Resources by Topic: Writing

This page is provided to answer questions about getting published. For your convenience, I will list the following guidelines for new writers. I am sorry that I do not have time to respond to questions about writer’s manuscripts or publishing. My website is provided for readers who would like to know more about my fiction. This is the information that I wish had been available to me when I first started out. I hope it helps:

I personally believe that Christian fiction can be fully honoring to Christ.

In college I wrote to an author I admired asking some of these same questions. He wrote back and said, “Be prepared for an apprenticeship of years.” He was right.

Regarding readers or reviewers who don’t like my books, when I conclude that some people think worse of me than they should, I always remind myself that some think better of me than they should.

Randy’s responses to questions asked by Jerry Jenkins and the Christian Writers Guild.

I had mixed feelings about this movie.

A big one is the degree to which explicitly spiritual content can or should be woven into a story.

Thoughts on writing.

Usually I like best the kind of book I’m currently working on.

It was a joy.

The most valuable lesson I’ve learned about writing is that it’s hard work.

A close friend of mine, Greg, died when I was in high school. I was a brand new Christian and it affected me profoundly. Then after I’d been a pastor five years, my mother died in 1981.

If you are trying to become published, stop looking for short cuts. Do not ask a published friend to introduce you to an editor, do not print your manuscript on pink paper, and do not send it to your favorite author in an e-mail. Simply write an irresistible story. Keep working at it until you find an editor who agrees.

Yes, it is. There are a lot of doctrines (beliefs/teachings) in this world, including doctrines of cultures, institutions and personal opinion. There’s a lot of false doctrine, and good doctrine is the only correction to it.