Archive for the writing Tag

Committing to Real Progress

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”  – Philippians 3:12 I like to think of myself as one who does not accept second best. But I do it all the time. Not from others but
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Helping Someone Else Love It Too

Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way. – Donald Miller I used to love Don Miller. I’ve had many writing heroes: Hemingway. Anne Frank. Alex Haley. But after Blue Like Jazz, I felt like Don really got me. He’d written what I was
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Where the Obsession May Lead

Say I was just a little bit obsessed with writing this book. Would that be so bad? Maybe we have to become saturated with it, like a painter or an actor, to really convince anyone it’s worth their time. I suppose the obvious (and well-documented) problem with this is what such an obsession tends to lead to. Fact is, with writers
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Face Your Shame

I’m still up on the high of teaching at the Story Vision Fiction Retreat in Seattle. So I’m still thinking about the last session I shared earlier today… Has what you’ve faced made you realize the value of your story? When we’ve been through difficult, painful things that laid us out, we can find God has helped us through. We can
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My #1 Tool for Productive Writers, Part 1

“There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open up a vein.” – Walter Wellesley Smith For a long time, I believed the hype about being a more productive writer. I thought the usual advice about setting goals, getting on a schedule and visualizing was right on. But I think for some of us it’s not enough. There are deeper
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