“Stories come from people. Not from ideas, not from plots. Faulkner gave us the key to our material: ‘the human heart in conflict with...

The much-anticipated, long-awaited Write2Ignite conference has come and gone. The recovery Sunday is now behind me, and the reality of a...

For several years, I had read various comments and articles about and notices and advertisements for the Write2Ignite Christian writers’...

I fully understand that media outlets seek viewers and that they want those viewers to be regular, continuous viewers so that they will...

I don’t know where I first heard that statement: “Put the cookies on the bottom shelf.” It certainly didn’t originate with me, but I have...

A young, aspiring writer once asked author Jesse Stuart about the secret to his writing success. Stuart–author of Beyond Dark Hills, Man...

Here are some of his one-liners that are among my personal favorites. They are as true today as they were when he quipped them. “The...

My wife recently bought some electric plug-in room deodorizers for our house. She asked me to install one that she had laid out for the...

Perhaps you’re familiar with the adage “Don’t work harder; work smarter.” Although writing is always hard work (because it requires a lot...

My wife, a second-grade teacher, usually has her mind, even during her summer vacation, on school-related matters. Sometimes, that leads...

“It isn’t defeat, but rather your mental attitude toward it, that whips you.” This goes back to what an earlier post said about the...

We’ve seen already how Napoleon Hill offered some good advice that writers can apply to the attitude they take toward their work. That’s...

In my last post, I mentioned that Napoleon Hill offered words of wisdom that could be applied to one’s writing. Among the quotations from...

In fact, I get a daily e-mail “thought for the day” from the Napoleon Hill Foundation http://www.naphill.org that has included numerous...

Lately, I’ve been reading a sadly ironic biography of a talented but confused author who spent his life trying to find himself. He...

If a writer wants his or her message to be understood, one must keep the readers in mind and write to them on their level. Failure to do...

Precision in writing is as important to good writing as brevity. In fact, precision, and it’s cousin clarity, inevitably produce brevity....

The next stage for a writer who continues to evolve in his or her skills is learning to “cut the fat.” First drafts are enveloped and...

The lead, of course, is what the professionals call the first paragraph (sometimes a little more) of your piece. It is supposed to pull...

During that time and through all the ups and downs of my writing career, I’ve noticed seven recurring characteristics that editors seek...