Meeting this Saturday

Meeting this Saturday

March 2, 10 am-noon

Cornerstone Christian Church, Wyckoff

In the Barn (2nd building on the right)

The Value of Surveys & How to Conduct Them

Presented by Shirley Blankson

How can a survey tune us in to our readers? 

How can we learn from the opinions of others? 
How can this positively affect our writing?

All writers are invited, regardless of writing experience. 

Join us this Saturday.

Barbara

barbarahigbyhope.com

February's Focus Point

Identifying Your Theme

I love themes. When my children were young they chose a theme for their birthday parties and I'd run with it—Holly Hobby, Big Bird, baseball… When I participate in planning a church event, I’m all about the theme. I blog best when I’m working with a theme.

Years ago I had a pastor whose preaching theme was grace—every sermon boiled down to grace. Coming from a reformed background, that was great! Currently, our pastor is preaching from Galatians and the recurring theme throughout the book is found in a Tim Keller quote, “You are more sinful…than you ever dared believe, but more…loved than you ever dared hope.” 

David, it is commonly believed, authored Psalm 119, the longest psalm in the Bible. It is written as an acrostic poem using the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, with each stanza containing eight lines, and there’s a theme—all 176 verses extol the merits of the Word. 

Verse 54 inspired today’s focus point, “Your statutes are [Word is] the theme of my song during my earthly life.” (HCSB) His life theme was the Word of God—its preciousness, its power, its beauty, its comfort, its reassurance, its truth. 

What is the theme of your song "during your earthly life"?

At one of our meetings in 2018 we considered if our writing had a recurring theme and many discovered it did. Identifying that theme proved enlightening and sharpened our focus. Today I pose two questions I think are worth pondering:

• If your life was a story, what would be its unifying theme? 
• The piece you’re writing is a story, what is its unifying theme? 

Takeaway: Discover your theme, embrace it, and run with it.

Meeting this Saturday

February 2, 10-noon

Cornerstone Christian Church, Wyckoff

All writers are invited, regardless of writing experience.

• Prepare to share: What are your writing goals for the next six months?  They don't have to be lofty but they do need to be distinct - goals you've weighed and prayed over. 

• Also, bring questions & comments from our last session about creating video presentations. If time allows, we will discuss any writing related questions.

• Members (those who have attended more than one meeting) are invited to bring work for critique. Please adhere to the guidelines on our web page.

Hope to see you Saturday,

Barbara

barbarahigbyhope.com

January's Focus Point

Memories, Goals & Vision

My first blog post of the year addressed making memories. I wrote that even though we chose to make good memories (of course), bad memories will also be made. The bad memories come uninvited, but the good memories come from intentional effort. I want to apply this to our 2019 writing goals since we will share them in February.

When we mesh memories and goals, my default memories are of failed goals—everything I didn’t accomplish. My memory doesn’t readily recall the vision and good intentions that inspired the setting of those goals. Rather than considering an unmet goal as failure, let’s regard it as a pause.

We mustn't allow the discouragement of unmet goals to hinder us from setting new ones or from pulling out last year's unmet goals and refreshing them. Maybe our timing was off. Maybe our circumstances were prohibitive. Perhaps our goal needs tweaking or prioritizing. Or maybe (grimace) we need to let go of a goal and move on. Could an old ambition be standing in the way of fresh vision?

It’s a new year. There is no scarcity of vision—there is always more to discover from the God who is infinite in creativity and wonder, and eager to share with us. What will He show us this year? A new process, genre, format, opportunity? We may step into an area that’s new to us, or dabble in writing something we’ve not tried before, or research an unfamiliar topic or genre—perhaps today’s presentation on Creating & Posting Video will become a 2019 goal.

Next month we’ll share our writing goals for the first half of 2019. Let’s talk to God about them with an open heart and ask what aspirations He has for us. We know from the book of John that the Holy Spirit is our Counselor—He will teach us, direct us, supply us—and surprise us.

Takeaway: My 2019 goal is not to make good memories, but God memories. I will seek His wisdom, inspiration, and direction.