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The Bottom Line: What I’ve Learned in 40+ Years of Writing
The writing life is a great ride—if one can hang on. I’ve never liked roller coasters—and yet, that’s exactly what I’ve been riding for nearly half a century. How well I remember that glorious first book contract somewhere back in the mists of the 1970s. I thought I was set. I had a publisher, I had an editor, I could just spend the rest of my life writing the stories I was passionate to tell and—Voilà—they would be published. It didn’t take me long to figure out that editors change, publishers cancel series, agents retire—or even die. Life is unstable—and nothing more so than the writing life. Zondervan cancelled their…
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The Small Things
“If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.” Luke 16:10 NLT I remember the first big party we hosted. I spent so much energy preparing, and it was a financial impact we could feel. Almost no one came. I would have done twice the work and spent twice as much if people came, ate, and enjoyed themselves. But, we wrapped up food that wasn’t designed to keep and sat down in an awkwardly clean house feeling superfluous. Some people feel destined for greatness, it’s a deep longing. But even…
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Writing Groups and The Writer
IdaHope Christian Writers has a writing group that comes together quite often to read, write, and fellowship. Why do established, mainstream authors suggest all writers join a writing group? Stay in a writing group, don’t give up, contribute, and you may be fortunate to find yourself like the man in the following joke: He pulled up to the charred ruins of his home. Smoke still drifted from the possessions they spent years accumulating. She stood out front, a pan of burned biscuits in her hand, a cell phone in the other. She sobbed. “I’m sorry. I put biscuits in the oven. The phone rang. It was your agent. And then…
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Unproductive
Maybe you are better at planning rest, but I feel like most of us mostly wait for mandatory rest, like illness. It was a loving God who scheduled a rhythm of rest in the Sabbath mandate.
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The Great Adverbectomy
When I first began writing, I wrote completely without guidance, operating my keyboard without training. After several manuscript rejections, I found much-needed help through a critique group. My first writing mentor addressed a problem. Since I had enough adverbs in my first paragraph to give an editor a heart attack, they were removed. Gasp. Wheeze. Whimper. I loved my adverbs. They were astonishingly, beguilingly, charmingly, alluringly wonderful.After recovering from the shock, I went home and held a small service in their honor. Lovingly, longingly, I took one final look at my Word document before starting my search. Weepingly, I sought for any word ending in the dreaded, tell-tale “ly” and…
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Writing Lessons from My Dogs
Sometimes, when I’m goofing with my two dogs, Baxter and Taffy, God will snap his fingers, hold his hand over my nose, and tell me to, “Sit. Stay. Listen.” And when I do, I learn valuable lessons. Almost every morning, I have the same breakfast—two slices of peanut butter toast. I love peanut butter. At one point in my (much younger) life, I was going to marry peanut butter. My siblings still make fun of me for this—I do not care. However, during the year I was working from home as a freelance editor, every morning Baxter and Taffy would come and sit attentively near the table, convinced I would…
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Write It Down
When you write it down to share with the Lord, he does not judge you or sever relationship. You do not need to fear his audience. It may surprise you to hear his voice gently expose what is false.
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A Modern-Day Parable
A certain man had two children, and the younger of the two said, “Father, give me my inheritance. And the man divided his property between the two children. Not many days later, the younger child gathered all she had and took a journey into a far country, where she squandered what she had on riotous living. And when she had spent everything, there arose in the land pestilence and rioting and looting in the streets. And she joined with them, turning her back on all she knew of the Father’s ways. Every day, her father watched at the door for her return. But in the back room, kneeling in supplication…
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The Novelist Entertainer
Jerry Jenkins once told me the number one rule of the novelist is never to bore the reader. As a novelist, you have one job—to entertain. “Yet,” someone may point out, “I’m a Christian novelist.” Indeed, you are. And to bring forward a good Christian moral is vital, to offer a moral of hope and redemption. However, you can’t bring forward a moral if no one will read your book. “I’m American,” some might add. “My Puritan background means seriousness is a Fruit of the Spirit. How does that jive with entertainment?” Ah, a dilemma. How do we make a morality tale entertaining? Look to the Bible. Literally. You can’t…
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Embrace the Not Yet
It is easy to wish you were already on the other side of something. This can happen in your writing life as well.
