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Home » Archives for Bob Hostetler » Page 2

Bob Hostetler

Write Through Your Fears

By Bob Hostetleron October 31, 2024
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What are you afraid of? Poor sentence structure, such as that question? Or something else?

Writers may not fear ghosts, goblins, ghouls, or other Halloweeny frights. But anyone who writes—and especially those who write for publication—must face his or her fears, or choose some less terrifying profession, such as bomb squad technician.

Some of us dread ridicule. Rejection. Insignificance. Poverty. Shall I keep going? They’re all part of the writing life.

Writing anything takes courage. To overcome self-doubt. To silence the voice of a teacher, perhaps, or the fear of not being very good. Writing for publication means conquering the fear of rejection, the sting of criticism, the imposter syndrome that plagues everyone but the real imposters. Novelist Neil Gaiman famously said,

I was convinced that there would be a knock on the door, and a man with a clipboard (I don’t know why he carried a clipboard, in my head, but he did) would be there, to tell me it was all over, and they had caught up with me, and now I would have to go and get a real job, one that didn’t consist of making things up and writing them down.

Exactly. Maybe you stuff down that fear long enough to pound out a few hundred words. Maybe you tremble before publishing that blog post. Or maybe not. Maybe you’ve been ghosting your work-in-progress, treating it like a sweetheart you can’t quite break up with (there’s that poor sentence structure again!).

Whatever your writing fears may be, don’t give up. Don’t give in. Keep writing. Assault the beachhead of fear and inertia that seems so daunting … until you break through, and look back, and see it for the bump in the road it was.

How about you? What are your writing fears? How have you conquered them? How are you conquering them?

 

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Category: The Writing Life

My Best Reading Advice

By Bob Hostetleron October 16, 2024
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My wife and I, newly married and preparing to enter training for ministry, hosted a seasoned pastor in our home for one of our entrance interviews. He asked what sorts of books we’d been reading, and we answered. I expected him to be impressed with my answer. After all … well, never mind. But he smiled kindly. “May I offer a piece of advice?” What were we going to say? “No”? So we gave the …

Read moreMy Best Reading Advice
Category: Book Review, Career, Encouragement, Inspiration, Reading

Where’s Your Writer’s Galilee? Judea?

By Bob Hostetleron September 26, 2024
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Sometimes being a writer—and writing for publication—is so delightful, amazing, and wonderful, that you feel like a pig in mud. And sometimes being a writer feels more like you’re a pig in raisin sauce. Maybe you can’t identify. Maybe you’re just loving the writing life, riding high, cashing the checks, and collecting the awards. If that’s the case, then you can close this window now. Just click …

Read moreWhere’s Your Writer’s Galilee? Judea?
Category: Encouragement, Inspiration, The Writing Life

Can Writing Heal the Writer?

By Bob Hostetleron September 11, 2024
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Most of us know, as readers, that the words we read have tremendous power to heal. But can the words we write heal us too? I asked some writer friends if they’ve been healed by the act of writing. Here are some of their responses: When my son was young, we were in a life-threatening accident in which our elevator landed abruptly in a basement and quickly filled with water. Surviving that event …

Read moreCan Writing Heal the Writer?
Category: Encouragement, Inspiration

The Oft-Hidden Plus of Writers Conferences

By Bob Hostetleron August 22, 2024
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As I write this, I just returned from a wonderful Christian writers conference. As an author, agent, and speaker, I schedule four or five every year (back in the day, I would do as many as eleven or twelve a year, but these days other commitments make such insanity inadvisable). Christian writers conferences offer many benefits: You get to meet famous and accomplished writers like me. (I can hear …

Read moreThe Oft-Hidden Plus of Writers Conferences
Category: Conferences

Hooks and Gimmicks

By Bob Hostetleron August 7, 2024
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Someone recently asked me (as if I know stuff), “What’s the difference between a hook and a gimmick?” I had to think about it, an action to which I’m unaccustomed. But I’m pretty sure I gave a good answer. Sure, why not? But as I often do, I decided to ask my Steve Laube Agency colleagues for their perspective, and as always was delighted by their answers: Tamela Hancock Murray said, “A hook is a …

Read moreHooks and Gimmicks
Category: Book Proposals, Pitching

I Like Quotation Marks

By Bob Hostetleron July 18, 2024
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I recently read a book. Don’t look so surprised. In my annual reading plan (which I discussed here), I try to discover a few new authors every year. One of this year’s authors is the late Brian Doyle, essayist and novelist. His book has been a joy. However, he, like an increasing number of novelists (seemingly), eschews quotation marks in his fictional dialogue. Like this: What does it feel like? …

Read moreI Like Quotation Marks
Category: Grammar

Read Old, Read New

By Bob Hostetleron July 3, 2024
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I’ve posted before on this blog about my annual reading plan (here), which I’ve done for most of my life to keep my reading varied and voluminous, year after year. So it will come as no surprise to those who know me or know of my reading plan that I strongly advise reading both new books and old books, especially for writers. Thus, two of the categories in my annual reading plan are “classics” and …

Read moreRead Old, Read New
Category: Book Review

10 Bible Verses for Writers

By Bob Hostetleron June 13, 2024
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Writers in the service of King Jesus will, of course, often refer to the Bible—in our lives and in our writings. The words God inspired should inspire us, and no less so the words that pertain directly to our calling and task as writers. With that in mind, I’d like to offer ten Bible passages that I hope will be helpful, insightful, and inspiring for Christian writers: Sing to the LORD, all the …

Read more10 Bible Verses for Writers
Category: Inspiration, The Writing Life, Theology

I’m Not Interested in These Kinds of Writers

By Bob Hostetleron May 29, 2024
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I love my work as a literary agent. It’s a joy to represent some of the best authors writing today (and the rest of the best are represented by other Steve Laube Agency agents). But there are some kinds of writers I’m not interested in representing. Here’s a short list: Careless writers, such as the person whose cover letter began, “I am submitting my payer book propsal.” Or the proposal that …

Read moreI’m Not Interested in These Kinds of Writers
Category: Book Proposals, Get Published, Pitching
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