Stephanie Rische

Blogger and Writer: Capturing Stories of God's Grace

Announcing the Winner of the Journal!

journalThanks to everyone who participated in our conversation about writing here.

Congratulations to commenter #2 . . . Holly! You are the winner of the red journal!

{Holly, I’ll send you a separate message about getting the journal to you.}

Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.

Ray Bradbury

 

10 Ways to Tell You’re a Writer

writers; StephanieRische.comI’m heading to the Festival of Festival of Faith and Writing later this week, which is essentially a three-day binge on books and writing. I always come back feeling refreshed and reminded why I’m in love with words. In anticipation of the festival, here’s my list of signs that you’re a writer.

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  • A writer is someone who quilts words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, paragraphs into stories, and stories into something that will keep us warm at night.
  • A writer is someone who delights in finding precisely the right word at the right time . . . with the right word count.
  • A writer is someone who hears the siren call of laundry and Facebook and Netflix but somehow manages to keep rear in chair long enough to string some words together.
  • A writer is someone who wakes up in the middle of the night scrambling for a pen to capture those nocturnal wisps of stories.
  • A writer is someone who kills her darlings (but marks their graves in case they can be brought back to life one day).
  • A writer is someone who notices the little things other people miss. The gunmetal-gray of an April sky. The smell of new grass in spring. The old woman in the shadows with a story to tell.
  • A writer is someone who slows down time to help the rest of us pay attention.
  • A writer is someone who knows that words don’t appear magically out of thin air; they come out one idea, one keystroke, one drop of blood at a time.
  • A writer is someone who believes that words have the power to start a conversation, build a bridge, and remind us that we’re not alone.
  • A writer is someone who believes that words have the power to change the world, or maybe just one person. And that maybe that’s the same thing.writing journal made in Thailand; StephanieRische.com

In honor of writers everywhere, I’m giving away a writing journal today. It was made in Thailand by precious women who are trying to get on their feet again after being exploited and trafficked. You can find out more about Women at Risk’s ministry here, and you can find more products like this journal here.

To be eligible to win this journal, simply answer this question: What do you think makes someone a writer? How have words made an impact in your life?

10 Grammar Saves in 10 Years

I’m not quite sure how I blinked and 10 years passed, but last month I woke up and realized it had been a whole decade since I jumped into the world of editing and publishing. It has been a good decade, and in honor of the mile marker, I thought I’d share with you 10 of the errors I’ve stopped from going into print over the past 10 years.

{Note: I have omitted the authors and titles of these books to protect the relevant parties, but rest assured, these are all real quotes from real books.}

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  1. My daddy was a steal worker, and my granddaddy was a steal worker.
    [Sounds like a kind of shady business to me.]
  2. Gelatins 2:16 clearly states that human deeds can never save us.
    [Shockingly, the book of Gelatins made it through spell-check but not canonization.]
  3. I was blessed by marring a Christian lady and having three kids.
    [The blessing doesn’t quite sound mutual when you put it that way.]
  4. As a society, we’ve developed an erroneous belief system that is about as subtle as a rattle snack.
    [Hmm, must be a Southern delicacy, up there with fried okra.]
  5. Joshua 2: Rehab helps the Israelite spies
    [The earliest evidence of a successfully implemented 12-step program . . . ]
  6. But the Pharisees hardened their hearts toward Jesus’ wisdom. . . . They planned to deny pubicly that he was Messiah.
    [I have nothing further to say.]
  7. This relationship is called “the hookup,” referring to repeated one nightstands.
    [I’m getting a mental image of row after row of identical bedroom furniture. . . .]
  8. Does that mean God wants us to never plop down on the coach?
    [I’m not sure he addresses that particular issue, but it does sound rather uncomfortable for all parties.]
  9. “You don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blond and naked” (Revelation 3:17).
    [Apparently, God prefers brunettes.]
  10. From an endnote source: (Colorado Springs: Multnomah Boobs; 2009), 275.
    [With apologies to the lovely people who work at Multnomah.]

ten_grammar_saves “There are two typos of people in this world: those who can edit and those who can’t.” —Jarod Kintz

“Only Southerners have taken horsewhips and pistols to editors about the treatment or maltreatment of their manuscript. This—the actual pistols—was in the old days, of course, we no longer succumb to the impulse. But it is still there, within us.” —William Faulkner

Friday Favorites: June

This Friday I thought I’d share a few of my recent favorite things with you.

For anyone who loves to read…

This site is fantastic—kind of like Pandora for book lovers.

What Should I Read Next

For all angsty writers (wait, is that redundant?)…

If you’ve ever felt the pain and suffering of writing (or not writing), this is for you:

Having Trouble Writing? Try This Famous Author’s Technique

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For anyone who loves a second breakfast…

I kind of want to live in (or at least visit) these Hobbit houses.

Real Life Houses That Look like They Belong in the Shire

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For anyone who knows they’ll never live up to Pinterest…

Next time you’re having a rough day, all you need to do is look at these babies in pumpkins. That’s real life.

Reasons You Should Never Reenact Pinterest Photos

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For anyone who needs a little boost of brave…

“Sometimes it’s good to let them see you sweat even when it feels awkward. Fear seems to grow in the darkness of isolation.”

Why You Need to Tell Someone How Scared You Are

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Sweet Sundays, Part 2

sweet_sundays_artworkIn this post from January, I wrote about my journey toward embracing a day of rest. Here’s the latest on my Sabbath experiment.

Not long ago I was pulled over for speeding on a Sunday morning—on the way to church, no less. The irony was not lost on me. A day of rest, and I’m rushing to get there? I managed to explain my way out of the ticket, but not the breaking of the heart of the Sabbath.

One thing I’m noticing about the Sabbath is that rest, by its very nature, forces a slower pace. And while on the one hand that sounds appealing, it can also be terrifying when you’ve grown accustomed to the adrenaline-inducing rush that comes with our culture’s frenetic pace.

I’m finding that on Sundays I have to intentionally take my foot off the gas pedal. I have to resist the urge to go faster, even when I’m not going anywhere.

One baby step I’ve taken to slow down the Sunday pace is to reconsider my communication. E-mail, Facebook, and Twitter, by their very design, are fast paced. 140 characters. A jotted note. A quick Send button. I’m realizing, come Sunday, that I need to unplug. I’m not suggesting this as a blanket rule for everyone, but for me personally, media is no friend to rest. So I’ve taken to writing letters on Sundays instead. Old-fashioned, pen and paper letters. The kind with a stamp.

In the charming little book For the Love of Letters: The Joy of Slow Communication, the author talks about the awkwardness of getting back into a letter-writing habit after years of fast communication. He says: “The nib touches the paper. And instinctively I follow the old formula….My writing looks weird. I hand-write so infrequently these days that I’ve developed a graphic stammer—my brain’s way of registering its impatience and bemusement. What are you doing? Just send an email! I haven’t got all night!”

I’ve been surprised to discover that not only is the form slower in letter writing, but so is the content. I write about different things when I’m penning a letter than I do when I’m shooting off an e-mail or a Facebook message. I tend to write about bigger things, deeper things, more permanent things, not just the wispy matters of the right-now.

Catherine Field said in a New York Times article, “A good handwritten letter is a creative act, and not just because it is a visual and tactile pleasure. It is a deliberate act of exposure, a form of vulnerability, because handwriting opens a window on the soul in a way that cyber-communication can never do.”

And that feels in line with the Sabbath to me: slowing down to open a window to the soul.

 “When your tongue is silent, you can rest in the silence of the forest. When your imagination is silent, the forest speaks to you. It tells you of its unreality and of the Reality of God. But when your mind silent, then the forest suddenly becomes magnificently real and blazes transparently with the Reality of God.” —Thomas Merton

How about you? What does restful (and not restful) look like for you?

Have you taken any steps toward implementing a Sabbath lately?