A good writer is one who recognizes that there is always more to the story than they're capable of telling. The world is vast, and they will never come to the end of it. John wrote his gospel with this humbly in mind. He had undertaken the formidable task of writing about his Rabbi and … Continue reading All the Books in Eldredge Public Library
Here is something I didn't expect when I began coaching writers--- I never thought I'd travel so far. It's a cliche to say that reading lets you travel the world, but when you rally a group of writers around a table, you're really in for an expedition. Writers write stories, and stories need people inside … Continue reading Circumnavigators
Good writing is many things, and you won’t often know until you’ve wrestled it yourself and pleaded like Jacob, "I won't stop until you bless me!" Until you’ve wadded up a few hundred pages and given up on all the stories you began, only to be socked with inspiration when you least expected it. I … Continue reading Good Writing Is
It rained on New Year’s Eve, and I stretched myself across my bed to read my journal from 2022. I try to do this on the cusp of each year, and I’d like to say it’s an enjoyable thing--- one of reminiscing and laughing over the good times had, and sometimes, it is. For example, … Continue reading A Year in Writing
I was out for a walk yesterday, brown leaves hurrying across the street, when I met my neighbor Mrs. Brenda. Before she asked it, I knew her question: "How's your book?" she called over the whir of a leaf blower. She's an author herself, and when I told her I was breaking ground on a … Continue reading Upon A Year Inside the Conservatory
You're a writer, and suddenly, it's 1940 again, and the streets are dark because the blackout curtains are pulled tight. But behind them, there's a lamp in the window of a second-story university room, where Jack Lewis and his brother brew tea and smoke. The bell of Christ's Church tolls nine as they wait for … Continue reading A Table in 1940
FOR SALE--- White desk with scrolled drawers and just right for a little girl to grow up into— preferably someone who’ll write stories into its wood and not mind the dinks and bruises. I wrote my first novel on it, which also happened to be my last. I wrote my first few articles, then hundreds … Continue reading FOR SALE: Desk In Need of a Writer
Hey, my friends. If you aren't in a hurry and happen to care, I'd like to tell you about my writing desk--- the things on it and the things inside. I've hung pressed flowers in the corner of my bedroom here, trying to bring a bit of the garden inside. One is a lilac from … Continue reading An Update From the Desk in the Corner
Dear Young Writer, There will be times when you write with the wind in your sails, when the world is too full to take in, and ideas leap up so fast you can't reel them in. And then there will be times— probably more often— when you can’t remember what those other times were like. … Continue reading Dear Young Writer,
I remember reading where C.S. Lewis and his friends (J.R.R. Tolkien among them) would sometimes walk a days’ journey across the English countryside together, stop at a pub for beer and rest, then take up their walking sticks again the next morning. “It was an idyllic way to spend three or four days. Footpaths were … Continue reading Writers On Walking
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