Story Sensei

Don’t go it alone--join a writing community for feedback, encouragement, and information. Communities: American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW, formerly American Christian Romance Writers): This is a terrific community of Christian fiction writers, and they also hold an annual fiction writers’ conference. Membership is very inexpensive, and it includes a writers’ discussion email loop, online forum discussion boards, a mentorship program, an email critique group program (small groups of 4-5 writers each), and dozens of helpful writing workshops. Each year, they hold an annual conference and the Genesis contest for unpublished writers. Faith, Hope, Love chapter of RWA (Romance Writers of America): This wonderful group of Christian romance writers provides encouragement and information. There are many published authors who participate on their email loop. They provide a mentorship program, a Finish-the-Book program, and a Guestlink Q&A with published authors. Each year, they have ...

I have written several articles for writers on this blog--the article list is on the sidebar. I also post short tips here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine : Christy-winning author Randy Ingermanson (of the infamous Snowflake writing method) puts out a GREAT, free ezine to help writers in their craft and marketing. His website also has excellent articles for beginning writers. Barnes and Noble online University : B&N holds “free” online courses where you only need to purchase the book that will be used for the class. Among other interesting topics, they offer terrific writing courses. Orson Scott Card : There are several articles on his website that apply to writers of all genres. Charlotte Dillon's Resources for Romance Writers : This is an excellent website for articles and links on writing technique, research information, and lots of good stuff, even if you are not a romance writer. No matter what question you have, there's a good c...

Update December 2014: Because of several writing contracts, I've decided to step back from doing critiques and coaching for 2015 in order to save my injured wrist and my health for my books. Worksheets: Doctor your novel's structure with my Structure/Synopsis worksheet . Revise and polish your fiction manuscript with my Self-Editing worksheet . Draw the reader into the mind, body, and soul of your characters through my Deep Point of View worksheet . Deepen and strengthen your character development with my Characterization worksheet . Make your story resonate more emotionally with my Heroine's Journey worksheet . Worksheets Heroine's Journey Worksheet I was asked to describe my Heroine’s Journey many times and I even taught several workshops on it at writer’s conferences, and so I decided to write a more detailed worksheet on the subject. I read about the Heroine’s Journey from several books and compiled what I learned here in one place. This is the...