Search Results for: prompt

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  A Woman Author by Trade, A Woman Author At Heart

  - By Blair Townley

  When it comes to encouragement, optimistic writers of faith are what move me most towards a positive mindset regarding life. Any book, including several from our beloved Xulon authors, that prompts more faith and trust in the Heavenly Father always push me, the voracious reader, to “gobble” up the literature and ingest its principles for future use in my life. However, it has become clear to me over the years of reading faith-based encouragement books that there is a definite difference between how women and men write tomes of encouragement. Men tend to write motivational books as more of an…

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  Ask the Editor: Front Matters

  - By Brittnee Newman

  Until recently, most incoming manuscripts to Xulon HQ had a title page and, maybe, an Acknowledgements page. This month, however, we have been inundated with Prefaces, Introductions, Author’s Notes, Forewords, and every flavor of frontmatter that only people who are paid to care about can actually define. Usually.

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  Ask the Editor: Varying Rhyming Patterns in Poetry

  - By Krystina Murray

  The debate on rhyming in poetry produces skewed results. Should poets use end rhymes or not? Some argue that rhyming in poetry creates a natural rhythm that cannot be produced in any other form. Others encourage poets to do away with rhyming, as it creates a distracting predictability. Below is a brief list to shed light on rhyming patterns that deviate from your average end rhyme pattern. The key here is to challenge yourself to be inspired by an innovative rhyming scheme that retains the musical tones in your writing without the cliché predictability. Half Rhyme/Slant Rhyme/Off Rhyme. This rhyme…

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  Squashing Your Inner Critic and Other Fun Ways to Fix Your Creative Dry Spell

  - By Krystina Murray

  There is nothing more exciting than penning a novel, poem, essay, prose, blog or script. Any writer looking to complete a piece of work suffers from highs and lows in the writing process – from the sweet rush of ideas that flood the soul at random times of the day, month or even years, to the dull moments that arise when trying to coax the writing process along. Here’s a list of ideas that can help you breeze through your moments of blockage. This is not in any particular order of importance; feel free to experiment with some or all…