Writing Craft Archives | Christian Authors Community & Services

Book Reviews: Special Helps for Authors and Readers

July 10, 2020July 13, 2020
by Tom Blubaugh

[This blog post is a collaboration between two of our members, and a great job they did! Nancy Kuykendall and Eileen Moynihan were in class when I was talking about writing book reviews. They graciously accepted the challenge to collaborate and write a blog post about that very thing. Enjoy and learn :)]

Apparently, reading during lunch and ignoring others is considered “rude,” and laughing out loud while reading is annoying. Who knew? Another thing to consider is to have a strong opinion about a book and not share it with the author. You share it with your friends, but does that help the author or other readers? Of course not.

Without doubt, authors look for feedback after publishing and releasing a new book. We keep track of comments on previous books as well. We like knowing what readers think of our work, and we need to know. We want to know how our book was received—if it was helpful, informative, fun, written well, and if readers felt it was worth their time and money. Whether we write fiction or non-fiction, we like to know if our words had an impact on others. Read more “Book Reviews: Special Helps for Authors and Readers” →

Should You Always Write What You Know?

June 18, 2020June 18, 2020
by Michelle Janene

Many professional authors will advise that we should “Write what you know.” It is important for authenticity and grounding readers in our stories. It also helps us to stick to information, situations, and locations that are familiar.

Writing only what I know can be a huge challenge for me. I have never met a dragon—though it is a dream of mine. I have never traveled to a distant planet. And I don’t have any neighbors who are fairies or elves. Yes, I am a fantasy writer. Other times I write historical fiction, but—again—this is a problem. I have never lived in the Middle Ages. There are some advantages to having access to primary sources for research and a lot of other history buffs out there who have synthesized the research for me. But even with all I can read and research, would it be considered writing what I know? Read more “Should You Always Write What You Know?” →

And now for something completely different…

June 2, 2020June 2, 2020
by Tom Blubaugh

In college earning my Master’s, I took a class on statistics. I’m not a “numbers” kind of person, or so I thought, until I took this class. I realized just how much numbers can tell a person about almost any subject. I also learned that randomness is rarely achieved even though it is a difficult, but highly prized, state for researchers to attain in order to garner objectiveness in research.

Randomness can spark an inferno in a writer’s creativeness.

I wish I had saved a blog post written by the Christian author, Brandilyn Collins decades ago. She wrote a most intriguing post about driving home and seeing a Burger King wrapper tumble across the road in front of her car. Read more “And now for something completely different…” →

Writing Fight Scenes

June 1, 2020
by Randy Ingermanson

Writing a fight scene is easy to get wrong. It’s also easy to get right. This blog post is adapted from a classic article I wrote in my Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine back in October of 2006. That’s a long time ago, so I thought it was worth updating and posting on my blog.

We’re going to get down into the details in this post. Fight scenes are really easy, if you know the rules. And what are the rules?

Some Fight Scene Rules-of-Thumb

Show, don’t tell
Make it happen in real-time
Enforce causality
Show sequence, not simultaneity
Favor completed verbs over continuing-action verbs
Show the fastest stuff first
For every action, show a reaction
Use interior monologue and dialogue to set the pace

These rules of thumb all exist for the same reason. The reason is that your reader wants your fiction to show them a movie in their heads. The rules of thumb force you to do that.

A Wretchedly Bad Fight Scene

I could explain all the rules in boring detail, but that would be Telling you. Right now, I want to Show you. So here’s a wretchedly bad fight scene that violates all the rules. Read it first, mock it all you want, and then let’s analyze it to see why it’s so awful. Read more “Writing Fight Scenes” →

Learn from the Tale of a Tale

May 19, 2020May 20, 2020
by Margaret Welwood

The invitation came out of the blue. Would I like to write a magazine article on a person with a very interesting mission?

I puzzled a bit—I’d never written for this magazine or on this topic before. However, I have written for a variety of magazines and also edited a business magazine. The editor’s choice became clearer when I realized that the “source”—also known as the “subject”—lived in a city near where I live. And I guessed that the editor had found me in our provincial writers’ guild registry.

I checked out the magazine, and found that it was a quarterly distributed free to professionals, administrators, post-secondary students, and politicians in a particular field. I checked out the editor’s website and Linkedin profile, then confirmed with him that I’d like to do the article. Read more “Learn from the Tale of a Tale” →

May 30, 2020

by Nancy Kuykendall on Christian Authors Community & Services

Encouragement!

I greatly enjoyed this short video. I appreciated the shared scripture verses so much! I have been thinking about this very thing more and more...

Mar 21, 2020

by Steve Stroble on Christian Authors Community and Services

Thank you for the examples.

Mar 21, 2020

by Brianna on Christian Authors Community and Services

Good Reminder

This was a good reminder for me because I often forget body language beyond facial expressions. Thank you!

Mar 20, 2020

by Sarah Tun on Christian Authors Community and Services

How to write body language

First, even to post about this shares insight. Showing not telling, is at the heart of body language. Gina, you've managed to discuss 2 important...

Category: Writing Craft

Book Reviews: Special Helps for Authors and Readers

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Should You Always Write What You Know?

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And now for something completely different…

Randomness can spark an inferno in a writer’s creativeness.

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Writing Fight Scenes

Some Fight Scene Rules-of-Thumb

A Wretchedly Bad Fight Scene

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Learn from the Tale of a Tale

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Category: Writing Craft

Book Reviews: Special Helps for Authors and Readers

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Should You Always Write What You Know?

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And now for something completely different…

Randomness can spark an inferno in a writer’s creativeness.

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Like this:

Writing Fight Scenes

Some Fight Scene Rules-of-Thumb

A Wretchedly Bad Fight Scene

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Learn from the Tale of a Tale

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Now Accepting Manuscript Submissions for Assessment