I have just read a brilliant (5 star) book. Next time I plan a novel I will be using Lisa Cron’s method from her new book ‘Story Genius’ Here are some of the points she made that I found so helpful. Story is not the same as plot. Plot is the external happenings but story is the internal journey that the characters make. Story is what the protagonist has to learn and to overcome (internally) to solve the external plot…
Simon Camilleri is the second of our spotlight posts on Australian authors. What has been your journey towards writing? Since deciding to follow Jesus in my teens, I have always had a passion for using my creative skills to share Jesus with people. I had a love for theatre and began studying it at University and so that was for me the most natural place to start. I began by writing Christian plays and directing them at University. That led…
Cecily Paterson, the first interviewee in our ‘Spotlight on Australian authors’ series. Until a year ago, I was isolated from other Christian authors. Since discovering several Facebook groups I’ve joined two specifically for Australian authors and book related people – Australasian Christian Writers and Christian Writers Downunder. Through them I’ve ‘met’ many Australian authors. I’ve learned heaps through the articles they post and I’ve also started reading their books to get a feel for the market. I wanted to interview…
This is the second part of a post on how I planned my novel using the “Snowflake Method” created by Randy Ingermanson. This continues with my comments in italics under the final five of his ten step method. Step 6) By now, you have a solid story and several story-threads, one for each character. Now take a week and expand the one-page plot synopsis of the novel to a four-page synopsis. Basically, you will again be expanding each paragraph from step…
I am a planner by nature but writing a novel was something totally new. I went looking for something that made sense to me and settled on what is known as the “Snowflake Method.” I will let the original article explain each section and then make some of my own comments in italics. Some people don’t do up front design and planning. They just start writing. That is not me. The creator of this method, Randy Ingermanson, uses 10 steps….
When we read the work of writers, we read the successes. We usually do not know the whole story. The reality is that many writers have written far more than what they publish. Like learning to practice a musical instrument, there will be years of practice involved. My non-fiction writing journey started well before the publication of 1-2-1 Discipleship. Looking back now I can see I was honing my writing with the discipline of weekly letter writing (age 5 until…
www.storyingthescriptures.com started as an English website designed to accompany the book “Telling the Gospel Through Story*.” The nature of Bible storytelling meant that some way to HEAR Bible stories was needed. It is not at all the same thing to write down the stories in black and white. A website also allowed us to keep adding new things and sharing new resources in a way that a static book never can. I was soon dreaming of having the website function…
This is a post with ten practical hints of how you can help your friend who is an author. We don’t like to ask these things but many of these would be helpful. http://keithwebb.com/support-author-friend/ How To Support Your Author Friend #4 – reviews can be cut and pasted to multiple sites. I think Good Reads and Book Depository are also extremely important. The actual publishers site and your local Christian book stores are also important.
Possible motivations:- You’ve always wanted to be a famous author You want to make money writing You want to prove someone wrong who said, “You can’t do it!” You can’t help writing You want to promote a point of view or share something you’ve learned You don’t care about any of the above, you’d write whether anyone read it or not There might be many reasons for writing but should there be different motivations for Christians? In other words, does…
Many years ago I remember hearing the advice that there is no substitute for simply writing. The advice suggested that aspiring writers write a daily diary. I didn’t intend to be a writer but I did end up doing a lot of writing. From the age of five I was in boarding school and we had to write a weekly letter. These started in Grade 1 with simply copying a sentence or two from the board. By Grade 4 we…