By Katy Kauffman @katykauffman28 Like a textbook. That’s how my writer’s voice sounded when I started to write my first book. I could write devotions that sounded like a one-sided conversation, but my book sounded academic like the textbooks I had in college—factual, cold, distant. I knew I couldn’t leave…

Some time ago, I was writing a story and used a variation of the sentence, “He wished he could be a fly on the wall when they had that conversation.” This puzzled my critique partner, who didn’t know it meant. She had never heard the expression “fly on the wall”…

@DiAnnMills 'Tis the season of the turkey. If you enjoy eating the Thanksgiving bird, then you love the season. If you’re the turkey, well not so much. You’ve probably spent the past year hatching ways to disguise yourself. For the turkey, I commend his ingenuity. For the turkey-writer, well not…

I want a magic bullet. Many of us do. We don’t want to admit it, but we secretly think that somewhere there’s one thing we’re missing and when we find it, all our publishing dreams will come true! Right? In my quest for the elixir of publishing success, several years…

by Katy Kauffman @KatyKauffman28 Outlines are our friends, or are they? I loved making outlines in my seminary class because they provided structure for the speeches I prepared. Things changed. In recent years, I dreaded making outlines as I wrote books and blog posts. They seemed to confine the feeling…

by Cindy Sproles @cindydevoted Even though I've been writing for a while, I still love to sit at the feet of those who are successful and pick their brains. Their guidance is valuable. When a new writer hands me a manuscript, it’s easy to see their passion for the story.…