Mt Hermon!

Are you going?

I'm so excited! I've been chosen to be a mentor at the 1st annual Mount Hermon Christian Headstart Mentoring Clinic April 1-3, 2009

The Mount Hermon Writing Conference has done so much for me...if you go to one conference next year. Make it this one! More info, here!

Headstart Mentoring Clinic Combines with Mount Hermon's 40th Annual Writers ConferenceFor 39 years, Mount Hermon has created an exhilarating laboratory for training writers, whether unpublished or professional and this year has become the only place that offers help to writers at three stages:

Now They're Offering:
1) The Headstart Mentoring Clinic immediately before the spring Writers Conference for the beginning writer (application required), providing 100 percent takeaway through small group critiquing and one-on-one mentoring.

2) The Spring Writers Conference for all levels of writing proficiency, providing a wonderful overview to writing, editing and publishing (including a mentoring track with personalized attention to the intermediate writer who knows where he/she wants to go--application required).

3) The Professional Track during Spring Writers Conference providing seasoned veterans with new motivation and challenges.


Mount Hermon Christian Conference Center
PO Box 413
Mount Hermon, CA 95041
831-430-1238
www.mounthermon.org/writers

Article Publishing 101!

Q: I have some articles I'd like to write. How do I go about getting them published? Do I just write them and send them around? Do I post them on my blog and try to get publishers interested? Help!

A: The *one thing* you need to do to break into magazine publications is to study key magazines completely and then tailor a unique article to fit their readers/needs/tone/style. Let me explain why you should do this, instead of trying what you suggested.

I tell my students that when most people approach article writing they do it as a knitter who is making a sweater. The knitter gets a pattern, picks out the yarn, and creates a perfectly beautiful sweater. After it's finished, the knitter decides she wants to sell it. So she sends it around to one hundred different people to try out. The truth is that even though the sweater is great, it doesn't fit 75% of the people. And of the 25% of the people it does fit, they don't really like the style. If by chance it fits someone and they like the style, there is always the problem of color. Out of the 100 people, there might be one in which the fit, style, and color is perfect ... and they might buy it. The problem is the 99 other rejections often wound the knitter's ego, and she's off to say ... crochet.

Better yet is to get Sally Stuart's Market Guide--or The Writer's Market--and target interesting publications. After picking your favorites, study those pubs until you know their unique fit, style, and color. Only then do you query the publication concerning article ideas. And ... once you have them hooked ... only then do you craft a sweater (or article!) that fits their needs.

This takes a lot of work at first, but out of the 1,000 knitters ... err writers ... who approached the pub, they will love you and come back to you again!

Mt. Hermon Writer's Conference discount!!!!!!!!

I just found out about this from Camille Cannon Eide from the Christian Authors Network...

Mount Hermon Christian Writer's Conference, being held April 3-7 2009, has made a tremendous offer. If you have never been to this conference, and if you register to attend between March 9-April 1, and if you mention on your registration form that someone already registered (like me or someone else that you know) invited you, you will receive $200 off the price of the conference!

The regular cost varies according to your room choice, it ranges from $845 and up - so minus $200 if you take them up on this offer and attend this 5 day conference for $645. This price includes EVERYTHING: conference tuition, materials, accommodations, totally excellent food, (it is really good!) snacks between sessions, and all the editor/agent appointments and high quality workshops, morning tracks and keynote evening sessions you would expect from a professional writer's conference. The morning mentoring tracks are awesome too (10 students-to-1 teacher, intense daily critique sessions) but you need to sign up for those ahead of time and those cost a little extra.

Check out the conference here: http://mounthermon.org/adult/professionals/writers-conference/

But even though it is a professional conference, the atmosphere is casual, serene and inviting. Mt Hermon is a sprawling, secluded campground nestled into a gorgeous redwood forest and includes scenic hiking/running trails. The evening sessions are awesome, beginning with a sweet time of worship. (I love it when hundreds of people from various places and backgrounds worship the Lord together...makes me think of what it will be like in heaven...) The setting is beautiful, peaceful and inspiring! Of course, the company isn't bad either. You'll meet editors, agents and Christian writers from every facet of the media. I came away with some great friends whom I still keep in contact with. It really is a wonderfully inspiring conference. I came away from it last year full, excited, changed and inspired.

If you sign up, I or the person you mention will get to share in the savings too. So everyone will benefit! If you have never been to Mt Hermon and you register BETWEEN MARCH 9 and APRIL 1st and give the name of the person who invited you, that person will also get $200 refunded back from our conference cost. I think this is a huge offer on their part, and certainly makes going to a high quality Christian writer's conference more affordable for us all.

Advice for Novelists (Part 63)

C.J. Darlington, co-founder of TitleTrakk, is running a great series on her blog: She started a series of blog posts in which industry professionals (editors, agents, publicists, authors, etc.) share their responses to this question:

"If you could say one thing to aspiring novelists, what would you say?"

Roxanne Henke: Actually, I’d say two things.

1. Read.
Analyze good books. What makes them resonate with you? Pull apart the not-so-great books. What would you do to make that book sing?

2. Write.
Day-dreaming about writing isn’t writing. You need to sit in a chair, in front of a keyboard and put words on paper (or a computer screen). Only by writing will you find your “voice” and tell your stories. I’ll say it again, read and write.

--Roxanne Henke, author of Learning to Fly, the Coming Home to Brewster series, and more. Visit her website here.

I need help getting started...

Yesterday I was asked the question "I'm writing a non-fiction book. I'm stuck in trying to create a vibe rather than just write it so it can be edited, any jump start tips?

Here are my top five ‘getting started’ tips for writing non-fiction."

1. Start typing and write out your message as if you're explaining the topic to someone you care about.

2. Write down everything you KNOW about the subject. (It may be more than you think!)

3. Split up your ideas into topics. Separate these topics into chapters.

4. Ask your friends (real or on-line) their thoughts on the subject. It's great to open up conversation.

5. Read a non-fiction book you love ... read until you get the rhythm and then start YOUR story on the page.

Fiction should sound real!

This great advice is from Barbara Warren's February newsletter! Very good advice!

WRITING TIP OF THE MONTH:The writing tip this month will actually be a list of tips. Things we may know but need to remember.

Fiction is not reality, but it should sound real. We are asking the reader to suspend belief to accept what we write. If we do a good job, readers will believe, at least until they finish reading the story, that there really is life on some far out planet and they will identify with it. The reader will accept that animals can talk, that elephants can fly, or dinosaurs can be created with DNA from a fossil. But what we write must seem to be realistic. You, as a writer, are asking the reader to believe in something impossible, and that's fine, but those talking animals must have a human quality the reader can recognize and identify with. There must be universal feelings we all know and perhaps have experienced. If your reader identifies with your character he will care about what happens to this fictional person, even if the "person" is a robot, or an animal, and keep on reading about him. That's what we all want.

Don't be afraid to let your characters talk, and know them well enough you have some idea of how they sound. Your book needs to be at least ½ dialogue. Listen to the way people talk. Write down distinctive phrases and words. Don't let your characters speak perfect English. Let them talk the way you and the people around you talk. Resist the urge to have a character make a speech. Most of us don't hold forth sentence after sentence, unless we're angry and lining someone out. (in that case, I can go on for thirty minutes without taking a breath) Break up long passages of dialogue with action or another character speaking. Dialogue reveals what your character is like. So turn them loose and let them talk.

Don't have your character walk into a room and then stop while you, the writer, describes every stick of furniture, every ornament, and even the pattern in the wallpaper. Your reader will probably skip this. Instead have the character sit down in the red leather chair and pick up a letter opener and start opening the stack of mail. Let the canary in the cage by the window overlooking the river start to sing. Let your character glance at the gold-framed mirror and brush back her honey gold hair. Don't do all of this in the same paragraph of course, but pick two or three details and show them through your reader's actions.

Try not to have a grocery list of every thing the character does. She opens the door, walks down the steps, turns right at the sidewalk, walks to the car, opens the door on the driver side and gets in, turn the key, starts the motor and drives away. Just have her walk out, get in her car and leave. Let the reader use her imagination to fill in the rest.

Write for the eye. Before writing is read, it is seen. Long paragraphs of description or introspection, or even dialogue signals to the reader that this is something he can skim. Do you read every word in a half page paragraph? I didn't think so. So give the reader some white space. Break up those long paragraphs. Don't give that reader the slightest reason to skim one word of your wonderful prose.

And above all, keep writing. Try to write something every day. Don't write one book, send it out, and then never write again until you sell that one. The only way to keep our writing muscles in shape is to exercise them. Put the seat of the pants in the seat of the chair and pound that keyboard. That's the way to grow and develop your writing talent.

And read, read, read. Read books on writing, read in your genre, and read nonfiction to enlarge your perception of the world. God gave us the talent. Our job is to develop it.

Advice for Novelists (Part 62)

C.J. Darlington, co-founder of TitleTrakk, is running a great series on her blog: She started a series of blog posts in which industry professionals (editors, agents, publicists, authors, etc.) share their responses to this question:

"If you could say one thing to aspiring novelists, what would you say?"

Today we hear from a beloved author, Francine Rivers. Her advice comes from an interview C.J. did for TitleTrakk.com. If you'd like to read the full piece it can be found here. In the mean time, here's her response:"If you could say one thing to aspiring novelists, what would you say?"Commit your work to the Lord. Stay in Scripture every day so you’re being formed by it. That formation will come through in your writing in a natural way. The redemption story is the greatest story to tell. That’s what I think everyone hungers for, whether they know it or not. I believe God puts something in us to crave a relationship with Him. People tend to look in every possible place for the answer, and they’re not going to find it until they meet Jesus. The way I felt when I became a Christian was, “Finally I found what I’m looking for! I feel at home here. This is what I’ve been seeking my whole life.”

--Francine Rivers, bestselling author of Redeeming Love, the Mark of the Lion series, and many others. Visit her website here.