PENS OF PRAISE CHRISTIAN WRITERS GROUP August 17, 2021 Tuesday 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Jitsi Meeting I’ll send the link to our Pens of Praise email list. All we have to do is click on the link in the Pens of Praise email. You will be asked your name. "Lessons from the Field" is this our topic for August! Award-winning author, Regina Scott, will facilitate the lesson. She will cover topics like getting ideas, publication paths, and marketing--a pretty wide swath, to be sure, and she will talk about things she has learned after more than 50 books. There you have it, this is a delightful, helpful, and experienced writer of clean fiction from both mainline Publishers and self-publishing. PROMPT: My Favorite Topic -- I double-triple dare you to write a piece that you could turn into a devotion, short story, or article! An inspired reader given excellent take-away = return readers! We are a safe place to share, and Pens Meetings are free. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact Becky McLafferty @ rebeccamclafferty@gmail.com or Susan Marlene@ susanmarlenewrites@gmail.com
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Scenes & Pacing &
Liar Liar Pants on Fire Structure of a Scene
Let’s use information from the book-- EMOTIONAL VAMPIRES by Albert J. Bernstein, PH. D. as motivation for a scene. On pages 75—80, Bernstein shares how liars think and operate to control others. A liar, if you have one in your story, can be quite useful to spice up a fictional scene. Talk about motivation for story—let’s have a liar mess up the protagonist’s world and then shift the blame on him/her and see what happens. We shared discussion from the EMOTIONAL VAMPIRES book and did an exercise of writing a scene as a group which ended up as a cozy murder mystery beginning. :) I also shared how I use information from these amazing author/teachers about plotting story. PLOTTING STRUCTURE: Adapted from: Michael Hauge’s “Six Stage Plot Structure”; K.M Weiland’s STRUCTURING YOUR NOVEL, Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story; and WRITE YOUR NOVEL FROM THE MIDDLE by James Scott Bell All in all we had a great time and learned from one another! I'm so grateful for our writers! *** And I don't want to neglect saying that Sue Fink opened our meeting with prayer, Sarah shared a wonderful devotion that we all encouraged her to publish, and Rebecca McLafferty shared a very special grammar tidbit straight from her family tree--her grandmother! Well done Penzers! See you next month when award winning author, Regina Scott will teach our lesson! *** WELCOME TO PENS OF PRAISE CHRISTIAN WRITERS GROUP
Tuesday, July 20, 2021 JITSI MEETING Prayer Introductions for new guests. Devotion-- Sarah Grosskopf GRAMMAR TIDBIT--Rebecca McLafferty LET THE TEACHING BEGIN “Scenes & Pacing & Liar Liar Pants on Fire is our July topic facilitated by Susan Marlene. All are encouraged to share their knowledge and experience for this class! Plenty of discussion will arise as well as laughs as we build a scene together during class! May we be blessed and a blessing in all our endeavors this year! PROMPT: The Lie That Backfired -- No matter how old you are, no matter if you caused a situation or didn’t, write a piece that you could turn into a devotion, short story, or article! Steve Laube & Christian Institute https://stevelaube.com/resources/reference-tools/ shares a lot of excellent and informative website for writers of fiction and nonfiction. ANNOUNCEMENTS: Remember to pray for one another as we write for HIM! Thank you! TheFamily.net WEMI FM
www.grammarly.com free download https://www.loc.gov/about/ Library of Congress website REMEMBER: Inspired reader from excellent take-away from you writing = return reader! God’s abundant blessings on you as you write for His glory! Liar Liar Pants on Fire PENS OF PRAISE
CHRISTIAN WRITERS GROUP July 20, 2021 Tuesday 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Jitsi Meeting I’ll send the link to our Pens of Praise email list. All we have to do is click on the link in the Pens of Praise email. You will be asked your name. Scenes & Pacing & Liar Liar Pants on Fire is this our topic for July! Susan Marlene will facilitate the lesson and all are encouraged to share their knowledge and experience for this class! I look forward to seeing you there! We are building on the previous month’s topic. 😊 We are going to shake things up so hold on! PROMPT: The Lie That Backfired -- No matter how old you are, no matter if you caused a situation or didn’t, write a piece that you could turn into a devotion, short story, or article! An inspired reader given excellent take-away = return readers! We are a safe place to share and Pens Meetings are free. As always, if you have any questions or concerns don’t hesitate to contact Becky McLafferty @ rebeccamclafferty@gmail.com or Susan Marlene@ susanmarlenewrites@gmail.com  PENS OF PRAISE CHRISTIAN WRITERS GROUP
June 15, 2021 Tuesday 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Jitsi Meeting I’ll send the link to our Pens of Praise email list. All we have to do is click on the link in the Pens of Praise email. You will be asked your name. Scenes & Pacing/Pacing & Scenes is this our topic for June! Susan Marlene will facilitate the lesson and all are encouraged to share their knowledge and experience for this class! I look forward to seeing you there! We are revisiting an older prompt! PROMPT: Discouragement Turned Blessing No matter what age you were, no matter if you caused the situation or didn’t, write a piece that you could turn into a devotion, short story, or article! Focus on how you were encouraged in your discouragement! An inspired reader given excellent take-away = return readers! We are a safe place to share and Pens Meetings are free. As always, if you have any questions or concerns don’t hesitate to contact Becky McLafferty @ rebeccamclafferty@gmail.com or Susan Marlene@ susanmarlenewrites@gmail.com 
Tuesday, MAY 18, 2021 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. Jitsi Meeting: I’ll send the link to our Pens of Praise email list. All we have to do is click on the link in the Pens of Praise email. You will be asked your name. Meeting Held at Your Home - USA Your couch or chair. Your choice of refreshments from your fridge—no running to Kathy’s house for treats! 😊 “CHARACTERS – WHAT’S YOUR FLAVOR?” is the topic this month. Rebecca McLafferty and Susan Marlene will facilitate discussion and share interesting facts about characterization. What characters have inspired you to accomplish or become stronger and which ones remained memorable—most importantly why! PROMPT: A favorite character of mine is ___________________________________ (Words you can use if you want them: intelligent, larger than life, crafty, surprising, courageous, wise, brave, totally evil, etc.) susanmarlenewrites@gmail.com Inspired readers given excellent take-away = return readers! We are a safe place to share and Pens Meetings are free. As always, if you have any questions or concerns don’t hesitate to contact Becky McLafferty @ rebeccamclafferty@gmail.com or Susan Marlene@ susanmarlenewrites@gmail.com Roller Coaster Questions—Small to Large
By Susan Marlene A well-placed question is a powerful thing. It puts motion into our motivation, a rudder that directs our goals—and sweeps our readers into emotional page turning—well past their bed times. Questions add interest, stir creativity, and slip our minds into problem solving thinking sessions. How important have questions been to you during your writing experience? Let’s consider several levels of the writing process, from planning what to write and how one makes their reader’s journey as interesting as possible. No matter the goal—to teach or entertain or a mixture of both, I believe that we will view questions with different lenses from here on in. Let’s be intentional with our questions—let’s go! Questions for planning what to write and where to post or sell them:
 PENS OF PRAISE
CHRISTIAN WRITERS GROUP April 20, 2021— Jitsi Meeting Tuesday 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. “Roller Coaster Questions—Small to Large” Susan Marlene will present techniques for using questions while encouraging everyone’s participation. I invite you to sharpen your writing skills along with us by using intentional and loaded questions from the smallest to the most powerful. (For planning and writing your work in progress.) PROMPT: What you hiding there? Write this like a gangster to his victim! Use your personal interests and research skills in this writing offering for a page of poetry, devotion, short story, or magazine article to share at our Pens JITSI MEETING! Jitsi Meeting: I’ll send the link to our Pens of Praise email list. Thank you, Susan Fink, for sharing this alternative to Zoom. All we have to do is click on the link in the Pens of Praise email. You will be asked your name. (I’ll put Susan Marlene for my name request, but you can put your first name. We have two Sues in our group. 😊) For others interested in attending our meeting, please email Susan Marlene at susanmarlenewrites@gmail.com a day before the meeting in order to be included in this Jitsi meet. Reader inspired by excellent take-away = return reader! We are a safe place to share, and Pens Meetings are free. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact Becky McLafferty @ rebeccamclafferty@gmail.com or Susan Marlene@ susanmarlenewrites@gmail.com  “Research Genre?”
Susan Marlene co-teaching with Rebecca McLafferty Research reaches into every aspect of our writing projects. Business – Where and when to sell. Connecting with editors, agents, and publishers. How to find and engage your readers. The best methods to do taxes, keep records—all sorts, and list sales and on and on that goes! Novel or nonfiction writing projects (WIP) has me searching for contemporary and historical information. HEARTS FOREVER FAITHFUL series that has required me to study:
 WELCOME TO PENS OF PRAISE CHRISTIAN WRITERS GROUP
Tuesday, March 16, 2021 JITSI MEET Prayer Introductions for new guests. Devotion--Susan Fink GRAMMAR TIDBIT--Rebecca McLafferty LET THE TEACHING BEGIN “Research Genre?”--our March topic is facilitated by Rebecca McLafferty and Susan Marlene. We will investigate some interesting research techniques—similar to the skill of a detective—to provide accurate and sometimes not well-known points of interest these authors use to spice up their stories. Discussion from those attending is encouraged and invited. I’m sure we will enjoy plenty of laughs as we share our secrets and trigger each other’s imagination for finding information that changes story or nonfiction on the page before your eyes. May we be blessed and a blessing in all our endeavors this year! PROMPT: The First Spring Flower. (Use your personal interests and research skills in writing offering.) We encourage you to write a page of poetry, devotion, short story, or magazine article to share at our Pens JITSI MEETING! Steve Laube & Christian Institute https://stevelaube.com/resources/reference-tools/ shares a lot of excellent and informative website for writers of fiction and nonfiction. ANNOUNCEMENTS: TheFamily.net WEMI FM
Christian Devotions is looking for devotions. This is not a paid site, but one to give to the Lord and share your message with others! www.christiandevotions.us Northwestern Christian Writers Conference, http://www.northwesternchristianwritersconference.com/ July 16 - 17, 2021 www.grammarly.com free download https://www.loc.gov/about/ Library of Congress website https://www.midsouthchristianwriters.com/?fbclid=IwAR3FVKEdFebyjuKcK752ansUgC3PtNlNSrf1tc8N9RwmkOSy-vTkv9IUjgQ The conference is virtual this year so you don’t even have to leave home! It is Saturday, March 20. Registration closes Thursday, March 18 at 9:00 p.m. REMEMBER: Inspired reader from excellent take-away from you writing = return reader! God’s abundant blessings on you as you write for His glory! |
Words are not just words. They are thoughts and inspiration that have been behind every relationship and every deed--good or bad throughout time. If you have that burning desire to communicate and explore, come peruse my pages, teachings, and short stories. Allow inspiration to anchor your dreams on the written pages of memoirs, devotions, poems, or stories, both short or long! Luxuriate in the creativity you were born to share! Sarah Grosskopf is a beta reader, writer, and copywriter extraordinaire! I highly recommend Sarah and have known her for years. She has taught and encouraged Pens of Praise members with her humor, instinct, and highly praised skill sets. So you may consider this an invitation to discover details about Sarah Grosskopf. Here is a link to her website!
https://sarahgrosskopf.com/ Archives
May 2022
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