READING AND WRITING THE FINE PRINT

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                                           Greetings! Maureen Pratt here with my latest CAN blog post about the craft of writing. Today, I thought I'd steer clear of the "big picture" – that is, the major aspects of writing that we so often focus on in our work – plot and character arcs, basic personal attributes, action points. Instead, I thought I'd "sweat the small stuff" and talk about the importance of seeking, seeing and writing about the "fine print," those details that can truly make a huge difference between a piece that is okay from one that is, "Oh! Hey! [That really strikes home/makes this a…

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Interviewing With Powerful Questions

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Jan here, enjoying a beautiful day in the foothills of the Sierras. I’m getting ready to wander out to a coffee shop to meet a writing friend, but before I do I’d like to add another post to my sumer interviewing series. Today’s focus will be the development of strong interview questions. Two goals: First, in your interviews, you want to get to the good stuff that will bring your writing to life. Second, the interview won’t be boring for you or your interviewee. So where to start . . .

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Who You Are as Interviewer

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Hi! Jan here continuing the conversation about interviewing. And yes, let’s make this a conversation. Join in! In my last post, in sharing interview tips, I included the following two: – Treat each person you interview as a person, with compassion and dignity. – Be aware when some aspect of their story may be a struggle for them to tell. What about those?

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Who Are You?

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Jan here, writing to you on one of CAN’s devotional Fridays. I have a question for you: Who are you and what are you doing here? I ask that with a chuckle because it stirs a memory of when that very question was asked by my daughter, about three-years-old at the time, to an adult who was attending a dinner at our ministry. She asked the question entirely out of innocent curiosity. Not a bad question to consider. I met with a young man last week who is preparing to transition from the residential ministry where my husband and I live and work. One of…

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