Archive for the 'The craft' Category

Why Writing Alone Is Impossible

Writing is a solitary occupation, and one of its hazzards is loneliness. But an advantage of loneliness is privacy, autonomy and freedom.  – Joyce Carol Oates We all believe this fallacy that writing is a solitary sport. Of course we write alone. At least, that’s what we tend to think. It’s not a team activity. It’s one writer, sometimes two,
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A Word for Writers on Healthy Integration (or More Accurately, the First Word of Likely Many More).

“It’s always the vulnerable heart that breaks broken hearts free.”   I read a new book recently and it changed me. It helped me realize something I hadn’t before. Books often do that, of course, but not in a quite so fundamentally altering way. You know how when new information comes, there’s always that period of instability before you can even
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The #1 Most Powerful Story Tool: Convey Fear

High stakes yield high success.   Donald Maass If you’re working to write or edit a book, you naturally want to know how you can improve the read. In all the books I edit, I try to serve as a careful reader and one of my primary considerations is always whether the story has enough of a sense of danger
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Want to Write a Best-Seller? Mine Your Empathy

The greatest of divides…is between those who regard the visible world as being of primary importance…and those who do not. Dallas Willard   There are so many challenges to writing a story that works, let alone that can capture readers’ hearts and imaginations to get talked about and shared. And so few people who talk about writing never will for
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How Are You Relating to Your Reader?

Last week, following my church’s vision meetings, I was inspired by the connection to our two distinct strategic priorities required for writing and editing: “Do You Know Your Priorities As a Writer?” And this weekend, God provided more excellent inspiration to help further define this fundamental difference between writing from inspiration, and editing to help your readers. We started with a clear objective:
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