CLASS Blog
- Writers Conference Scholarship Guidelines
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June 1, 2010
By CLASSEMINARS
Dan Penwell Scholarships - Application Details
Through the Dan Penwell Scholarship Fund, CLASSEMINARS, Inc. recognizes and thanks Dan Penwell for the years he invested in the lives of aspiring writers. His legacy of writing with excellence for the Kingdom of God inspires us all to do the same. We will miss Dan at the conference this year but he will be there in spirit through the lives of those whom he has touched as well in those who will be able to attend because of the scholarships in his memory.
In addition to the memorial gifts to this scholarship fund, CLASSEMINARS is providing a full scholarship that includes four nights lodging at the Ghost Ranch.
- June 1, 2010 | Comments not allowed for this post
- Leave Published from CLASS CWC!
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June 1, 2010
By Linda Gilden
Out of the Overflow - 2010 CLASS Christian Writers Conference Book Project
What? A book project for the CLASS Christian Writers Conference, Abiquiu, NM
When? November 10-14, 2010
- June 1, 2010 | View or add comments
- Writers Conference News
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June 1, 2010
By CLASSEMINARS
In November the CLASS Christian Writers Conference will give those who attend the opportunity to learn and take their writing to the next level along with providing times to grow spiritually in a gorgeous setting filled with His presence in Abiquiu, New Mexico. The theme of the 2010 CLASS Christian Writers Conference is "Out of the Overflow." Truly it will be a special time of growth in many areas.
Keynote speaker Bruce Wilkinson is the author of 60 books including The Prayer of Jabez, still the fastest selling book in history. A Life God Rewards was the first religious book to reach number one on the New York Times bestseller list in its first week on the market. Formerly publisher and executive editor of ten magazines, Bruce is known to hundreds of thousands of people in nations around the world as a dynamic speaker and motivator. He built the largest religious seminar organization in the world, Walk Thru the Bible, which for more than three decades has helped people around the world live out God's Word. Bruce will inspire all who hear to work hard to write with excellence while writing to reach people for the Kingdom.
- June 1, 2010 | View or add comments
- Out of the Overflow - The Pen Writes!
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June 1, 2010
By Linda Gilden
"...out of the overflow of the mouth, the heart speaks" (and the pen writes!)
Luke 6:45
- June 1, 2010 | View or add comments
- Partnering with Pros - Prepare and Practice with Len and Carolyn Goss
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May 31, 2010
By Linda Jewell
Len and Carolyn Goss have had a 24/7 partnership for more than thirty years. These pros also partner together at GoodEditors.com to help writers and speakers "...make your manuscript as good as it can be."
To help you prepare and practice your skills, they advise, "Write, write, write and read, read, read. The more writing you do, the more comfortable and confident you will become. Likewise, the more you read, the more you will know what good writing and not-so-good writing is."
- May 31, 2010 | View or add comments
- Partnering with Pros - Nonfiction Writing - Blogging - Social Media Coach Lee Warren
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March 18, 2010
By Linda Jewell
Armchair quarterbacks and amateur sports fanatics dabble in their field of interest because they love the game. However, successful and professional sports players take the initiative to find a great coach to help them learn to focus on what's important to win their game as well as for clear directions on the steps necessary to achieve success.
Writers approach Lee Warren and ask if he will coach them in making nonfiction ideas and projects more marketable and salable to a publisher.
- March 18, 2010 | View or add comments
- Blogging from Your Passion
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February 1, 2010
By Lee Warren
I've been a fan of the Kansas City Royals since my uncle from Kansas City came to visit family in Omaha, where I live, when I was a boy. After visiting with everybody, he'd grab a transistor radio, sneak out to my grandparent's front porch and turn on the Royals game.
I followed him.
- February 1, 2010 | View or add comments
- Partnering with Pros - Professional Organizer Marcia Ramsland
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January 10, 2010
By Linda Jewell
Did you resolve to lose weight in 2010? Follow Marcia Ramsland's "30-lb. Paper Diet" to shed piles and files from your home and office.
CLASS graduate, international speaker, writer, and professional organizer Marcia Ramsland, The Organizing Pro, can help you organize your home, office, and time systems so you can get more done in your life.
- January 10, 2010 | View or add comments
- Sell More Fiction in 2010
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January 10, 2010
By Rob Eagar
Enhance Your Author Website
Does your author website provide an environment for readers to experience your personality and story settings? Analyze your site to see fi these elements are included:
a. Use captivating images - Utilize artwork from your book covers and other pictures to express the exotic aspects of your stories. Give glimpses of the world created by your story.
- January 10, 2010 | View or add comments
- Tracking Writing Submissions - Simple Project Management
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January 7, 2010
By Kristen Clark
I started writing for publication only a few years ago but soon discovered I needed a tool for tracking my submissions. I spent too much time looking for that essay I wrote last year (or it could have been the year before) and remembering only vaguely why it might be a great piece and searching my brain for some inkling of the titles. As a writer, my goal is to keep my work circulating until it sells. Unfortunately, publishers have different requirements for submission and keeping track of them all was exasperating. Besides the fact that I was in constant fear of submitting a story to a publisher who had rejected that same story under a different title a year earlier. I couldn't imagine anything less professional!
Thankfully, my experience as a project manager in corporate America quickly reminded me that a simple table with rows and columns would do the trick. I pulled up Excel on my laptop, opened a new spreadsheet and started labeling columns to help me track my submissions. I started with the basic fields of information: publisher and contact information, submission deadline and publication date, submission process and title of my work. I later discovered other pieces of information were equally helpful and I added writing genre, word count and pay rate. The next thing I knew, I had a simple and easy-to-use tool for tracking my submissions.
- January 7, 2010 | View or add comments
- Danger Of A Single Story
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December 26, 2009
By Julie Ferwerda
As writers and speakers, there is a danger of limiting ourselves to one side of the story. What does this mean? Join Chimamanda Adichie from Nigeria as she explores this topic in an engaging and inspirational message to all story tellers!
- December 26, 2009 | View or add comments
- Create a Web Presence - Fast!
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November 1, 2009
By Laura Bagby
Getting out on the World Wide Web isn't as hard as it sounds.
You don't have to pay a Web designer to have a presence in cyberspace. And you don't have to try building a Web site from scratch through open source software like Joomla! or Druple, which can be complicated to configure.
All you need to do is start a blog.
- November 1, 2009 | View or add comments
- Overcoming Fear at the CLASS Writer's Conference
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October 23, 2009
By Julie Ferwerda
I will be missing out on the writer's conference this year, which is a real bummer. However, I can still contribute by giving attendees (especially newbies) a few words of encouragement, which is exactly what I would do if I were there.
So what do you do with moderate to paralyzing fears? Fears such as:
- October 23, 2009 | View or add comments
- A Dream Come True
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September 25, 2009
By Tama Westman
As a child I would sit at the rosewood desk and dream of being a writer. My mother fed my dream by supplying me with foofy pens with feathers on them so I could feel my writing was eloquent and important. In the days before home computers and e-mail, I would spend long hours play-acting at that desk, making pretend phone calls to clients, tap-tap-tapping the numbered keys on the adding machine to ring up sales and writing out long checklists.Some forty years later, not much has changed, except that the dream I had as a child came true! I still spend long hours at the same rosewood desk, calling clients, tap-tapping on the calculator, and writing out long checklists. Long gone are my foofy pens, replaced with a laptop, Sharpies and write on/wipe off pens for the white board.
- September 25, 2009 | View or add comments
- Are You Hitting Your Goals?
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September 8, 2009
By Tama Westman
I saw this tip from Mark Victor Hansen, co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, while I was flipping through the pages of the October issue of Success Magazine (If you don't yet subscribe to Success, I encourage you to up your game today with this monthly issue of some of the best leadership advice going).
According to Hansen, you can create a life-goal list in as little as 15 minutes. Sounds easy. Here's how:
- September 8, 2009 | View or add comments
- New World of Messaging
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July 14, 2009
By Evelyn W. Davison
As the world continues to turn, things are 'a-changing." Like messaging!
When I was a teenage disc jockey, for friends to make a song request, they had to drive by my Dad's little radio station, or our house, and leave a written request in a glass milk bottle on the porch. Later the phone took the place of my milk bottle, while today the iPhone has captured our connection for attention.
- July 14, 2009 | View or add comments
- A successful blog is...
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November 19, 2008
By Julie Ferwerda
So you're ready to start a blog, but not sure what to do next? No problem! Just follow these helps.
A successful blog is...
- November 19, 2008 | View or add comments
- Writing at the Center
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July 19, 2008
By Julie Ferwerda
As writers, how do we determine relevance to our audience? How do we translate what we have to say in a relevant manner?
I read a recent interview with Professor Huston Smith, author of “The World’s Religions.” In this interview, Dr. Smith makes the observation that “the best single model of the universe…is the most time-honored image in the entire Christian faith: the cross.” With a cross being a horizontal line intersected by a vertical line, Dr. Smith explains that this point of intersections is the meeting place between the spiritual realm which we cannot see, and the physical world in which we live with our senses. He contends that the cross, or the meeting place of both worlds, is at the center of the universe and always where we find God. What a cool thought!
- July 19, 2008 | View or add comments
- His Plan For Breaking In
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June 24, 2008
By Evelyn W. Davison
Breaking into anything takes a plan. If you are a thief or a robber, then you have to have a plan. That plan would include: where, what and when.
Breaking into publishing also takes a plan. The old journalism four-point-outline (who, what, where, when) can help you get started. In creative writing you can add “why”.
There are other necessary elements (tools) in a writing plan:
- June 24, 2008 | View or add comments
- Dream BIG - it costs the same
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May 30, 2008
By Tama Westman
If you are interested in getting published, start with what you can do. You can find a publication that will publish you today - if not today, tomorrow. If not tomorrow, this week. If not this week, this month. You can make it happen! Set a goal, educate yourself, write something interesting and charge ahead.
Be a stickler for creatively crafted and carefully edited pieces prior to submission. Your edge will be your professionalism in a world gone mad with e-mail writers - those who have forgotten grammar and punctuation in favor of a simpler writing style.
- May 30, 2008 | View or add comments
- Break-in Markets
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May 30, 2008
By Tama Westman
Would-be writers often ask me, "How do I break in?" Here's a few quick and easy ideas that have worked for me and countless others. Have fun with this list - try a few of the ideas and see where this new venture takes you.
Stir the hornet's nest to create a buzz
Newspaper editors thrive on controversy. A reader's response that expresses a differing or opposing viewpoint is sure to capture his attention and likely to be published.
Letter to the Editor
Ever read an article that stirred you up? Write those thoughts and feelings down. Your response will capture the gleeful attention of the editor, especially if your view expresses a differing or opposing stance. Newspapers especially thrive on controversy, if you provide it in 500 words or less, you are sure to be published. - May 30, 2008 | View or add comments
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