Northwest Christian Writers Association

A Community for Christian Writers!

We have been encouraging and equipping Christian writers for 36 years.

Our members range from first-time writers to long-published authors, and you'll fit in either way. Come see for yourself — your first meeting is free. After that, visits are $10 for nonmembers.

We meet the first Monday of every month, September through June, 7:00–9:00 PM.
In person at Eastside Foursquare Church, 14520 100th Ave NE, Bothell — and live on Zoom.
Doors and the Zoom room open at 6:45 for networking.

What a meeting looks like

  • A keynote speakers with practical instruction and encouragement for your writing
  • Time to meet other writers and swap notes on the craft
  • Members celebrating milestones — new contracts, publications, and the rejections that mean you're in the game
  • Book launches featuring member authors

If you're a Seattle-area Christian writer — or thinking about becoming one — come visit. We'd love to meet you.

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October 5, 2026-- Ocieanna Fleiss

Beginnings, Middles, and Ends: Plotting Using the Hero's Journey

How can you guide your intrepid protagonist through a compelling beginning, a middle that doesn’t sag, and a third act that keeps readers guessing—all the way to that satisfying ending? Sometimes it’s hard to navigate the maze of possible scenarios.

In this talk we'll explore: 

  • How to set up your beginning to entice the reader to keep flipping pages.
  • How peppering your middle with friends, enemies, and lots of challenges can keep your middle from sagging.
  • How to create twists and turns right up to the end and then leave your reader saying, "Ah, so satisfying." 

And, I'll walk you through some hands-on exercises to put the hero's journey into practice. 

Ocieanna Fleiss is an author, speaker, and Bible teacher whose books span historical romance, mystery, and Christian nonfiction. Her memoir, Love Like There’s No Tomorrow, tells the story of how surviving cardiac arrest transformed her understanding of life and faith. She is also the author of the Advent devotional Awaiting the Manger. With a passion for storytelling and more than a decade of Bible teaching experience, Ocieanna loves encouraging others to discover God’s love through Scripture and the written word. She lives in Washington State with her husband and has four children.

Renewal Conference 2027

Save the date!

The 2027 Renewal Conference will be on April 10th at Bright City Church in Everett, WA. 


Meetings

Our monthly meetings include a featured speaker providing insight, instruction & encouragement for our writing journeys. Opportunities for members to make presentations and share milestones.

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Membership

Membership includes some great benefits in addition to our meetings. The benefits include critique groups, members-only Facebook group, access to a membership directory and editors connection page.

Sign Up

Conference

Our annual spring Renewal Conference features dynamic speakers, a line of workshops, editor/agent appointments, professional manuscript critiques, and other things to encourage you in your writing.

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Access to Recordings Available

Taming the Self-Editing Beast - Non-Fiction

Take your writing to publishing-industry expectations (and beyond) with Dori's comprehensive suggestions for examining your content, with examples from an actual content-edited manuscript.

In this workshop you will learn about message, theme, engagement, continuity, goal, rhythm, and structure.

Taming the Self-Editing Beast - Non-Fiction Recording 

Taming the Self-Editing Beast - Fiction/Memoir

Take your writing to publishing-industry expectations (and beyond) with Dori's comprehensive suggestions for examining your content, with examples from an actual content-edited manuscript.

In this workshop you will learn about characterization, plot tension, pacing, dialog structure, point of view, theme, scene balance, and author voice.

Taming the Self-Editing Beast - Fiction/ Memoir Recording 

Taming MS Word's References Beast

Citing sources properly using Word's References system saves so many headaches as your file moves through the editing and typesetting process! In this workshop, discover the publishing standards for citing sources (some surprising changes in recent years). We'll discuss the dos and don'ts and whys, plus you'll receive Dori's updated formats for citing sources. You can still register to receive access.

Taming MS Word's References Beast Recording 

Taming the Editing Level Beast

Author and editor, Dori Harrell, presented a workshop on the various levels of editing. It covered what type of edit occurs at each level and what you need to do to prepare. You can still register to receive access to the recording.

Taming the Editing Level Beast Recording

Taming the MS Word Beast

If you missed Dori's Workshop on tips for using MS Word for your manuscript. You can still register to receive access to the recording. For more information and to register click the link below.

Taming the MS Word Beast Workshop Recording

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