A Step in the Write Direction
November 16,
2015
Update: Question that’s
been on my mind lately: Where do you draw the line between helping and enabling?
When I grew up, one of the things the church kept stressing was that to have
JOY, it was Jesus first, Others next, and Yourself last. A few years ago I
realized that yes, it’s fine—and necessary—to put Jesus first, but if you
continually put others next and don’t care for yourself, soon you’re no good to
Jesus or to others. I read two books that helped along this line. One is Boundaries by Dr. John Townsend; the
other is When Helping You Is Hurting Me
by Carmen Renee Berry. The Thought for the Day below sort of relates to
this. The more we give to others, the more we have to spend time in prayer and
the Scriptures, or we’ll have nothing to give. Even Sally Stuart, in a talk at a
writer’s conferences, said “You can’t write from an empty cup.” I’d be
interested in hearing your comments on this subject!
Thought for the
Day: One writer said,
“If you keep going to the well to fill up your bucket, eventually you pull it up
empty unless you find ways to fill the well.” (From Cecil Murphey’s “Writer to
Writer.”)
Song for the
Day:
Fill
my cup Lord, I lift it up, Lord!
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul;
Bread of heaven, Feed me till I want no more
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole!
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul;
Bread of heaven, Feed me till I want no more
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole!
“Fill My Cup, Lord,” Richard
Blanchard
Laugh for the
Day: An
elderly gentleman who had serious hearing problems went to the doctor to be
fitted for a hearing aid that would return his hearing to 100%.
He
went
back for further tests a month later and the doctor said, "Your hearing is
perfect. Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again." To which
the gentleman replied, "Oh, I haven't told my family yet. I just sit around and
listen to the conversations. I've changed my will three
times!"
Writer’s
Tips Keep It
Simple (continued)
Charlie
Shedd speaks of using “gobbledygook” and “Protestant Latin.” We may know
theological terms, but we need to consider our audience. If we're writing for a
preacher's magazine, that's one thing, but most of us
aren't.
I
love the following story shared by Larry Mowrey in the Come Ye Apart devotional booklet:
People
tend to get all phony when the preacher is around. There’s a story about a
little boy who came home in the middle of a pastoral call. He didn’t realize
that the pastor was there. He just saw his mother, and he came running into the
house, holding a dead rat by the tail, exclaiming, “Look, Mom! Look at this rat
I caught out behind the barn! I smashed its head in with a baseball bat! I threw
rocks at it! I stomped on it! I spit on it, and I…I…” He looked up, saw the
preacher, cleared his throat, and said, “and…and…and then the dear Lord called
it home!”
“Jesus
doesn’t require us to be eloquent in speech,” Mowrey reminds us. “If He has done
anything in your life, all you have to do is share that with other people.
You’ll always find a way to get the story told. Let’s allow God to use us to
touch the lives of others.”[i]
Someone
has given this good advice: “Write it quickly, then go back and make it half as
long and twice as readable.”
Go
through the manuscript you’re working on now and see if you’ve used any words
that may be familiar to you but that may confuse your
reader.
[i] Larry Mowrey,
Come Ye Apart, Nazarene Publishing
House, Kansas City, Missouri, November 30, 1996.
Have a good week spreading
the
gospel
through the printed page.
Donna
Clark Goodrich
·
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Motivational Moments for Writers and Speakers
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A
Step in the Write
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Step in the Write Direction—the
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A
Step in the Write Direction—Student Edition with assignments
throughout—on
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·
The
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one coming out will have discussion questions; can be used in S.S. class or
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on sale for half-price--$7.50,
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·
Healing
in God’s Time (story
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The
Little Book of Big Laughs—105
purse/pocket-size book of clean jokes—$5; up to 4 for same s&h—$2.69.
Great
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·
Preparing
Your Heart for Christmas (31 Advent Devotions)
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Michigan and Ohio
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