Greetings, Fellow Writers!
I’d like to wish everyone a happy and blessed New Year. 2011 is already shaping up to be an exciting year for CLASS. We hope and pray God will provide insight, direction, and guidance to you as you continue to use your gifts of writing and speaking to encourage, comfort, and strengthen fellow believers; to draw those who seek Him even closer; and to further the purposes of His kingdom!
In order to help you reach these goals, the CLASS Christian Writers Conference blog will become YOUR place to find encouraging, useful, and inspirational tools for your writing career as well as your Christian walk.
Each week we will feature one or more of the following:
· Writer’s Corner: practical advice regarding writing techniques, editing and publishing tips, etc.
· Conference Reflections: a personal reaction/reflection/experience piece by previous conference attendees, speakers, workshop leaders, and staff
· News and Notes about this year’s conference (Nov. 2-6)
· And a few surprise notes and features from previous and upcoming workshop leaders, keynote speakers, and CLASS staff
We would love to have participation from as many members of our community as possible. If you have attended the CLASS Christian Writers Conference, write a feature (500-1000 word) based on something you learned, a friendship or business relationship you gained or renewed, a particular spiritual lesson or message from God you experienced, etc. Pictures from the conference would also be great!
We are also looking for practical advice for writers, editing and publishing tips, etc. If you have written, would like to write, or know someone else who has written something that would be of interest to our writing community, please let us know.
Please send your items (attached as Microsoft Word documents) to lawrencejclark_at_yahoo.com. Your contribution may be published in an upcoming issue of the Class Christian Writers Conference blog.
Hope you enjoy them, and be sure to send me something for a future posting!
Lawrence
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Writer’s Corner
Completed Goals
by Lee Warren
The idea of writing an 80,000 to 100,000 word novel seemed unattainable to me when I attended my first writer’s conference in 1998. Thankfully, I wasn't the only person thinking that.
I took a comprehensive novel writing course at the conference taught by Nancy Moser. Somebody in class asked her what her writing schedule looks like – how does a person go about writing 100,000 words?
Her answer was pretty simple. She looks at the total word count she’s shooting for and she divides it by the number of writing days she has on her schedule for her first draft. That number becomes her daily writing goal. That made the process seem a lot more doable to me.
A couple of years later, while working at a bank, employees had a chance to work a flex schedule. I re-arranged my work schedule to have Mondays off. That gave me 52 full writing days available that year. My goal was 90,000 words. That meant I had to write 1,700 words a day. I could do that.
By the end of the year, I wrote 85,599 words – 371 pages. That's where my story ended so my goal was complete. Hitting my goal gave me the confidence to write a second novel. I didn’t sell either of them. But by the time I had a marketable idea for a non-fiction book, I knew I could write it if a publisher gave me a contract (non-fiction books do not need to be written before pitching them to publishers, but novels do need to be written if you are a first time novelist).
In 2004, a publisher did offer me a contract for my non-fiction book idea – a book called Single Servings. I put my formula to work and completed the book on time. I still use that formula, depending on the project.
A Christmas book I wrote in 2005, called The Experience of Christmas, was supposed to be in the 33,000-35,000 word range and it was broken down into 31 devotions. So each devotion needed to average a tick over 1,000 words. I wrote one devotion a day and was able to complete the book in about five weeks.
Slow and steady wins the race for me because it keeps me from straying when I’m writing a book. It answers questions for me. Do I have time to take on an article due next week? I look at my word count spreadsheet and see that I’m barely staying on schedule and the decision has been made. I’ll have to pass.
I really need to carry this practice over to the rest of my life though. The mountains of unfiled paperwork that sit by and around my desk could be handled if I just did 15 minutes a day. My laundry might actually be caught up if I did one load a day. And so it goes. But, like you, I’m a work in progress.
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Conference Reflections
Shuffle Shuffle
By Linda Canup
I was not prepared. I quickly realized this fact as I arrived at the Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico, for a writers conference.
The place was beautiful. Mesas the size of skyscrapers turned the horizon into a jagged Tetris-like configuration and little puffy bushes dotted the flatlands in between. It was a monochromatic masterpiece, full of every shade of rose, blush, mauve, and scarlet. The Wild West in all its glory.
I quickly realized, however, my heels were useless, my cell phone might as well have been an 8-track player, and my dinky little key-chain flashlight was a joke. My saving grace was the 24-hr Wi-Fi in the library. I spent the first night bingeing on the Internet and skyping my husband one last time before bed. When I finally decided to disconnect and return to my room, I bundled myself up in my coat, braced my teeny tiny flashlight between my thumb and forefinger, and stepped into the cold night air.
The darkness swallowed me whole. I could barely see three steps in front of me–and that was with the light above the library door. I paused a moment. Maybe my eyes just needed to adjust.
Um, no. It was just ridiculously dark.
I looked around for a sign of life, another human being with a torch to help light my way, but there wasn’t a soul to be found. I guess that’s why they call it the Ghost Ranch, I thought. Okay, well, one step at a time. My room was a good trek up the side of a mesa and I made it about halfway up the trail (the easy part) when my poor little key-chain light gave a last little flickered and died.
Trail down from my room.
There were many reasons panic began to set in at that moment: because I had only been up the trail once that day, with a guide; because no matter how many astronomy lessons I’ve had, I still don’t know how to navigate by the stars; and because I didn’t know enough about the wildlife (snakes? coyotes?) that lived in the desert to know if I should be worried about them or not.
I decided to make a second effort to find someone. But the trip back down the trail was a waste. Still not a soul to be found. At this point, I was having thoughts like, I have to do this or I will die, cold and alone, in the desert. This, of course, was not true. I could have at least spent the night in the warm, Wi-Fi filled library. But remember, I was freaking out.
After retracing my steps up the first part of the path, I could see a crescent constellation of lights indicating my building in the distance. Slowly, I shuffled one foot in front of the other in the direction of the lights. I was sure I was going to take two steps off the side of the mesa and fall into the great dark abyss. Thankfully, though, I did not. I made it to my nice warm room and swore I’d never leave its safety again.
I’m sharing this story because I think many of you can identify with the feeling–of not knowing where you are going, feeling ill-equipped and unprepared, and not knowing the real or imagined dangers that lie ahead. The place between where you are and where you want to be can feel infinite and scary. But you must continue, one small step at a time, facing the fear each new step brings.
I don’t know where you are in regards to your writing goals, but take the next step. Then take the next. Eventually, you’ll get there.
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Conference News and Notes
- Audio files of the keynote speeches from the 2010 conference (Bruce Wilkinson, Tom Davis, and BG Nevitt) are now available online! Click here to listen!
- Registration for the 2011Class Christian Writers Conference (Nov. 2-6) will open March 1, which will come much sooner than you think. Be sure to register early to get the best rates and best choice of rooms!
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The CLASS Christian Writers Conference blog is managed by Lawrence J. Clark, an author, speaker, and songwriter who frequently speaks and performs in schools, churches, and libraries throughout the United States. He is co-founder, with his wife Kristen, of HisWitness.org and NewBeginningsMarriage.org, for which he writes a regular column based on personality theory, marriage and relationships, men’s issues, and Christian living.
