Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Great Writing, Anyone?

Last night I went to Taylor University in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, to hear Chip Macgregor speak to one of Doc Hensley's classes. Chip covered a lot of good material about the publishing industry, how to get started, when do you need an agent, and a host of other topics. But the one we talked about on the drive back was what makes a book great?

Chip says you need three things to make it as a writer: great writing, great platform, and great ideas. It's ideal to have the intersection of all three. Not everyone has that. There's not a whole lot I can do about my platform. Sure, I guest blog on several blogs, I contribute to books, but those aren't in the fiction area. I have this blog (thanks to all my good friends and family who read it :-) ). I can work at cultivating good ideas. I can brainstorm with others to take a good idea and then twist it on its head so it avoids over-done cliches.

But writing. That's where I can really work and hone my skills. There are writers where I pick up the book and have to savor it because the word use is perfect. I can tell they invested time and thought into choosing the words the appear on the page. Some are able to combine excellent writing with a great plot.

I am currently savoring Mary DeMuth's Wishing on Dandelions. I just finished one of Colleen Coble's books; she paints such rich settings with her words that I could almost feel the tropical breezes on my face. I aspire to have these ladies skill with words, but also their heart for God. And I can tell you that each of them works HARD at their writing, always aspiring to improve.

What book have you read that had great writing?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Cara,
I agree with you. We have to read good writing to learn how to write well. Mary D's writing is a great example. I loved both of her books.
I envy you being so close to Taylor to be able to attend Chip's lecture.

I figured out how to post comments without it backfiring. I'm already on the new beta version of blogger and my version can't talk to the old version. It's been very frustrating!

Pam Meyers
psmeyers@comcast.net
http://pammeyerswrites.blogspot.com

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