Today is my wife’s birthday.
Pardon me while I send her this video greeting. (I’m the one at the end of the video wearing glasses.)
Blog
Write Through Your Fears
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. …
Developing Characters’ Inner Conflicts
My husband and I just read The Pursuit of Christian Maturity: Flourishing in the Grace and Knowledge of Christ by A. W. Tozer, compiled and edited by James L. Snyder. Steve Laube represents a portion of Tozer’s literary estate. The book offers many excellent points and is worth reading. An overarching lesson on obstacles to a fulfilling relationship with God made me think of writing about the …
Why Does It Take Editors and Agents So Long to Read My Proposal?
Recently, a writer posted this question: I submitted a proposal to a publisher 6 months ago. The guidelines said that a response would be provided at the end of 4 months. At the end of 5 months I sent an email query to confirm that they had actually received the submission–still no response. Now I am at the end of 6 months.…Do I give up? I wish I had a magic wand to solve this problem for …
Fun Fridays – October 25
I have only three words in reaction to today’s video: I want one. Please donate to SteveIsDreamingAgain_AndIWishHeWouldStop.com.
Point of View #3
I’m back to talk a little more about point of view, continuing to build on what I talked about in the last post. If you’ll remember, last time I dissected POV into three different types—the ones most often in fiction. Today, in this last post on point of view, let’s dig a little deeper and talk in depth about deep point of view since this is the preferred POV in fiction writing. Someone asked why …
Things My Editor Does That I Take for Granted
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you, and we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.” – Arthur Plotnik “No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else’s draft.” – H.G. Wells You editor is someone with a special skill set. One that is often described as being intrusive, overbearing, heavy-handed, and just …
Fun Fridays – October 18, 2024
Writing can be a lonely, solo adventure. Publishing, on the other hand, is rarely done well in isolation. Today’s video is a metaphor for how publishing works. HT: Dan Balow
Publishing Advice Is Like Political Polling
Whenever you encounter information about any subject, the first step is to check the source. Unsurprisingly, a favorable political poll sometimes (often?) originates from a source with a vested interest in or closely aligned with the group most likely to benefit from the good news. There are relatively few unbiased, objective sources of polling research. For the same reason, the first question you …
My Best Reading Advice
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 …