Have you heard the story of the little girl and her pearls? There once was a little girl who went shopping with her mother and saw a strand of costume jewelry pearls. Oh, how she wanted those pearls! But her mother wouldn’t provide the money to buy them, so she saved...
The creativity of God never ceases to amaze me. He created plants that grow underwater, He created diamonds and dandelion dust with equal ease, and He called a single woman with no children to write for the Christian homeschool market. I wasn’t homeschooled as a...
Engaging young readers is important for children's authors, but in an effort to reach them, how do we understand our young readers? Maybe we are parents or grandparents. We might be teachers or caregivers. Maybe we just have a heart for littles. I think every...
“The universe is made of stories, not atoms.” —Muriel Rukeyser Once upon a time… … in a Galaxy Far, Far Away… … a young shepherd boy stood before the giant with only a sling. … a starship set out to boldly go where no man had gone before. … four reptiles stumbled upon...
If you’ve chosen writing for the purpose of making your fortune, you’ve picked the wrong career. Of course, this doesn’t mean that we can’t earn money from writing and writing-related activities. So now that we’ve dealt with this hard truth and you haven’t stopped...
I’m told I was a particularly difficult baby and a challenging child. The family blames the first on colic; I blame the second on a vivid imagination. Whatever the cause, a series of photos seems to substantiate the claims of my parentals, aunts and uncles, and...
The week between Christmas and New Years is a special time of year. If you are an aspiring children's author, you may wonder how to best use this week. Christian authors focus on a variety of activities during Christmas week. The list is as varied as the individual...
December first and ready or not, the Christmas season is upon us. Reflect with us on this post, penned last year and shared by Ava Pennington. https://write2ignite.com/2015/12/16/hopes-and-fears/
We know that authors should read, read, read in the genre they write. So, for example, if you aspire to being a children's fiction author, you should read tons of children's fiction. If you want to write devotions for teens, you should read lots and lots of devotions...
Author and publisher Cheri Cowell presented the first webinar sponsored by Write2Ignite on Wednesday, September 21. Cowell, owner of EABooks Publishing, shared her own journey as a writer who started out and, after several years of submitting numerous manuscripts or...
One of the things I hear a lot of writers talk about is the balance between family life and career. In the countless interviews I've given through the years, the question of how I juggle the needs of my family with the demands of my writing career often comes up....
by Jan Prahl At Write2Ignite, one of our goals is to encourage you to write quality material for children and teens. As you pursue that goal there will be many opportunities to brag. Got a brag? Lay it on me! Here are a few questions to get your brag on. We want to...
Do you have a special place where you like to write? What makes it work for you? Kathleen M. Muldoon wrote a chapter in her book Sowing Seeds: Writing for the Christian Children's Market about the importance of setting up a place to write. Here are the first few...
Note the date and mark your calendars. The date for W2I! 2017 is March 24-25 and the place is North Greenville University. The W2I! planning committee has met several times and gathered ideas and information to make our spring conference a success. We are also looking...
Do you have dreams of being an author? Specifically, you may feel a calling from God to write for children. I challenge you to do one thing this summer. Pick something from the list below. Do one thing. Attend a writers conference. Join a critique group. Subscribe to...
You’ve written a terrific blog post. Next step is to scour the Internet for the right photo to accompany your post. But just as our writing is copyright-protected, so are many of the photos we find on the Internet. So where can you find appropriate photos that are...
Writing conference season is in full swing. Conferences are such exciting times-filled with renewed relationships, new friendships, and countless dreams. Mixed in with the dreams, however, are less appealing realities. Changing markets, a depressed economy, and the...
Write2Ignite! 2016 is less than four weeks away! Do you feel the excitement building as I do? Are you ready? What do you need to do so you can get the greatest benefit from attending Write2Ignite! 2016? What should you put on your timeline for getting ready? Much...
By this point in the process, you have lots of content and a good idea of where you’d like to take it. Today, let’s look at putting the pieces together. Now that you have a sense of how much content you can write about your topic, what size lessons fit it the best? Do...
Conference season is here. Perhaps you are registered for a writers conference, an especially good investment in your career. Before you head off for that event, you should consider the purpose of your writing. Here are three main categories of writing for children. 1...
by Janet Roller “Worship is simply giving God back His breath.” - Louis Giglio I’m thrilled to be a part of the Write 2 Ignite Conference where we’ll breathe out God's breath together. Music has always been a part of my life. I grew up on the second row of a small...
If you’ve been working on the assignment I gave you last month, you’ve thought of one or more good ideas that you want to write about. Now let’s get in to the meat of how to make this a course that kids can enjoy. You’re going to need three main pieces to your course:...
For me, this has been one of my best Christmases ever, though you probably wouldn’t have guessed it: My daughter’s family lives in North Carolina, and they spent Christmas with her husband’s family again, where there are plenty of children of all ages for the...
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Thanksgiving is tomorrow! It is a traditionally a time to gather with family and friends, a time to thank God for His provision. But at Thanksgiving, we sometimes get a little too focused on preparing and enjoying the feast. How does God's provision look? For many...
Driving along the great Mississippi River to see the fall leaves has always been a tradition in our family. Visiting the zoo and being amazed at the animals, often tickled by their behaviors . . . another tradition. Of course, walking along sandy beaches collecting...
This post originally appeared on Jan Prahl's personal blog, Writing Under the Maple Leaves on April 18, 2015. She graciously shared it with us today. This was me, today. When I think of writing, This is the kind of idyllic spot that comes to mind. closer...
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Angry men bent on death. She broke the law, and she must die. The scene has been repeated in Pakistan, Indonesia, and the eighth chapter of John. What Jesus wrote and said in John 8 saved a woman’s life. Could he use our writing to do the same? In countries around the...
This wintery week, we’re catching some rays of joy with Cheri Cowell, owner and publisher of EABooks Publishing. Also a published author and speaker, Cheri will present two workshops at the 2015 Write2Ignite Conference: "How to Evaluate Your Options: Traditional...
by Sally Matheny Eight weeks until “Shine!” time. Are you registered for W2I yet? You don’t want to miss our keynote speaker, Tim Shoemaker. He is the author of eleven books and a regular contributor to Focus on the Family’s Clubhouse magazine.Tim is also a...