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The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World…Word by Word

The Steve Laube Agency

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » Writing Craft » Craft

Craft

The Bronze Mirror

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon June 8, 2022
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I’m reading the HCSB Study Bible for Women with notes from Dorothy Kelley Patterson and Rhonda Harrington Kelley. The notes on Exodus 38:8 discuss how women donated bronze mirrors to build Temple basins for the priests. I thought, Bronze. That means they never saw themselves as we see ourselves. They only saw themselves through a yellow haze. I realize the Bible speaks of mirrors more than once, but I hadn’t previously thought about the significance of ancient mirrors being made of bronze.

I could base at least five devotionals on this thought, but my focus here is on writing. To wit:

Does your reader see your characters in a bronze mirror? 

Are parts of your plot seen through an inaccurate lens?

As you write and revise, consider that the reader knows nothing more than what you tell them. No writer can assume that a reader understands what a character is thinking or doing unless the author offers enough detail to make the image vivid. An author shouldn’t even take an ordinary device, such as a telephone, for granted. For instance, a reference to a Blackberry might be considered dated. Imagine a young person today reading a book in which the author didn’t think to describe a character in the 1950s calling into a party line using a rotary dial telephone, especially when that character overhears a secret!  

Of course, authors can take descriptions to the extreme. I may be odd (Don’t answer that!), but I don’t have to know that the heroine needs mustard from the grocery store or know that the hero brushes his teeth with baking soda unless the plot will otherwise perish. 

The talented author proficient at crisp writing and judicious editing will bring their characters and plots to life to help ensure forever a devoted readership. Look in the mirror. Could that writer be you?

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Category: Craft, Inspiration

My Editor Made My Book Worse!

By Steve Laubeon May 16, 2022
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by Steve Laube

You just received a 15 page single spaced editorial letter from your publisher. They want you to rewrite most of the book. But you disagree with the letter and are spitting mad. What do you do?

Or your agent took a look at your manuscript and told you to cut it in half to make it sellable. What do you do?

Both examples are true stories and illustrate the universal …

Read moreMy Editor Made My Book Worse!
Category: Craft, Editing, Steve, Writing CraftTag: Editing, Writing Craft

How to Make Me Stop Reading

By Bob Hostetleron April 20, 2022
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Once upon a time, I finished every book I started reading. I had to. I felt an obligation. If I didn’t finish it, it wouldn’t “count” as a book I’d read. Right? Then, maybe ten, maybe twenty years ago, I changed. I think I realized how many books there are in the world that I want to read and how little time I had left in life to read them. And I reasoned that plowing through a book I’d lost (or …

Read moreHow to Make Me Stop Reading
Category: Book Proposals, Craft, Writing Craft

Cover Bands Don’t Change the World

By Steve Laubeon April 11, 2022
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by Steve Laube

I had been reading and thinking about creativity when I came across the title of today’s post as a chapter by that name in a book called The Accidental Creative: How to be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice by Todd Henry (2011). It stopped me in my tracks. I knew he was right. A cover band plays other people’s music. Often it is a new interpretation of a familiar song and sometimes …

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Category: Art, Craft, Creativity, Writing CraftTag: Creativity, Writing Craft

Today Is a Good Day to (re)Read

By Steve Laubeon March 28, 2022
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by Steve Laube

What was the favorite book you read, cover to cover, in the last year or so? Why is it your favorite? (It can be fiction or non-fiction. Faith-based or not.) Feel free to tell us in the comments about yours.

Read it Again

Now that you’ve identified the book. Read it again. As Vladimir Nabakov wrote:

“Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A …

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Category: Art, Craft, Reading, Writing CraftTag: Reading, Writing Craft

Ten Reasons to Read a Christian Romance Novel

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon February 10, 2022
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Since we’re on the cusp of Valentine’s Day, this is a great time to read a Christian romance novel. Here are a few good reasons, in no particular order: The characters are living with Christ as the focus of their world. You know the ending will be sweet. The story will be uplifting. You can root for the characters and their romance. You are invested in the characters’ problems and how they will …

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Category: Craft, Creativity

Edgy Christian Fiction

By Steve Laubeon January 31, 2022
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A number of years ago the question of what is appropriate to include in Christian fiction was asked, and I wrote much of what is below as a reply. Recently, this issue jumped back into conversations with the release of the film Redeeming Love, based on the bestselling novel of the same title by Francine Rivers. (Some reviews of the movie, not the book, that wrestle with the debate can be found …

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Category: Craft, Creativity, Language, Writing CraftTag: Craft, Creativity, Edgy, Language

Book Proposals I’d Love to See (What Tamela Hancock Murray Is Looking For)

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon January 20, 2022
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(Updated 1/20/2022) Every morning, I wake up thankful to the Lord to be a literary agent working for Him in Christian publishing. I’m grateful to the readers of this blog for being part of our writing community. I always tell writers that I want you not to be with just any agent, but with the right agent for yourself. As for approaching me with your work, we can start with whether or not you are …

Read moreBook Proposals I’d Love to See (What Tamela Hancock Murray Is Looking For)
Category: Agency, Book Business, Book Proposals, Career, Craft, Creativity, Romance, Trends, Writing CraftTag: Agency, book proposals

What’s the Problem?

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon October 27, 2021
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My office receives many submissions with the hypothesis that a protagonist thinks s/he’s living the perfect life until it falls apart. This is a great premise! What is a perfect life? Most of us have an idea of what the world thinks of as an ideal life and what seems to be the “perfect” life we can live as Christians. Therefore, the reader doesn’t need to spend much time living the protagonist’s …

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Category: Craft, Get Published, Writing Craft

When Editorial Errors Matter

By Steve Laubeon September 20, 2021
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by Steve Laube

Writers make mistakes. It happens. Often an editor’s job is to be the safety net and catch those tidbits that find their way into an early draft of a manuscript for any number of reasons.

The simplicity of “cut & paste” has created more opportunity for error than ever before. I've seen half sentences left in their original place because the writer failed to cut and …

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Category: Book Business, Craft, E-Books, Editing, Grammar, Steve, Writing CraftTag: Editing, Errors, Writing Craft
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