Bob Hostetler

A Maundy Thursday Writer’s Prayer

By Bob Hostetleron April 6, 2023

Lord, at your last meal with your closest friends and followers, you wrapped the servant’s towel around your waist, and washed your disciples’ feet. And though Peter objected at first, he submitted, saying, “Then, Lord … not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” (John 13:9, NIV).

Like Peter, Lord, I shudder to submit myself and my writing to your cleansing work.
But I know I need it.
My writing needs your care.
So, I pray, Lord, wash,
not my feet,
but my hands, my heart, my thoughts.
Cleanse my motives, intentions, and attitudes.
Purge me of pride, worldly ambition, and self-sufficiency.
Wash clean my words, my sentences, my paragraphs, and pages,
to your purpose and for your glory, in Jesus’ name, amen.

Define the Takeaway First

By Bob Hostetleron March 29, 2023

A few months ago, one of my friends (don’t worry, Sarah, I won’t mention your name) asked this question on social media: Writer friends: Do you ever write something, think it’s nearly finished, and fail to be able to define the “take-away?” So, “writer friends,” I’m about to do you a favor. I will suggest an approach that will save a lot of time, stress, regret, and other bad things. Ready? …

Category: Craft, Get Published, Pitch, The Writing Life, Trends

Must I Kill All My Little Darlings? (A Writer’s Prayer)

By Bob Hostetleron March 16, 2023

They are waiting for me, all my little darlings. I have labored over them as if in the pangs of childbirth. I have nurtured them, weighed and coddled them, smiled at them and played with them. They have grown and multiplied, and though at times they are recalcitrant, I have loved them. How many must go? Which ones are weak, superfluous, misplaced, unclear, redundant? You know, Lord. I approach …

Category: The Writing Life

Don’t Wait for Retirement

By Bob Hostetleron February 23, 2023

It seems as if it happens at least once at every writers conference I attend. Someone will say, “Once I retire, I’ll be able to write.” I get it. It’s hard to find the time to write—and build or expand a platform of speaking or podcasting or blogging and more—while you have an actual job for which you’re supposedly being paid. But I can’t say this strongly enough: Don’t wait for retirement to …

Category: Agents, Platform

How They Got Their Agent

By Bob Hostetleron February 15, 2023

Somewhere shy of a billion years ago, I met Steve Laube at a writers conference. He and I were both teaching and presenting and meeting with writers. (He was an editor at the time, and I was a big deal.) He liked me; I tolerated him. For the next few years (or more), our friendship continued and deepened; and eventually I asked him to be my literary agent. He agreed. Of course, he did. He’s made …

Category: Agents

6 Joys of Finishing a Writing Project

By Bob Hostetleron February 2, 2023

The Bible says, “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof” (Ecclesiastes 7:8, KJV). Or, as another version puts it, “It is better to finish something than to start it” (Ecclesiastes 7:8, NCV). That wisdom applies to everyone on God’s green earth, I’m sure; but it sure feels like it applies more to writers and the writing life. Can I get a witness? I see that hand. Seriously, as …

Category: The Writing LifeTag: Deadlines

6 Joys of Starting a New Writing Project

By Bob Hostetleron January 12, 2023

It’s a new year! A fresh start. A turn of the page. What better time is there to start a new writing project, whether that’s a new novel manuscript, book proposal, article query, blog post, or poem? So, what are you waiting for? After all, consider the joys of starting something new: The world is your oyster. Possibilities abound. Whatever and wherever you begin, the first steps of a fresh, new …

Category: Career, The Writing Life

Incarnational Writing

By Bob Hostetleron December 21, 2022

It’s that holy time of year when followers of Jesus around the world contemplate and celebrate the truth of the Incarnation, the miraculous, mind-boggling moment when the Son of God, the Eternal Word, “became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14, NIV). So, first, I wish the readers of this blog a merry and holy Christmas. Second, I’d like to opine for a few moments on the …

Category: The Writing Life, Theology

Rejection Is NOT Failure

By Bob Hostetleron November 30, 2022

Hi, my name is Bob; and I get rejected. As a blogger, article writer, game writer, and writer of books, I suffer “rejection” on a nearly daily basis—and not only because of my slovenly appearance. As I often tell people, publishing is a highly subjective business; and what one editor pooh-poohs another may ooh-ooh. “Sure, Bob,” you may say, “but rejection still hurts.” I hear you. It feels awful, …

Category: The Writing Life

4 Ways to Be a Grateful Writer

By Bob Hostetleron November 16, 2022

How great is it being a writer? Sure, there are downsides. Rejection. Revision. Poverty. And so on. But all in all, writers are a privileged bunch. We get to write! We get to “live and move and have our being” among words, sentences, magazines, blogs, and books. We know how to use semicolons and apostrophes (well; some of us’ do anyway). We sometimes even experience the joy of knowing someone has …

Category: Personal, TheologyTag: thanksgiving