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Tools to Grow By
A second year at the Sandy Cove Christian Writers’ Conference gave me a second chance to fill up my toolbox. Toolbox? Sure! The place where I pull out information that will improve my skill!
Tool #1. Hone in on a specific audience. Wendy Lawton (http://www.wendylawton.com/) coached writers to do just that by helping them with “branding.” A specific label that communicates your focus.
Craig von Buseck (www.vonbuseck.com) talked about the importance of knowing your audience (their demographics, phase of life, etc.) in order to better meet their needs.
Are you speaking to moms? Mentors? Or managers?
Is your writing “seeker friendly?”
Tool #2. Make writing your ministry. Bob Slosser was quoted as saying, “There are a lot of right thinking missionaries, but there are not a lot of right thinking Christian writers.”
We are to affect our world for Christ with words that honor God in content as well as appearance. We can be salt (wit) and light (insight) as well as use spell check!
Our world (newspapers, magazines, blogs…) need writers with a Christian slant.
Tool #3. Become web savvy. The more you know about using the internet as a tool, the better you will be able to connect to your audience. According to http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm., there are over 1.2 billion users on the internet monthly! People are seeking information. Are you going to them, with your words? Craig von Buseck said, “Take the gospel from the stained glass to the plain glass.”
For your web presence, keep the text concise and make your links easy to navigate. http://www.w3schools.com/ is a site that has helped me to better understand how to work with the web.
How about starting out with a blog? www.bravenet.com provides free sites.
Tool #4. Use headlines to grab attention. An online reader’s attention span only lasts nine short seconds, according to Jim Watkins (http://watkins.gospelcom.net/). Don’t try just for the cutesy titles, but aim to get across the jest of your message by making them informational.
Tool #5. Let other people be a part of your writing life. Find support systems to undergird your work and to hold you accountable. Writer’s Groups provide a safe haven for testing the quality of our words. They also provide companionship in a lonely field of work. For a speaker, rehearsing a speech enables another’s input into the thought process.
Your Turn:
Give yourself permission to get lost on the internet. Is it a waste of time? Not hardly! You’re learning how to navigate unknown territory. You’re learning how others use words. And you’re finding out where you need to be a light in the darkness.
Here are some links to get you started:
http://www.fundsforwriters.com/
http://faithwriters.com/
http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200708/1186571704.html
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Proverbs 25:11
A word aptly spoken
is like apples of gold
in settings of silver.
Read Sally's Blog at:
http://sallyswords.braveblog.com
To Contact Sally:
Sally Ferguson
979 Southwestern Dr
Jamestown NY 14701
sallyswords@windstream.net
(716)488-1254
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