Issue 1: Speeches that are too wordy.
Remedy: This is a very common mistake. Remove every word, phrase and sentence you don’t need. It’s hard to ditch a carefully worded phrase . . .

I don’t know about you, but I sometimes find it difficult to get motivated to do anything creative in the winter months. The days are short and dark, wet, windy and cold, and at this point in the calendar it seems to have been like this forever. There’s no colour around in the gardens and everything seems so dull and grey.

Of course, winter will pass and spring will soon be here (anyone got any daffodils out yet?), but I just wanted to encourage you to keep going with your writing this month. (If you’re reading this in warmer climes, ah, enjoy!)

So here’s the idea to keep motivated . . .

Publishers want engaging protagonists – here’s a list of possible characteristics:

They are courageous, they have faults, they have at least one . . .

Children also have a very strong inbuilt sense of right and wrong. They know that David, with his faith and slingshot, should win over Goliath, that the downtrodden should overcome bullies, that those who abuse those weaker than themselves . . .

Hello again Christian writers who write for a reason, thanks for dropping by, and welcome to the second creative writing tip of 2016! 🙂

OK Christian writer friends, here’s a challenge for the New Year . . . actually, it’s a two-part challenge!

The first part of the challenge is to write a short story (3,000 – 5,000 words) on the theme of . . .

Eleanor Watkins has has more than 40 novels published (including the Beech Bank Girls books published by Dernier Publishing). Many of her books are Christian stories for young people, so her advice