Shining a Light on Scared

by Jean Kavich Bloom

Along with other contributors, I write short, monthly essays for a Christian community blog for women called The Glorious Table. If you or the women in your life don’t know it, check it out.

While encouraging women in all walks and aspects of life, the blog's multiple writers often bare their own souls. I’ve done that, too, although I don’t think my soul is as consistently bared as some of the others’. It’s too easy for me to “preach it” without exposing the ways I should be preaching to myself. I’ve had to work on that over the years, to shine a light on both that tendency and what I might be hiding. I'm still working on it.

You see, I’m a scared writer. Not in my basic ability to get the words down and make sense of them, but in what I’m willing to share. This may be in part born out of growing up a pastor’s kid (an excuse I love to make!), but before I know it, I’m thinking, What will people think if I confess that? What will people think when my opinion/conviction is less than traditional/conventional? What will people think of me?

I’ve also thought about any tendency to be a scared writer when it comes to writing fiction. Sure, we can make our characters as nontraditional and unconventional as we like, but how far are we willing to go to make them as vulnerable as real people? Like we are as real people? Even baring their souls?

I’m not talking how some writers would gladly portray everything as R-rated as possible; I think even beginning writers have the skill to avoid that. And I know protagonists are best loved when they’re likeable, at least eventually. But I don’t want to be afraid to infuse characters with real, reflecting a lot of me that might elicit a raised brow or two.

As primarily an editor, I’d also like to encourage authors with whom I work to not be afraid of real. The beauty of Christian fiction, or fiction not so labeled but that still accurately portrays the Christian walk, is that it can also portray the eye-opening, heart-opening redemption and transformation only God can provide.

Maybe a scared writer can be a good writer who's just decided to write what’s real anyway, unafraid to shine a light. 



Jean Kavich Bloom is a freelance editor and writer for Christian publishers and ministries (Bloom in Words Editorial Services), with more than thirty years of experience in the book publishing world. Her personal blog is Bloom in Words too, where she has posted articles about the writing life. She is also a regular contributor to The Glorious Table, a blog for women of all ages. Her published books are Bible Promises for God's Precious Princess and Bible Promises for God's Treasured Boy. She and her husband, Cal, live in central Indiana. They have three children (plus two who married in) and five grandchildren.


Photo credit: https://publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=216102&picture=desk-lamp

Goblins Spamming Your Blog Posts?

by Rick Barry

For months I experienced a daily nuisance. Maybe you have, too--spam comments on blog posts. And not the more recent posts. The goblins' comments always targeted my first couple of  posts of 2014.  But how to block them?

The spam messages might have been less irksome if they at least stated something connected to my post. Instead, I received pointless comments stating, for instance:

When most gamers found out about the i – OS App Store (along with the various other stores for mobile devices), many of them thought the games on the store would never amount to anything substantial.

Other comments arrived in horrendous English:

"Hi mates, how is everything, and what you wish for to say concerning this article, in my view its actually remarkable designed for me. Here is my blog post...."


Yes, I had taken security precautions, and Blogger never actually allowed these junk messages to appear. Yet, it sent me daily email copies of each new message, giving me the option of manually moderating and permitting the message, if I so chose.

Friends offered suggestions. One said her solution is passive resignation, which wasn't good enough for me. Another author explained that she chose to moderate ALL comments, which an additional chore for her, and which slowed the posting of comments by readers.

But my kudos go to author Sarah Sundin for sharing a simple solution. Sarah said, "Blogger actually makes it easy. If they're targeting one particular post, edit that post and click on the box to not allow comments." I had forgotten that Blogger offers that option right on the page where you compose blog posts. Here's what it looks like:

Options

Reader comments

Allow

Don't allow, show existing

Don't allow, hide existing

I clicked the option to keep the previous comments but to block all further comments on my two targeted victims. Sure enough, no more spam.

If you have a blog and have been receiving spam, maybe this option will work for you, too. If the goblins have not noticed your blog yet, beware! You could need these solutions sooner than you think.

Perhaps you have additional insights on blog spam? If so, please share below. I promise not to block you!

Rick Barry has freelanced hundreds of articles and short stories, had two novels published, and has more projects in the pipeline.

Participate in Blog Link-Ups to Grow Your Audience

So, you’ve spent what feels like too much time brainstorming, writing, and editing your blog post. You’ve clicked Publish and then sat back with your choice of caffeinated beverage to watch the page views add up. Right?

Congrats if that’s your blog!

As for mine, in the early days I might have had twenty page views on a single post. And that was a high. No amount of caffeinated beverage could make me enthusiastic over that.

Enter blog link-ups, a chance to share my blog post on someone else’s blog.

What is a link-up? Any blogger can use a link tool to allow others bloggers to link-up their own individual blog post permalinks, often with a photo. Many link-ups are offered weekly or monthly, allowing you, as a blogger, to link-up your week’s blog posts.

Where to link up?

Making a Living Writing hosts a link-up for writers on the first Friday of every month. So far as I can tell, it’s not a *Christian* blog, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t see an increase in traffic from it. I’m planning on linking up this blog post there in July.

Lisa Jo Baker hosts Five Minute Friday every…wait for it…Friday. She describes it as a flash mob of writers all writing about the same one word. At midnight on Thursday, she posts that one word for that Friday’s writing. Then, you write for five minutes about that word, without editing, and post it on your blog. Once yours is posted, you link it up on her blog.

If you keep a journal, you might want to participate in Random Journal Day at Beneath the Surface on the first Friday of every month. I haven’t participated in this, but you open an old journal of yours to anywhere and then post a bit of it and write about it. Be sure to include a picture of the journal. See the site for further guidelines.

Reading List hosts Cozy Book Hop to link up your posts about books you’ve been reading. This is where I link up my book reviews.

My blog genre is primarily homeschooling mom. There are many link-ups available for that type of blog post. I’ve listed only a few. Just be sure to check the host blogger’s guidelines or requirements.

The Better Mom

Time-Warp Wife “Titus 2sdays”

Growing Home “Teach Me Tuesdays”

Women Living Well 

One more idea for you! If you homeschool and want to post a weekly wrap-up, you could start with iHomeschool Network and the Homeschool Journal link-up. As always, be sure to read the guidelines.

Happy blogging!


Q4U: Do you participate in blog link-ups? Which ones would you add?

Meghan Carver is a 2013 ACFW Genesis semi-finalist and the author of several articles and short stories. After achieving a Juris Doctorate from Indiana University and Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Millikin University and completing a brief stint in immigration law, Meghan heard God calling her to be at home. Now homeschooling her six children with her college professor husband, Meghan has returned to her first love of writing. She blogs about homeschooling and homemaking at www.MeghanCarver.blogspot.com.

The Name Game

When our group of writerly sisters met, Natalie, who writes speculative fiction, had a problem. She couldn't settle on a name for her main character.

"I'm stuck," she said. "I can't write on until I have a name." She needed one suitable to both her genre and her character. The girl no longer worked. The character was gelling in her mind, but the name eluded her. So we sat around my dining room table brainstorming names--alas, to no avail.

A couple days after our gathering, Natalie sent out a Facebook message to us that she had found the perfect name. We all celebrated her victory.

Character names are extremely important. Try to imagine The Adventures of Clarence Finn, Harriet Eyre, The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Joe B. Smythe, or Robert the Pooh. What if Old Yeller had been named Golden Boy or Because of Winn-Dixie were Because of Walmart? Would a rose by any other name truly smell as sweet? I'm with Anne Shirley on that one. If roses were called skunk cabbages, they couldn't be as fragrant. (And would you want to read Bertha of Green Gables?)

As with most words, a name carries with it connotation and denotation, the latter being its actual meaning (which the writer can discover by visiting baby-naming sites). The connotation is the baggage the name carried with it, for the writer, but also for the reader. The two may be quite different, depending on personal experience with the name. For example, I won't name a positive character Jackie because a boy by that name tormented me throughout my public school years. Bonnie is out for me, too. You likely have a list of off-limit names.

Soon after Natalie's conundrum, I had my own naming quandary while writing my third middle-grade novel, this one for the lower end of that readers' range. It's set in east-central Indiana in the 1930s. My mc is a ten-year-old feisty girl who dares to confront her step-father about his parental skills--or lack thereof. I was torn between Leora and Tillie (short for Matilda June). I put out a plea to my critique group, the writers' group, and on my Quirky Quill blog and Facebook. Tillie won by a landslide. (Her older brother calls her "June Bug.")

Recently, I saw a cartoon on Pinterest in which two characters were talking. One remarked to the other that he felt disoriented because the writer kept changing the character's name.Have you ever agonized over a name? How did you resolve the dilemma? What factors went into your final choice? How many times did you change the name before you found the one? Feel free to leave a comment.

Write on!
Because of Christ,
Sharon Kirk Clifton

Postscript: If you know of young writers in your sphere of influence, consider pointing them to Quirky Quill, a blog written for and by MG/'tween readers. Thanks!