'One Day in Melbourne—Evangelicals Online' was a one-day gathering for editors, writers, designers, social media mavens, authors, bloggers, self-publishers—anyone in Christian media whose aim is to maximise the Gospel was held last Saturday.
The morning session: Social Media (Sophia Sinclair) and Peter Brookshaw (Marketing), after lunch Platforms (Bob Thomas) and Design (David Goodwin). The final two were Editing and Blogging.
Sheelagh Wegman—Editing
Professional freelance editor and Tasmanian Anglican
Sheelagh Wegman initiated this session with, "An editor is like a window cleaner" and displayed a photo of a dirty windscreen with a section cleaned.
The purpose of writing is communication, to improve communication by removing distractions and simple editing is at the very least, spelling and grammar check in Australian English.
Copy-editing includes proof-reading plus consistency of style - spelling of people's names and places, dates and facts and Australian English. Structural editing is the big picture, moving chapters, paragraphs - like pruning a tree, looking at the entire shape, not just a leaf. Fact checking is proofreading, the final stage before publishing.
Sheelagh asked - Why bother with editors? First these questions: Why are you writing? Do you have something to say? - Does it have to be written? Is a phone call better? Who is the audience? - adapting your language. Are you writing with a message? What is the message? How is it being conveyed? It must be professional, presenting / communicating at the utmost of our ability to honour God in this very secular time.
Are you writing just to express yourself? Does it need to be published? Important - clear, concise, on message and consistent. Setting word limits,pruning and trimming and finding the best gems for the article. Clear up the message. Write it down, then go away for awhile. Come back a couple of hours later and do a re-read. Print it out - eyes read differently on screens. You retain more when you read on paper as opposed to screen.
Sheelagh Wegman continued with more practical tips. Read it aloud. If it reads nicely aloud it will read well in a person's head. We tend to skim read on a screen - paper has less skimming. Moreover all writing can be improved with editing. Do it yourself or get a friend to read it for you. Poor writing is very frustrating to read. Grammar, spelling, paragraph size and font all impact readability. An editor is basically making the text comfortable and using minimal screen space.
Nothing escapes Sheelagh's target group - Publications in need of editing: Magazines, newsletters, Pew bulletins, Missionaries' reports - especially for safety reasons. Websites, Books. The editor can massage the text, but they must make sure the writer's voice remains.
Editors look at photos – if they have funny (odd) backgrounds, do they need photo-shopping? Style sheets: agreeing on layout/format how dates and numbers are formatted supplying consistency and so your audience always knows what to expect.
Editors deal with contributor 'nothing articles' – and stories with no 'story' – there is a need to dig deeper, and push your writer to stretch themselves.
Sheelagh Wegman's session was very much appreciated and my wife Delma of 39 years said how much she enjoyed it. Sheelagh's hand out sheets targeted these areas.
Captain Peter Brookshaw—Blogging
'Salvation Army' Blogger
Peter Bookshaw gave personal examples as a Salvation Army blogger with some astonishing results including international media interviews. One he cited centred on 10 reasons people no longer attend church. Peter cited these tips:
- Good content not good looks
- Theme/niche and stick to it - one with less noise, in a space where other people aren't talking about it
- People don't care about what you eat for dinner- it's not about personal diaries, it's about ideas that have value to them- people who are knowledgeable-leading back to your chosen niche
- Catchy titles - there is a tension between the desire to get people to click on your articles and the need to have quality content.You will have blogs that will fall into obscurity, only Mum and Grandma have read it. But you might also have viral responses.
- Blog consistently
- Build a subscriber base
- People don't want to hear that you don't think you're good enough to write about what you're writing. If you have something to say then say it confidently. Not this false modesty, or be afraid of it.
- You're the best - good grammar
- Have a blog with a clean format
- Peter cited Jim Collins book- 'Good to Great'
Peter drew on the white board a Ven diagram asking - What are you deeply passionate about? What can you best in the world at? What drives your resource engine? How are you going to fund the above?
He concluded with Daniel chapter 6 verse 3 how Daniel distinguished himself. Creative people stand out and regularly distinguish themselves. He challenged those gathered whether we are people who encourages people to do innovative and creative things? "Are we", he passioned, "want to be the next generation of people that God is using to do innovative and creative things?" Peter Brookshaw prayed to conclude.
One Day in Sydney – Evangelicals Online
MC for One Day in Melbourne was Reverend Bob Thomas who introduced each speaker with a detailed professional account. To conclude the day Dr Mark Tronson detailed 'One Day in Sydney' will be held on Saturday 13 August combining with the Press Service International Young Writers conference.
The response was overwhelming to hold this One Day in Melbourne again next year and there are discussions under way for a One Day in .... (elsewhere) aimed at mission agencies and Christian bloggers / writers.
For further enquiries contact Dr Mark Tronson timeout@bushorchestra.com or info@markt.id.au 0419 917 713
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html