Gearing up for the Conference

By Billie Wilson
Conference Director

We’re ramping up for the greatest FCWC ever! Jerry Jenkins and Cec Murphey are keynoters, and we've scheduled a ton of eager editors and agents to have a look at your manuscripts.

Plus, you'll have access to top freelancers, who can give your awkward or ailing manuscript CPR on the spot.

If you haven't yet registered for the conference, scheduled for March 4-7, I want you to know that we have received additional lodging from the Lake Yale Conference Center. Please pass the word along to your writer friends -- THERE IS STILL TIME TO REGISTER for the entire conference. Several partial scholarships are available.

If you’d like to apply for a scholarship, send (or e-mail) a brief bio, snippet of your current writing projects, and a brief explanation of your financial need to:

Billie Wilson, FCWC Director
2344 Armour Ct.
Titusville, FL 32780

Fax: 321-747-0246
Email: billiewilson@cfl.rr.com

If you miss the deadline for mailing a manuscript for editorial review, bring your writing projects with you and turn them in when you arrive.

Branding Yourself for Maximum Impact - Continuing Class

By Laura Christianson
2010 FCWC Faculty

A Utah mother had the name of a casino tattooed on her forehead in inch-tall block letters to raise funds for her son to attend private school. The publicity stunt garnered her—and the casino—worldwide media attention.

While you won’t be auctioning off space on your forehead, you do need to understand why branding is the central first step in expanding your writing or speaking career.

Branding doesn’t have to be painful, either. During this hands-on Continuing Class, you’ll CRAFT a Consistent, Relevant, Attractive, Frequent, Targeted brand message that sears itself into your audience’s memory.

We're going to do some fun (and wacky) activities during this course. If you have a laptop and an extension cord, bring it to class -- we're going online! If you don't bring a laptop, you're still welcome to join us... we'll share. Here's an overview of what you can expect during our six hours together:

Session 1
WHAT'S YOUR STORY?
Identifying your core values

A strong brand reflects the values you hold most dear. We’ll discuss what branding is—and isn’t—and you’ll pinpoint unique qualities about yourself that you can begin developing into a stellar brand.

Session 2
BULLSEYE
Aiming for your target audience

Your audience is finicky, fickle, and narcissistic at heart; before they “buy” your story, they want to know, “What’s in it for me?” You’ll learn how to identify your target audience and how to build a brand that meets their needs and desires.

Session 3
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED
Crafting your brand’s promise statement

Similar to a 30-second “elevator pitch,” your brand’s promise must engage your audience. You’ll learn how to avoid muddling your message and you’ll prepare a promise with pizzazz.

Session 4
GROUP HUG
Building brand loyalty

People bond with your brand when you promote it compellingly. You’ll learn how to guide and influence your brand so it makes a consistent emotional connection with your target audience.

Session 5
THE ESSENTIAL BRAND IDENTITY KIT, PART 1
Designing dynamic marketing materials

Your marketing materials must reflect and promote your brand. You’ll learn how to enhance your brand with a logo, business card, stationery package, sales brochures, and other print pieces.

Session 6
THE ESSENTIAL BRAND IDENTITY KIT, PART 2
Optimizing your brand on the Internet

Your Web site will likely serve as the hub for all your branding efforts. You’ll learn how to solidify your brand via a Web site, blog, and social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

In addition to managing the blog, Facebook, and Twitter accounts for the Florida Christian Writers' Conference, Laura Christianson owns Blogging Bistro, an Internet marketing company based in Seattle, WA. This will be her second year teaching at the FCWC. Laura looks forward to having a "tweetup" with her fellow social media addicts at the conference.

The One-Sheet Method: Making a Great Pitch

By Shellie Arnold
2010 FCWC Faculty

Does the idea of making a pitch to an editor or agent fill you with dread? Do you try to practice and plan, but don’t know where to begin?

Join me Thursday, March 4, to learn about the One-sheet method.

The One-sheet method can help you focus and make a great pitch to editors and agents. This method can be used for fiction projects, non-fiction works, and by writers and speakers as a means for marketing. Come learn how to fuse your pitch and personality into a customized representation of you and your message.
 
Shellie Arnold is a freelance author and home school mom. She writes and speaks on marriage and family issues. To contact Shellie visit www.shelliearnold.com.

Fundamentals of Christian Art?

Part 2 of 2

By Zena Dell Lowe
2010 FCWC Faculty

Now that we know what it looks like to be a Christian Artist, we can start exploring the idea of what kind of art a Christian Artist makes.

This is a very tricky question because again, a Christian artist is just an artist who happens to be a Christian. Consequently, there is no complete list of rules we get to follow in order to ensure we are glorifying God in our work. That's why we must be in fellowship with other Christian Artists.

As Flannery O'Connor says:

“The Christian writer does not decide what is good for the world and then proceed to deliver it.  Like a very doubtful Jacob, he enters into the struggle and wonders if he will come out at all.” 

There are no black and white rules. There are only principles and guidelines. Just as a Christian baseball player "plays the game" differently than his secular teammates, so also does the artist who happens to be a Christian. There are, then, a few guidelines I would like to suggest, and/or a few elements that might be included or present in artwork created by a Christian.

As I mentioned before, when most people consider what the goal ought to be for Christian fiction, they automatically assume that the goal is to be “non-offensive” in terms of sex, language and violence.  But the problem with that standard is that it only describes a void. It doesn’t give any creative guidance. 

As Barbara Nicolosi pointed out, “A lot of Christians lauded the release Walk to Remember mainly on this basis: It didn’t have any bad language and the two teenagers didn’t sleep together.” 

Now I enjoyed the film as much as the next guy.  Nevertheless, this kind of movie can't be the goal of Christian artists.  It was decent.  But it wasn't great.  It was a trite, predictable story with underdeveloped characters and humdrum acting and overly sweet dialogue.  It wasn’t a good movie because of what it didn’t have. Entertainment is a positive, not a void.  A story is great because of what it offers, not because of what it lacks.

So if Christian art is not art that lacks sex, language, and violence, what ingredients should we look for to identify a so called Christian work? Again, the fundamental rule must be:

TELL THE TRUTH

“The secular novelist sees what is visible; the Christian novelist sees what is there.”  Frank Sheed

“The Christian writer lives in a larger world.”  Flannery O’Connor

“I would rather see an R-rated truth than a G - rated lie.” Act One

The problem with showing sex and violence is not that we show too much, but rather that we show too little.  We need to show the full consequences of sin, the whole picture.  Don't stop short.  Tell the whole truth.

Be true to your characters.  Sometimes people do bad things.  How can you show the redemption if you fail to show the depravity?  Look at the Bible for an example.  Lot slept with his daughters.  David saw Bathsheeba bathing on the rooftop - a pretty erotic voyeuristic image.  He then slept with her, got her pregnant, set up her husband, and then committed pre-meditated murder to cover up his sin.

If the Bible were a movie, it would be rated R because of the content.  God himself didn't hide behind pretty pink bows and a false world.  He dealt with real issues. But HOW we deal with these issues makes all the difference in the world.

DO NOT VIOLATE YOUR AUDIENCE

We MUST tell the truth, the whole truth, about our character, his world, and his choices.  If we don't, we will not succeed in effecting the audience towards real change.  However, in telling the truth, we must be more creative than our secular counterparts - because we are morally responsible to our audience.  So here's the acid test - find a way to tell that truth without violating your audience.   

Scott Derrickson gives a talk about his experiences in Hollywood called "A Christian's progress."  In it, he describes the different camps he fell into as he wrestled with this question of the Christian artist's responsibility.  His conclusion is that our only responsibility is to tell the truth. 

But even here, he adds a condition.  He writes, "If a creative work is going to have a primarily detrimental effect on the audience, then a Christian shouldn't participate in it.

Consider the TV commercial director who is trying to use his craft to sell shaving cream.  His entire moral obligation is the creation of an excellent commercial that sells a product. For the Christian in Hollywood, excellence is the constant obligation, moving the audience AWAY from "the Good" is the forbidden practice, and moving the audience toward "the Good" is more often than not, the unique opportunity to be taken.”

There are several ways we can violate our audience. One way is to create visual images that are so disturbing that they literally damage the human being who views them. Often times sex scenes do this, which is why we have such a knee-jerk reaction to them.

We must remember we answer to God, and I certainly don’t want to be responsible for causing my audience to sin in lust as they read my book or watch my film. However, my story might be a lie if I don’t include some kind of sex scene. So what am I to do? Find a way to show it without damaging your audience. That’s all, and it’s everything.

YOU CAN'T HAVE REDEMPTION WITHOUT DEPRAVITY

There is a mystery in every human person. “I am not a book to be read and understood, I am a man with all his inconsistencies.”  Edith Stein

“The purpose of literature (stories) is to reveal to man his hidden greatness.”  Pascal

One of the paradoxes of the Christian experience is how we can endure both terrible suffering and have intense joy at the same time without any sense of contradiction.  We are complex, complicated people because we’ve been created in God’s own image.  And every human being has the potential for grace, redemption, greatness and hope. 

But at the same time, we have this terrible propensity for sin.  We are capable of such evil.  We are depraved – which doesn’t mean we’re as bad as we possibly can be all of the time.  But rather, we are infected with sin at every level of our humanity – our intellect, our emotions, our thoughts, our dreams.

So at any given crossroads, our decisions or thought processes can go astray and lead us away from our Creator.  We need to be willing to portray this truth about the human condition.  We need to be willing to explore the sinful realm that so infects our humanity. 

As the great Christian novelist Flannery O’Connor noted, “Redemption is meaningless unless there is a cause for it in the actual life we live.” 

SOME CLOSING WORDS

We don't have to be afraid.  We are free to tell the truth.  And we are challenged to become even better, more creative artists in so doing, which gives God all the more glory, since he is well pleased with those who seek excellence.

We follow the example of Jesus, who was in the world, but not of the world, who hung out with sinners and told parables and stories, so that those sinners might find Him.  When Jesus told parables, they rarely mentioned God.  Yet when Christians write fiction that does not directly or overtly mention God or Christ, we are suspect. This should not be. Our goal is not to save people or evangelize.  Rather, we endeavor to write great stories to the best of our ability, and glorify God with our lives in the process.  And we do this not by writing “Christian” fare, but by engaging and infiltrating mainstream culture.

My hope is that Christians will be major players in Hollywood in the next five to ten years, not because they are writing "Christian" movies, but because they are telling GREAT STORIES with EXCELLENCE.  If we can do this, we can truly change the world one movie at a time.

The Calling & Responsibility of the Christian Artist

Part 1 of 2

By Zena Dell Lowe
2010 FCWC Faculty

For the last fifteen years, I’ve been blessed to work in the entertainment industry. I’ve had a variety of jobs, from being an administrative assistant, executive, actress, production assistant, script supervisor, sound girl, and grip to being the writer, director, producer, and project creator on a variety of projects.

I’ve also had the unique opportunity to work as the former associate director of Act One: Writing for Hollywood, a training program for Christian writers pursuing mainstream entertainment industry careers.

And God has allowed me to teach in other venues as well, as an adjunct professor of writing at Covenant College in Georgia, and also at Christian writers conferences around the country. But whatever role I’ve played in Hollywood, my goal has always been the same – to work in the mainstream. I am not interested in producing art for the Christian subculture. I want to impact the culture at large.

This inevitably leads Christians to ask, “Why mainstream Hollywood? Why not write Christian films or novels?” “What does it mean to write mainstream, anyway?” “And how is it even possible if a person is truly a Christian? Wouldn’t it inevitably mean compromise?”

There is a lot of confusion in the Church about what it means to be a Christian writer.  My goal is to provide a better understanding of what I believe it means to be a Christian artist, and give standards by which we should and can measure our work. 

PART 1: WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN ARTIST?

Perhaps we can best understand the answer to this question by exploring a different one.  What is a Christian baseball player? Most of us would have no difficulty here. Since there is no separate Christian baseball league, we would be able to say with confidence that a Christian baseball player is simply someone who plays baseball for a living who happens to be a Christian. But as such, there are some things that should set him apart.

1.  MOTIVATION

Why does a man grow up to be a professional baseball player?  Sure, there's lots of money in it once he gets to the "big show," but most baseball players never make it that far.  And yet they still pursue the dream, playing for pennies in the minor leagues.  So why does he do it?

If you say it's because he loves it, you're half right.  But loving it isn't enough.  You have to love it, but you also have to be good at it.  I love Broadway musicals, but I'm not a great singer.  So I can enjoy them from afar and I know not to waste my time trying to get cast in a Broadway show for which I just don't have the talent.  To become a professional baseball player, you have to love it, but you also have to be good at it.  So, the only reason to pursue a career as a writer or artist is because you are good at it.

2.  GOAL

A Christian baseball player does not play baseball in order to save people. When he plays baseball, his goal is to play baseball in a way that honors God. But it is NOT TO EVANGELIZE. That happens off the field. If anyone gets saved, it will NOT be because of the home runs he hits or the triple plays he completes or the MVP awards he receives. Rather, it will be because of the personal relationships he has established along the way that have given him the opportunity to talk to people about his own relationship with Christ. 

People who create art in order to save people are practicing lazy evangelism. They let themselves off the hook. Scripture clearly paints a picture of evangelism through the establishment of personal relationships. It is lazy to confer the task of evangelism to our work. If we want to witness to people, we must spend time with them. We must invest in them and intimately get to know them. This is the biblical picture of evangelism. Thus, the goal of a Christian writer is not evangelical, but pre-evangelical. Like John the Baptist, our goal is to prepare the way of the Lord.

Art has the ability to touch people in ways that straight-forward teaching cannot. It transcends typical human defensive barriers. It has the power to transform us from the inside out. When make-believe characters grapple with real-life hurts and follies, we are more willing and able to admit similar faults within ourselves. By exposing the truth of the human condition, a good story forces people to search for answers outside of themselves.

A Christian baseball player doesn’t play baseball in order to save people. That is not his goal. It would be absurd if it were. Rather, his goal is to play the game to the best of his ability and to glorify God in the process. We must go and do likewise, trusting that by committing ourselves to excellence and truthfulness, we inevitably direct people to God.

3.  BEHAVIOR

A Christian baseball player behaves differently both on and off the field. In his regular life, a truly committed Christ-follower always endeavors to become more Christ-like. Integrity, honesty, humility, respect, authenticity – these are a few of his traits. In all things and at all times he models Christ-like character. In devoting himself to personal holiness and sanctification, his life inevitably manifests the Spirit’s fruit. It is the transformation of his moral character that proves his relationship to Christ.

On the field, his behavior also differs.  It’s not what he does, but how he does it that makes the difference. For example, he doesn’t curse other players, or pick fights, or do the victory strut when he nails a home run. He also doesn’t object to the rules on moral grounds.  It would be absurd if we heard a Christian baseball player say, “I don’t think it’s right to send a player to the bench after he strikes out, so I’m not going to do it.” No. He follows the rules. He plays the game. But he plays the game differently.

The same is true for the Christian writer. In our daily lives, we endeavor to seek Christ and put Him first.  We don't lie, cheat, or steal to get in to see that publisher.  Nor do we object to the rules on moral grounds and say, “I don't like the way the publishing world works so I'm not going to play that way.” No. You work within the established set of rules to pursue your career. 

But there are other rules we need to follow as well – the ones that say you have to be excellent at your craft.  Unfortunately, too many Christians suffer from the entitlement mentality. They think that because they have a message, they are exempt from doing the work.

Now don’t misunderstand me. I understand that all of us need faith to fulfill God’s call on our lives. We are all ill-equipped and inadequate, and therefore must rely on God’s abilities and not our own. But this is not the kind of “faith” to which I’m referring. I’m speaking of lazy faith – the kind that postures itself as spiritual, but is in reality an excuse to bypass the work that excellence requires. Christians, we must honor the God of all Creation by becoming craftsmen worthy of our calling. This is our "off the field" behavior.

But what about “on the field?” What does it look like for the Christian writer to honor God with our work? Or perhaps more to the point: What kind of art are we at liberty to create?

Unfortunately, when asked to define a "Christian movie," many people think in terms of no sex, no language and no violence. Indeed, these three ingredients become the sole criteria for evaluating art. As long as these three things are absent or very, very minimal, then we somehow feel the work has merit. But the absence of sex, language and violence only describes a void. A story isn't good because of what it lacks. It's good because of what it offers. 

Act One founder and former executive director Barbara Nicolosi used to say, “I'd rather see an R-rated truth than a G-rated lie.” Sometimes it's a lie NOT to have our characters engage in sex, language, or violence.  Even those of us who are most adamantly opposed to such things would make the occasional exception for the right project. For example, very few of us would reject “Schindler’s List” because it included sex, language and violence. In fact, the absence of these would illicit outrage because the story would be a lie.

The father of lies has one great goal: to turn us from the truth. Thus, the Christian’s greatest responsibility always is to know and see and proclaim Truth. If we were to “soften” Schindler’s List in order to uphold this false ideal of art, we would be doing an even greater violence to the world. We must tell the truth about the human condition.

All Truth points to God, the author of Truth Himself.  To attempt to be nonoffensive by sugarcoating or softening our character’s situation is to be in league with the father of lies. Truth must be our guide, always and forever. The key is HOW we tell the truth.

Is This Your First Writers' Conference? Learn the Ropes from John Vonhof

Here’s an overview of the three workshops John Vonhof will be teaching at the 2010 FCWC:

Thinking Like an Editor ­

This pre-conference evening workshop (included in your registration fee) focuses on making your conference the best possible by knowing how an editor thinks.

From an editor's point of view we’ll talk about:

• your writing idea
• perfecting your pitch
• pitching your idea
• making your proposal, sample chapters and articles right for their publishing house

Fine-tuning your Writing Niche ­

We'll look at fine-tuning our writing niche by exploring the importance of ideas, niches in various genres, keyword searches, market size and value, Web sites, and type of writing to exploit your niche.

Writing and Publishing an E-book ­

E-books are a great choice for writers.

We'll explore the best types of writing for an e-book, software, formatting, adding value, where to sell them, pricing, marketing, and resources. CD of resources for participants.

John Vonhof writes for Christian and secular markets. He is the author of self-published and mainstream books and booklets, with articles in print and on the web. He is an expert on finding ideas and writing for niche markets.

His niche book, Fixing Your Feet, is going to a 5th edition in 2011 while his book on The Pastoral Search Journey is being released in early 2010 in a 2nd edition.

John is the owner of www.WritersConferenceGuidelines.com, a Web site to help writers get the most out of attending a writers’ conference. He loves helping new writers discover their writing niche and how to market their writing.

The Power of Personal Experience

By Sherri Langton
2010 FCWC Faculty

The August of my sixteenth year, I did something I’d never done: be a live-in babysitter for one week. The married couple (the man was my sister’s boss) wanted to attend a Christian camp in the Colorado mountains, and they offered me $25 to stay at the cabin and watch their four girls. I didn’t realize my guardian angel would be there as well.

The week had its challenges. I struggled to fit in with a family I barely knew. I came down with a bad case of homesickness and fought depression. The topper occurred the morning the adults attended their Bible study at the lodge. While the oldest girl, Kristin, was popping popcorn on the stove, the oil from the pan dripped on the gas flame. Poof! Instant ignition!

I remained amazingly calm. Telling the older girls to get help, I balanced the baby on my hip and turned off the burner. In seconds, the flames extinguished. By the time the adults made it back to see if the cabin had burned to the ground, all was well.

I earned more than 25 bucks that week; I got a wealth of material to make a story. Months later in my high school creative writing class, I poured my babysitting experience on paper and concluded it with what I’d learned: that nothing since that week in August had been too hard — for me or for my guardian angel.

My teacher loved the story. She awarded it an A and read it to the class.

I’ve come a long way since that creative writing class. Over the last twenty years, my personal experiences have appeared in magazines and book collections. With these and my work as an editor, I’ve learned the ingredients of a good story and what makes it marketable.

Would you like to know? Join me in my workshop From Personal Experience to the Printed Page at the upcoming Florida Christian Writers Conference. I look forward to hearing your stories!

Sherri Langton is associate editor of the Bible Advocate magazine and Now What? e-zine. She is also a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Focus on the Family, Discipleship Journal, Today’s Christian Woman, and other publications. Sherri has contributed to several book collections, including Chicken Soup for the Soul in Menopause. You can find her on Facebook.

Planning to Pitch Your Writing Project to an Editor or Agent? Follow These Guidelines

By John Vonhof
2010 FCWC faculty

Sixteen years ago I went to my first writers’ conference. I was a rookie. I had my proposal and a sample chapter – such as they were. I had studied the list of speakers and knew who wrote what and who I wanted to talk to.

Looking back, I thought I had done my homework. I’m an analytical person, thinking things through and trying to plan ahead. I had a book idea. It was good. At least I thought so. But I went home with rejections. Deflated.

I returned year after year and kept learning. Having attended more than 36 conferences as participant and speaker, I’d like to share a few thoughts on planning for a conference.

At every conference, I talk to writers who are frustrated because they can’t interest an editor in their idea. Just like I was when I attended my first conference.

Let’s start with your writing idea. Whether it’s for a book or article, it must be the best you can do. Maybe you think it’s your best. But until you have studied the craft of writing and received feedback from others, it’s probably not your best. Here’s where critique groups come in. Join one if you can (on-line or face-to-face) and learn from the feedback of others. And don’t forget to read a book about writing in your genre.

The same goes for your proposal or query letter. It’s your responsibility to know how to write them. If you haven’t read a book about queries or proposals, take the time to do so and then implement what you learn. You have the opportunity to submit proposals, queries, articles, and sample chapters to the faculty. You want them to be professional.

How about your idea? Have you identified its audience? Is it large enough to make the publisher money through book or magazine sales? Publishing is a business and while we love our ideas, they have to stand on their own merits. Too small a market makes it hard for publishers to earn back expenses. An over done idea will be a hard sell. An idea whose time has come and gone will receive no support.

On the other had, an idea that has been thoroughly explored and vetted, an audience identified as well as how to reach them, is timely, has been written as close to perfect as possible, and is a good match for the publisher to whom it is being pitched, has a better chance of catching an editor’s interest.

Did you catch that last point – a good match for the publisher? Billie does a great job of getting publishers, editors and agents to the conference. Look over the faculty list and do your due diligence to learn what they publish. Spend a few hours exploring their Web sites to see what type of books they publish, or if a magazine, what articles they use. Find several that might be a good match for your writing. Your pre-conference submissions should go to these individuals.

Then at the conference, meet them and get feedback on your submission. Remember that the faculty at the conference is a small representation of the much larger Christian publishing industry. While you may not find a home for your writing at the conference, you will learn a lot to help you polish your work and this will help you submit to other publishers after the conference.

I love to talk to writers about their writing interests. Many are well thought out and with patience and perseverance, they will be published. Unfortunately, many others are not. When you decide to go to a writers’ conference, you need to make a plan that will not only help you be successful, but also the editors to whom you pitch your ideas.

If you want to learn what came out of my first ideas and rejections, ask me at the conference. It may inspire you. I took those rejections and turned them into a positive outcome.

John Vonhof writes for Christian and secular markets. He is the author of self published and mainstream books, with articles in print and on the web. He is an expert on finding ideas and writing for niche markets. His niche book, Fixing Your Feet, is going to a 5th edition in 2011 while his book on The Pastoral Search Journey is being released in early 2010 in a 2nd edition.

John is the owner of www.WritersConferenceGuidelines.com, a Web site to help writers get the most out of attending a writers’ conference.

8 Ways You Can Help Promote the FCWC

The Florida Christian Writers’ Conference doesn’t hire paid staff to promote the conference, so we’d appreciate it if you would spread the word about the FCWC.

Here are eight things you can do:

• If you’re attending or teaching at the conference, list the FCWC on your schedule of events (on your Web site, blog and social networking calendars).

• Blog about your preparations for the conference.

• Link to the conference from your Web site or blog’s “Favorite” links page (also known as a blogroll). The conference Web site is http://www.flwriters.org
  

• Encourage others to become a fan on Facebook, and interact with other conferees on our Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/FloridaChristianWritersConference

• Follow the conference on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/FLWritersConf

Tweet the following:

I’m attending the Florida Christian Writers’ Conference @FLWritersConf March 3-7. Hope to meet you there. #FCWC

(You can also tweet during the conference; if you do, use the hashtag #FCWC so those who can’t attend in person can vicariously experience the conference via everyone’s Twitter updates.)

• Include a listing of the conference in your newsletters, e-zines, and mailings.

• Mention the conference (word of mouth) as you interact with writers via e-mail or other venues. Encourage them to subscribe to our blog’s RSS feed so they’ll receive all the latest conference news (they can sign up on our blog: http://www.floridachristianwriters.blogspot.com/)

• Embed the YouTube conference video on your blog, or forward the link to the video to others. Here’s the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ngeu0mMq4U

To grab the code to embed the video, click the "YouTube" logo in the lower righthand corner of the video. In the right sidebar of the video's YouTube page, click "Embed." It will highlight the code for you. Copy the code and paste it into the HTML area of your blog's text editor.



Here’s a conference logo you can upload to your Web site or blog:


Thanks for your help promoting the conference! Please share your own ideas for how to spread the word.

Join the Template Queen at the Florida Christian Writers’ Conference

By Cheri Cowell
2010 FCWC Faculty

Over the years as I’ve taught at writers’ conferences, I’ve become known as the Template Queen. If it is a repetitive writing activity, rather than recreating the proverbial wheel each time that task is required, I look for ways to take the drudgery out by creating a template.

I have templates for cover letters, proposals, mailings, and press releases. Yet, the most requested of all of my templates is the one for query letters.

Queries are those one page letters written to an editor “selling them on your article or book idea.” Many people hate the query letter because they are so difficult to write. We only have one page to pitch our idea, sell our writing ability, and tout our credentials. In essence, this is your first and only chance to impress this editor so you need to put your best dress on.

Several months ago I was blessed with the opportunity to travel to Israel as part of a small group of Christian journalists, BUT I needed to secure some writing assignments to assure the Ministry of Tourism I was someone worth sinking some money into. So, I pulled out my tried and trusted query template and at the end of the day, I’d created fifteen query letters. Of those fifteen letters sent, I received ten article assignments and landed two regular columnist gigs.

At one of the first writers’ conferences I attended, I learned about the six items covered in every query letter. I also learned of six “never dos,” which I will also share in my class, Learn to Write a Dynamite Query.

So, if queries have you puzzled, and if you would like to simplify this part of your writing life by learning my winning query writing process, come join me Friday afternoon. I’d love to share it with you.

Cheri Cowell has published over 250 articles in such magazines as Marriage Partnership and Ideals, and her second book, Making the Story Real: Speaking Christ Into a Changing Culture, is set to release from Beacon Hill this June.

Connect with Cheri through www.Twitter.com/CheriCowell and www.Facebook.com/CheriCowell or her website www.CheriCowell.com.

In addition to teaching two workshops at the FCWC, Cheri will be assisting in the Manuscript CPR room, where you will be able to bring your work-in-progress and receive one-on-one feedback from published authors.