Skip to main content

Why Am I Writing This? (52 Weeks of Books Challenge Week Twenty)


Finally, we are all caught up!

Writing in Obedience: A Primer for Christian  Fiction Writers
Terry Burns & Linda W. Yezak, 2014, Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas

Summary:
Writing in Obedience is a book with writing advice specifically geared towards Christians who are fiction writers. It is meant to help them determine their place in the writing market and audience, whether that be within Christian or mainstream publishing. It is co-written by Terry Burns (well-known book agent and author) and Linda W. Yezak (published Christian romance writer).

Why I Read It:
I was in the middle of trying to determine my spot, and this book looked like it could help.

Opinion:
Technically, there were a few slightly weird things with the formatting of the book, but maybe that's just me being a little bit nit-picky.

Writing in Obedience is divided into three sections.

The first section talks about writing as a calling versus writing as an offering. It also defines Christian fiction and different audience types. This section is meant to help writers who are Christians better determine who they are writing for and what in the way of Christian content is acceptable for their audiences. Some parts of this came across as pitching the authors' fiction writing, although I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say that was not what they were trying to do.

The second and third sections are more for beginning writers and those just starting on their journey towards being published. I knew most of the information already, but it was good to have the refresher.

Conclusion:
Overall, I found Writing in Obedience to be an easier read this time than the last time I attempted it. It flowed well, and I had a hard time putting it down. Reading it felt more like I was sitting in on a writer's round table at a conference, where Burns and Yezak were answering questions from the audience. That might bother some people, though. It has been helpful in that I know better the audience I want to write for. It has also given me peace about how I've chosen to move forward on my journey towards becoming a published writer.


  
52 Weeks of Books Challenge? What is that? What book is Cat reviewing next week?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Writer's Toolbox: Thesauruses I Love

I don't know about the rest of you writers in the crowd, but there are times when I struggle to get the right words to come out onto the page. The debate over using thesauruses amongst authors can be fierce. My personal opinion is that there is definitely a place and time to use them (they've saved me from missing deadlines on a few occasions), so long as a writer is careful not to overuse them. Because I do consider them an essential in my writer's toolbox of resources, I thought I would share the ones I make the most use out of and where you can find them. 1. Webster's New World Thesaurus (credit: @catpollockwrites IG, posted 8/24/2017 ) When you were in grade school, did your teachers ever hand out those monthly or bimonthly Scholastic book catalogs with all the age-appropriate books coming out that they wanted you to buy? That, my friends, is how I got a hold of my thesaurus. It's almost like mid-thirties me traveled back in time and whispered int
Post a Comment
Read more

Metaphors: Candles

I've recently fallen in love with candles. Since coming home from the World Race , I've bought at least one a month. My favorite candles are the ones that come in glass jars - because when they burn out, I can clean the remaining wax out and put the jars to other uses. Right now,  that means they get cleaned out and packed away in anticipation of my move to Flagstaff. But as I was lighting one tonight (vanilla spice... Thanksgiving smells? Yes, please!), I saw a metaphor for writing flickering away in the flame licking at the wick and melting the wax. I suppose it could be a metaphor for life in general, but since the theme of this blog is writing... Well, you do the math.
Post a Comment
Read more

[Five Minute Friday] Purpose

Fiber bars, strewn along the side of the road. There had to be at least a dozen of them, still in their wrappers and completely unopened. No box in sight. Really? That's about the reaction my younger sister and I had when we stumbled on them on our early morning run. Really? along with disgusted sighs about the wastefulness of it. These were the expensive ones, not a generic store brand that kind of tastes and kind of looks the same sometimes. So, when we weren't keeping an eye out for their box, we speculated about what had happened. And wondered how many more we were going to see before the end of our run. "Maybe they took one bite and thought they were gross," my sister said. "So they threw them out because they didn't want them anymore." I let out one of those disgusted sighs and nodded along with her theory. "Yeah, or they got in a huge fight, and threw them out in a fit of rage." "That's a possibility." And
9 comments
Read more