You’ve just stepped into a confession booth, but don’t worry: I’m not a priest, and you don’t have to share your sins with me. This is a different kind of confession. I want to know your deepest fears and greatest hopes as a writer, artist, musician, leader, designer, or other
Recently we had to send out the dreaded “OP” letter again. It goes something like this: Dear Author and Agent: We are writing to inform you that due to low marketplace demand for your book, we have decided to discontinue keeping it in stock. Sincerely, The Publisher “OP,” in other
First of all, thanks so much for your willingness to fill out my “Writers and Music” survey. (If you haven’t yet and you’re willing to help writers everywhere with two minutes of your time, click here.) This survey and blog post were born of my own curiosity. I regularly listen
“We all want progress,” wrote C. S. Lewis, “but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.” If you as a writer pursue getting published with false
Recently a writer friend told me about her desire to write a book that wakes people up. “Everybody’s asleep,” she said, “they need to be woken up!” “OK,” I said, “but look at it from your readers’ perspective. What’s the need they would tell you they have that you want
Think of a drummer in a rock band. Somehow she manages to keep that bass drum going while rat-a-tat-tatting on all the snares and cymbals above. That’s what we want to do with our blogs and books. We want to keep our blogs dynamic and lively, releasing new posts regularly,
Few videos are more mesmerizing to me than those that feature people who go from not being able to do something to suddenly doing it. In the following video, for example, an older colorblind man puts on special glasses and is able to see color for the first time. This
The one thing all good writers have in common is the ability to tell stories. Stories draw us in. And when we read good stories from a particular author, we want to go back when that author tells more stories. It’s as if a transaction is always occurring just below
[guestpost]Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Scott Kedersha: husband to Kristen, dad to four boys, and marriage pastor at Watermark Community Church in Dallas, Texas. Scott writes about marriage, parenting, ministry, and leadership, and is working on his first book, scheduled to come out in February 2019 with
What would you say is your first job as a writer? Do you write to serve people? To make money? To express yourself? This is an important question because the wrong answer will lead you to fall short of your best work. That’s what I address in the following slide
Last summer a friend and I went to an outdoor concert at Frederick Meijer Gardens here in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They have an amphitheater there, a large stage up front with a leaf-shaped canopy and terraced grass-covered seating for a thousand or more. A lovely venue. The local band was
One morning not too long ago I walked into our kitchen at about 6:30 and was startled by what I saw. There stood my nine-year-old son in his pajamas, hunched over a piece of paper with a pencil in his hand. His nose was less than five inches from what