In The Spotlight: July 2009
This week in the spotlight we have Karen Schenk’s article, “When Friends Fail”. Karen does an excellent job of treating a delicate, and unfortunately common experience with grace and compassion. She identifies with her readers without getting bogged down in maudlin details and offers both a spiritual perspective and hands-on next steps for her readers to take.
One of the things Karen does extremely well in this article is to include anecdotes that are not identifiable. An on going challenge for all personal experience writers is the task of writing your own story without telling someone else’s. We all know that if you’re going to name names in an article, you need permission. But sometimes we forget that a thinly veiled story is no better.
As Christian writers we have to be even more aware of this. Just as a “prayer request” that tells unnecessary details of someone else’s struggle is gossip, sacrificing another person’s character in the name of a good story example is not OK either. There’s a simple rule here – if you can’t tell your story without telling their story, then you have to put down your pen or choose anther topic.
Take a few minutes to read Karen’s article and you’ll see what I mean. She has succeeded in maintaining the emotion of the piece without dipping into sensationalism. By the end of the article she has equipped her reader to deal with the situation and there were no character casualties along the way.
Are there situations in your life that you are ready to write about? Many of the things we deal with are not unique, our struggles are common. If you are ready to tell your story without telling someone else’s be sure to look at the upcoming themes and focuses to see where you article can fit.
I look forward to reading your submissions!
Claire Colvin, Senior Editor
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