The Next Step by Nola Passmore

It was a fabulous conference.  You heard some amazing speakers, had lots of worthwhile conversations, got more ideas for your current work in progress and came home with a head ready to explode from all the input. In Monday's blog, I gave some suggestions for keeping your conference momentum once you're back home.  However, lets get a little more personal and interactive.  What will be your next step?  What is one specific thing you want to put into practice?  It could be something you heard in one of the sessions or it could have been the still small whisper of God you heard in a prayer time.  Let me share something unexpected I felt God leading me to do.

I've always loved poetry and have had more than 60 published in various magazines, journals and anthologies.  However, my dream is to one day have a published collection of my own.  That's a hard sell in Australia, where poetry isn't exactly at the forefront.  You'd be hard pressed to even find a poetry book in some bookstores.

One idea I've been working on is to have a collection based on Biblical characters, but with each poem written in the first-person so that they could double as performance pieces.  I need to write a lot more on that theme before I'll have enough for a collection, so the idea's been on the back burner for a while.  That is, until I went to Cameron Semmens' workshop on 'Fire! Your! Imagination!' at the recent Christian Writers' Conference. He encouraged us to spend a few minutes answering the 'What If?' question and I was intending to answer it with regard to the novel I'm currently writing.  However, God had other ideas.  As soon as I picked up my pen, I felt Him say 'Why don't you include a spoken word CD with the poetry collection?'  Huh?  Where did that come from?  I wasn't even thinking about my poetry collection.

As I reflected on that idea, and discussed it with a couple of trusted others, more ideas started to take shape.  A professional recording of the poems would show their potential as performance pieces. Maybe I could use voice actors.  Perhaps sound effects and music could be added.  Maybe the recordings themselves could even be used within a church service or Christian event.  I started to see the whole poetry project as a package, not just a book of poems. I still have a lot to do to make that idea work, but it's given me a new direction to try.

How about you?  For those who were at the conference, what was the one thing you felt inspired to do when you got home?  For those who weren't there, what has God impressed on you regarding your writing?  By sharing ideas, it not only 'puts legs' to some of those dreams, but also let's others know how to encourage you and pray for you.  It also helps us to be accountable.  At next year's conference, feel free to ask me how the poetry collection's going.  In the meantime,I'd love to hear about your dreams and how you're going to put them into practice.

Nola Passmore is a freelance writer who has had more than 140 short pieces published, including devotionals, true stories, magazine articles, academic papers, poetry and short fiction.  She loves sharing what God has done in her life and encouraging others to do the same.  She and her husband Tim have their own freelance writing and editing business called The Write Flourish.  You can find her writing tips blog at their website: http://www.thewriteflourish.com.au