Aloha from Karen It's hard to think that the Christmas season is here. I just celebrated meeting my husband 38 years ago and it's hard to think how fast the time has gone by. Our oldest son leaves for Iraq in less than two months. His wife and two little ones will move in with us while he is deployed so life will change! As treasurer of CAN I've enjoyed getting to know many authors in this network. We try to help promote one anothers books. That's part of being in the body of…
Category: Inspiration for Writers
This is our archive pageThriving Through the Holidays
Jan here, hoping to offer a few encouraging thoughts and ideas to help you as writers thrive through the approaching holidays. The past five or more years, I’ve headed into the Christmas season with either book deadlines or December speaking engagements (or both). I loved the work and ministry involved, but it made an already busy season extra busy. In some ways, I approached it by doing what I could to survive and get through to other side. I want to do it differently from now on. How about you? There’s the usual excitement and activity of the season, the family events and traditions…
Writing for Pure Enjoyment
Jan here, writing to you today about writing craft, with a focus on keeping the fun in writing. Recently I had a conversation with writer, Nancy Sanders, who encourages those she mentors to take time each week to set aside deadlines and write whatever they feel like. I see merit in that. Oftentimes we do enjoy what we are currently writing for publication, but it might do our writing some good if we took regular time to write something just because we want to. This post is dedicated to writing for the fun of it.
Blowing it
He was back . . . again—the annoying guy with the bad comb-over and pastel 3-piece suit. Who wore a suit like that to a writer’s conference? And what was he doing here anyway? Was he even a writer? According to our last conversation he was in town for a convention but stopped by the writer’s conference with some of his buddies to kill time. When did the conference coordinators start allowing that?
The Words We Long to Hear
Happy Monday from Dianne Matthews! Can you CANners believe that it’s November already? I’ve been tied to my computer since spring, working extra-long days to finish a one-year devotional book in five months. The spiritual warfare has been ongoing but at the midway point, it really intensified.
Outlining #2 – Creating Character Arcs
Hi from Gail Gaymer Martin at www.gailmartin.com The last time I blogged about outlining, I covered the first point from the Gideon Film Festival on Outlining for Screenwriting. The first point was on creating a theme. The next point deals with the topic of creating characters arcs. Whether writing a novel or screen writing, character arcs are a vital element of good writing.
A Writer’s Rest and Productivity
Jan writing to you from the warm, sunny foothills of the Sierras, hoping to offer some words of encouragement for your writing and marketing journey. What did you think when you read the title? Do the words ‘rest’ and ‘productivity’ really work together for the writer and marketer? I have been determined to find out. Recently, during a sermon, I found myself continuing an ongoing conversation with God. Life felt hectic. I was weary.
When Words Won’t Work
Hello from CAN Secretary Jeanette Hanscome. Like most CAN members, my writing life is often complicated by . . . well . . . life. As I write, edit, and teach I am also dealing with some stuff that will eventually provide riveting material for a novel or devotional book but for now is just plain discouraging and frustrating. As if the circumstance wasn’t upsetting enough on its own, I’ve also had to accept that I can’t do anything now but pray. I’ve argued, debated, and spoken the truth in love only to discover that my gift for words will…
Computer Withdrawals
I’m on vacation with my parents and son this week but brought my laptop along so I could keep up with e-mail, post a lesson for an on-line workshop that I’m teaching, and do my blog posting. Then my computer started doing some really weird things and I had to pack it up for the week. Thankfully my dad let me use his laptop for the posts (thank you God for portable flash drives) but I am silently freaking out about what I’ll do once I get home. In the mean time I’m taking this as God’s way of telling…
A Writer’s Spiritual Well
Jan, writing to you from my desk in the foothills of the California Sierras. As I’m enjoying a cooler day after an unseasonably warm weekend, I’m thinking about the writer’s spiritual wells. When I hover my mouse over my word-processing icon on my computer desktop, it says, “Abide in me and I in you for apart from Me you can do nothing”–from John 15:5. Sometimes I chase ahead in my busyness without abiding; it’s not long before I feel the drain. As writers we fill our wells in many ways. Over the years, I have either bought or been given books that help fill my…
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