by Cathy Baker | Faith |
Attend conference ✓
Arrive home primed to write ✓
Reality hits ✓
Now what?
“The Productive Writer” by Sage Cohen to the rescue!
One of my favorite tips in this small practical to-the-point guide:
Keep a separate file for each of the following categories that pertain to your writing and publishing goals. Every day, be on the lookout for inspiring examples that may inform or inspire a step you see yourself taking along your productive writing journey.
- Publishing possibilities: The names of presses, magazines, journals, or publishers whose published work feels familial with yours.
- Inspiring Samples: Pieces of writing that you admire.
- Kindreds: Names of writers (and examples of their writing) woe work feels in some way related to yours.
- Lessons Learned
- Books to Read: Reviews, recommendations from friends, and blog posts about books you intend to read.
- Things to Try: Lessons to learn; classes to take; experiments to try with craft, form, or process—wherever YES takes you.
My favorite chapter hands-down is “Putting Vision Into Action”. Simple productive ways to get the writing gears in motion.
“Vision without action is a daydream.
Action without vision is a nightmare.” -Japanese proverb
Post a (hopefully) helpful blog ✓
by Cathy Baker | Faith |
Windows down
Beach-like breezes
Pasture-lined roads
Volume up
Folk-pop Fleet Foxes
Thanks to something Aaron Keyes shared awhile back, I not only sensed God’s presence in that moment, I invited it.
You see, somewhere along the journey, I’d decided to “uninvite” God when choosing to listen to anything but Christian music. But why? If the lyrics aren’t offensive to Him, can He not enjoy those moments with His daughter? He absolutely can and does.
That realization came when Aaron shared how he and the Lord sang while making their way down I-85 to a gig. When he mentioned the song (which I honestly don’t remember, but it was secular) I was taken back at first — and then he expounded on the relationship between the Father and His children.
My view had become skewed — but the Lord pulled back the curtain, allowing me to see Him afresh, and I’ve not looked in the rear-view mirror since.
(Aaron will be leading worship at the Heritage Park Amphitheater this Sunday, May 29th, 10:30 a.m. and will be in concert there at 1:00 p.m. If you’re in the area, you don’t want to miss it!)
by Cathy Baker | Faith |
Do you want on the pink blankie?
With that one question, Rupert, our Lhasa wastes no time in finding his way onto the vintage velvety soft blanket that he’s known since a pup. There, he finds his soft place to land — the place where he can exhale fully, rest free from fear, and feel that all is right with the world.
I hear Rupert taking deep slumberful breaths. We all need soft places like that to land, don’t we? For me, some of those places include, but are not limited to:
- My heavenly Father’s lap. Isn’t that where children often feel most comfortable? This daughter is no different.
- Anywhere with Brian. Even in difficult circumstances there’s no one I feel more at rest with than my husband.
- With family. Time with them is pure joy.
- With friends. “Perfection” is not only frowned upon, it’s dismissed altogether.
- Okay, just about any place with my favorite coffee mug in hand.
Upon what soft places do you fall?
“You get us ready for life: you probe for our soft spots, you knock off our rough edges. And I’m feeling so fit, so safe: made right, kept right.” Psalm 7:9 The Message
by Cathy Baker | Faith |
Where would you expect to hear these conversations within one hour’s time?
- a son leaving for Marines
- a book deal due by Friday
- sheep being sheared
- an engineer teaching the Word to autistic children in a horse stable
- how to refresh a cottage with a hint of “lime”
- fiction ideas based on hot flashes
- questions on creating a blog
- the hike up to Mt. Laurel
- and finally, the “excuses” some make to go to the library (you know who you are)
If you guessed this morning’s Upstate Fellowship of Christian Writer’s breakfast, you’re right!
Some came to breakfast having only slept a few hours the night before, one woman joined us immediately following lab work, and another had just rowed, burning a gazillion calories (so glad she sat next to me – she deserved to have her creamy grits drooled upon!). A few had deadlines to meet, and at least one woman’s alarm clock had rebelled against her, but the award goes to Ms. Liz, who drove for over one hour to be with us. She had no other business in town but felt the trip was worth it because she longed for fellowship. Wow. We need each other!
Hope to see you all in June…
by Cathy Baker | Faith |
One doctor’s appointment + two hour wait = one entire book read via Kindle.
The nurse apologized several times for the wait, but I barely noticed while reading the classic Practicing the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence much like one excavating a mine for gold:
- “That in order to form a habit of conversing with God continually, and referring all we do to Him; we must at first apply to Him with some diligence: but that after a little care we should find his love inwardly excite us to it without any difficulty.”
- “There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God.”
- “When He finds a soul penetrated with a lively faith, He pours into it His graces and favours plentifully.”
- “That we ought to act with God in the greatest simplicity, speaking to Him frankly and plainly, and imploring His assistance in our affairs, just as they happen.”
One Kindle + two hour wait = truths gleaned, time redeemed.
