How’s Your Vocabulary?

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Hi, Dave Fessenden here, with a suggestion for writers. Have you been developing your vocabulary lately? Usually when I ask people that question, I get a mixed response. Most writers realize that a healthy vocabulary is helpful, but they worry that their writing is going to sound like a thesaurus, fraught with obscure, many-syllabled words. But that is not at all what I mean. I mean that we need to learn the exact definitions of words, along with their connotations, so that we can be sure to use them precisely. Let me give you an example with two words which…

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“The Emperor Has No Clothes!”

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Hi, Dave Fessenden here, with some advice to Christian writers from one of my favorite children’s stories. In “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” a great ruler is hoodwinked by two charlatans who claim to have made him a set of clothes from material that is invisible to fools. The emperor cannot see the nonexistent clothes, of course, but he does not want to be considered a fool — and neither do all his subjects — so they join in the pretense that the outfit is the most beautiful they have ever seen. Their self-deception is shattered at the royal parade, when…

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Tips From the Pros: David E. Fessenden

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Greetings from Colorado this colorful season. Davalynn Spencer here to introduce David E. Fessenden, author, editor, and teacher. Welcome, David. Tell us how you got into writing? I have always loved words and been good at expressing myself in written form. So when I prayed about what major to pursue in college, I sensed God saying, “How about a writer?” and so I studied journalism.

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Why waste time with a book proposal?

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My current nonfiction project is a book on writing that was solicited by a publisher. Since I have already been given a contract for the book, and I have a tight deadline, you may be surprised to hear that one of my earliest steps in the process is writing a proposal. What?

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