Writing tips “Interestingness” Genuine, openhearted engagement—what Brenda Ueland calls “interestingness”—is the basic ingredient of a fruitful creative process. Because of this, stories are essentially egalitarian in nature, meaning that each and every one…
Writing tips Four Excuses Not to Write Spiritual Memoir and One Invitation - by Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew https://writersblock.loft.org/2013/01/18/1883/four_excuses_not_to_write_spiritual_memoir_and_one_invitation
Writing tips Velma Still Cooks in Leeway When I was in the early stages of writing Velma Still Cooks in Leeway, I decided to spend some time in the book of Ezekiel. The issues I wanted to…
Writing tips Seeing Again and Again and Again - by Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew http://www.elizabethjarrettandrew.com/2016/12/seeing-again-and-again-and-again/#more-1994
Writing tips Tapping the Well Much inspiration will come from your observations of the life that goes on all around you. But openness to life in general isn’t usually what causes you to shiver and…
Writing tips Find a Character Find a character, like yourself, who will want something or not want something with all his heart. Give him running orders. Shoot him off. Then follow as fast as you…
Writing tips Better the Devil You Know: Rough Drafts - by Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew https://writersblock.loft.org/2010/10/15/739/friday_writing_tip_better_the_devil_you_know_revising_prose
Writing tips Stay Healthy Prayer and other spiritual disciplines can help creativity simply because they are helping the interior life stay healthy. - from "The Soul Tells a Story: Engaging Creativity with Spirituality in…
Writing tips The Final Mystery and the Final Power of Words IF LITERATURE IS a metaphor for the writer's experience, a mirror in which that experience is at least partially reflected, it is at the same time a mirror in which…
Writing tips Why does God want me to write? - by Chioma Oparadike How would you define your writing? Would you describe it as a compilation of words that allow you tell a story or record a series of…
Writing tips What We Read For many writers what we do not read when we are writing can be as important as what we do read. What I absolutely do not read when starting…
Writing tips “Selfie” Writing - by Leona Choy I've never taken a “selfie” picture with my smart phone camera. One of my grandsons showed me how easily it's done, but it just isn't…
Marketing tips, Writing tips Discovery is Half the Fun There will always be mystery in the creative process, and we would be disappointed if it became a science we could sketch out in detail. Discovery is half the fun.…
Writing tips “Open a Vein” by Frederick Buechner The following meditation is from a talk on the occasion of the presentation of the Whiting Writers' awards: I WISH THAT I had told my writing students to give some…
Writing tips The Healthy Creative Life The healthy creative life is an intentional life… • How intentional have I been about my creative development? • What options are open to me now? • What opportunities am…
Writing tips Do Not Write to an Audience On a retreat in Texas once, I heard Frederick Buechner say that he writes to people he loves and who really know him. “You use your real voice with those…
Marketing tips, Publishing tips, Writing tips Father James Martin: “A Discussion on Spiritual Writing” • The Rev. James Martin is a Jesuit priest, best-selling author, and editor at large at America, the national Catholic magazine. He is arguably the leading Catholic author. • This…
Writing tips Listening Toward the end of the Year of Pretending to Write a Book, an interview on All Things Considered caught my attention. The man being interviewed was described as a consultant…
Writing tips Searching for Home by Frederick Buechner I receive maybe three or four hundred letters a year from strangers who tell me that the books I have spent the better part of my life…
Writing tips Finding a Writing Rhythm - by Tony Jones Mark Twain said, “Write what you know.” I work best under deadline. A book I’m editing that is a tribute (aka, festschrift; aka liber amicorum) was…
