What is Truth?

In an Internet discussion room for poets and writers, someone recently asked, “What is poetic truth?” Since members come from various countries and backgrounds, the answers varied too, reminding me that what's true in your or my personal experiences might not speak for every reader. For example, my Christian writing life in rural FL does not offer the same day-to-day “reality” that people deal with, say, in New York City or Alaska or China.

Despite the potentially countless variations, the truth is, we all have the same basic need for water, food, shelter, and love.

We all bleed. We all have the same basic body parts – and so does the Body of Christ.

As I considered the question of truth, poetic or otherwise, what especially came to mind was Pontius Pilate's timeless question: "What is truth?" According to chapter 18 of the Gospel of John, Jesus told Pilate, “You rightly say I Am King, and for this cause I was born. For this cause I came into the world that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth will hear My voice.”

At that point Pilate asked his infamous question, “What is truth?” But then as soon as he had posed what he apparently considered to be an unanswerable or rhetorical question, he immediately went back to the religious leaders and said, “I find no fault in Him (Jesus.)"

Do we?

If we find fault with other Christians in our own church or other denominations, does that not also find fault with the Body of Christ?

And what about my personal preferences or individual needs? Does my reality as a toe or fingernail of Jesus show the same perspective as seen from someone else’s muscle-bound shoulders or perked ears or eyes that don’t need my glasses to correct myopia?

What is reality?

What is truth?

At some point, each of us will answer Pilate's question in a way that satisfies us. And – from that central truth we accept for ourselves – our lives, actions, choices, ways of processing information, ways of living, and ways of writing – will extend out as spokes (pun intended.) The words we speak and write and act upon will, like spokes in a wheel, connect us back to Jesus Christ as our center hub – the Central Truth in our lives.

~~
© 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler. God bless your sharing these words with people in your church or on your blog, and thank you for letting people know where you found them. For brief blog articles on a variety of Bible topics, see Blogs by Mary – and pass them on!
~~

And may the loving heart of the loving Christ – Who resides at the heart of our God and Father of Love – become the center point of all truths that extend out from us in our poems, prayers, writings, and every word spoken in Jesus’ Name.

~~

Brand, platform, and digital writing: an interview with Krissy Brady

Krissy Brady, a freelance writer and the owner of Krissy Media Ink, is working on her first novel, poetry collection, and screenplay but has already authored The Freelancer's Guide to Starting Right and Staying Strong and other titles available on her website and also Amazon. Dedicated to keeping the passion for writing alive, Krissy fluently speaks the digital language poets and writers need to keep their careers up to Internet speed, so I’ve been eager to interview her in hopes she’ll help those of us living In a Christian Writer’s Life to be informed about the Digital Age.

Mary Harwell Sayler: Krissy, Christian writers often begin their writing life with a sense of ministry or a calling to write about a particular topic. To get our writing ready for the digital age, however, we keep hearing about the need to “build a platform” or a “brand.” Can you briefly define those terms for us?

Krissy Brady: Absolutely! A platform is essentially the representation of your writing career as a whole – articles you write, books you publish, blog posts you write, classes you teach, etc. – all of which connect back to your platform.

It's a common misconception that your blog is your platform, when in fact your blog is one piece of a much bigger puzzle, though often your blog becomes the visual representation of your platform. That's why there's so much emphasis now on "defining your target audience" and "defining your niche," because your blog becomes the central location for all that you're doing to become an expert in your field. You want to use your blog to connect with your target audience, the people you're writing for who will eventually purchase your writing and products.

Defining these things gives you the opportunity to build a brand around your platform –the "look" of your platform and products – and build a successful writing career based on what you're most passionate about. Your platform, and the brand you design around your platform, all become pieces of your writing career as a whole.

Mary: What steps do you suggest to start this building process?

Krissy: The best place to start when deciding on what your platform is going to be is to ask yourself: What am I most passionate about? What do I want to be known for?

Create a manifesto that describes your ultimate goal for your writing career. Your manifesto will help you to determine what your niche is going to be and the target audience you're going to reach. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. It just needs to be a description of the core of why you have to write; why writing is so engrained in you, and what you want to do with it. We all have a need to write; it's the why that will set you apart.

Mary: Good point!

Krissy: It's important to remember, too, that your platform is about your audience, not about you. In what ways do you relate to your audience? What emotional void are you going to fill for them? Then create a profile of who your ideal audience member is. It really makes the difference!

Mary: Yes! And obviously you have chosen other writers for your audience, but in the present economy, how can any of us hope to earn an income for our work?

Krissy: Multiple income streams can include such things as selling freelance articles to publications, offering copywriting services, blogging for other blogs in your industry, and creating and selling eBooks, as well as creating and selling eCourses.

Many writers become overwhelmed by this, but if you leave yourself completely open during the learning process, you'll find that it will inspire you, and motivate you to write more than you ever have before. If it weren’t for my platform, I wouldn't be a full-time writer today.

Mary: Those of us who have been writing a while have built our publishing credits – sometimes extensively – only to discover that print books don’t stay in print very long. And most of us also want to make our books more accessible to readers, which makes e-books sound like a good option. Since you have already endured that learning process, would you tell us how to go about this? The fewer and simpler the steps, the better!

Krissy: The two best pieces of advice I can offer in terms of eBook publishing is to thoroughly educate yourself, and make sure you don't rush the process.

Here are steps I recommend:

1. Write down a list of eBooks you'd like to write for your target audience. That way, during the education process, you can take notes specific to your goals.

2. Educate yourself about the entire process. The education process is essentially set up in three sections: learn how to set up a Kindle eBook, how to effectively set up sale pages for each of your eBooks on Amazon, and how to market them through your platform.

3. Plan ahead of time how your eBook production line will go (each step you'll complete in what order), and you'll be well on your way to establishing yourself.

Mary: What else do you advise for those of us considering e-books?

Krissy: I would recommend creating a Word document that's essentially going to be your blank template, and type your eBook directly within the template. This is a huge timesaver as opposed to writing out your book and then trying to format it afterward.

Mary: Let me interrupt a sec to inject a hotlink to Microsoft on creating Word templates and to reassure those who think they have not done this before – you probably have! Basically, creating a template just means setting up your page format with the page size, margins, and font you want.

Besides that important suggestion, Krissy, what other time-savers do you suggest?

Krissy: I know what it's like to be a writer on a tight budget, but I highly recommend you have your eBook professionally edited, and a professional cover designed. A cover can literally make or break your sales. In order to be taken seriously as an indie author, you have to go about it seriously.

I would also recommend learning how to set up a blog tour, so that when your book is on the verge of launching, you can set up a blog tour with top bloggers in your niche. It's recommended you start planning the blog tour up to 2 months before your eBook launches in order to create a tour that will impact your sales in a positive way.

I find that the further ahead I begin to plan any writing or marketing, the better things turn out. It leaves room to take care of potential snags along the way and vastly improves your learning curve since you're not in a rush. Make sure every eBook you put out is the best it can be, and this can become a solid income stream for your writing career.

Mary: Thanks, Krissy, for all of your good help – and for reminding me to research the correct spelling for e-books. After searching the Internet, I discovered there isn’t one!

I noticed you use eBook, which is the current terminology among digital publishers and writers, whereas I use e-book, which is what usually appears in the print dictionaries I favor. If our readers do not like either of those choices, ebook provides another option, but even spell-check in Word won’t take our word for that.

~~

© 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler, all rights reserved.

~~

How to handle the heat

With heat waving a red flag across the country this 4th of July week, I thought you might welcome timely tips from an almost native Floridian who hopes to help you find your cool.

Dress for the heat. Wear loose-fitting cotton, gauze, linen, and other natural fabrics. Or, wear synthetic clothes designed to absorb moisture and let air flow.

Scan and then back up your important family documents and photos. Make backup copies of your manuscripts and other computer files too. Having backups is important any time, but if the heat brings storms, flooding, or fires, a flash drive or DVD enables you to keep all of your essential files with you.

Keep curtains closed during the day, and blinds drawn or tilted upward.

Instead of turning the air conditioner down to a super low temp, make it higher than normal, so your sunglasses don’t fog as you go out and your electric bill doesn’t punch through the roof. A few degrees might make a difference, too, in helping your community to avoid brownouts or blackouts as electrical usage soars.

When going out, apply UV protection or sunscreen to every exposed inch of bare skin, including the tops of your feet if wearing sandals and top of your head if lacking hat or hair.

Drink more water than usual, and have plenty of drinking water stored at home.

Always, always take drinking water with you in the car.

Never leave kids, pets, or people of any age closed up in a vehicle for even “just a sec.”

Keep cash in small bills on hand in case the electricity goes out, which means that stores cannot process your credit card.

Keep your car filled with gas in case electricity goes out, shutting down electrically-powered gas pumps. If things heat up too much, you might also welcome a drive to an air-conditioned church, mall, or movie theater.

To cool down without a/c, sponge icy water over pulse points in the forehead, temples, inner wrists, ankles, and back of the knees. (This helps to break a fever too.) If the water just doesn’t seem cold enough, don’t apply ice directly to the skin, but do add a cap of rubbing alcohol to the water.

If you’re outside long enough to feel drenched, you might need more salt than usual or an electrolyte-balancing drink. I also make my own energizer drink with one spoon of honey melted in a tad of warm water before adding one spoon of natural apple-cider vinegar then filling the glass with cool water, stirred and iced.

Plan light meals for hot weather – for instance, an all-veggie dinner or a fresh salad with all-natural, preservative-free dressing and cubes of canned tuna or slices of stir-fried chicken or salmon on top.

Buy bags of charcoal for outdoor grilling instead of heating up the kitchen.

Stock your kitchen with fresh, watery fruits or melons and foods that do not have to be refrigerated.

Vow not to sweat the small stuff nor stuff your mind with thoughts of anything hot.

Pray to keep your cool.

~~

© 2012, Mary Sayler

~~