Tag Archives: writing resources

Online Course: Writing Devotionals

Marcia Lee Laycock will be teaching an online course in writing devotionals, November 3 – 24, 2008.

Content: Writing in an anecdotal style, learn how to stimulate your readers to consider spiritual things. The course will cover Using Literary Devices, How to Show instead of Tell, Keeping your Focus, Using Metaphor

Cost: $90.00. Receipt of fee confirms enrollment. Enrollment is limited. To enroll and for payment information, please visit the InScribe site here.

Format: The course will run as a Yahoo group. Students should make themselves familiar with Yahoo Groups before the course begins. A short lesson and assignment will be given at the beginning of the week. Each student will send her/his devotional to Marcia for critique. Students are also free to comment on/critique one another’s work.

Credentials: Marcia is an award-winning, published writer. She has been writing a weekly devotional column for the past 18 years and has been published in both national and provincial newspapers and magazines. Marcia has taught writing at InScribe’s conferences as well as at God Uses Ink in Ontario and through Adult Learning of Alberta. She has been invited to read at The Gathering, a yearly event for poets in Edmonton, AB., as well as the Festival of Faith and Writing, Grand Rapids Michigan. Her devotional books, The Spur of the Moment and Focused Reflections have been endorsed by Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and Mark Buchanan. Her novel, One Smooth Stone, won her the Best New Canadian Christian Author Award in 2006 and was released in Sept. 2007.

I haven’t taken this course yet myself, since I focus more on fiction, but I’ve heard many good things from Marcia’s former students.

Creativity and Writing Workshops in Eastern Canada

I can’t believe I haven’t already posted this information!

If you live near Montreal or in Canada’s Maritime provinces, there are creativity and writing workshops coming your way (click on the workshop name to reach its website):

Release the Creative You is a 2 ½ hour evening workshop for teens and adults who want to explore their creativity, who have a dream they’re afraid might never come true, and who long to set their imagination free. The session will challenge, inspire, motivate and offer tools for attendees to find the courage to trust God and become the person He created them to be.  Tickets: $20 ($25 at the door) for adults, $10 ($15 at door) for high school/university students.

Friday, Oct. 17, Brossard, Quebec

Monday, Oct. 20, Sussex, New Brunswick

Tuesday, Oct. 21, Sackville, New Brunswick

Wednesday, Oct. 23, Charlottetown, PEI

Friday, Oct. 24, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

Write! Montreal and Write! Maritimes are all-day sessions (9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.) that will help attendees identify which of their stories would be the best to begin writing; teach them a variety of ways to use their ideas; and offer tools to help with marketing. Tickets: $85 ($99 at the door) for adults, $60 ($75 at door) for seniors and students.

Saturday, Oct. 18, Brossard, Quebec

Saturday, Oct. 25, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

Registration for all events is through TicketWindow.

Speaker NJ Lindquist is a Canadian author, and co-editor of the ground-breaking anthology of Canadian Christian writing, Hot Apple Cider. Here’s a brief intro from her website: “Her mysteries have been compared to the best of Agatha Christie. Her novels inspire teenage boys to read. Her wisdom and leadership have empowered thousands. Her journey from accidental conception in a tiny hamlet of the cold Canadian prairies to award-winning author and international speaker is truly inspirational.”

NJ blogs on life at What’s on My Mind? and on writing at Blue Collar Writer.

These workshops are sponsored by The Word Guild, in partnership with World Vision and That’s Life! Communications.