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Godzilla Is Not Dead

There is one thing God and Godzilla have in common. People keep thinking they’ve been killed off, only to watch them come back to life. · R. L. Copple

Visual Impact

Have we been trained over the last few years by movies to only like certain styles of story-telling? · R. L. Copple

Agenda Fiction Is Alive and Well

The purpose of fiction is to experience the truth lived out in real life. Even if that real life is in the future, past, or a fantasy world. · R. L. Copple

Why I Put It Down

Here are my top eight reasons, in descending order, why I’m likely to put a book down and stop reading. · R. L. Copple

Fictional Christianity

If it sounds right and they like the speaker, many will not blink an eye and drink the koolaid. · R. L. Copple

Looking For A Few Good Words

I’m choosy about books. I’m not so particular about genre, but I’m a terrible snob where the quality of writing is concerned. I want some depth to a story. A satisfaction of the spirit. I’m less concerned with a story’s […] · Yvonne Anderson

The Forgotten Reader 2: R.E.A.D.

Before discussing reading first and writing shop-talk second, what do we mean by “reading”? True reading starts with humble Receiving and ends in God-worshipful Delight. · E. Stephen Burnett

Bring In The Gospel, But Leave Your “Isms” At Home

The simple gospel is a gem of unfathomable proportions. So Christian writers, make sure it’s the gem the reader finds, not the box it’s in or the filigree that surrounds it. · Yvonne Anderson

We Are Not Storyless!

The Author has never lost control or taken a back seat in his writing. His will is always moving forward. So who are you, O Character, to claim you know better than the Author what is needed in his story? · Christopher Miller

How Can They Hear?

A common complaint with Christian fiction is that it’s too preachy. Personally, I’m more apt to be dissatisfied because it’s not preachy enough. · Yvonne Anderson

Magic In The Story: What’s The Big Deal?

Magic — just the mention of it can cause many a “good Christian” to draw dividing lines, take sides and ready for attack. Are we being discerning or just overreacting? Join our new series: Magic in the Story. · Christopher Miller

More About Characters

The subject of characters in Christian fiction has been coming up on this blog a lot recently. I’ve appreciated E. Stephen Burnett’s excellent series “Fiction Christians From Another Planet” — Patrick Carr’s guest post about writers using real people as […] · Yvonne Anderson

Realism And Twenty-first Century Stories

If all characters are victims of disaster, I suggest readers or viewers stop caring and start looking for the “out.” Will the character die and come back? Have a narrow escape? Have a death that only looks like death? In truth, all the arguing and betrayal and refusal becomes–predictable and boring and unrealistic. Soon the characters seem more like caricatures because none acts with nobility or courage or hope. All display their flawed selves with so little inner struggle. And this, we’ve come to believe, is realistic. · Rebecca LuElla Miller

Hold Your Twinkies Loosely!

Happy New Year! Well, we made it folks! I do believe a collective sigh is in order. 2012 (the year that was “doomsday”) is finally in the books and we would do well to count our blessings for a moment. […] · Christopher Miller

The Echoes Of Christmas

God is the Author of the Christmas story. I wonder how far its echoes can, and should, reach in all stories. What would a story look like, written in a spirit that, like Scrooge, honors Christmas and keeps it all the year? · Shannon McDermott

Ingredients Of A Good Story

Whether on blogs or in conference writing instruction or how-to writing books, it seems to me there is much more discussion about point of view and avoiding passive verb constructions and steering clear of forms of “to be” than there is about what ingredients go into a good story. · Rebecca LuElla Miller

Familiarity Versus Originality

Old stories, as “typical” as they are, speak to a deeper longing in all of us. We want to know that good wins. That there is hope. That love is just around the corner. Life doesn’t always demonstrate that to us, so we find ourselves at Story’s door, wanting to escape to a place where magic is still alive. To fly in the face of that child-like expectation is almost a betrayal of Story. · Greg Mitchell
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