Sunday, September 27, 2015

A Step in the Write Direction--September 28, 2015--more nonfiction hints

A Step in the Write Direction
September 28, 2015
Update: This has been a good week. Had new tile installed in one bedroom, one more to go. Still doing a lot of sorting….My home church in Michigan has set up a home page and people are sending in photos of the “good ol’ days.” I went through and found about 40 photos and 66 slides. Two of the photos were my mother’s and go back to 1929 and 1938. My nephew (who’s smarter than I am!) is going to put them in some kind of an album for home page. Looking forward to seeing it…. After going through many resumes, our church board has selected one  applicants who will be preaching at our church next Sunday. Praying he’ll be the one….Don’t forget to send in any prayer requests you have. Mine this week is for my daughter who is having many health problems: high white count (16,000), high liver count (179), high A1C (9.3), and stomach pains. Has an appointment Wednesday with an oncologist, and a neurosurgeon on the 16th for the back injury she had when she fell and tore her rotator cuff (still recuperating from that surgery). Thanks!
Thought for the Day: Corrie ten Boom was once asked if it was difficult for her to remain humble. Her reply was simple. “When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on the back of a donkey, and everyone was waving palm branches and throwing garments on the road, and singing praises, do you think that for one moment it ever entered the head of that donkey that any of that was for him? If I can be the donkey on which Jesus Christ rides in His glory, I give him all the praise and all the honor.” http://biblebaptistcares.com/2010/05/12/jesus-donkey

Song for the Day:
Come to my soul, blessed Jesus.
Hear me, O Saviour divine!
Open the fountain and cleanse me;
Give me a heart like Thine.
            Judson W. Van Deventer, “A Heart like Thine”

Laugh for the Day: A young boy called the pastor of a local church and asked him to come by to pray for his mother, who was very ill with the flu. The pastor knew the family and was aware they were members of another church down the road. So the pastor asked, "Shouldn't you be asking your pastor, Brother Simon, to come by to pray with your mom?"  "Yeah," the young boy replied, "but we didn't want to take the chance that he might catch whatever it is that Mom has."

Writer’s Tips:
Last week we talked about how you have experienced things in a completely different way than other people, so you are the only one who can write about that experience in your own voice.

Years ago I could have written an article on suicide. I could give statistics on how it’s the third-leading cause of death for teens.[i] I could give warning signs for parents and friends to look for. I could even list places where a teen could go for help. But the article would end there—facts only, no emotion.

After my great-nephew committed suicide, however, leaving behind an eight-month-old son, I could describe in detail the horrific emotion each family member experienced that day: my sister who found him hanging on his bedroom door, my brother-in-law who attempted CPR, my niece who didn’t get to the hospital in time to see her son take his last breath, his girlfriend who sobbed, “Didn’t he know how much we all loved him?”

This is what will grab your reader. It’s more than statistics. It’s writing! And this is what will set your article apart from all the others.

What have you gone through that you can write from your own personal


[i] www.aacap.org/cs/root/fcts_forfamilies/teen_suicide. Accessed 5/23/09.

 Have a good week spreading the
gospel through the printed page.

Donna Clark Goodrich

·          100-Plus Motivational Moments for Writers and Speakers – half-price $5, $2.69 s&h (This is free if you purchase 5 other books.)
·           A Step in the Write Direction—the Complete How-to Guide for Christian Writers—on sale--$10.00, $3.22 s&h (only 25 left)
·          A Step in the Write Direction—Student Edition with assignments throughout—on sale—$8, $2.72 s&h)
·          The Freedom of Letting Go (new one coming out will have discussion questions; can be used in S.S. class or small group); original copies without questions now on sale for half-price--$7.50, $2.69 s&h
·          Healing in God’s Time (story of Dave Clark, composer of 26 songs that have gone to #1 on the charts); was $15; now $10, $2.69 s&h
·          The Little Book of Big Laughs—105 purse/pocket-size book of clean jokes—$5; up to 4 for same s&h—$2.69
·          Preparing Your Heart for Christmas (31 Advent Devotions) half-price—$5
·          Michigan and Ohio Cookbooks; half-price $5 each, plus s&h (depending on number ordered)
·          Grandmother, Mother, and Me—1 left, $10, $3.22 s&h




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