A Christian Writer's A-Z - by Liz Carter

 

This is one of those posts born out of a sleepless night – anyone else ever use the ‘A-Z game’ to help you nod off? The idea is that you think of something on a subject for every letter of the alphabet, and at some point (hopefully not too long into the alphabet) you nod off. There I was, the other night, thinking about an A-Z of Christian writing – so do excuse any kind of insomnia induced surrealism!

A is for ACW, obviously. It could also be for Adverbs, and Adjectives, and Agents, and the overuse of the word And, but ACW wins hands down, because it’s such a great support and wonderful community to Christian writers (if you’re not a member, why not?) 

B is for Bookshops, especially those little independent Christian bookshops we all so value, the ones that cheer us on and the ones we love to go in and soak up the ambience. May they stay strong against the tide of the Internet.

C is for Comparison, which is the thief of joy and doesn’t do us any good. It’s too easy to fall into, though – my blog post last month covered this, and there were some great ideas in the comments. C is also for Commas, which are the bane of the writer’s life. Don’t splice commas, commas can be both under- and over-used (see what I did there?)

D is for Dangling Modifiers – what else? After all, writing her blog post, a grammar pedant shouted at her.

E is for Encouragement, which is vital to us as writers and as people. A little encouragement can make all the difference. It’s one of the things ACW is so great at. E is also for Editing, which can be a joy, a drain or both.

F is for Fiction, which helps us escape for a while. I love the fiction writers of ACW (I can’t wait to read the new Issy Smugge book over half term. Issy’s A-Z would be quite fun to read, come to think of it.) F is also for Faith, which is behind so much of what we write, either explicitly or implicitly, and also Facebook, which is great and sometimes hideous.

G is for Genre, which isn’t always as easy to pin down as we might hope, and also Grammar, that little word that causes a hundred headaches, but also sparks a crazy passion in some of us.

H is for Honesty, which is something we don’t always see a whole lot of in the area of publishing, but when we do, it’s like a cool stream on a hot day. H is also for Homophones, of which their are quite a few, which ones are you’re favourites?

I is for Inner Dialogue, something many of us fiction writers grapple with as we try not to apply too much of our own voice and views. I is also for Instagram (see Facebook, but more pictures that make us feel lesser on our bad days), and also Ideas, the cornerstone of our craft,

J is for Jesus, who it is all for, and also Joy (see Jesus).

K is for Kindness, a little of which can change someone’s day or even life, and which a writer likes when it comes to critiques. K is also for Kindle Direct Publishing, which is actually pretty awesome – how great it is that we can get our books out to the world so easily?

L is for Letters, which make up words, and that is why we love them. L is also for Love, which most of us apply to our writing – it’s the love of it that keeps us going, after all. It also underpins our lives and identities as much beloved children of God.

M is for Marketing, that dreaded word – most of us don’t like reading it, or hearing it, or thinking about it at all. Thankfully we have amazing ACWers like Wendy Jones and Lucy Rycroft who set us on good paths and give us brilliant advice. M is also for Mailing Lists (see Marketing.)

N is for NaNoWriMo – National November Writing Month, for those who are unsure – a great opportunity to get out as many words on paper as possible while cheering others on and watching your word count grow in graph form. I wrote my novel through it last year – I’d fully recommend it, and ACW has a little group to join if you’d like.

O is for Of, which should never replace have. You should of known that already, though, but I couldn’t think of any more Os.

P is for Poetry, a love of mine and a wonderful way of expressing the deeper parts of ourselves. The Psalms are poetry and also a P, and they are a go to for us as Christian writers for all sorts of reasons; joy, lament, shouting, singing, wordplay. P is also for Prayer, Point Of View, Procrastination and Punctuation.

Q is for Query Letters, a pesky element in the life of an author, but one to be studied well in order to succeed. Don’t tell the agent that you will make them millions, by the way. And probably best to leave out your ‘best writer’ award from when you were six years old.

R is for Rejection, something we all understand too well (see also Query Letters). R is also for Reviews, which can go along with rejection, but can also be the best thing ever and lift our confidence. Let’s keep reviewing each other’s work, from blog posts through to books, and doing it with kindness.

S is for Submissions, which are very time consuming and scary. S is also for Semi-Colons, which the Guardian Style Guide doesn’t like very much, and also Show Not Tell, but telling is okay sometimes for short bursts.

T is for Time, an issue for most authors, but also something that can be wonderfully bent and shaped and crafted in our world building and fantasy stories. T is also for Twitter (see Facebook and Instagram, only calls a spade a spade a whole lot more, and can be far too scary.)

U is for Uncertain, which is how many of us feel about others reading our work, but it is also for Underestimate, which is what many lovely ACW writers do when it comes to the power of their words, which pack more of a punch than they realise.

V is for Vision, the thing we all need and the thing that sometimes evades us in the most frustrating way. It’s always there, though, lurking underneath, speaking its power into our minds and hearts. (See also Prayer)

W is for Words, which are what we’re all about, what we all love, and the slippery things we often wrestle with as we whip them into shape. W is also for Writing, which is the same, really. Also Worship, underpinning it all, and also Waiting, that thing we all know too much of.

X is for….ermmm….X-Rays? Because writers sometimes need them on their wrists (OK, it’s a tenuous one – anyone suggest another?)

Y is for Yielding, a good thing to do in our writing lives and our faith lives, to allow God to shape both us and our words. Y is also for Your and You’re (see also Homophones)

Z is for Zzzzzz, which we don’t get enough of when we are in the midst of book writing fever, because our brain likes to plan scenes instead of shut off. Maybe we should play the A-Z game when that happens…

And there you have it. A Christian writer’s A-Z. Feel free to add your own in the comments!

Liz Carter is an author, poet and editor from Shropshire. She loves to write about the difficult and painful times in life, and how we can find gold in the mess. Her books Catching Contentment and Treasure in Dark Places are available in online bookstores. You can find her at www.greatadventure.carterclan.me.uk and she’s just signed a contract for her next book with The Good Book Company, coming 2023.