Writing tips Obedience Perhaps the reason I shuddered at the idea of writing something about “Christian art" is that to paint a picture or to write a story or to compose a song…
Writing tips Creativity: Begin with What’s There When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” . . . Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they…
Writing tips However many other religious languages I learn, I dream in Christian. One of my favorite authors, Paul Knitter, has written a book called “Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian”. In it, he describes the “double-belonging” that led him to…
Writing tips King Lear - by Frederick Buechner There would be a strong argument for saying that much of the most powerful preaching of our time is the preaching of the poets, playwrights, novelists…
Writing tips They learned Hemingway studied, as models, the novels of Knut Hamsun and Ivan Turgenev. Issac Bashevis Singer, as it happened, also chose Hamsun and Turgenev as models. Ralph Ellison studied Heminway and…
Writing tips Intensely private Three qualities make the genre of spiritual memoir unique: The spiritual writer uncovers, probes, and honors what is sacred in his or her life story; the writing process itself is…
Writing tips Wisdom: God’s Mind Coming to Us Wisdom enlarges understanding and sharpens viewpoints. Wisdom discerns between similar options. Wisdom builds a memory of examples to help guide us. Wisdom is God’s mind coming to us in tiny…
Marketing tips, Writing tips Who had convinced us that faith was a competitive sport and that only one team could win for all eternity? by Barbara Brown Taylor That first field trip opened a whole new folder of questions for me, both as a person and as a teacher of young persons. Is it…
Publishing tips, Writing tips Worth the Wait: How You Can Still Focus While Being Patient By Dr. Mollie Bond The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. Ecclesiastes 7:8 Have you ever been in a situation like this? You…
Writing tips Small Windows This sets up a weird tension between the small window of my classroom and the small window of my phone. Which is giving me a better picture of the real…
Writing tips Writing Critique Checklists Following is an outline I use when preparing writers to critique one another. This outline breaks down the type of feedback according to the stage of the work. Of course…
Writing tips WHAT IF THIS WRITING LIFE? I was living alone in a house, and set up a study on the first floor. A portable green Smith-Corona typewriter sat on the table against the wall. I made…
Writing tips Attending to life’s submerged currents When I consider the value that Western culture places on material things; when I encounter advertising’s perpetual message that we need to change ourselves to be acceptable, happy, or loved;…
Writing tips That is not how it went for me Contrary to popular opinion, all religions are not alike. Their followers see the world in very distinct ways. Their understandings of the human condition proceed from different assumptions, leading them…
Writing tips Finding the Right Criticism You need criticism almost as much as you need encouragement. Someone has to tell you what is in your work that hurts you or the work itself. You simply can’t…
Writing tips All art is cosmos in chaos Leonard Bernstein tells me more than the dictionary when he says that for him music is cosmos in chaos. That has the ring of truth in my ears and sparks…
Marketing tips, Publishing tips, Writing tips What should you look for in a mentor? What should you look for in a mentor, a person to accompany you on your creative journey? Here are some ideas, but this is certainly not an exhaustive list. Someone…
Writing tips Who will teach me to write? Who will teach me to write? a reader wanted to know. The page, the page, the eternal blankness, the blankness of eternity which you cover slowly, affirming time’s scrawl as…
Marketing tips, Writing tips In every line We tell our clients the same thing my filmmaker friends told me when I was writing screenplays: anything that doesn’t serve the plot has to go. Just because a tagline…
Writing tips Inseparable All right. So it’s an impossible task. But thinking about it may open new questions , new insights. And as I listen to the silence, I learn that my feelings…
