When a picture paints a thousand words…
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Does Your Reader Want to be Dumped on?
A ridiculous question, right? Of course not! No one wants to be dumped on, much less your hapless reader. Besides, she’s not so hapless. She can exercise her right to close your book long before she reaches the end. By dumping on a reader, I mean an information dump. Here’s an example I just had fun making up: Valencia was beautiful and proud of it. Her auburn hair shone just so in the sunlight, …
An Author’s Journey
I wanted our agency client Scott Douglas LaCounte to guest-blog today because of the anniversary it represents (see below) and how God worked through the publishing process and journey to encourage a writer and his family. Scott is quite modest. He is the head librarian for the Southern California Institute of Technology. Years ago, he was a regular contributor to the popular Christian humor …
Announcing “The Christian Writers Institute”
I am very excited to announce the launch of The Christian Writers Institute! Come visit at www.christianwritersinstitute.com. Over three years ago I began thinking of the need for a place where writers could find the best teachers all in one spot. The idea percolated for awhile until this year when its development began in earnest. It is great to see it finally become a reality. This new online …
Fun Fridays – October 21, 2016
I want Dug to come to my house. But our cat might not appreciate a talking friend.
Littered with Errors: Can Typos Kill You?
We’ve all done it – typed “here” for “hear” or “you’re” for “your” – especially when we’re dashing off a quick email or meeting a deadline. I don’t know of an agent or editor who’ll reject a submission based on one or even a few typos, particularly if the material is so compelling the reader can’t resist losing the afternoon in your book. However, not all errors are typos. This becomes apparent as …
Creativity Sparks
Thank all of you for the blessing of your shared thoughts, encouragement, and condolences on my blog last week. As I suspected, many others have been in this place of struggling to wrench creativity from the jaws of emotional/spiritual/physical fog. Your suggestions echoed my own, from giving yourself time to setting a timer, to just writing anything to get words on paper (I even decided writing …
Real Life is Edgy
A major topic of discussion among writers of all types of Christian books is the issue of how far is too far when showing someone’s life before they surrendered to Christ, and how real you show their journey of sanctification once they exit the broad road. It’s called the “edge.” A lot of writers want to write with an edge, with real language and situations to make it more like real life. After …
Lyrics as Literature
I normally steer away from controversial topics in this blog but the announcement that Bob Dylan, the popular musician, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature gave me pause. My first thought was “What?” To place Dylan alongside previous Nobel laureates like Solzhenitsyn, Steinbeck, Kipling, Hemingway, Camus, Faulkner, T.S. Eliot, and Churchill? I wondered that if, upon hearing the …
An Alternative Candidate
Friday October 14th was Winnie the Pooh’s 90th birthday. (I wrote about his birthday a few years ago here.) Below is what greeted me at the dinner table on Friday night. It brought hilarity and sudden clarity. I think I know how I should vote… Winnie-the-Pooh for President Piglet for Vice President Tigger for Secretary of State. Winnie-the-Pooh promises “Honey in every …