Blog
Unless the Lord Builds Your Writing House
There have been some great posts recently about the difficulty of this writing journey we’re on together. If you haven’t read The Lonely Writer and When You Feel Like You’ve Been Left Behind, you should go do that now. Both of those posts really resonated with me because it seems like the disappointments on this…
Finding Mommy Bliss
Guest post by amazing mommy friend GennyHeikka Life is busy and motherhood is busier. It can be easy to function on auto-pilot, missing the moments that make parenting rich. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed and isolated too. If you’re a mom, you know that parenting can be chaotic, stressful, and complicated. There are temper…
The Write Attitude
by Ron Estrada A successful writer becomes a success long before the first book contract is signed. Success happens when you make the decision that it will happen. No, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that if you visualize it, it will happen. That’s T-shirt philosophy and I won’t insult your intelligence…
Creating Quirky Characters
I started novel-writing when chick-lit was “the thing.” It’s not “the thing” anymore, but I miss those quirky characters. Bridget Jones in granny panties. The Finland-loving Rebecca Bloomwood. And, of course, Kristin Billerbeck’s Ashley Stockingdale. Why? Because I relate to them. I’m not angst-ridden like Bella Swan or strong and silent like Katniss. I’m more…
A Writer’s Roller Coaster Life: Are You Ready to Ride?
Being a writer is like strapping yourself into a straight jacket and then jumping on a Rockin’ Roller Coaster. Once strapped in, you can’t get off and you have to trust that the operator will bring you safely to the end. In the meantime, you’re helpless, torn between the terror and the excitement as you’re…
The Power in a Photograph to Tell a Story
Guest Post by Jeff Satterly It’s often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but I think that saying a picture is “worth” any amount of words isn’t exactly true. Both images and written text have value for conveying information and providing insight and understanding into something, but some pictures, and photographs in…
Why You Can’t Live on the Mountaintop
Mountaintops are beautiful. It’s there you feel free as if you have the world at your fingertips. You have a front row seat to God’s majestic sunrise and at night, an unobstructed view of the vast universe. It’s a wonderful place to experience, but you can’t stay up there forever. Though sometimes we wish we…
Making Room for Thankfulness in the Midst of Privation
God has been nudging me about memorizing Scripture. I have embarrassingly little of His Word committed to memory, so I started with the verses I have tape-flagged in my Bible, ones I wanted to keep close anyway. I practice each verse for a few minutes a day, adding a new one when I have the…
Reorganization: The Cost of Starting Over
Maybe it’s the writer in me. Or the perfectionist. Possibly the perfectionist writer. In any case, when it comes to organizational systems, I’m forever revising, producing new drafts of my methods, and occasionally scrapping what I’ve got and starting over. If necessity is the mother of invention, then annoyance is its kooky uncle. (TWEET THIS BY…
How to Start your Writing Business: Famous Writer, Inc.
by Ron Estrada Every writer has uttered the words “I want to write full time someday!” Unless you are the child of Donald and (insert bride name here) Trump, you probably don’t have the luxury of buying a beach-house in the Keys and living out your Hemingwayesque fantasy. You have bills, a mortgage, car payments,…