed into cattle class and he’s an award-winning, best-selling author.

But Jim did respond, and he asked me a question for which I’ll be forever grateful. He asked “How are things now?”  That question lead to a conversation, which opened a discussion about mentoring and I’ve been working with him since.

We’ve talked about platform and publishing, and he provided invaluable knowledge – and contacts. Another road opened up. One that wasn’t on my map.

I approached another batch of agents with Jim’s belief and backing with now not one, but two manuscripts.  Several months later, one of those agents—Steve Laube—asked to represent me and now I have the privilege of working with him. He’s now on the road with me.

This road didn’t appear on my map and the journey didn’t go as I planned, that’s for sure. But instead of sitting back and saying “oh well, it was meant to be,” what’s the lesson here?

I think of it this way: every little thing counts. I wouldn’t have worked with Jim had I not sent him that message, and Jim’s endorsement of me to agents wouldn’t have happened either.

And sometimes the road to get you somewhere doesn’t appear on your map, instead opening up in ways you could never imagine.

Bio

Based in Adelaide, South Australia, David Rawlings is a sports-mad father-of-three with his own copywriting business who reads everything within an arm’s reach.  A qualified journalist and corporate copywriter, he can spot a typo from across a crowded room and always makes sure his text messages are grammatically correct.

Over 25+ years, he has made writing his career and paid the bills with words, developing from sports journalism to corporate communication.  Now he has shifted to fiction, finaled in the ACFW’s Genesis competitions and the OCW’s Cascade Awards, as is working with the Steve Laube Agency to find that elusive publisher.

Categories
Romancing Your Story

Crafting the Hero––Part I

Our romantic heroine, Tovah, is about to meet her match. She’s a Jewish rabbi who fears rejection because of being dumped by a boy while she was in high school. What kind of man should she end up with? [bctt tweet=”First, and foremost, a romantic hero is created to love and be loved by the heroine. She is the prize for him. He is the treasure for her.” username=”@A3Authors @donnalhsmith”]  #amwriting #RomancingYourStory #AlmostAnAuthor #CraftingTheHeroine

Continue reading “Crafting the Hero––Part I”
Categories
The Picky Pen

Editing the Beginning By Tisha Martin

With my cursor at Chapter 1 in my WWII historical fiction novel, I hit Ctrl+Enter and sighed. Beginning a book all over again wasn’t what I had in mind. I liked this chapter. I mean, really liked it, even though everyone else said it wasn’t quite right. Forever, why? Why must I abandon these pages and start fresh, like erasing a favorite drawing of a flower but one petal was lopsided.

Two contests, a writing conference, and two agents later, my intuition solidified into a clear direction of where this chapter needed to begin. None of the critics’ comments were overly negative, and most of them enjoyed the few chapters I had submitted. But my first chapter lacked … heart, GPC (goal, problem, care), and solid reasons why things were happening the very moment the story began.

Beginnings

How many of you have revisited this elusive beginning, struggling to create a first chapter that pops! off the page?

I’ve always struggled to write beginnings. I’m sure I’m not the only one—and there are writers who dislike middles and endings, too.

Who are these characters, what is their goal and problem, and why do you want readers to care?

In addition to Goal, Problem, and Care, here are three things I learned about editing the first chapter that helped me introduce the GPC:

  1. Introduce main characters and continuing action early in the first page.Your readers must have a reason to continue to the second and third page and eventually the last page in as few sittings as possible. Maybe your character is afraid to drive over a bridge but must because her boyfriend sent her on a scavenger hunt, or perhaps your character must capture a rattlesnake because his friend dared him. Your first page should pop! with action that includes a huge goal with a problem your main characters must overcome by the book’s end.
  2. Give your characters lively dialogue.You want your readers to laugh and relate with your characters. The old “How are you?” “I’m fine, how are you?” type of dialogue doesn’t work anymore.
  3. Don’t overwrite.Simple is always best. Make Strunk and White proud of you!

Simple writing is sometimes hard for me because I love to describe things; however, too much is not good and hurts your writing and may frustrate your readers. I love reading Anne of Green Gables, but I have a hard time staying engaged with the verbose descriptions; in Ms. Montgomery’s defense, her readers enjoyed lengthy descriptions. Today’s readers want a quick read they can enjoy.

After taking an honest and humble look at my first chapter based on the judges’ and agents’ comments, I’m glad I started over. I spent a few days pounding out a new first chapter, and it’s stronger because I’ve given my characters a goal to look forward to, a problem that stands in their way, and my readers something to care about.

Now, excuse me while I edit this post to ensure I’ve engaged you, helped you relate, and caused you to want to continue reading it.

Discussion: What is your WIP’s first chapter about? Can you describe it in Goal, Problem, and Care?

Bio:

Owner of TM Editorial, Tisha Martin specializes in historical fiction, academic editing, and creative nonfiction. An active member of American Christian Fiction Writers and The Christian PEN, she appreciates the writing and editing communities. Tisha is editor and proofreader for beginning and best-selling writers, professional editing agencies, and publishing houses. As Assistant Director of PENCON, a conference for editors, she enjoys organizing the conference, networking, and sharing news on PENCON’s Facebook Page. Connect with Tisha on Facebook, Instagram, or follow her Pinterest board for writers and editors.

Categories
Child's Craft

Some DOs and DON’Ts of Writing for Children By Jean Matthew Hall

 

Great writing is great writing! Right? Yes, but writing for children does have challenges that are different from the challenges faced by other writers.

Here’s a quick list to help you as you shape your stories to appeal to children:

Continue reading “Some DOs and DON’Ts of Writing for Children By Jean Matthew Hall”
Categories
Guest Posts

Finish the Work! By Carol Sparks

You never would have thought of such a thing on your own. It had to be God. He gave you an idea for a novel, short story, poem, or non-fiction book. You looked around, but you were the only one with that stunned look on your face and that peculiar-to-writers gleam in your eye.

Maybe you jumped right in with both feet, excited for a new project. Maybe you dipped the tip of your big toe into the idea of writing this particular thing and drew back as the deluge of information began roaring toward you. I agree; it’s overwhelming at first.

You worked on this new project for a while…until the luster wore off, until your life got busier for some reason, or until you began to question the initial impetus. Oh, it had seemed like such a good idea, but then the doubts and distractions arose.

  • Do you have adequate experience or education to write this sort of thing?
  • Don’t you have other responsibilities that are more important?
  • When are you supposed to find time to write something this challenging?
  • Since you can’t make it perfect, why even bother to write it at all?
  • Where will you find the resources to do the necessary research?
  • Isn’t someone else better qualified to write it?
  • Aren’t you too old/young/fat/skinny/rich/poor to write something like this?
  • Haven’t you been rejected by all those agents and publishers already?
  • How would you possibly get it published in today’s climate?
  • Who’s going to read it anyway?

I’ve said all these to myself. Your particular doubt may sound a little different, but it’s no less effective.

About twenty-five years after Jesus’ ascension, the small band of believers in Jerusalem faced big trouble. They were persecuted and oppressed in every way, and they were completely out of money. Things were desperate.

The apostle Paul responded out of the depth of his relationships. He called upon fledgling churches throughout the region to help their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. The Corinthian church was among the first to raise their hands. They were generous and sincerely desired to help. But even into the next year, they hadn’t finished taking up their collection (2 Corinthians 8:10). I wonder why.

  • Maybe they felt inadequate, thinking they set their goal too high.
  • Maybe they got distracted by other responsibilities and problems.
  • Maybe, because they hadn’t heard anything recently, they thought the situation in Jerusalem was better now.
  • Maybe they just forgot after Titus left.

Things happen—to New Testament churches and to modern-day writers. And sometimes we need a “swift kick in the rump,” as we say here in East Tennessee. Paul generously provided that figurative kick to the Corinthians, but his words apply just as well to us writers.

Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means.  -2 Corinthians 8:11 NIV

 Paul goes on to remind his readers that it’s not about how much you give but your willingness to give (2 Cor 8:12). God will make it sufficient. “Your plenty,” Paul says, “will supply what they need” (2 Cor 8:14).

Do you need a “swift kick” to complete the task God has given you? Now is the time; finish the work! Match your earlier eagerness with a completed composition. God will use it to supply exactly what your future readers need.

What Bible verse or quote helps you stick to your writing goals? Please encourage us all by sharing in the comments below!

Bio.

Author Carole Sparks sometimes does “butt kickers” in her workouts because she needs a swift kick in the backside, and she’d prefer to administer it herself. Afterward, she’ll go finish at least one writing project, hopefully! If she’s not working out, you can probably catch up with her on Twitter or her blog.

Categories
Mastering Middle Grade

Want to Write Middle Grade Fiction? Here’s Three (Content) Issues to Consider By Kell McKinney

One of the first writing rules I learned in journalism school is that you have to know your audience.  This rule applies to writing children’s fiction every bit as much as it does to news, only there’s a catch.

When you’re writing for children, it’s important to remember you’re writing for two audiences: the young reader and the adult gatekeeper. Whether that gatekeeper is a parent, grandparent, teacher or librarian, there’s almost always another set of discerning eyes on work intended for middle grade readers.

Continue reading “Want to Write Middle Grade Fiction? Here’s Three (Content) Issues to Consider By Kell McKinney”
Categories
The Ministry of Writing

Prophecy and End-Times Are Not Dirty Words by Jake McCandless

I’m sane.

I don’t even have a tin-foil hat.

I rarely can even find foil when I need it in the kitchen.

But I did leave the realm of a normal pastorate to write and speak full-time on end-time prophecy, and I find people don’t want to hear what I have to say. Many pastors and church leaders don’t want it shared in their church. I even have friends whispering—Jake’s gone crazy.

I get it. I have been there. As a pastor, I, too, worried about ruffling unnecessary feathers. And prophecy and end-time stuff can seem unnecessary especially when two-thousand years ago Jesus said He would come back soon. Obviously, God’s timing is much slower than ours. But still what the Bible does say has to go down sometime, our people need to know.

I also get that there are so many more immediate needs within our churches and culture, but still prophecy and the end-times are not dirty words. Especially when a quarter to even a third of the Bible includes it.

I also get that there has been some true tin-foil hat-wearers that have abused and are currently abusing the truth of prophecy and the end-times. How many times have we heard the rapture is going to happen on this day? Or so and so must be the Antichrist? But we have all been warned with the cliché, “Don’t let one or a thousand bad apples ruin the whole batch!”

Disaster Nebula Apocalypse Bumm End Time

I also get that there is a lack of consensus (to put it mildly) on the interpretation of Bible prophecy, but that surely doesn’t mean we throw the prophecy out with the bath water. On the contrary, we should be working harder to figure this stuff out.

And one more way that I get it. I get the question, “How do we know this Jake guy is right?” Well, we don’t. I don’t even know. I just know I am going to work just as hard as I do in exegesis of the text like I do in all texts, being careful to follow conservative, trusted methods interpretation.

(Photo credit to: MaxPixel.freegreatpicture.com-Disaster-Nebula-Apocalypse-Bumm-End-Time-22730 69)

The end-times and prophecy are not dirty words, nor are they a subject to avoid. Let me give you three reasons why.

  1. End-time Prophecy Tells Us the Future, and Therefore Our Trajectory Now.

Think how awesome it is that we have an itinerary of the future in our hands. Christians, we are blessed—we can know how this maze of life shakes out. This should cause us to seek to know about the end-times. And regardless of where we are in the prophetic timeline, prophecy reveals the trajectory that we are on. The subject is relevant at any-time.

  1. End-Time Prophecy is How God Proves Himself.

So much Bible prophecy has been fulfilled, and its fulfillment is remarkable. Somehow in God’s infinite wisdom He saw fit to prove Himself by foretelling what would happen, and then fulfilling it precisely. Listen to this passage in Isaiah:

 “Present your case,” says the Lord. “Set forth your arguments,” says Jacob’s King. “Bring in your idols to tell us what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were, so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things to come, tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad, so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear. But you are less than nothing and your works are utterly worthless; he who chooses you is detestable. – Isaiah 41:21–24

  1. End-time Prophecy Shows that We Don’t Fare to Well in the End-Times.

As confusing as it this sounds, this is the reason I am doing what I do. Bible prophecy does not just tell about political, military, or environmental events at the end, but also tells how we will be in terms of our faith and morality. Two warnings motivate me. The first is from Matthew 24:10, where it says many will turn away. This is talking to us. We need to prepare to hold-on. Secondly, I am motivated from a warning in 2 Thessalonians, where we read that there will be a great deception. We have to know the truth about the end-times so we won’t be deceived.

So, what does this have to do with writers because this is a site for writers?  Well, honestly, I was looking for a place to vent and give a shameless plug, but we can always find a moral to a story, so, how about—writers don’t be afraid of the haters keep on doing what God has called you to do. Man, that is good.

And for you who would like to brave and invite this non tin-foil wearing prophecy guy to your church check out my website www.prophecysimplified.com and contact my booking agent Cherrilynn Bisbano at Cherrilynn@seriouswriter.com. And I’d love to come to your church.

And writers, I really do have a point for you. We need to be rightly dividing the Bible even end-time prophecy and including it in our work.

Jake McCandless is the Executive Director and lead speaker for Prophecy Simplified. Jake is an award-winning author and writes for several publications. He has as Bachelor of Arts in Bible from Central Baptist College and a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Previously, he spent twelve years at Mount Vernon (AR) Baptist Church as a lead pastor and directed a seminary extension center. Before that, Jake served as a student pastor and youth evangelist. Jake is married to Amanda. She’s an elementary school teacher. They have two daughters, Andrea and Addison. Jake enjoys time with family, ministry, hunting, bass fishing, coffee, and college football.

Categories
Magazine and Freelance

Be The Magazine Writer with Extras – by W. Terry Whalin

Magazine editors are experts in their publication. I know this fact because I’ve been a magazine editor a couple of different times. When I was Associate Editor at Decision magazine, we were publishing 1.8 million copies of each issue. An editorial assistant read through the submissions whether they came electronically or hard copy in the mail. From reading a few paragraphs, she could tell if the writer was familiar with our publication and had sent something to be seriously considered.

Continue reading “Be The Magazine Writer with Extras – by W. Terry Whalin”