By W. Terry Whalin @terrywhalin We love a good story. When we hear or read the words, it makes us lean into the conversation or the words fly past as we turn the pages. It’s a skill every writer needs to learn and constantly improve. Some of us write our stories,…

By Amy Bright @AmyBrightwriter Do you love to read fight scenes, or do you skip over them to the outcome and the rest of the book? I have to confess–I rarely make it past two to three paragraphs of many fight scenes. Sometimes they seem forced; sometimes the fights are…

by Alycia W. Morales @AlyciaMorales In his book How to Grow a Novel: The Most Common Mistakes Writers Make and How to Overcome Them, Sol Stein says, “In our not-yet acknowledged secret garden lie the seeds of some of our best not-yet written stories.” When I recently read this quote, the…

by Katy Kauffman @KatyKauffman28 I wanted to be clever, not practical. My goal in crafting blog post titles was to think of the snazziest title I could, even if it wasn’t search engine friendly. It took a few gentle suggestions from a blog editor for me to embrace a different…

By Cherrilynn Bisbano @bisbanowrites “She loves my book but I need to build my platform.” A conferee said after she left the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference appointment room. “Tell me about yourself,” I said. After I asked my new friend a few questions I said, “Now you can…

by Rhonda Rhea @RhondaRhea The other night I was jolted out of bed by one of those monstrous thunder cracks. I think you can still see the fingernail marks on the ceiling over my bed. It was one of those rattle-the-windows, race-the-heart, vibrate-you-right-down-to-the-spirit kind of thunder explosions. I sensed people all…