Archive for April, 2015

A Fun and TOUGH Challenge

Writing tight.

It is definitely a challenge. For most folks, it is much easier to go on and on about something than to just get to the point. Learning to say a lot in just a few words is a hard-earned skill for many. Many folks here at FaithWriters have honed that talent in the Writing Challenge, which limits you to 750 words per submission. It really is harder than it looks. 🙂

But challenge-length entries aren’t the shortest ones out there. […]

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Discouraged? Turn Your Focus to God

Discouraged? Turn Your Focus to God
By Suzanne Hartmann

Several years ago, after I had received over twenty rejection letters from querying agents for several months, I succumbed to discouragement. I questioned whether I was going in the right direction with my novel, The Race that Lies Before Us. Thankfully, God had the answer for me, but I had to look to Him to receive it.

The following week, my church began a Bible study called Experiencing God. As I looked […]

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The Writing Challenge – It’s Not About the Song

Have you checked out the Spring Quarter’s topics for the FaithWriters Writing Challenge? I imagine they are quite familiar to you – but to enter, you need to throw that familiarity out the door.

Confused? Let me help. This quarter’s topics are Christian song or hymn titles – “Stand Up For Jesus,” for example – but your entries may NOT be about the song itself: the origins, verses, or anything else related to the actual song are off limits.

Doesn’t sound easy […]

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Poem From a Broken Writer

Poem From a Broken Writer
By Abby Kelly

I felt sunlight softening soul into spirit,
Liquifying calcified dreams
Pressed dormant into crannies
Of this flesh-shell.

I felt icicles like prisms melting
Drips of radiant, golden life
Suspended from the end of despair
And soften, butter-yellow
Fall, back into this flesh-shell.

Yes, I felt sunlight soften my soul
Dripping spirit back into body
Filling, ever so slowly, back up this
Gutted flesh-shell.

I watched goals and dreams flitter
Like litter cross the street,
Fast and flimsy, uncharted, un-chased
Un-pursued.

Acorns pop beneath my feet,
Rebelling, I walk past lecture halls
And lessons.
I […]

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Music and the Muse

Music and the Muse
by Randy Ingermanson

When you’re writing a full-length novel, you’re going to spend a lot of time typing your first draft. Probably at least 100 hours, and possibly much longer.

Anything that makes you more creative during those hundreds of hours will pay off hugely. It’ll take you less time to write your first draft. And your first draft will be better.

I recently asked a number of writers if they listen to music when they write. The reason I […]

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Entering the Xulon Raffle for a Publishing Package

So, have you popped over to the Xulon Raffle Page since it opened on the first of this month? There are LOTS of ways to enter to receive a chance to win a Xulon Bestseller Package (over $4,000 retail value) – and the 0nly qualification to enter is that you must be a FaithWriters member – anything from a free silver member up to platinum. (You can join FaithWriters here if you haven’t already)

Once you have joined, pop over to […]

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A Lesson in Trust, For Writers

A Lesson in Trust, For Writers
by Linda Yezak

Have you ever read a book or manuscript written by someone who obviously doesn’t trust you? The author tells you what the character is going to do, then shows the character doing it, and finishes by interpreting the actions just in case you didn’t get it. Italics tell us the character is thinking, and the telling goes from there:

Clara saw someone who looked like Ron. I wonder if that’s Ron? She ran ideas through her […]

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God Friday

GOD Friday
By Anna Caison

According to Ken Collins http://(www.kencollins.com), Good Friday in German is called Mourning (Karfreitag) Friday because it was on this day that the disciples of Jesus mourned at His crucifixion. He further adds that the word good had a secondary meaning, holy; and how in some phrases the words God and Good was switched around because of their similarity (ex: God be with you, today is simply, good-bye). So maybe at one time, Good Friday may have been […]

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