More than Writers

Here’s some great advice for you today: Never say never, always avoid always. I’m writing this, sitting in my lounge, dreaming of my lovely study, but watching our puppy sleep, listening to her snoring and giving little barks in her sleep. Goldie is a Labrador puppy who never (!) barks, except for in her sleep. Clearly, her dreams are a lot more exciting than her real life is. I like dogs, but with four kids, I said no for years, definitely in the Never line. Seeing my children with a therapy dog convinced me, and soon after, we collected our furry creature. She’s very sweet, sleeps well, plays well and being a Labrador, eats well. It reminded me of saying never and how we can limit ourselves or our expectations of blessings that might come our way. Like, I could never write a novel. How do you know? What if God gave you a storyline and plenty of free moments to tell your story on paper? You might be surprised. I didn’t think I could write in English, and plenty of relatives are st...

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.  A = Always have an Ideal Reader in mind. B = Books - read widely. C = Characters must be memorable. D = Dialogue must be better than speech so limit hesitations. E = Essential editing. Every writer needs an editor.      F = Flash Fiction. (Bound to mention it!). It’s great for sharpening your writing. G = Genre. Knowing where your book fits will help you pitch to a publisher.  H = Humour must arise from characters and situations. I = Imagination. Reading widely helps you develop yours.   J = Judging. Competitions can hone writing skills. Get feedback where possible.     K = Keep to your writing routine, whether you write 100 or 10000 words a day. Regular writing builds up.  L = Limits - especially word count. It is good to write to tight word counts. For those writing a blurb and synopsis, knowing you can write to a small word count will help.  M = More ...

  We all love to hear good news!   It brings excitement and joy and in most cases could be life changing like in the cases of a new baby,   a new career, a job promotion, a long expected healing or even a new published book! I bring you all the good news of my new book ‘The Captive’s Crown’ which came out on Amazon last night. One week early!! [ It reminds me of a premature baby]. It is the story of the woman who wiped our Lord Jesus 's feet with her hair. I thank God and I am so grateful to Liz Carter for making the publishing on Amazon possible.   I recently thought of the Easter story.   Our Lord Jesus Himself had asked his followers to go and proclaim the Good News of His resurrection, which brought salvation and grace for all who  accept that He is the way to the Father through faith in Him, our Lord Jesus. This was going to be done by word of mouth with the Holy Spirit’s help. In our generation, however, I thank God there are so many communication c...

 Do you ever find you're in a season of needing to press on when everything inside you wants to give up?  That's where I am at the moment and I felt it today as I walked in the woods.  The path was narrow and it was a struggle to walk without tripping and falling into the nettles either side.  I was looking so intently at where I needed to step that I almost missed seeing the beauty.  Through a gap in the trees was a carpet of bluebells.  Each flower on its own was so tiny, but their depth and purity of colour was transformational when together.  They were so beautiful and lifted my heart.  I had no camera with me but a friend was happy for me to use his pictures from a similar walk. That was just a walk but it spoke to me of the whole journey of persevering.  When the going is hard its so easy for our gaze to become fixed on the problems rather than on the destination.  We can miss the bluebells when all we see are the nettles. But...

  On the 25 th April 1992, I clung nervously onto the arm of my Dad as he walked me down the aisle to marry the man I loved. It was an amazing day, a lovely family celebration, and over far too quickly. Then the reality of being married really set in. That first year was 'interesting' – not least because we found ourselves unexpectedly expecting our first child and I was very, very sick. Morning (day and night) sickness. But looking back I would not change a thing. It was the start of an adventure that has enriched my life beyond anything I could have imagined. So today is my 30 th Wedding Anniversary. Going by my social media feed I am not the only ACW member to have celebrated a milestone wedding anniversary this year. And wedding anniversaries, especially the significant ones, are really worth celebrating. We will be celebrating ours, low scale this year, just close family, which suits us fine. But it did get me thinking about what we are actually celebrating: 1.  ...

  Last month I wrote on this blog that I didn’t know whether I would reread the last four books of the Harry Potter series. I had negative feelings towards those great thick volumes, each of them twice the length of each of the first three, which I’d just finished.  * Well, I did read them again. And yes, the things that I found to be drawbacks in the early books were even more prevalent in the last four. The biggest blemish throughout the series is, I think, the fact that so much explanation, so much intricate backstory, is needed at various points, and especially at the end of each book, to make sense of the plot. Less serious, but also a blemish, is the bewildering violence of the battles, so complicated in their detail that I find it hard to follow the narrative thread. These features may be instructive for our own writing. But far more important, to my surprise I had a profound encounter with these books. I had hardly remembered the stories at all from my first reading, f...

  The Fruits of the Spirit for Writers (Part One) by Rebecca Seaton Following on from looking at how the deadly sins apply to writers, I wanted to share encouragement from the fruits of the Spirit. There’s so much in what God provides for us, so I’ll start with love, joy, peace and forbearance. Love enables us to look at our writing differently. If we see our writing through a lens of love for God and his creation, we treat our work, events, fellow writers and audience very differently than we might otherwise. For me, the other gifts follow on from this.   ‘In your relationships with one another, have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had.’ Philippians 2:5. A godly joy is the kind of joy that goes beyond human understanding. Hebrews 12;2 says, ‘… fixing our eyes on Jesus,  the pioneer  and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross,  scorning its shame,  and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. If Jesus ha...

  A special welcome to readers who only clicked on this blog because they are very into desserts. Custard, in particular. And cream. And sponge cake…. Sorry to disappoint, but this blog is not about that kind of trifle (insert pun about getting one’s just desserts). Arthur Conan Doyle, the author who created the character Sherlock Holmes , said: ‘You know my method. It is founded on the observation of trifles.’ Trifles. The little things. Much of writing could be said to be founded on observation, of so-called trifles and otherwise. Much of my own writing – which is often devotional in style – draws on observation, but not of trifles (hence ‘so-called’ above). Colossians 3:1a,2b: …set your hearts on things above, where Christ is…..Set your minds on things above... Set your minds on things above, set your hearts on things above; because that’s where Christ is. Look for Jesus. Jesus is here. Right now. We can see Him if we look and, as we do, we might find ...

For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.  Now we who have believed enter that rest…                                             Hebrews 4:2-3   Last month in Spain we had a beautiful apartment overlooking the swimming pool, sand and sea, but saw little of the sun.   From our lounge window we daily watched the soaking rain, sand filled clouds, and overnight a sandstorm turned pool green!   With friends we had fun, food and rest, with occasional sorties to nearby shops and several empty, cold resorts. On our returned I soaked up the last four days of unusually warm temperatures here!   I pressed into writing on the three days before my second operation on 1 st April. I am pleased to report that turned out painless...