2. The 24/7 Writer

Learn to establish priorities, create a productive writing environment, and discover the most effective tools for becoming a professional writer. We’ll introduce ways to capture the big idea and do the research necessary to capitalize on it.

3. The Writer as Observer

How do you fuel your idea factory? By becoming an observer of the world and your community. We’ll show how to use your senses to become a colorful writer.

4. The Writer as Wordsmith

How do you find and use expressive words, develop colorful sentences, and create sentences with impact without intruding between your reader and your content? We’ll provide examples, show how to increase your skills as a wordsmith, and introduce the powerful roles of symbol and metaphor.

5. The Writer’s Craft: Your Personal Style

Every writer needs to analyze the components of style, reading widely to study styles of various writers, and learning to target a reader. You’ll also learn about the Master’s touch.

6. The Writer’s Best Friend: The Media

Where do you go to put your developing skills to work for Christ and His Kingdom? We’ll provide a basic understanding of markets: newspapers, take-home papers, magazines, the Internet, books.

7. The Writer’s Basic Tool: The News Article

How do you construct the article? What is the inverted pyramid? What kinds of lead paragraphs are most effective? How do you close a news article? Examples get you started.

8. The Writer’s Calling Card: The Interview

Everything you need to know: where to find interview subjects, how to do pre-interview research, how to develop an angle, what tools to take along, how to get the most out of an interview subject.

9. The Writer’s Megaphone: The Magazine Article

You’ll be introduced to the five elements of a good article, 12 kinds of articles, how to grab and hold the reader, developing a satisfactory close. This lesson gets you started as a selling writer.

10. The Writer’s Discipline: Self-editing

Self-editing gives your work the professional touch. Discover four questions to ask yourself, what structural self-editing is about, how to edit for brevity, clarity, vigor, and paragraph strength.

11. The Writer’s Power Tool: The Story

Why does God prefer the story for the communication of truth? Discover 10 powerful uses of the story, the power in your own story, and how to excel in telling the story. 

12. The Writer as Marketer

How to analyze the markets so you can start selling. We show you how to do market analysis, how to put your manuscript through finishing school, how to write a query letter, and we introduce you to writer/editor etiquette and record keeping.

Section II: Articles That Sell

13. The Writer’s Treasure Chest

What sources do you have for usable, publishable ideas? How do you frame them, focus them, and then shape your big ideas to impact your reader?

14. The Feature Article

Feature articles provide a full-orbed and balanced perspective on a specific topic, person, organization, or event. Learn what makes an outstanding feature article and how to build an effective beginning, middle, and end.

15. The Inspirational Article

Learn to recognize an inspirational idea or experience, how to develop it for maximum reader appeal, what magazines like Guideposts and others expect in an inspirational article.

16. The Personality Article

Personality articles feature people others want to know about. Examine life situations that generate articles, learn to identify and develop a story angle, what to avoid, and where to market personality articles.

17. The Devotional Article

Discover three key elements of a good devotional meditation, the use of imagery in devotional writing, how to construct and shape a longer devotional article — and where to market it.

18. The How-to Article

Have your eyes opened to an amazing diversity of how-to articles, where to find how-to article ideas, what to build into the how-to article that makes it saleable.

19. The Seasonal Article

What events suggest a seasonal article? How do you develop a new twist on an old idea? How important is timing? Discover how to make multiple sales with the same seasonal theme.

20. The Expository Article

Expository articles may require more research, but they provide unique opportunities to explore a process, the meaning of a word, a concept, a Scripture passage. Learn to draw on personal experience to help readers understand Scripture.

21. The Personal Experience Article

These range from learning a lesson or discovering God’s provision to experiencing danger. Learn to turn your experiences into articles that also change others’ lives.

22. The Humorous Article

Humor packs a spiritual wallop because it packages truth in unexpected ways. Learn to develop a sense of humor, where to look for humor, what abilities you’ll need, and the steps to developing a humorous article.

23. The Investigative Article

Search for truth about actions people are trying to cover. You’ll examine whether it is biblical, what kinds of articles you can write, how to verify information, how to write the article — and analyze a sample. 

24. The Argumentative Article

When should you write an argumentative article — and what should be its tone? Learn to use an argumentative article to inform, to lay out truth, to persuade, to respond to attack, plus how to generate ideas for such articles.

Section III: Books and Screenwriting

25. The Nonfiction Book: Preliminary Considerations

Discover the many ways books differ from articles, what qualities you need to become an author, and what kinds of books you can write.

26. The Nonfiction Book: Getting Started

Set the tone and direction of your book through establishing a clear purpose and developing an outline that maps a journey for your reader. You’ll be ready to write the first chapter when you finish this lesson.

27. The Nonfiction Book: Developing the Theme

This lesson starts with an example of the development of a theme, introduces the extended anecdote, shows how to use your own story, how to write another’s story, and how to match biblical truth with life experience. Discover a pattern for the development of the theme.

28. The Nonfiction Book: Building in Life Change

Beginning with four attitude-changing appeals in the apostle Paul’s letter to Philemon, this lesson introduces a four-track approach to communicating for life change. Provides time-tested approaches to impacting readers’ lives and effecting change. 

29. The Nonfiction Book: Marketing Your Book Idea

When should you begin marketing your book? Who will determine if your book is accepted at a publisher? What is the best way to get the attention of the gatekeepers? Will an agent help? Where can you meet editors? How to market your book after publication.

30. Writing Poetry

Learn how writing poetry can improve your prose. Discover devices and forms that help express what you are seeing and experiencing not only more colorfully, but also more effectively.

31. Writing for Children

Learn about writing for different age groups, the types of things you can write and sell, how to write proposals, how to format a picture book, and how to use special features. Discover the pizzazz factor — plus a ton of other things about writing for today’s market.

32. Writing Promotional Copy

Here’s an introduction to get you started in book promotion, brochures, event promotion, writing news releases, advertising copy, and fundraising letters.

33. Writing Newsletters

Learn the reasons for writing a newsletter, the content to include, how to get feedback, and opportunities to develop new newsletters.

34. Writing Church Drama

Learn to write a dramatic vignette or a full-fledged drama for your church. Discover how to engage the audience emotionally and drive home spiritual truth. Explore drama as a stand-alone tool or as part of a musical production.

35. Writing for Film: Screenwriting vs. Prose

How writing for the viewer differs from writing for the reader. A discussion of creating images, converting inner life to outer action, and understanding the commerciality of screenwriting.

36. Writing for Film: Structuring Your Screenplay

Introducing the three-act structure, the backbone of every screenplay. A look at plot points, character arcs, and story formation. How to outline your story for script.

37. Writing for Film: Formatting Your Screenplay

How to adapt your writing style to scripting. Provides an explanation and examples of script elements, including scene headers, characters, dialogue, and action.

38. The Business Side of Writing

Discover when the IRS considers you a small business, how to keep records of your activity, what you need to know about copyright laws, what it means to work for hire, and how to syndicate your work.

Section IV: Fiction That Sells

39. What Fiction Is, and How It Works 

Investigate why Jesus chose stories for presenting the truth. Discover ways a novelist creates a compelling dream world his readers do not want to leave.

40. The Creative Process

As we fill an empty page, we can participate with God in the creative act. Learn to recognize, then cultivate the germ of an idea, while discovering what you really want to say.

41. Characterization 

We never forget favorite fictional characters; some even name their children after them! Learn to create memorable characters and how to establish motivation.

42. Creating Character Emotion 

Nothing is more important than conveying the emotions of your characters honestly, powerfully, and convincingly.

43. Writing in Scenes 1 

In its essence, a short story or a novel is a sequence of scenes — with nothing between. Learn dramatization (showing rather than telling), what a scene is and what it isn’t, and the ways to find the beginning and ending of a scene.

44. Writing in Scenes 2 

Study the dangers of narrative summary (as opposed to dramatization) and how to avoid it. Also learn to handle the more difficult tasks in a scene, such as exposition and flashbacks.

45. Point of View 

The most important technique decision a novelist makes is choosing the point of view. Learn also the difference between voice and point of view.

46. Dialogue 

Though far more directed, coherent, and intense than real speech, written dialogue must give the illusion of real speech. Learn how to avoid common mistakes, and also the importance of implication in dialogue: What is not said is as important as what is said.

47. Plotting 1 

Study what a plot is and how it works. Plots arise from the characters and the situation the novelist places them in, which means the writer must learn to listen to those characters and adjust his ideas about the story as he goes. Learn three basic approaches to plotting.

48. Plotting 2 

Learn internal vs. external plots and following the line of compulsion. Discover plot shapes and how to construct plot diagrams. Examine the problems of creating tension and that all-important sense of the ticking clock.

49. The Special Constraints of the Christian Market 

The secular market has one set of restrictions and preferences, and the Christian market has another. Learn the differences, the must-haves, and the taboos within the Christian market (such as language, characters, action, message) and how to write powerfully and honestly within those constraints.

50. Revision and Self-editing 

For many writers, this is the fun part. For others, it’s torture. How many times should you revise? What should you look for as you’re revising, and how do you fix it? Find the real beginning and the real ending of your story, and discover what your novel is really about.