Category: Free Writing Tips for Christians Who Write for Children and Young Adults

Do you follow us on facebook? If you do, you may have noticed a recent question from Caitlin. She asks, “If a character speaks another language, is it OK to use some words in their language then refer to what it means?” That’s an excellent question . . .

If you have a deadline for your writing, you will get your project finished, even if you have to ask for an extension.

If you don’t have a deadline, you are more likely to procrastinate. A self-imposed deadline can help, but having someone . . .

I have already mentioned that one of our former Write for a Reason students, Lucy, won first prize in a writing competition recently. It’s called “Mrs Zebedee’s . . .

As writers, we can so easily get carried away with our own plot (and concentrating, rightly, on not getting involved in irrelevant side issues), that we can forget what would be happening to our characters in the real world. You might think it would be impossible . . .

Writing is a lonely occupation, but if we don’t get out, we won’t have anything much to write about.

OK, so we can’t all go on a holiday just so we can write better (sorry!). But if we want . . .

Instead of a writing tip this week, I have an exercise for you! In our April Monthly Members Programme we are looking at writing tight sentences – this is one of the exercises I am suggesting to our members, but you can do it too:

Buy or borrow a selection of . . .

Hello once again Christian writers – I hope you are all well. I’m afraid I succumbed to a rather nasty cough and cold so am a day later than usual with this writing tip – but am more or less back to normal now, and enjoying the new spring – another sunny day in London – love it! 🙂

Before getting to the writing tip, I’d like to say congratulations to Roy Jones, who responded to the recent Writing Challenge. Roy wrote a story on the theme of new beginnings for his granddaughter Amy, who was due to start a new life in Africa . . .

It’s all too easy to let words, sentences and scenes clutter up our stories. Too many words can clutter up our writing in the same way that things can clutter up our homes.

Here’s an important tip for anyone writing a novel, (not just Christians writing for young people!):

You need to introduce your theme, your main characters, and your setting at the beginning of your story, so we know where the story is heading . . .

Most of us lead busy lives. We have to balance work and/or voluntary activities with family, church and other responsibilities. We can have so much on our minds that when we sit down to write our minds are so full we are unable to concentrate.

Here are some suggestions for making the most of your writing time: