For readers to create mental pictures from your stories, they need specific details of the way things are. We can make the picture stronger if we find ways to focus…
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Tom already had two pressing deadlines. The odds weren’t good for finishing them before he was sent a book manuscript to edit. He felt like a sailboat moving into a…
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Find a picture that represents your female character. Where is she? What is she thinking, feeling, and doing? With a vivid picture, you can find great words. If…
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Success depends on expectation and effort. If money is your mission, get ready to be disappointed. Just a fraction of a percentage point of all books sold. Some 80 percent…
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Let all the senses—sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste—cause your character’s world to make sense to your readers. One of the best ways to create vivid pictures is to ask…
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Much of today’s society won’t listen to your truth. Why? They have their own truth. To believe otherwise would require displacement of their truth with new truth, which they’ve always…
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We have seven days in a week and twenty-four hours in a day, but it all happens one second at a time. You anticipate what comes next, but you can’t…
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Henry had never bought a lottery ticket. Why? His choice wasn’t due to religious prejudice. He didn’t mind taking risks. He just didn’t like the odds. What he could do…
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Bestselling authors may write great paragraphs, but we can learn ways to make them even better. We strengthen the picture if we can find ways to describe the scene in…
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For obvious reasons, Peter wasn’t a very good writer. He wasn’t good enough. After worship on Sunday morning, Peter leaned back in his seat, hoping the sermon wouldn’t be too…
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