Rules for Writing Fiction

I hope you’re having a great day. Let’s talk about rules for writing fiction. I guess you could say these are Randy’s informal rules for writing fiction.

Walking with Randy Video

I have written a longer fiction book, which I have not published yet, but most of my fiction writing involves providing illustrations for sermons and other nonfiction writing. However, I have picked up a lot of tips along the way.

Rules for Writing Fiction
Rules for Writing Fiction

1. There Are No Rules

Rule number one: remember there are no rules. In other words, you can be creative. Have fun as you’re thinking about fiction. You may come up with a new technique that many people in the future will be following. So first of all, there are no rules.

2. To Your Own Self Be True

Rule number two: to your own self be true. This should take a lot of pressure off as you’re getting ready to write fiction. Just have fun as you’re doing it.

Your story can be a reflection of yourself
Your story can be a reflection of yourself

3. Balance Being True to Yourself & Finding Out What Readers Like

Even though there are no hard and fast rules for writing fiction, you want to balance being true to yourself and finding out what readers like. Well, that is if you want to make money from your writing, or if you want to have a wider audience for your fiction writing.

Then balance being true to yourself, but also do market research. Find out what people like, and then do a lot of reading yourself. Find out what you like in fiction writing

4. GO! When You’re on a Roll

Number four: go when you’re on a roll. When you’re writing, there are those days when it’s just coming easily and just so much fun. On days like those, just keep the words flowing. Now, I would encourage you to have a goal to get the story finished. Get it done.

You may be very analytical and a perfectionist, and you may edit every day. Well, that’s fine, but I would encourage you to be sure that you get your story written down.

While you’re on a roll, just go with it. Don’t worry about correcting everything; even if you’re one of those perfectionists. Then at the end of your writing session for the day, you can go back through and do the editing.

When you're on a roll, keep going!
When you’re on a roll, keep going!

Now many of us, or at least some of us, can do well by just going through and getting the entire project done and then going back and doing the editing. But either way, daily editing or editing when you’re all done will work. But when you’re on a roll, go with it! That’s when writing is the most fun: when you’re inspired.

Although if you force yourself to have a daily goal, several weeks later, you may look back and not be able to figure out which days you were on a roll and which days you just did the discipline of getting the words down on paper. That always amazes me.

5. Find a Good Editor

Rule number five in my unofficial rules for writing fiction is to find a good editor or learn the skill yourself. It really depends on how you’re going about doing it. If you’re going to be self-publishing, then you can either find a good editor editor, or you can learn the skill yourself.

It may be that you’re already good in certain areas. For example, you may be good at proofreading or you may be good with punctuation and grammar. If not, then you may need to find someone to help you. So you need to either find a good editor or learn the skill yourself.

Now as far as the flow of the story, and the overall theme of the story, you are the best editor for your own book. You know it inside out. You know the message that you want to be presented.

6. Develop Interesting Characters

Number six: develop interesting characters. How can you make your characters interesting? Well, they’re interesting to you. That’s the first clue. But you can start by developing a certain type of character. To build interesting characters, you will want them to have some flaws, a backstory, some quirks, and an inner struggle. So the sixth rule for writing fiction is to develop interesting characters.

7. Have a Goal

Rule number seven: have a goal. The story is going somewhere. You’re trying to save the world: you’re trying to solve a problem, you’re trying to get somewhere in the story. You want to have a goal.

Write your story with an ultimate goal in mind
Write your story with an ultimate goal in mind

You also will want to have obstacles to that goal. Include the ups and downs and overcoming of obstacles.

Of course, you want to have an ultimate victory, or at least those of us in the Western world want to have an ultimate victory. Like the old fairy tale genre, we want to have happy endings.

As I said earlier, there are no rules. You can do it differently. But these are Randy’s rules for writing fiction.

8. Have an External & Internal Story

The last “rule” is to have an external story and an internal story. The external story involves the circumstances, the settings, and things you can see outwardly taking place in the story.

Then the internal story involves the struggles that are within the main character or some of the other characters. It’s good if you have these elements in your stories.

One More Suggestion

An additional idea is to add a philosophical point to your story. That is if a certain philosophy is important to you. Again, remember, there are no rules for writing fiction. An example of a philosophical story is, “Good overcomes evil.” You may have a philosophy like that that you want to present, even though you’re writing fiction.

Well, those are my eight rules for writing fiction, plus a bonus suggestion.
There are no rules
To your own self be true
Balance, being true to yourself with finding out what readers want
Go! when you’re on a roll,
Find a good editor or learn the skill yourself
Develop interesting characters
Have a goal
Have an external and internal story
BONUS: Add a philosophical point

Helpful tool
Helpful tool

I hope these eight rules for writing fiction will be helpful for you. For more tips like these, go to the top of the blog and click on “writing“. Or, go to Amazon and get my book “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death”.

Until next time, I’m Randy Carney and I want you to remember YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!

28-Day Writing Challenge – Day 13: Remaining Chapter Writing Plans & Set-Ups for Headings & Subheadings

There's a lot involved in getting a book published.

Welcome everyone to day 13 of the 28-day writing challenge. I want to report on my progress today. I decided to change course just a little bit.

Day 13 vlog.

You may recall from yesterday, one of the things I had gotten done was create mind maps for the remaining chapters. Today, I have fleshed out more of those writing plans for the three remaining chapters, which are chapters 14, 15, and 16. I then went into the document and I put in headings and subheadings for all three of those chapters. I may write some more today, but I’m not sure.

Progress

I really think that by the end of the day tomorrow, unless something unforeseen comes up, I will be caught up and all the new chapters will have been rough drafted. I really think that that’s going to come about.

Steps to getting that book written.
Steps to getting it done.

Then, if my copying and pasting go well, I may have those first seven chapters put in. If not, I will get that done Monday.

Ahead of Schedule

But I want to remind you that tomorrow will be day 14, which will be halfway through the writing challenge, and I will have the rough draft done by then.

Normally I would finish that on day 24 and use the remaining four days to do the editing, so I’m going to have a lot more time for editing. I’ll get my regular first-round edits done next week, which would be through day 19. Then I’ll just get to do more and more polishing.

Next Steps

I will start thinking about having a book launch and a launch team to help me do that. I will also start working on a cover.

Writing a book involves more than just writing.
Writing a book involves more than just writing.

I was really pleased with the last cover that I had made and I’m going to see if Katrina Richmond (my assistant) will give me some ideas again. Hers were so good, I just picked it out last time. I might get some more to look at too as we do it this time but we will just see how it works out.

Anyway, that’s all for today. I hope you’re doing well. Remember, YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!

28-Day Writing Challenge – Day 7

Hello, everyone, welcome to day seven of the 28-day writing challenge. Well, today I got the next chapter, number 9, done for the book I am working on. I still have 2 questions to answer for that chapter. I need to do more research.

As I mentioned, you can, if you have your book blueprinted out, start on any chapter you want to, or even parts of a chapter.

Vlog for day 7

Research Codes

I’ve mentioned before that one of the ways that you can handle taming your research is to use certain codes. What I mean by that is you can research and research and research and never get started writing.

When you come to the point where you need to get started writing you will come to items that will need further research or that you may need to corroborate to make sure that your facts are right.

Tools to help with research
Tools to help with research

One of the ways of handling that is to put special symbols like three asterisks (***) together. Then when you do a search and replace you can just go to those areas where the *** and you can put in your new information.

I’ve been told that the letters T and K right next to each other don’t appear in any words in the English language. I haven’t really checked that out myself. But since I’ve tried it I’ve not run across any so it’s easy to just go and put in the “TK” in an area where you need to do some research.

Don’t stop right there when you’re on a roll, especially if you’re using this faster writing method. Just put in your code there. You may put XXX, or ***, or TK. Then when you’re ready, search for that and it will take you right to the spot where you need to put in the information.

If you do your research this way, it becomes very targeted and relevant research because you are searching for specific information instead of getting tons of information that you may not use.

So using research codes is a little tip for you as you’re doing this.

There’s Still Time

I’m still one day behind, but I think that I will get back on track. Am I the eternal optimist? I don’t know. If I’m the eternal optimist, that means that won’t ever get back on track. But as a realist, I probably will be back on track before the end of this week.

Still moving forward
Still in this race!

How about you? How’s it going for you? Have you planned out your book? Have you figured out how long you want your book to be as a starting point? Have you figured out some chapter titles for your book? Have you gone further than that and perhaps made some outlines for your book? Have you come up with some headings to put in for your chapters?

Maybe you have gone through those blog posts that I recommended and followed the method that I’m using where you come up with 12 to 18 ideas. You then eliminate three of those ideas, put the ideas in the best order, then turn each idea into a statement or a question, and finally turn all of your statements into questions.

If you use that method, you will end up with anywhere from nine to 15 questions. Then, you need at least three “trigger words” to remind you of the answers to each of your questions. What happens if you don’t use all of your trigger words? Well, if it triggered you to be on a roll, it doesn’t matter. You’re the only one that knows what those trigger words were, anyway, although I do try to use them all.

This book is a very useful tool.
A helpful tool.

Now, there is a book that tells you how to do that. It’s called “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death.”

I encourage you to go over to Amazon and check it out.

In the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful day. Remember, YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK.

28-Day Writing Challenge – Day 4

Welcome to day four of the 28-day book writing challenge. I have to confess that I did not get everything done that I wanted to get done today.

6-Figure Writing and Blog Post Suggestion

I want to tell you about something you can find on this blog, which is randycarney.com or randysblogs.com Either one will get you to the same place. If you go to the top of the page, you will see a tab that says “Writing,” and there’s a down arrow beside it. If you hover over that you will see “Six-Figure Writing” pop up. If you click on that, it will take you to a page about a course that you can get that will give you weekly lessons for writing.

Now if you go back one page and click on “Writing” again, go to the bottom of the page and click the arrow to the right to go back to about 3 pages. The best way to find the posts I’m talking about is to look for the dates. I’m recommending the blog posts from January 25 through March 2.

I suggest reading some selected posts from the writing section of my blog.
Suggested reading

They all talk about how you can come up with a writing plan for your book. They will tell you how to have a plan for each chapter in your book. I did not get that far along yet this time. If you are doing this 28 days following along you’ll have to do as I do. You will either have to spend more time one day beyond just the writing to catch up and finish out to writing plan.

But you need to at least get the first chapter planned out. Then Monday, whenever you write that chapter, you’ll spend a little extra time getting chapters two and three at least planned out. Or if you just have extra time or you could spend an extra hour and knock out a bunch of those chapter plans. How to do is found on the blog posts from January 25 through March 2. I would encourage you to go and read all of those, take notes, and get a grasp of how this is going to work.

My Progress

I would like to have had my whole book blueprinted out from here. A blueprint is just a chapter writing plan. But on this 28-day challenge, the goal is to be able to work about 75 to 90 minutes a day. Some days it will take two hours, some days you might have to have some catch-up days.

The Schedule

An overview of the schedule for the next few weeks.
A rundown of the schedule

We’re not writing 28 consecutive days in this challenge. We are doing four days as the first week, and then we will have four weeks of five days in the week. In other words, we started on Tuesday, January 18, 2022. So we have four days the first week. I’m not counting Saturdays and Sundays. So then the next four weeks we will have 20 days (5 days a week) so that will be 24 days, and then the last week will be another four days and that will finish up our 28 days. Not consecutive. I’ll be taking Sundays off and I’m going to be using Saturday for a catch-up and you can do that too. If you’re following along and you’re trying to do this, I pray that things are going well for you.

Heading into Day Four

So yesterday I talked about surveying the top 10 books in your category. I did the category of marriage in general and then I got more specific and I was surprised that when I typed in “valuing your spouse,” I did come up with several books. That phrase wasn’t in the title, but there were quite a few that were relevant to what I was talking about. So that was very good.

Brainstorming & Grouping Ideas

What I’m attempting to do today is brainstorm. I came up with the research from those books, I made notes from the table of contents, and I put in some quotes. Then after I did that, I came up with two pages of just brainstorming. So, we did the brainstorming,

Brainstorming.
Find a brainstorming method that works for you.

For today I was able to survey nine books. I wrote down chapter titles that stood out to me and a quote or two that were interesting to me. Then as I already mentioned, I brainstormed and filled up two more pages of ideas.

After that, I grouped those ideas using symbols (as I talked about on day 3), putting the ideas that were similar together putting a symbol by those ideas. I put a triangle by a number of ideas that were similar. Then I put a square beside a number of ideas that were similar, I put a checkmark by ideas that were similar. I did that until I got all the way through my list. I did have some that were outliers that didn’t fit into groups.

Chapter Length

So I could easily come up with ideas for about 10 more chapters. As I said I already had seven chapters. So this would make the book about 170 pages long. If I followed the strict way of doing this the older way of coming up with 10 pages per chapter.

However, as I’ve mentioned, the new idea is that books are shorter than they were in the past and that’s what is preferred by readers. So if I allow the chapters to be six to 10 pages long, the final result we can have somewhere between 130 and 170 pages.

That’s quite encouraging because I wondered if I would be able to even come up with the 100 or 120 that I was shooting for, to begin with.

Chapter Titles

Tomorrow I will be coming up with the chapter titles, and then a list of ideas that go with each chapter. (This is a summary of what you will find in those suggested blog posts) I will come up with keep putting ideas down until I get 12 to 18 ideas, then I will eliminate three. That means I will end up doing nine to 15 ideas to do the chapter plan.

Chapter ideas
Chapter ideas

I arrange those ideas in the best order and then turn each of those ideas into to a statement, a question, or a sentence. Having done that, then I go through the list again, and I make all of the ideas questions. Then I will write down three trigger words or ideas that will remind me of the answers to the question.

That takes some time, and it’s probably more than the allotted 75 to 90 minutes. But once it is done, it just makes everything else flow together so much more easily so I will be glad to spend the extra time either tomorrow or just extra minutes in the day.

Next Week

Next week is when I get started in earnest because I’m going to write my first new chapter. If you recall, I already have seven chapters, which I will tweak somewhat but I will be starting my first full chapter Monday.

That would possibly be the first chapter of your book.

So, I encourage you to go look at those six or seven blog posts from January 25. through March 2. That will show you what I’m attempting to do today and tomorrow and maybe for a few extra hours next week.

But once that outline, that plan is done then the rest of the time will just be spent spending 75 to 90 minutes on getting those things done. If I do shorter chapters it might just be 60 minutes on those. If you read the blog posts, you’ll better understand what I’m talking about.

Today’s Wrap-Up

Remember if you don’t already have a timer, I would highly recommend using one because it really works. It’s what worked for me; even in the brainstorming. You can spend hours and hours and be all over the place and the timer helps to narrow things down for you. You can always add things later. But it helped me to narrow things down.

I came up with 10 groups, although I haven’t named those groups yet, because they’re all very similar. Those could be for 10 more chapters as I look at it more closely. I may combine some of those and figure out which ones to eliminate.

That’s all for today. I hope you have a great day and remember: YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!

28-Day Writing Challenge – Day 3

Welcome to day three of the 28-day writing challenge. I’m glad you’re joining me today.

Yesterday we talked about the number of chapters that we’re trying to get our books to. In my case, I figured out that I had enough material I had already written for seven chapters. Now of course some of that will have to be tweaked, but I think I have that much material.

My goal is to do maybe five more chapters. Now that’s not set in stone. That will just bring me up to 125 pages. I can go as high as 200 pages if that’s what it takes to cover my topic. Right now, however, I’m looking for enough ideas for five more chapters.

Time Management

What I want to talk about on day three is time management. You typically want to set aside 75 to 90 minutes a day for working on your book. Some of you may be able to do this in 45 minutes or so, but that would probably be the exception. Generally speaking for me I’m thinking of 75 to 90 minutes every day. Of course, I do have to work around my other schedules.

A timer can help you accomplish your goals.
Using a timer helps with time management.

How are we going to accomplish this? In my case, I’m going to use my magic kitchen timer. What that does is it forces us forces me not to edit too much as I’m going along. This is not the final product, so nobody’s going to see this but me. So the timer forces me not to edit too much as I’m going along. I can allow some typos and spelling errors as I’m doing this because it’s all going to be rearranged before I get to the final product. The timer creates an artificial deadline and we respond to deadlines.

What’s Next?

Today, I want to do two things. One was going to Amazon and researching books that are similar to the ones that we want to write. Now, I will say that since my book is about valuing your spouse, I suspect I may have a little challenge in finding other books on that topic. I am writing about the importance of valuing your spouse and the importance of having similar values. Now there’ll be a lot of books about values and Christian values. So I’ll be looking at some of those as I’m going along.

Brainstorm!
Brain dump time!

The second thing: I’m going to set my timer for 15 minutes as I do this. I don’t know how much research I’ll get done in the first 15 minutes, but I will set it again and I may do it as many as three times.

But after that the times up, I’m going to take a sheet of paper and fold it over, and I’m going to just start writing down ideas. I’ll have the timer set for this also, probably for 15 minutes. I’ll fill up that side, flip it over, and fill up that side. If I need more room, I’ll get another sheet of paper. fill up the page. So that’s how I do what I call a “brain dump.”

Getting Organized

It’s time to organize your list.

Then if you have time, you can see in the above video, I have several different symbols drawn. There’s a checkmark, left and right arrows, up and down arrows, triangles, squares, and circles. You’ll have this big list of random ideas and you will use a symbol to group similar ideas together. So all of those that are similar under the checkmarks, and then other ones that are similar under squares, and so on. That’s how we’re going to do that. We’re going to do the “brain dump” and then classify ideas into groups.

These steps will be very helpful because the groups may end up being our chapters.

So that’s the plan for what I’m going to do next. Then tomorrow, we will create the plan for the writing of our books. In my case, I may only need five days in the 28-day plan we actually have 20 days. So if I get my five days to work the way that I want to, then I will have some time to do more editing of the book than I would have in a normal 28 Day Challenge.

However, if you are planning on 20 chapters, then you’re probably going to fill up the 20 days if you are using 75 to 90 minutes a day.

So today I will research similar books, I’m going to do a brain dump and I’m going to group those ideas. I want to set my timer in 15-minute intervals. Tomorrow I’ll talk more about how you can create a plan that will cry out to you to write your book and you will look at that and it will just say, “Write me!”

I hope you had a good day today. Remember, YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!

Start Writing Fiction – 5 Reasons Why

I’m so glad you’ve joined me. Today, I’m talking about writing fiction: five reasons why. In the video below, I mention four reasons, but you’ll discover that there is a bonus reason at the end!

The First Reason Why You Should Start Writing Fiction Is That You Can Exercise Your Creativity

Well, one of the first reasons for writing fiction has to do with the fact that you can exercise your creativity. Now whenever you are doing nonfiction, of course you can exercise creativity somewhat. But you can do it even more whenever you’re doing fiction. So you can exercise your creativity.

Creativity is a cornerstone of fiction writing.

Sometimes in nonfiction, I recommend that you put in some fictional items to illustrate your point. Or you could possibly have made up examples of what you’re talking about. So, the first thing is that you can exercise your creativity.

The Second Reason Why You Should Start Writing Fiction Is That You Will Enjoy Your Writing

The second thing is that you can enjoy your writing even more. Now I have to confess I do enjoy nonfiction writing, but you can enjoy it even more whenever you are creating a story. It’s fun to create stories. You can create your stories, and, as I said, you can put some of those fiction examples in with your nonfiction writing. Then, you’ll have double enjoyment, especially if your nonfiction writing is something that you are passionate about. When you add your stories to your nonfiction, it’s even more enjoyable.

Fiction writing can be very enjoyable.

The Third Reason Why You Should Start Writing Fiction Is That You Can Start with Short Projects as Well as Long Ones

The third reason is that you don’t have to write “War and Peace” right out of the gate. You can write shorter versions of articles. There’s even a genre for that in fiction: The short story. It is a long-established genre of fiction writing. So you can you can do something shorter. You don’t have to be writing a very, very long novel, just out of the gate.

The Fourth Reason Why You Should Start Writing Fiction Is That You Write an Endless Number of Projects

Another reason to start writing fiction is that you have endless possibilities with it. Whenever you do a lot of writing in nonfiction areas, it will be an area where you may be branded in that particular area, or something that you know a whole lot about, so you end up writing all about that. However, eventually you reach the limits of your knowledge about what you have started talking about. You can break it down further and you can have different steps whenever you’re doing it, and sometimes you can explain things in a different way.

But whenever you’re writing fiction, the possibilities are endless. You can just write story after story. You can create new characters. You can have new settings. You can just write write, write write, write a lot of fiction!

The Fifth Reason Why You Should Start Writing Fiction Is That All You Need Is an Idea in Order to Start

Finally, the fifth reason to start writing fiction is that all you need to get started is an idea. Now, in your nonfiction writing, you have to actually know the particular steps to do something or you have to know the description of whatever it is that you’re talking about.

An idea is all it takes to get started on that fiction story.

But in fiction writing, all you have to have is an idea. Of course, if you are going to talk about how certain detectives work, or maybe how the police would work, you’re either going to have to read a lot and be really familiar with how things actually work, or you may have to do some research in those areas. But even at that, you can start your story and continue your research. Once the research is done, you can go in and edit.

So, those are some reasons to start writing fiction.
1. You can exercise your creativity.
2. You will enjoy writing even more.
3. You can start with short writing and short stories and you might even be able to sell some of those to magazines.
4. The possibilities are endless.
5. All you have to have to start is an idea.

Well, I hope this has been helpful to you. Until next time, I want to remind you that you can get more tips like these by going to www.randycarney.com. Even better, you can follow the link to Amazon and get my newest book “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death.

Remember, you can write a book

Halloween: Fun, Fear, and Hope

“In the United States (and other countries), Halloween has become one of the most popular unofficial holidays. On the upside, retail sales boost the economy around this holiday” (Bodie Hodge – Answers in Genesis). – second only to Christmas!

“On the downside, the holiday has become a time of increased crime in many places (especially arson and other acts of violence) on Halloween night as well as the night before. Even the author’s house was robbed one Halloween by forced entry. So, although the retail industry loves Halloween, many police officers and insurance companies dread it! Of course, there is also a tremendous amount of occult activity associated with this holiday.

“Kids and even many adults love getting dressed up for Halloween.” Of course, they love the candy too. It’s just innocent fun, isn’t it—or is it? (Hodge)

Sermon Video, Ezra Church of God

A Little History Lesson

“The holiday, though, has roots reaching much further back. As for the origin of Halloween, some researchers claim that the holiday can be traced back about 2,000 years to the Celts of Europe, who occupied parts of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France. They held a pagan festival called “Samhain” (pronounced “sow-in”) that celebrated, more or less, the honor of the dead and involved the offering of large sacrifices of crops and animals.” (Hodge) You may have heard of the Druids. They were the pagan priests.

Many cultures observe a “Day of the Dead”. This celebration is very widespread and may have come even before the tower of Babel.

In 600 A.D., Pope Boniface IV started a holiday called “All Saints Day”. Originally, it was held in the spring. Pope Gregory III moved the date to November 1st. Perhaps it was to provide a Christian celebration as an alternative to the pagan celebration. Then, after the Reformation, reformers dubbed October 31st “Reformation Day.”

Fun

Halloween can be a fun time for children and adults alike.

Many people observe many fun activities around the time of Halloween: Hot dog roasts, hayrides, costume parties, sometimes not usually trick or treat – at least not the “trick” part, but some mischievous fun.

Rhonda (my wife) and I have been in churches that had Halloween parties, some that were completely opposed to any type of celebration around that time, and some that had alternative activities like fall festivals.

For many years, our focus was upon Rusty’s (our son) birthday and didn’t engage much in the other activities. Of course, if people came to our house dressed up, we would give them candy.

Fear

As we move from the fun to the fear we can see the bridge of superstition to real evil. Superstitions about ghosts, demons, monsters abound during this time. Those who celebrated the pagan festivals in the past thought the day was a bridge between the living and the dead.

This can move us from superstition, which is imaginary, to real evil.

There are definitely real forces of evil in this world. Demons and demonic activity are very real.

African cultures are familiar with evil spirits, and it seems to be more than superstition. Missionaries report seeing evidence of demonic activity.

The Bible mentions demons several times. It also talks about demon possession. For example, the Gadarene demoniac and Mary Magdalene.

There are real Satan worshippers. Some of them have been deceived by Satan. While they may talk about worshiping Satan, many of them today are really just secular humanists with an absence of God.

There are also the “old school” Satanists who seek to call evil spirits, perform incantations, and the like.

It has been alleged that some very high-level people have been involved in Satanic rituals.

The Bible speaks of Satan and his angels. Satan has an angelic origin himself. At any rate, he has a desire to be like the Most High and to displace God. Satan is pleased when people begin to dabble in the occult.

Often, people begin to explore Satanism because of a desire for power. But we can submit to God and resist the devil!

I Peter 5: 5-11 (WEB)

The first of two passages of scripture.

Likewise, you younger ones, be subject to the elder. Yes, all of you clothe yourselves with humility, to subject yourselves to one another; for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. 6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your worries on Him, because he cares for you. Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Withstand him steadfast in your faith, knowing that your brothers who are in the world are undergoing the same sufferings. 10 But may the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11 To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

The Devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. While a true Christian is not going to actually be possessed, Satan can still bring a lot of temptation to your life. He can bring oppression.

Don’t give Satan a foothold! Resist the little things. Remove bitterness. Fast and pray.

Revelation 20:1-15 (NKJV)

Satan Bound 1,000 Years

20 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.

The Saints Reign with Christ 1,000 Years

And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for [a]a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

Satanic Rebellion Crushed

Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. 10 The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where[b] the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

The Great White Throne Judgment

11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before [c]God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second [d]death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

Hope

What about those who have never accepted Christ? If you haven’t accepted Him, right now, you’re traveling with Satan and his angels, and you’re headed to the same destination as they are. Verses 1-10 above tell us this.

The cross offers hope!

Here is the hope! Jesus loves you so much that He went to the cross to pay the penalty for your sins.

That’s how you resist Satan’s temptation. The Bible says Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). You can come to Christ. I am sure about that! God said that He so loved the world that whoever believes in Him will be saved. God is not willing that anyone should perish. More than anything, He wants you to come to Him. But, you have to take that step. Otherwise, you will wind up with the Devil and his minions. If you don’t receive Christ, you will die twice; once physically and once spiritually. But, if you accept Him, you only die once, and then live forever.

It’s Here!

The day that I’ve been anticipating for several months is finally here! My new book, “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death” is available for immediate download.

My granddaughter, Paisley.

I’m so excited to be able to help you start your dream of becoming a writer. You can do it! In my new book, I offer several helpful tips and strategies and include some personal experiences along the way.

It's time to celebrate!

If you’re seeing this on November 15, 2021, I have a special deal for you. The Kindle version is available for an incredibly good price. Just follow the link here, download, read it, and take the next step in your journey to becoming an author. Or, you can go to Amazon and search for Randy Carney, and see the new book, along with the other books I have published through the years.

As always, thank you so much for your support and encouragement. Happy writing!

Fiction Writing Courses – Model the Greats

Walking with Randy Video

You should try to find an author that you like and then learn how to write like he or she does. You might be able to do that with many authors. Some of them may offer writing courses and you could go online and do a search to see if they do.

Jerry Jenkins

One of my favorite fiction writers is Jerry Jenkins. He has been on the New York Times bestsellers list 21 times. He’s written over 200 books in various genres. He’s written 130 novels. Nineteen of those dealt with religious eschatological themes (dealing with the end times when Jesus is returning), including the popular “Left Behind” series, which he co-wrote with Tim LaHaye, although Jerry was the main writer for those books.

So I would encourage you to go to Jerry’s website here. He offers some writing tips and a writing assessment

Some authors offer tips and advice on their web sites.

Rob Parnell

The second one is a man named Rob Parnell. I came across him several years ago, back when I first started doing some writing. He has been writing since he was five years old. He lives in Australia in a somewhat remote place, (a man after my own heart). His preference is the thriller genre. I like some of the Christian thrillers, like those written by authors like Frank Peretti or Ted Decker. I actually just started one by Ted Decker.

Rob Parnell is well acquainted with writing fiction. The first book I ever remember him writing was an e-book called “The Easy Way to Write a Novel”. I recently did an online search for him again, and I found that he has revised the title and he now calls it “The Easy Way to Write a Novel That Sells” and it is now also a paperback book.

Author Rob Parnell offers writing courses.

When I read the description of the author, he said that if you subscribe to Rob Parnell’s Writing Academy, he will send “The Easy Way to Write a Novel” as a gift. It is probably the ebook version of it. He has a wide range of courses, and they range from free to what I would call expensive. I’m sure you can find something that you would be interested in. One of the things that Rob is noted for, at least in my mind, is the “free-flow writing technique.” I remember him talking about that, and a version of that has become part of the techniques that I share with others, although I tweaked it a little bit to my own liking.

SIx Figure Writing

The third one I will mention is called “Six Figure Writing”, and it is by yours truly. It is a six month limited-time membership course and it’s only $27 per month. It deals with both nonfiction writing and fiction writing.

I have a new book coming out the week of November 25, 2021!
Author Randy Carney

If you are reading this in the early part of November 2021, I would encourage you to consider becoming a part of my launch team. We’re going to be launching my newest book the week of November 15, 2021. If you join my team, I’ll be glad to send you an advance PDF copy before the official launch day. I would be thrilled if you would then consider going to Amazon and writing a review on the day the book is launched. If you’re reading this after that date, then I ask that you go to Amazon and look it up and see if you might want to buy it. The title is “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death.”

Well, this has been Randy Carney reminding you to keep the writing dream alive! Until next time, have a great day.

Dear Fabulous Friend, Would You Have Time to Help With Something?

I have been giving a lot of writing tips lately, and I plan on continuing to do so. Now, however, I have a question for you: Would you have time to help me with something? It would be great if you could serve on my launch team.

I want you to know how much I appreciate the interest you have shown in my walking with Randy videos and in my blog posts here. My desire has been to give you something that will be helpful to you in your writing journey. I value you and your time so I’ll be quick.

You probably receive many requests and I know you’re also focused on your own projects right now. Please know that I intentionally refrain from asking too much or too often from my friends like you. Also, I know that the timing may not be perfect, but my schedule has become crowded and forced me into a three-week deadline.

My Newest Endeavor

My most ambitious book yet, “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death”, releases on November 15, 2021. This book summarizes over 40 years of writing experience for me, including 15 years of writing books and articles online. It truly includes all the secrets that I’ve learned about how to plan, write, and publish books and how to do it with a minimum of stress. There was a lot of stress involved in getting to that point though (Ha).

I know the book is going to help people who don’t know where to start when it comes to writing and publishing their own books. But it will also shortcut the process and time it takes existing authors to create more of their sparkling books. It will also equip a whole new generation of authors to start living their dreams instead of the dreams of others.

I Need Your Help

It would be an incredible honor if you could give the book a quick look by joining my launch team. Now I know it’s a big thing to ask with everything you have going on, but it would really help me a lot.

Two heads are better than one, six are better than two!

I do intend to continue giving many writing tips from here on out, but I would appreciate it if you have enjoyed those if you maybe could help me out just this once.

If you’re willing to consider this, I would make the process as easy as possible for you. In fact, if you’re on the launch team then you could share some emails and some blog posts with others. I could also write you some of those sample emails or maybe you could just share the blog post the way it is, and I can keep you updated in a private Facebook group. That is just for those that are on my launch team. I can also send you an advanced PDF copy of the book that includes the fully approved, but not completely edited, manuscript.

You Will Get Several Bonuses Too

Joining a launch team will take you along on the journey with us, and it will give you an idea of some things that you might want to do for your own book launches. So if you’re curious about what’s going on behind the scenes, then this will be a good thing for you to be involved in.

Would you consider lending a helping hand?

I would just ask that you apply to be part of the launch team. There are only six very short questions, but when you read them they will let you know what will be involved and it will help us to get to know each other better too.

Thanks for your consideration. I look forward to your response. Just click on this link to join our fabulous group. I wish you all the best.