A while back, several fans responded to a query on my Facebook author page about what I should write about at my blog. One response was: What do you like to read? Who are your favorite authors? Narrowing down the list is very difficult, because I frankly love to read so much (from suspense fiction to history to devotional books to young adult novels). But in my estimation a few novels/authors stand above the rest. Keep in mind that I’m starting with childhood and that I had a very active imagination then (still do). Today I want to talk about the highly underrated five-book series, The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander (published in the 1960s). The five books are The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron (Newberry Award Honor Book), The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer, and The High King (Newberry Award Winner). Before there was The Hobbit. Before there was The Lord of…
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A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about 10 common mistakes I’ve seen in novel writing due to my day job as a fiction editor. Have you ever written or said something, taken a certain position, and then seen examples to refute it? What I should have added to that article was something along these lines: fiction writing styles change over time. When Charles Dickens wrote Little Dorrit, his writing style was popular in his day. But styles change. There’s a reason no one wears bell-bottoms today. The mistakes I cited weren’t grammatical problems; rather, they were “mistakes” according to current expectations on the part of publishers and literary agents. The word current is important to note here because who knows what the popular style will be in a decade. Maybe someday confining a single viewpoint to each scene will seem old-fashioned. Maybe the next big trend will be…
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I live in a very tiny but blessed minority. For some reason, known only to God, I get to work from home and do what I love most: work with words. Over the last few years, I’ve worked more with novel writing than with anything else, and I’ve seen a lot of common mistakes. Here are a few of the most common ones, along with solutions. 1. The Info Dump Often insecure authors feel they need to dump a lot of back story at a novel’s beginning before readers will “get” the main story. It’s logical thinking: “Before you get this, you need to understand this.” But the problem is, they tend to give the info dump in the first five pages or so, those precious pages acquisition editors look at first. (Check out The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman.) While back story is often important for character and plot…
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*Don’t forget your free bonus at the end of this letter! Dear Family and Friends, Christmas is a precious reminder. Just as Jesus came as a baby, He’ll surely come again. We just don’t know when. So may the Lord find us busy living for Him while on earth. We had another busy year. Our girls, Laura (11) and Julia (8), have grown several inches and increased in their knowledge of God and life through church, family life, and homeschool. This year we’ve gone with math DVDs for Laura, since that’s not a favorite area for either parent. Both girls excel in piano. This fall they began horseback-riding lessons to feed their horse fixation. They also enjoy trying to keep up with our blue-ticked beagle, Patches. Kim stayed busy as general secretary for Shalom Ministries, based in Brooklyn, New York. She was key in organizing several Holy Land trips—and all…
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