Barbara Baranowski
​
If you like to encourage others, then writing and marketing devotionals might be something for you to consider. Devotionals touch lives with a message that encourage each reader to draw closer to God.  As short, vivid articles that focus on a specific topic, they offer help and hope, as the reader connects to God in short, spiritual lessons.  They are not fiction, but provide real life application.
Tips for Writing Devotionals:

1.  Pray and listen for God’s direction.
2.  Remember that devotionals are not sermons or lectures.  They are meant to inspire without being preachy.  The writer stays away from such words as “should” or “must.”
3. They are topics in which the reader can identify, are often taken from personal experience, and should point the reader to God and relationship to Jesus through that experience/thought.  Avoid using the words “you” or “they,” rather choose to write in first person, using “I” or “me.”
4. Devotionals show how God acts in common situations.
5. They don’t have to give answers, except from Scripture.
6. They are meant to feed the spiritual life of the individual.
7. “Show, don’t tell” the anecdote (short story) by using sensory images.
8. Develop only one idea per devotional.
9. Avoid controversial subjects.
10.  Know the guidelines of the devotional publication to which you are planning to submit your devotional(s).
11. Make your devotional memorable—one idea that will stick in the reader’s mind.
12.   Leave the writer encouraged.   Write to touch the heart.
13.  Write with focus on a reader’s spiritual needs, not on yours.
14.  Write with a personal take-away for the reader. When you share what the Lord has done through your story, it will be a fresh insight from your perspective.
15.  Write in the format that the publisher wants.
16.   Keep the devotional length within the publisher’s guidelines.
17.   Be accurate in quotes and Scripture.  Double check the Scripture reference and state the Bible version using the version the publisher requests.  Make sure the verse matches the devotional theme.  Use shorter passages, rather than large chunks.
18.   Write a satisfying conclusion that leaves the reader encouraged or with a truth to ponder. The ending should bring the reader back to the beginning (like two pieces of bread starts and end the “meat” of a sandwich).
19.  Close with a prayer, if the publisher requires one.  The prayer should stick to the theme.
20.   Re-read to see if every word contributes to the theme while staying within the word count.
21.   Study devotional books and magazines, and practice writing your own.

Typical Devotional Format:
The typical format for a devotional is: title, Scripture, anecdote or reflection, conclusion, prayer or thought for the day (depending on the publication).  The count is generally 200-800 words (check publication).  However, the devotional format can vary according to its specific matter/use.
 
Finding Publications for Devotionals
The best place to find publications that take devotionals is in the Christian Writers Market Guide. Some publications that take freelance devotionals include: The Secret Place—100 percent freelance, The Upper Room, and Open Windows. There are also on-line devotional magazines.  Sometimes your own church may have a publication for which they would like devotionals.
Writing devotionals is a wonderful way to be of spiritual help to others and spread God’s Word.  But to do that they have to be submitted.  Why not try writing one yourself?
 
 
 
 
 

Bobby pushed his sister down.  He wanted the blue ball she was bouncing.  Maggie told her mother she didn’t eat the missing cookie.  She knew this was a lie.  These are two examples of ways we sin.  
 
    A sin is something wrong you do, say, or sometimes just think.  Bobby and Maggie didn’t plan to behave badly.  It just happened.  The problem is we’re all born with a sinful nature.  That means we have a built-in urge to think of ourselves first.  
 
     Because God wants us to love one another, sinning makes you feel sad and breaks your good connection with Him.  You see, God is perfect and holy in every way and can’t allow any sin into heaven.  Now this is really serious because we keep slipping up and doing those things we shouldn’t.  With our sinful nature, it’s just not possible to be good all the time.
 
    But there’s Good News!  God Himself has given us a Savior.  His name is JESUS.   And Jesus loves us so much that He went along with His Father God’s plan to save us from our sins.  That’s right.  Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins - yesterday’s, today’s, and tomorrow’s too.  
 
    The word forgive means to forget and remember no more.  So it’s like the blood of Jesus erases our sins and buys us all tickets to heaven.  Now THIS is something to celebrate!

THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO
John 3:16  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  New International Version

PRAYER
Dear Jesus, my Savior, thank You for dying on the cross for me.  Because of You my sins are forgiven, and I can have my very own ticket to heaven.  I Love You!  Amen.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ACTIVITY
Draw a picture of a dark cloud or write the word “sin” on a blackboard.  Now erase your work.  This is what forgiveness of your sins looks like.  They are gone!  It’s like they never happened.                                                                                                                                              
 
EVERYDAY LIVING
When you pray, you can ask God to forgive your sins and know for sure that He does.  They are erased and forgotten.  What a wonderful feeling!  Some people even pray, “For Jesus’s sake, forgive my sins.”  They are remembering what Jesus did on the cross and reminding themselves that Jesus is the Savior of the world.
 
www.facebook.com/ToddlerTheology
grammycathy6@gmail.com              

Written by Barbara Baranowski

 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”
 John 15:1-2 (NIV)

            The beautiful ivy had crawled up through the ground after winter’s cold and was overtaking our sturdy wooden fence.  I needed to remove it.  So, on a beautiful spring day, with gloves and clippers, I headed out to trim.  The vine was solidly and deeply rooted in the dirt, but I was able to pull the runners away from the fence.  I hated trimming those beautifully variegated leaves.  To me, ivy gives a sense of antiquity and strength.  As the day ended, I looked at the carpet of cuttings on the ground and breathe a sigh of relief that the job was nearly complete.  When I finished the next morning, I noticed how dead the trimmings were after only one night.

            Jesus cautioned believers to live in Him for the same reason.  His words resound with the same thought—apart from Him, we can do nothing for His kingdom and do not become what He has created us to be.  If we are like sturdy branches growing in Him, the Vine of Life, we will understand that the pruning, while sometimes painful, is necessary for us to grow in love, trust, and service for God, leaving us to be an ever-bearing, vibrant part of His kingdom.  However, as the leaves of the ivy vine die apart from its strong source of strength, we too will quickly die spiritually if we remove ourselves from prayer, Bible study, and fellowship with believers and in our case, too, other writers.
​
            As springtime brings new growth and the earth becomes rejuvenated with beauty, let’s take stock of our spiritual and writing life.  Are we a dying vine or a vibrant part of the Lord’s
vineyard? 

Dikkon Eberhart
www.dikkoneberhart.com


To a non-writer, it might seem that writing a memoir is easy. You know what happened—just tell the truth.

Here’s a passage from a good writer that is on point.

The passage is on page thirty of the novel Lila by Marilynne Robinson. The protagonist of the novel is a young woman who scarcely ever talks, whom the reader does not yet know well. She is sitting, virtually silent, with an elderly minister in his kitchen, drinking coffee. He has just told her an event about angels.

She said, “I liked that story.”

He looked away from her and laughed. “It is a story, isn’t it? I’ve never really thought of it that way. And I suppose the next time I tell it, it will be a better story. Maybe a little less true. I might not tell it again. I hope I won’t. You’re right not to talk. It’s a sort of higher honesty, I think. Once you start talking, there’s no telling what you’ll say.

Read that last sentence again—Once you start talking, there’s no telling what you’ll say.

Most people don’t suffer under the burden of being writers. Truth in writing is more complicated than most people understand. Once we writers start talking—writing—there’s no telling what we’ll say.

What we writers say is for the good of the story we are telling. The good of the story we are telling becomes our motivation, which is paramount. Truth notwithstanding.
If the need of the story is for its protagonist to step off the porch and to trip over the cat, then that is what the protagonist does—even though the truth of the incident was that it was the bottom step of the inside staircase, and it was the dog.

Lila is a novel. Fiction is one thing; memoir is another. I write memoir. It’s harder.

For one thing, the people you write about in memoir are still alive, or they may be, and they have a right to privacy—which is true even if they’re dead. For another, you yourself have a right to privacy, even when you seem deliberately to have opened yourself up to scrutiny. But the main difficulty about your memoir is that your memoir is not about you. Your memoir uses you to support its real subject. Its real subject is your theme for writing.

What are you writing about? Not you. Frankly, no one is much interested in you except a few friends and relations. It’s your theme that is of general interest—you hope.

Let’s say your memoir’s theme is how pet ownership has opened up your life to greater awareness of God. In that case, it really doesn’t matter if the accident was prompted by the porch and the cat or by the stairs and the dog. Either is relevant to the theme.

However, you know that it was the stairs and the dog, but you’re going to use the porch and the cat.

That’s the truth trouble, right there.

Why do you use the porch and the cat? You write that it was the porch and the cat because, later in your memoir, at the climax of your theme—when the awareness of God comes vividly upon you—that event actually did happen on the porch.

You decide you’ll use the porch and the cat for the accident so that your memoir, as a whole—rising as it does toward the God revelation—can occur on the porch, where it really did occur. That’s the best way for the revelation scene to be literarily cohesive with the accident event.

Whew!

It’s not easy.

How do you balance?

Theme? Truth?

Or do you serve each of these needs at the same time by using techniques of fiction, without stepping across the line into fiction?

Readers of your book want to be excited by your memoir, not because it is about you, but—because of the gift you have made to them of your theme—it is about them.

Yes, you are providing detail about your life and your events, but their attraction to your memoir is that you have allowed them to think about themselves in new ways. Their lives and their events have been affirmed, or tested, or questioned, or balanced by what you have said about yours.

They are drawn into your memoir by this. But they stay inside your book because of what you have revealed to them about them.

Each draft of your story perfects your story, while each draft is a little less true. That’s because once you start to write your story, there’s no telling what you’ll say.

​Written by Dikkon Eberhart
www.dikkoneberhart.com

 
Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Don’t skim your eye down the words.  Go back and say the words.  Say them with measured solemnity, four syllables to each word.  Sixteen syllables all together. 
You are praising the Lord.  This is the Gloria in excelsis Deo that you are pronouncing. 
 
It was late morning on the eve of Christmas Eve.  I called my wife at the church.  Since she and I came to Christ six years before, she had been our pastor’s secretary.  I was checking in, concerned about errands I needed to finish while I was out on the road.  We spoke briefly about the errands. 

Then I asked her when she planned to come home from the church.  Uncharacteristically, she did not know.  Usually, she knows.  Usually, she knows because she knows what tasks she must finish.  Usually, she responds with a time—an hour, two hours. 

But this time, she was vague.  It was odd of her—my wife is not a vague person, about time or about anything else.  “I don’t know,” is what she said, and she said it with a puzzled intonation, as though she wondered why she did not know and yet she said it anyway.  I was puzzled, too, when I hung up. 

I thought perhaps I should call her back, to ask if she were all right.  I thought perhaps I should question her tone of puzzlement, which suggested she did not feel in charge of her time that afternoon.  But I did not call her back.  I had errands to do. 

Here’s what I learned later.  After I hung up, an hour or two passed at the church.  My wife was alone.  She finished tasks.  There is always a task to finish on a secretary’s desk.  But, puzzlingly, she did not formulate a plan for the finishing of her tasks and for her getting home.  Then the church’s door opened and a man entered whom my wife had never seen.  The man introduced himself and asked if the pastor were in.  The pastor was not in.  

The man seemed puzzled by the circumstance that the pastor was not in at the church.  “But God told me I must come to see him now.”  

“Well, would you like me to make an appointment for you, for later?”

“But God told me I must come to see him now.” 

After all—this is how my wife reported the conversation to me—after all, the man was puzzled himself.  He had done what God had told him to do.  Now, it was the pastor’s turn. 

The pastor had left the church not long before, with several plans in his mind.  He had not been certain which of the plans he would undertake.  He would let my wife know which plan he would undertake, he said, when he knew himself. 

My wife dialed the phone.  The pastor answered.   

“There’s a man here,” she said, and she gave his name.  “He says he needs to see you.”

“Oh.” 

“I wasn’t certain about your plan.” 

“Well, I haven’t selected the plan yet.  I don’t know why.  Right now, I’m eating lunch.”

 The pastor thought for a moment.  “Can he wait ten minutes?”

My wife looked at the man.  “Can you wait ten minutes?”

“Yes.”

She turned back to the phone.  “He can wait.”

“See you in ten.”

In ten minutes, the pastor arrived at the church.  He and the man went into his office.  Two hours later, the man accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord, and his name was written in Glory. 

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah
 
Late that same night, on the eve of Christmas Eve, my wife and I relaxed on our couch.  The house was aromatic with baking gift breads.  The Christmas tree was lit with white bulbs, wax candles burned among our mantel display of spruce boughs and red balls, and twinkling candles were alight in our windows so that, as my mother told me when I was a child, if the Christ Child should need a place to lie down, He would know by our candles that He would be welcome here. 

My wife had explained to me the odd events of that afternoon—the man puzzled why the pastor should not be at his office when God had indicated that he would be, my wife puzzled about her inability to manage a time to return to our house so that she was available just at the right moment to make that telephone call to our pastor, our pastor puzzled that he had not selected among his plans for the afternoon so that he was, at the necessary time for the man, just eating lunch. 

My wife lay back on the couch and put her feet in my lap.  In silence, I stroked her feet.  The wine was red in my glass, and white in my wife’s.  We listened to Susan Boyle sing Hallelujah. The words of poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen filled the room.  

We are busy people, she and I, with several jobs between us—retirees who still work hard, and I had a new book coming out, a memoir recounting my life as the son of a poet father—a father whose poetry molded my relationship with our Father. 
Relaxing on our couch, weary after days and days of heavy work for both of us, nearing the completion of our Advent anticipation of a miracle—humbly trying to experience our anticipation with patience—the beauty of the season and of the Christ lights overthrew me.  I wept. 

My wife looked her question, but gently: this was her emotional husband. 

“It’s beautiful,” I said.

I wept for Cohen’s spare, elegiac poetry.  I wept for Boyle’s easy voice.  I wept for the still, calm beauty of our decorated home.  I wept for giving gift bread to our friends, bread which my wife had created.  But mostly I wept that, on the eve of Christmas Eve, the Lord Himself had used my wife and our pastor for His own purpose, which was to bring another soul to salvation—that godly using, which had puzzled each of them, as their planning of their day was set aside.    

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah
​
Hallelujah.
 
 
 
 

Written by Barbara Baranowski
 
Are you thinking about attending a writers’ conference in 2017?  Here are some tips from my own experience.
 
I left the American Christian Writers’ Conference ready to conquer some “giants” of Writerdom, including lack of time and fear of rejection.  The instructors, as always, delighted me with their wealth of information and inspirational words.  And, as always, I felt armed to do battle.  But, I also knew another giant was awaiting me on the drive home and would follow me into the house.  That was the hardest one for me to escape.  I call him “Big Blue.”
 
Recognizing the Giant
After a writers’ conference, “Big Blue” walks into the house with me, and as I place the wonderful materials near my computer, whispers to me that I won’t see those inspiring attendees for another year.  I can hear him laughing at the thought that I would open my newest notes or leisurely peruse new materials.  He reminds me of the time and energy it takes to develop writing skills.  I brush him off, but he sits near me and notes how solitary I seem.  Some may call him post-conference blues or depression.  I’m not sure if this is a classified condition, but it happens when I leave a conference feeling so inspired, yet so empty of those relationships and people I’ve been with—people a little “strange” about the lure of writing, like me.  Lately, however, I recognize his voice immediately and have developed some ways to banish him.  If this happen to you, I recommend these giant-slaying tips.
 
Share Your Experience
Share what you did at the conference with someone, even if you have to speak to yourself.  Don’t keep the excitement and positive experiences bottled up.  Call or email a fellow writer.  You may inspire others, but more importantly, you reconnect to your own excitement.  Often a speaker addresses more than writing techniques.  Did one encourage you to a deeper prayer life?  Share the inspiration you received.  Did an article or book writer relate an unforgettable experience that motivated or inspired you?  Pass along those words to comfort and hearten others.  At many conferences an attendee list is given.  Network your experience, but also network your feelings.
 
Seek Immediate Writing Opportunities
Look for writing opportunities immediately following the conference.  Check with your church newsletter, bulletins, community papers, or send off that article which you have been clutching with insecurity.  Open your market guide and go on a writer’s “shopping spree” in search of the publication with needs that match your work.  Take on the challenge of defeating the giant by hurling the stone of enthusiasm.
 
 
 
Review Your Notes
Review the conference notes that you worked so hard to get and listen to any tapes you bought.  Remember how the speakers’ words satiated your writer’s hunger and energized your spirit?  In the same way, let the lessons energize your writing.  By doing so, you will relive the excitement and be encouraged to continue.  Highlight the notes that have special meaning to you and apply them immediately to your writing.
 
Make Use of Freebies
Probably your muscles strained as you carried home heavy bags leaded with wonderful catalogues, periodicals, and writers’ guidelines.  Look carefully through them and anticipate gaining insights about the publications.  File them by type for future reference, and review them often.
 
The Next Mountaintop
As soon as possible, make plans for your next conference.  Regenerate the excitement.  Look forward to new lessons and friends.  After all, the next mountain top experience is just around the corner.
           
Post-conference blues can become a time of growth, or post conference greens, as I now like to think.  These days I have learned to walk out of the conferences with only my writing friends.  I leave “Big Blue” behind.  Who needs him?

For some conference opportunities see our Writer Opportunities page.

Written by Dikkon Eberhart
www.dikkoneberhart.com

Dad was prominent as a poet.  When I was young, I longed not to be a poet.

I’d be anything—a quarterback, an FBI agent, a ship captain.  But in my soul, I knew I would be a chip off Dad’s block.  Alas, I was a word-smith, too.

So I watched Dad, to learn how.  

One
Read, read, read.  

Read any style, content, genre, author, date—it doesn’t matter. 

“We pour our souls into these words, Dikkon. You need to learn to identify writing that’s worth that effort and writing that’s not.”

Once, after Dad breezed through an erotic novel I showed him, drily he responded, “Chaucer did it better.”

Two
Start.

“I can’t write it,” I moaned, regarding my short story assignment in high school. “It’s too hard!”

Dad caught Mom’s urging eye, put down his pipe, and asked me, “What’s your story about?”

“When they’re choosing up teams, the boy wants to be picked first but maybe he won’t be.”

“And?”

“I don’t know!  Maybe he isn’t picked first, but maybe he hits the home run.  It’s due tomorrow!”

“Try making the story about his thoughts.”

“About his thoughts?”

“Yes.  Try starting with the word ‘maybe.’”  Dad grinned.  “Maybe the story is about maybe.”

So I wrote the story and submitted it on time.  Its first sentence was “Maybe I’ll be picked first but maybe not.”   

Three
Bring the reader in.

“Do you like it?” Dad asked.
 
“It’s assigned.”  

“Not what I asked.”

“Then, no.  It’s boring.”  

“Do you think maybe the author’s just writing for himself and maybe for his closest friends?”

I hadn’t thought of that as a possibility.  The author was a major name in modernist English fiction—the focus of my college class.  

Dad pressed on, “Do you think it’s important that you be drawn in?”

“Who?  Me?”

“You’re his reader, aren’t you?”

I laughed.  “I wouldn’t be his reader, not if I could help it.”

“So…that’s my point.  Yes, the reader must come to the writer, but the reader only will come to the writer if he’s drawn in, not forced in.”

“That’s not happening here.”

“So when you’re a writer….”

I nodded.  “Bring ‘em in.”

“Atta boy.”

Four
Don’t go to sleep until you know what happens next.  

“No,” Dad said.  “I don’t believe in writer’s block.”

“It’s my first novel, Dad.  I can’t get past the point where I am.  You’re a poet, not a novelist.  How could you know?”

“What’s the last scene you wrote?”

I told him.

“Go back and write it again.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“Doesn’t matter.  Probably nothing.  But write it again—create it again.  Your juices will begin to flow again, and you’ll speed on.”

Turns out he was right—I sped on.

Five
Don’t let it fester.  

I called Dad.  Two days before, I had finished my second novel, doing its last sixty pages in an eighteen-hour burst of ecstatic—almost holy—writing.  “It’s done, Dad.”

“Congratulations!”

 “I’m exhausted.”

 “Of course. Get a rest.”

 “Tell Mom.”

 “Of course. So…what’s next?”

 “I read it over.  I think it’s good.  Gotta do some tweaks.”

 “Do that.  But then—get it off your desk.”

 “What do you mean?”

 “Don’t let it fester.  Get it out into the world.  If you tweak it too much, you could kill it.  Now let an editor tell you what to do. ”

HERE’S A BONUS! 

A Sixth Thing I Learned
Keep trying. 

Sitting in our garden, Robert Frost turned to me and remarked, “Dikkon, the work of the poet is to write at least one single poem that they can’t get rid of.  They’ll try.  But don’t let ‘em.”

                                                 © – Dikkon Eberhart, 2016​

Written by Donna Willard
 
Journaling is writing about the journey we call life.  Often journaling has meant so much to me because I can release the feelings inside my heart and onto an external piece of paper.  It has helped me deal with feelings of depression and anxiety, as well as express joy.  Journaling is a release for my soul and has helped me to captivate my thoughts and emotions.  It has also been a springboard for many pieces that I have written, including editorials and letters to friends. In addition, journaling is a great way to communicate with God through a prayer, and then later record answers to prayer.

Requirements for journaling include paper, pencil, and the thoughts and feelings the Lord places in your heart.  There are many beautiful journals for purchase, but one can, if preferred, just use a piece of blank paper.  Some journals have scripture or ideas that act as a springboard for thoughts.

The writer does not have to edit when journaling. That just interrupts the flow of thoughts.  Many writers start their writing pieces in a journal.  One just needs to express thoughts or prayers for God to begin.  It is truly the easiest form of writing for God.

King David wrote his thoughts in journal form, as found in Psalms 22, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help?”(NLTB)  David’s words start out with deep sadness and end with the joy of future generations hearing about the wonders of the Lord.
​
We all are on a journey in life. Writing in journal form is a way to communicate ideas from our abstract minds to concrete paper.  Whether we write just for ourselves to read or to share so others may learn, journaling empties our soul to paper.

Written by Barbara Baranowski
 
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
 Ecclesiastes 3: 1 (KJV)
 
Like many writers, I dream of writing without ceasing.  I have ideas and inspirations to share and words to write before I sleep.  Sometimes, though, God has a different plan for me. 

We were packing to take a family beach vacation.  We had rented a house and were looking forward to spending time with our family, especially enjoying our grandchildren.

As usual, I packed my writing supplies.  I fantasized about meditating on the beauty of the beach, walking the sand at sunset with pencil and pad in hand, and dashing off inspirational pieces.  Along with family time, I had visualized a writer’s retreat. How blissful.  How unrealistic! A retreat doesn’t happen with family, especially children, around.  I had prayed for everything concerning the week, except how the Lord would use it from a writing perspective.

After the first day, reality knocked on the door of my sandcastle dreams.  I loved being with our grandchildren.  I planned out treasure hunts, played games, built roads in the sand, and read lots of books.  We watched children’s movies and went shell hunting.  The only time I could write was early mornings or at night.  That didn’t work.  I was too tired from playing to plan an article or write a devotional.

I prayed, “Lord, did you bring me to this lovely spot to hear your voice and apply it to my writing, or do you have another plan for me?”

I could almost hear God laughing as He spoke to my heart, “ Child, sometimes I provide writing time for you, and sometimes I place you in the middle of things to write about.  With spiritual eyes watch yourself interact with your family—playing with your grandchildren and teaching lessons about Me from the beauty around you.”
​
I was reminded that this was not the time to write about adventures with the Lord; it was the time to live them.  I could write about them later.  Learning the importance of discerning writing “seasons” by listening and being obedient to the Lord is as important as the writing itself.