MickSilva's Profile

Today. The word carries such power. via mywritersgroup.typepad.com Continue reading

Reblogged Jan 7, 2014 at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

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After many years here, I've moved the blog to the larger YourWritersGroup site. But no worries. You'll still find all my unrestrained scribblings there. Come check it out. Shazam! Continue reading

Posted Jul 18, 2013 at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

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What Are You Waiting For?

“How do you begin? The answer is simple: you decide to. Then you push back your sleeves and start ... It will be completely awful. It will be unreadable [excrement]! You won't have a clue how it will amount to anything, ever. And to that, I say, Welcome. You just... Continue reading

Posted May 13, 2013 at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

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Why I Need *Your* Story Like a Bear Needs Honey

"Ooh, what is this? Is this German? Do I detect honey?" I’ve been working on my novel for over 10 years. The whole truth is that it’s been closer to 13. Telling my story has been like dragging a bear out of bed in winter. What can I say? I’m... Continue reading

Posted Apr 24, 2013 at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

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Why the Greatest Story Left the Mystery Unsolved

The hero’s greatest deed, we remember with quiet awe. The story itself is the best eulogy possible. Its fearsome holiness stuns to silence. The death of Jesus, the greatest story, teaches me by including my questions, both literally—“My God, why have you forsaken me?”—and implicitly—“How could this have been God’s... Continue reading

Posted Mar 28, 2013 at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

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Do You Feel Your Readers' *Real* Felt Need?

This morning I was back in the orange shag carpet of my childhood home in Long Beach, California. The light green walls and dark wood panneling capturing that perfect inexpensive elegance... I recalled the impressionable boy of newly-evangelical parents, the sensitive first-born son of a family "saved" in the California... Continue reading

Posted Mar 27, 2013 at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

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Writing More Than Your Story

“When the words mean even more than the writer knew they meant, then the writer has been listening. And sometimes when we listen, we are led into places we do not expect, into adventures we do not always understand." ―MADELINE L'ENGLE The first task in writing your story is letting... Continue reading

Posted Mar 12, 2013 at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

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Bring Nothing Today

My Dad's spiritual father (my "spiritual grandfather?") sends out this daily email called "Dear Friends." He finds insight in words and linking them to THE Word, which I find so fun. I thought this gem was worth reproducing in its entirety. He asks, "what can I possibly contribute to the... Continue reading

Posted Feb 20, 2013 at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

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When You Realize You're Writing to Escape Life

I've long turned to writing as an escape from life. That fact alone has been enough to incriminate. The guilt of that came on slowly, but it's inescapable now. As my secret's been revealed more and more, the words I've kept inside, reserved for myself, where I believed I'd be... Continue reading

Posted Jan 31, 2013 at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

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The Story Uses You

I'm a PK (pastor's kid). So for many years I resisted anything that smacked of churchy Christianity. But stories could always circumnavigate my barriers. Jesus knew this too--the story was everything. When he asked which man did the right thing, everyone knew it was the Samaritan. Story sticks in the... Continue reading

Posted Jan 15, 2013 at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

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Tittle

Do you feel overwhlemed by too much information? Who doesn't? Check out The Wikipedia entry for tittle "A tittle is a small distinguishing mark, such as a diacritic or the dot on a lowercase i or j. The tittle is an integral part of the glyph of i and j,... Continue reading

Posted Dec 13, 2012 at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

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Distraction

Distraction – The day has just started and I haave 24 new emails. I don’t have time to fix that typo... The Wikipedia entry for distraction is here. It's basically "divided attention." " Here are 2 pics from that page. I fought to read today’s entry in Chambers’ My Utmost... Continue reading

Posted Nov 14, 2012 at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

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When It All Comes Down

What we do when it all comes down says who we are. And who you are is a writer. This work of words. All you do is this...this flinging. What are you really doing? Anything? Sometimes it doesn’t look like much. People’s huge, busy lives swirl around and you sit... Continue reading

Posted Oct 11, 2012 at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

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All These Silent Years (What My Mom Taught Me about Voice)

Sit with me. Just one moment.” I sit, wondering what we’re looking at. Her hand covers mine and I recall my old selfish attempts to deny her—denials of home. Now we’ve come here to watch all these silent years pass between us and she’s exactly how I imagined my mom... Continue reading

Posted Oct 1, 2012 at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

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What a Frog Knows

This morning, I headed down to the pond and caught a frog. I'd never have seen her if she hadn't leaped from the wooden bridge. But when she landed amongst the rocks and ferns, I trapped her with the girls' butterfly net. She was big and made no sound, so... Continue reading

Posted Aug 17, 2012 at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

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Thanks, GraceElizabethA. You touch my heart.

Commented Jul 7, 2012 on The Stories That Come to Know You: Hunting with Dad at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JscAwVu2QI

Commented Jun 21, 2012 on The Stories That Come to Know You: Hunting with Dad at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

The Stories That Come to Know You: Hunting with Dad

It isn't solely my truth to hand you, of course, but I believe a story is built of the same dynamic force as relationship. In relating, it expresses and exchanges the same basic electric magnetism, the attractive-repellant force between any two things. A boy learns about this force at an... Continue reading

Posted Jun 20, 2012 at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

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How Writers and Editors Are Like Snails

John Updike once wrote that “writers walk through volumes of the unexpressed and like snails leave behind a faint thread excreted out of ourselves.” (“The Blessed Man of Boston”) As an editor, I’m fairly gastropod-like myself. I leave my trail of commentary on a manuscript as evidence of where I’ve... Continue reading

Posted Jun 13, 2012 at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

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God Doesn't Want Your Book (Yet)

Is a book only as good as the feedback it receives? I've made this claim in my "benefits of membership" at my site, but I think this is one of those questions that’s really hard to answer definitively. Can a book be written without receiving direct feedback? Of course. But... Continue reading

Posted Jun 1, 2012 at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

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MickSilva added a favorite at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

May 30, 2012

MickSilva is now following Lori Roeleveld

May 30, 2012

Thanks, Lori. Always a fan of your praise... May your excellent opinions prosper us both. :)

Commented May 30, 2012 on Relaunch: the new blog at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

Relaunch: the new blog

Welcome to the new Your Writers Group blog! For many years, I had a blog of helps for writers about editing and creativity and publishing, and it was a lot of fun. When I launched the larger community site, I always intended to get back to it with more helpful... Continue reading

Posted May 29, 2012 at y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

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Why God Must Die

Think what you want, but I’ve seen it. The truth is life requires death. You know this on many levels. One man’s gain is another’s loss. But also full atonement of sin requires perfect payment. Why? Because the payment for fuller life is always death. Life is full of reminders... Continue reading

Posted Oct 28, 2011 at Why God Must Die

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