Fill 'er Up by Bob Jones

This month’s writing prompt asked how I fill my creative container.

That’s an interesting query.

In a recent online discussion with a group of religious leaders, the facilitator asked us to list the reasons why we do what we do. And then to share why what we do may encounter resistance.

My writing at REVwords is inspired by people and the challenges they face. They overflow my container.

These are some of the reasons and resistance that make up my writing world.

Reasons
•  Be an advocate for others.
•  Defend others who need a friend to stand with them.
•  Be a voice of those who don’t have a platform but have a story.
•  Broaden the perspectives of those willing to stretch.
•  Raise up issues to higher importance than is often attributed to them.

Resistance
•  My content offends some readers, so they break connection.
•  Deficiency of clarity in my writing leads to misunderstanding.
•  Defensive reactions to dissenting views and critique.

During that discussion, we were challenged to think about how we could get a broader hearing on divisive issues. How could I communicate what is meaningful in a way that would draw a more diverse audience and inspire less resistance and more conversation?

Exploring that kind of thinking is going to fill my creative container. I posted my first attempt at that in the post, C-9, 18, and 5:14 (Galatians). Let me know how I did.

The prompt also asked what strengthens my craft, the writing resources I use, and my go to publications, quotes, podcasts, and other resources.

Lately, I’ve been influenced by the people I follow on Substack and podcasts. Each one of them writes with creativity and passion. They’re not tentative in taking on big issues and speaking truth to power.

Bishop Mariann Budde – Reflections on Courage, Faith and the Work of Love

Brian Zhand

Bob Rae

Beth Allison Barr – Marginalia

Anne Applebaum – Open Letters

NiJay K. Gupta – Engaging Scripture

Anne Lamott – Hallelujah Anyway

Patti Miller – Isn’t That The Craziest Thing

Kristin Du Mez – Du Mez Connections

Anne Lamott shared a story a few weeks ago in her Substack. She told it for people doing important work. People like Inscribe writers.

“The writer Mark Yaconelli told me years ago of holding a retreat one weekend where a hundred people from all over the world came to hear his teachings on how to work with disenfranchised and severely depressed young people. He spoke to the gathering for a few hours about tools that he used to create community and connection with young people suffering loss and isolation. At some point, he handed out a Mexican beach blanket to each person, and asked them to lie down and rest.

A physician who worked with young AIDS patients had flown in from South Africa the week before, and she came up to him, furious. She said that she had flown 10,000 miles at enormous expense to learn his techniques and did not want to be told to take a nap like a kindergartner. Mark nodded sympathetically and asked her to do the best she could.

When the hour was over, the woman came back to him, weeping. She had fallen asleep. She said that she had not understood how exhausted she was.”

Happy Easter. He is risen so you can lay down.

Thank you for reading and commenting. I always look forward to your engagement. It’s the best part of writing.

A Few of My Writing Resources by Lorrie Orr

April's prompt is all about Writing Resources. How do you fill your creative container? How do you strengthen your craft? What writing resources do you use? Share books and publications, quotes, podcasts, and other resources you’ve found helpful.

Please remember that if you have difficulty writing to a particular prompt, you are free to write something else with a writing life focus.

Resource: a useful or valuable possession or quality that a person or organization has, for example, money, time, or skills

When I'm stuck for something to write, I often find definitions help me get started. A dictionary is definitely a resource, along with a thesaurus, and The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. The latter is useful for matters of grammar and punctuation.

Dozens, hundreds, even thousands of resources useful to the writer abound in libraries and on the internet. The key is to discover which resources are most useful to me. A search engine is a great resource and I can quickly scroll through the various suggested sites to see which might pique my interest or fulfill a need.

I write some things by hand on paper, but most of my writing is done on a computer, specifically my Surface Pro 8, a cross between a tablet and a desktop. With it I can write anywhere. I use Microsoft Word as my writing tool and find it very useful. Another tool I use is my iPhone, useful for jotting down thoughts on the go or for taking photos of things I don't want to forget such as signs, logos, etc.

My greatest resource is my mind. Without that unseen, complex part of me that's hard to define, I am a shell. With my mind I see, hear, taste, touch, and feel. My mind motivates my behaviour and my emotions. Just thinking of all those synapses constantly firing in my brain is enough to make my mind explode. I am "fearfully and wonderfully made." When my mind is in tune with God's Spirit, it is indeed a marvelous thing.

Since my mind is so important, I must care for it properly so it will serve me well throughout my life. I must nourish it carefully, minimizing the garbage that can hinder its function. I am careful about what I put into my mind, focusing on things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy, as the Apostle Paul writes in Philippians 4. Things that fit those descriptive words in my life become more resources for my mind to employ in writing.

I am also cognizant that my mind needs rest and relaxation. During stressful times of life, I am learning to pull back and let my mind recuperate. Time away from writing is just as important as the writing itself. A good night's sleep is something I appreciate more and more. My mind needs gentleness as well as occasional reminders to "do the next thing".

Tea is my hot drink of choice when I sit at my computer. In summer it's a glass of cold water with sprigs of mint or lemon balm. A comfortable chair and a table at just the right height are useful, although I can sit on the couch and write, too. Being in a good position helps me to focus on my writing rather than my physical state.

Creation is also an immensely powerful resource. While walking this morning I thought about how so many people play music or listen to podcasts while walking. I don't. My mind is full to overflowing with thoughts, prayers, songs, and stories. When I write, I find that mental pictures absorbed from what I've seen in nature often provoke a written response.

These are just a few of the things that help me to write.

I could include a vast number of websites, blogs, SubStack writers, and more in this blog. But I'll leave that to you. What resources help you to write?

Lorrie Orr writes from her home on Vancouver Island,

finding beauty and grace in the natural landscape.

Her memoir of 21 years in Ecuador will soon be published,

and you can find more of her writing on SubStack and her blog.

My Best Writing Advice by Colleen van Nieuwkerk

 

My writing life has grown in these past eighteen months. I have become a writer and an author who is published. All of this is amazing to me!

Previous to this time, as I served in full-time ministry in our church, I mostly wrote devotionals for team meetings and some curriculum.

After retirement I led our ministry to women as a volunteer for a short time, and then God asked me to take a rest period. He basically put me “on the shelf” for about two years as I processed life and considered the future.

The curriculum I have been presently writing and teaching came out of that period of rest. It is now fifteen years since God asked me to carry a burden for women who long to follow him but don’t know where to begin, or how to establish life-long rhythms that invite deeper spiritual relationship.

All of the writing and teaching for those past years has led, in more recent months, to writing my memoir and also other short, non-fiction pieces for publication.

There are two main pieces of writing advice I have received over many years that have been most helpful, no matter my perspective.

Hook. Book. Look. Took.

This advice came from one of our Christian Education Directors in our church. It can apply to both writing or speaking, and I have used it in both ways.

1. Hook - Draw my reader in with a personal story or interest point.

2. Book - Share the biblical foundation that supports my topic.

3. Look - Weave together my topic with the biblical foundation that can be applied to the current topic.

4. Took – Share and encourage how this topic applies personally to whomever I am writing. Ask good and tough questions to help the reader make their own life application.

As I began to write and teach the current curriculum for women, my pilot class encompassed many ages and stages of life. I wrote generally and the content was embraced. However, as I moved further into my outline and we completed the first year, I realized that I was writing mostly to one particular group of women. This thought brought me to my other best writing advice.

Who is My Person?

I recently realized that I came to this advice backwards. Any coaching I have received since delving into better writing tells me I need to know who I am writing for—my person—before I begin sharing my words.

I wrote for many years with a broader perspective than I should have, and yet God still honored those words. They may be applicable to any age or stage, but I believe our influence will be even deeper if we write to a specific person struggling with a problem or situation they face and offer a solution to consider that comes from our personal experience.

I am enjoying my writing life and have learned so much. This is all part of our life-long learning process.

My life verse says this so well, as our words are first meditated and then expressed, whether in our writing or in our speaking, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14 ESV)

Colleen van Nieuwkerk is GG to three sons plus 3; twelve grandchildren; and two great-grandsons. Colleen writes curriculum for women as well as teaches and is currently writing the story in book form of how this all came about. She lives in northern Alberta and can be found online @colleenvannieuwkerk.com

Finding Great Advice by Sandra Rafuse

Having my publishing date near the end of every month this year has been a bonus for me because I get to read all the blogs that are published before mine. Since we all use the same prompt as the topic for our blog, what I read from those who publish before me helps me immensely by giving me so many ideas and much information to use. I feel I don't have the experience I would like to have had to write something using this month's prompt and I have struggled with the January and February prompts as well. Each one has been a challenge for me. Why? Dana-Lyn's comment says it all. . . "I am extremely new to the craft of writing." I love that sentence. That's me. (Thanks for sharing that, Dana-Lyn.)

For now, I can say I received the best advice about writing from books. I've always loved to read. I'm remembering a couple of favorite old books from when I was a lot younger and still lived at home. For a time, my father subscribed to Reader's Digest for those hardcover books they offered that had two stories in one book. I remember enjoying those. I remember reading and rereading 1001 Arabian Nights - The Complete Adventures of Sindbad, Aladdin and Ali Baba time and time again. Then, for most Christmases, there was a new book wrapped up and placed under the tree for me. I would spend an entire day at some time during the holidays, curled up on the couch, reading and finishing the book before the day was done. And I can't leave out mentioning second hand bookstores and all their treasures that came along as the years went by and. . .wait. . .the Scholastic book orders that were sent away every month at school. It felt like Christmas time when the orders came in. Words. Books. Reading. Understanding. Now Writing. There's my connection to the best advice I've ever received for writing.

When I consider all I've read, I am aware of the power, the impact, the emotions words have on me. I feel them in my mind and in my heart. I am amazed how authors have written their stories, or articles, or poems, etc., using the words they have chosen and they have made them into something so meaningful and beautiful and organized and clear. How do they do that? I think about it now as I write. As I learn to put words together so they come out saying something good. I am happy to be in this new chapter in my life. It certainly is a lot of work. And I'm happy about that, too.

Sandra Rafuse lives in the small town of Rockglen, Saskatchewan, with her husband, Bob, a Gordon Setter named Sadie, and a Peregrine falcon named Peet. She is a retired teacher, an amateur writer, and is thoroughly enjoying having the opportunity to share what God has been teaching her through her life experiences.

Photo at top of page by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.