FaithWriters.com-Christian Writers Forum

I have a piece here that's not only my favorite piece I've ever written for FW, it's the best thing I've ever written (in my opinion) and probably the best thing I ever WILL write. But it didn't register with the judges that week--not only did it not get an EC, it wasn't even in the top 40 (they we...

I have, as have we all, received far more positive feedback than negative. There was one entry, though, that blew me away. It was the first time I had written about a very personal experience in my childhood without putting any fiction candy coating to it. I bore my soul to the public and for the fi...

Sorry, Jan... I thought I had the link in. It is http://www.faithwriters.com/article-det ... p?id=80161

Jan, thank you for this lesson. I have been trying to understand the concept of showing/telling for some time now. I wrote a short story on the general submissions called "The Good Life" that I think is almost entirely telling rather than showing. If you would, could you look at it and tel...

Jan, you said in this lesson that you are not fond of the "show versus tell" style of writing. Would you mind sharing your reasons for that lack of fondness? And maybe a few examples of when "tell" would work better than "show"?

What an unexpected honor that my simple story is seen in the same arena as Graham's and Kenn's. Congratulations guys.

Thanks from my heart.
Gerald Shuler

Jan, I wrote a poem for one of your classes (sorry, I don't recall which one) called "Things Found Along the Road". You were teaching a certain type of poetry style that had a preset form of repeating lines. I wrote it in 10, 10, 10, 10 rhythm with alternating stress throughout. The poem h...

I wrote one just to play with the idea of dialect. The POV was voiced in a back hills, uneducated American dialect and he is telling about trying to communicate with a refined, educated relative in England. My challenge in this one was in writing the Englishman's dialect as repeated by the American ...

Jan, I wanted to offer this for class analysis because it is one of the things you mentioned in this lesson... sci-fi in 750 words or less with a whole new world to build. How would the judges probably view this story as far as the sixth criteria? I don't know if this example is good or needs to be ...

I wrote the worst ending of anything I have ever done with a poem called "I'll Take My Tea" http://www.faithwriters.com/wc-article-level4-previous.php?id=28635 I totally cheated the reader with a cop out ending. My reason at the time was that I had run out of time and needed to finish by t...

I had a challenge entry (The Problem with Englishmen... http://www.faithwriters.com/wc-article-level4.php?id=27512) that went no place favorable with the judges and had very few comments from readers but it was fun to write. It was about a hillbilly from America meeting a relative from England for t...

take the bull by the horns ... grab the dragon's nose ring my hands are tied ... life has me pinned down it’s in the cards ... destiny won't let go elephant in the room ... dancing on daisies wash your hands of something ... I'm letting go of the rope all that jazz ... all the sprinkles on the cake ...

Assignment: Day of the Long Star It had been whispered in hushed conversations, almost like a prophecy of legendary proportions, that old Hilka would not slip into his final sleep until the stars had revealed their secrets to him. The meaning of those words remained a mystery, even to Hilka, until t...

Here is my attempt at writing for atmosphere. Carson looked nervously around the courtroom, hoping beyond hope that he would see in somebody's eyes a glimmer of sympathy. He saw only contempt; they had judged him before the trial had even begun. The truth will set you free , he thought. If they beli...

I started guessing at the rest of the book's plot just from reading the samples. In the first sample the atmosphere seemed stiff, snobbish, cold. I saw Kimberly as a woman born into wealth and raised with the expectation that the world was hers to command. She had a baby only because her aging husba...