More than Writers is the blog of the Association of Christian Writers, with daily posts on any aspect or aspects of writing and faith, in any degree of combination. I have the pleasantly mind stretching task of thinking of something for the tenth of each month, and so far have produced:
- Hitting the Wall: suggestions for those days when the words just don’t.
- Digital Daily Bread: the latest is not always the greatest.
- Splinter of Ice: how a writer can – nay, must – be dispassionate.
- What Can Possibly Go Wrong?: expecting the unexpected and making it work.
- Don’t Fear Flaws and Fallibility: your characters need to be imperfect.
- Is It About Space?: what is your story “about”?
- Right Place, Right Time: the vital role of serendipity.
- Not All the Words (Please): less is more.
- Say It Loud, Say It Clear: getting right what many Christian memoirs get wrong.
- Don’t Say What You Mean: say what you mean to say by saying the opposite.
- The Labourer is Worthy of Their Hire: If you think hiring a professional is expensive, try hiring an amateur …
- Would the Opposite be Surprising?: Does your hero have flaws? Are you taking steps to correct them? If so, stop it at once!
- Exegeting Reviews: how not to let them go to your head, or your heart.
- The Album Challenge: strangely, no religious ones.
- Triangulating on Jesus: how to have Jesus in your writing without having Jesus in your writing.
- It’s A Kind of Magic: magic – authorial and stage.
- Kicking Away the Blocks: making sure your writing really stands up.
- I Must Become Less …: on ghostwriting and what the future might hold.
- The Stalingrad Madonna: light and humanity in the most inhuman and darkest of situations.
- Suffering Sorted – Not: on suffering, and why “theodicy” and “idiocy” might look so similar.
- Born Again Again: theological gold in Doctor Who.
- Pondering These Things: letting memory and experience inform your imagination.
- Ecumenical Canned Cheese: memories of the greatest house group ever.
- The Rubber Sheet Theory of Prayer: setting the world straight on how prayer works.
- Ultrasound Church: the church of Acts 2 – exemplary? No, not really.
- Heroic Factasy: when history is better than fiction.
- Unless the Lord Sells the House …: faith, fiction and flat sales.
- Misdirection: when not to be wholly straightforward.
- Slapped Around the Head: … by the Holy Spirit, no less.
- Magi and Mountains: “many paths to the top of the mountain” – so wrong, yet to almost right.
- Cool Yule Compromise: don’t hide your light under a bushel, but maybe turn it down a bit?
- The Baby in the Bark Lodge: the Christmas message for people who have never seen a desert, have no idea what a shepherd or a stable is, have never heard of the Emperor Augustus …
- The Swings and Roundabouts of Grace: God’s grace as shown in Abingdon’s Michaelmas Fair.
- Truth and Beauty: drawing the line between telling a good story and fibbing.
- Scribble, Scribble: testimony upon the second anniversary of going full time.
- Under the Law: why we should make life harder for our characters.
- Silencing the Echo Chamber: on embracing dissenting opinion.
- Senses of Purpose: the places we have in the world.
- Explaining the Hope: on not just taking stuff for granted.
- Answers in Time and Space: how I learnt to respect a Creationist.
- Feet of Clay: the fallibility of our heroes.
- Seeing the Big Picture: on the effect of context.
- The Other side of Advent: layering your stories.
- Coming Second: sidekicks and supporting roles.
- Mary Sue: making your characters fallible.
- Want to See a Trick?: on misdirection.
- Cracking Spines for Cracking Reads: why books never grow old.
- Poetry Emotion: the rhythm of language.
- Location, Location, Location: when the setting becomes a character.
- Fools for Christ? Or Just Idiots?: on not appearing stupid.
- Ghosts in the Machine: on ghost writing.
- How It’s About It: telling old stories in new ways.
- A Review of Reviewing: responding to bad (and good) reviews.
- Chewie, We’re Home: using imagery.
- Prologues, In General: use sparingly, if at all.
- To Boldly Sow: getting the message across without bring preachy.
- Logical, Captain: more on plotting.
- Plotting In A Fallen World: plotting.
- Doris Lessing & Miss Lydgate: avoiding the snare of perfectionism and just finishing the darn thing.
- Sweary Sweary Bleep Bleep: on Language, as my maiden aunt might say if I had one.