Three Strikes and You’re . . . Still In!
By Alan Allegra

I don’t know a lot about baseball, but I know from bitter experience that a batter is out after three strikes. Miss the ball three times and your turn is over.

I am, by nature, a quitter. It doesn’t take a lot of humiliation or bruises to make me walk away from a difficult situation. Many years ago, a dear friend told me I give up too easily. He […]

TAG – YOU’RE IT!

By Edie Melson

Dialogue formatting can cause a lot of confusion. Writing effective dialogue takes skill and a bit of a knowledge base. This is one place where high school or basic college English won’t help.

BASIC DIALOGUE PUNCTUATION
All punctuation goes inside the quotation marks.
Speaker tags (like said) are considered part of the sentence and are NOT capitalized.

The words within quotes end in a comma, unless you’re asking a question.

Examples
Incorrect
“I can’t believe you did that.” […]

If you enter the writing challenge, you are probably familiar with this wonderful writer who worked her way up the challenge levels, amazing us with her beautiful writing. Now get a chance to know more about Sarah Elisabeth.

JOANNE: Sarah Elisabeth, tell us a bit about yourself.

SARAH ELISABETH: I’m a twenty-five-soon-to-be-twenty-six-year-old (September 27th) that is blessed to live at home with my parents. It affords me to pursue my writing business full time, take on an overwhelming amount of projects, and […]

Are you working on that novel you’ve had in your head for years? Just starting to put some words on paper for a fabulous story idea? Have we got the contest for you.

All FW 500 platinum members (click here to become a platinum member) are eligible to enter the Fifth Annual FaithWriters.com Page Turner Contest. This year, the entries must be Christian fiction, and the deadline is October 31, 2011. The winners will be announced on December 1, 2011.

All you […]

We all have dreams and aspirations. Some of them are bigger than others. Some are related to writing, while others aren’t. Most of us who aren’t yet published have a dream to become so – whether it’s in a magazine, a journal, a short story or poetry collection, or our own book.

We have dreams for personal growth – to become better friends, siblings, spouses, church members. We dream of vacations in Hawaii, the top of the New York Times bestseller […]

NO WINE, NO PROBLEM
By Cris Cramer

Here’s John 2:7-8 (NIV):

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.

Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

This is one tiny piece of the story told in John 2:1-11, where Jesus transforms water into wine for a wedding celebration. It’s the part where the amazing thing happens, where water stops being water and […]

WRITER’S BLOCK STIMULATOR

by Gail Gaymer Martin

Most everyone at one time or another goes blank while writing. My technique is to exercise–go for a walk or more likely get on my stationary bike and pedal. Perhaps this stimulates the blood flow to my brain or just removes me from the problem I’m facing in the book, but I often solve the issue while exercising in some way. The serious writer’s […]

My writing is about to kick into high gear…theoretically.

Because I have school-aged kids (who I don’t homeschool), my writing productivity changes greatly once school is in session (fifteen days from today – but who’s counting?). A lot fewer distractions during the day, which should translate to more productivity. But, of course, other things start up as well – Bible study, school volunteering, carpooling, etc. etc. etc.

Of course, not everyone has this change once summer ends. But I’d venture to guess […]

Now that most of the 60+ of us who attended the Fourth FaithWriters’ Conference in Livonia, Michigan have been home for a while, it’s time to reflect on the conference, what we’ve learned, and the time we had. And I’ve invited several of the attendees to share their impressions/thoughts/favorites, etc.

But I suppose I’ll start. As far as the conference itself, I learned something I NEEDED in every session I attended. Just a few of them are below:

Keep your eyes open, […]

FaithWriters are a diverse bunch in their writing styles and preferred genres. Some love to compose devotionals. Others prefer apologetics, written testimonies, or other non-fiction. Still others would love nothing more than to write fiction.

And then there are the poets. Personally, I’ve written a few, but it’s not my forte’. To me, writing good, not to mention excellent, poetry is extremely difficult.

So maybe, there’s hope for me today. Because August 18 (yes, that’s today) is NATIONAL BAD POETRY DAY. A […]