How Would You Do at the National Spelling Bee?

**TAKE THE SPELLING BEE CHALLENGE, POST A COMMENT ABOUT IT, AND HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN A PRIZE!**

I remember spelling bees during my elementary school days.
My classmates and I would line up along the walls of our classroom. Our teacher would read off the words and we would take turns spelling them. I usually did pretty well. Sometimes I even won.
But that was long, long ago.
As an author and magazine editor, I pride myself on my spelling ability. But I would not want to go up against any of those kids who particpate in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
On the Web site, there's a link to a spelling challenge to see if you can spell with the best. I decided to give it a go. Let's just say I was informed I wouldn't qualify for the quarterfinals--and that was with my husband's help.

I double-dog dare you to take the challenge. Here's a hint: Don't forget to use capital letters!

Let me know how you do. How about this? Anyone who takes the challenge and posts back here during the week to tell me how you did, I'll put your name in a drawing for a $10 Starbucks gift card!

Want to brush up on your spelling? Check out the Study Zone over at the Scripps National Spelling Bee's Web site. Among other things, you'll find the Consolidated Word List, a compilation of over 100 Scripps National Spelling Bee word lists dating as far back as 1950. It's 794 pages!

Writing to Encourage Others: Devotions that Inspire

Tonight at Springs Writers, Jeanne Harmon is teaching a writing workshop "Writing to Encourage Others: Devotions That Inspire." She is an author, editor, and speaker, with over fifteen year’s experience in Christian publishing. As Senior Editor of Children’s Books, she co-authored the book, Become a Children’s Book Author, and has written over twenty children’s books, as well as numerous devotionals, book reviews, articles, and Sunday school curriculum.

The speaker usually provides a content rich handout. I also prepare a handout for the attendees. If they want to pursue the topic further, they have the resources to do so. Below you will find information included the Springs Writers Resource Handout.

Online Articles Tips for Writing Devotionals

To read each article, click on the title.

Help! I Want To Write Devotions
Help! I Want To Be A Christian Devotion Writer
D-E-V-O-T-E-D: Seven Steps For Writing Devotionals That Sell
Inspirational Writing: 4 FREE Lessons
Writing the Word on the Web
You Can Write Powerful Devotionals!
Writing Success 101:Devotional Writer
How Religious Does It Have to Be?
Aspire to Inspire
Ten Steps to Writing Devotionals
8 Simple Steps to Writing a Devotional - Part I
8 Spiritual Principles in Writing a Devotional Part II

Online Writing Guidelines for Devotional Articles or Books

Below you will find a few links to publishers who either publish devotionals or devotional books.

http://www.spiritledwriter.com/guidelines.html
http://www.upperroom.org/devotional/how_to_write.asp
http://www.upperroom.org/alivenow/writers_guidelines.asp
http://www.revwriter.com/congregational/writerguidelines.shtml
http://www.restministries.org/admin-writersguide.htm
http://www.marylandwomenofworship.com/WritersGuidelines.htm
http://www.augsburgfortress.org/company/submit.jsp
http://www.crosshome.com/devotionalguidelines.shtml
http://www.judsonpress.com/catalog_sp_guidelines.cfm
http://www.comfortcafe.net/?page_id=84
http://www.warnerpress.com/custom.aspx?id=3
http://www.womenofspirit.com/index.php?mnu=11
http://www.mustardseedministries.org/index/devotion_signup
http://www.chickensoup.com/cs.asp?cid=guidelines
http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com/Devotional_Door/
http://www.christianitytoday.com/men/features/guidelines.html
http://www.forwardmovement.org/writers_guidelines.cfm
http://www.upperroom.org/devozine/2007/janfeb/writers_guidelines.asp
http://www.livingfaith.com/faq.php#8
http://www.forthright.net/writers_guidelines/writers_guidelines.html
http://www.gloriaclover.com/guidelines.html
http://www.intouch.org/site/c.dhKHIXPKIuE/b.2315275/k.5704/Job_Opportunity__Writer_Guidelines.htm
http://www.upci.org/wap/assets/writers_guidelines.pdf
http://www.justformom.com/articles-guidelines.php
http://www.hannibalbooks.com/documents/writerguidelines.pdf
http://heartofthematteronline.com/2005/12/submission-guidelines.html
http://www.pathwaypress.org/evangel-guidelines.htm
http://www.messagemagazine.org/article.php?id=5
http://mission.liguori.org/guidelines/main.htm
http://www.dhp.org/author_guidelines.aspx
http://www.writehisanswer.com/writing_opportunities.htm
http://www.wels.net/cgi-bin/site.pl?2617&collectionID=1476&contentID=63261&shortcutID=23482
http://netministries.org/webdev.html
http://www.cupofcomfort.com/share.htm

Tools You Can Use: One Stop Online Dictionary

Find, Define and Translate Words
OneLook Dictionary is a OneLook® search engine, indexing over 1000 online dictionaries, including more than 12 million words.

Save Time
You can find, define, and translate words at one web site. You can browse different types of dictionaries: General, Art, Business, Computing, Medicine, Miscellaneous, Religion, Science, Slang, Sports, and Technology.

Reverse Dictionary
OneLook's reverse dictionary lets you describe a concept and get back a list of words and phrases related to that concept.

Another Cure for Writer's Block

My deadline was Friday.
It was Wednesday.
And my article was dead in the water.
I had nothing. Not a beginning. Or a middle. Or an end.
In my defense, I hadn't ignored my deadline. I'd tried writing something. Anything. The tried and true writer's rule: Just throw up on the page, produced nothing but dry heaves.
What's a writer to do?
In my case, I took my blank Word document to my writers group.
Want a sure-fire cure for Writer's Block?
Brainstorm.
Tiffany, Scoti and I gathered around Scoti's table. The first thing I did was read them the editor's notes about what she wanted for the article. That way we all knew what I was supposed to be aiming for.
Then I handed them a page with some extremely sketchy ideas: a quote, a sentence, a phrase. Maybe something would prove to be worth nurturing into an article.
Scoti manned the laptop, ready to take notes.
Tiffany asked questions. (She's very good at it.)
I talked. I told them the lead sentences I'd thought of and discarded. I told them stories. I told them what I thought the article was about--and what it wasn't about.
Scoti typed.
Tiffany questioned.
I talked some more.
They told me what they liked. What they thought might work. What they thought was a rabbit trail or was done to death.
By the time I got home from the group, Scoti's notes were in my inbox. I printed them out and used them as a guide to start pulling together an article. I sent Scoti and Tiffany two drafts to critique on Wednesday. Another two drafts on Thursday. On Friday, I submitted my article on time.
And the editor loved it.
Once again, I thank God for my writers group.

Tools You Can Use: Unconfuse Confusing Words

Do you pause for a second before typing a certain word? Writers often misuse or abuse words that are pronounced alike (homonyms) or sound similar, but have different meanings.

What Words Confuse You?
Lay and lie?
Affect or effect?
Insure vs. ensure
Accept or except

Confusing Words contains a collection of over 3000 troublesome words. To double-check the word in question, type in that word. You’ll see words grouped according to the way they are most often confused or misused.

Any Fantasy Writers Out There?

While I admit to wandering from my nonfiction roots and trying my hand at fiction--Wait! One of my characters is talking! I need to get this line of dialogue down before I continue this post.
Sorry about that.
Anyways, while I'm having some fun with fiction this summer, I'm sticking with this world, rather than delving into fantasy. But I came across The Fantasy Novelist's Exam, with thanks to Josh over at Through a glass, darkly.
The exam was compiled by David J. Parker and Samuel Stoddard. Here's reasoning for the exam:


Ever since J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis created the worlds of Middle Earth and Narnia, it seems like every windbag off the street thinks he can write great, original fantasy, too. The problem is that most of this "great, original fantasy" is actually poor, derivative fantasy. Frankly, we're sick of it, so we've compiled a list of rip-off tip-offs in the form of an exam. We think anybody considering writing a fantasy novel should be required to take this exam first. Answering "yes" to any one question results in failure and means that the prospective novel should be abandoned at once.


Here's a glance at some of the questions, picked at random because they made me laugh. Go here for the entire exam--there are 75 questions in all.

• Does nothing happen in the first fifty pages?
• Is your story about a quest for a magical artifact that will save the world?
  How about one that will destroy it?
• Does "a forgetful wizard" describe any of the characters in your novel?
• Did you make the elves and the dwarves great friends, just to be different?
  Does everybody under four feet tall exist solely for comic relief?
  Do you think that the only two uses for ships are fishing and piracy?
• Did you draw a map for your novel which includes places named things like "The Blasted Lands" or "The Forest of Fear" or "The Desert of Desolation" or absolutely anything "of Doom"?

Tools You Can Use: Avoid Repeated Words Forever

What words do you overuse? Last night I discovered a wonderful website called Wordcounter. No, it doesn’t provide a word count. It counts the words you write most frequently.

Copy and paste your text into the Wordcounter box, then click go. To avoid repetitive words, bookmark this page and avoid redundancy forever.

Mark Repeated Words in Your Manuscript
To highlight each repeated word throughout your manuscript, on the Edit menu, click Find. In the Find and Replace box, enter the word or phrase. Then click on the Replace box. Select Highlight. Then Find All.

Here are repeated word results for this blog entry.

Word Frequency
word 8
repeat 3
box 3
find 3
avoid 3
click 3
count 2
replace 2
forever 2
highlight 2
website 1
entry 1
page 1
wordcounter 1
paste 1
copy 1
doesn’t 1
write 1
night 1
discover 1
enter 1
frequent 1
result 1
wonderful 1