Tags
Book Review, Christian, Devotional, Kathy Widenhouse, Sticky Content, Writing, Writing Devotionals that Stick
Title: Writing Devotionals that Stick: A Step-by-Step Guide for Writing This Unique Genre for Today’s Busy Readers
Author: Kathy Widenhouse
Published: 10/29/2016
Pages: 143 (Kindle)
Blurb: Writing Devotionals That Stick is a writing guide that shows step-by-step how to write devotionals (a unique genre in the faith-based market) in a way that stays with today’s busy, distracted readers.
Leaders, entrepreneurs, students, moms, professionals, Christian writers (or those who want to be), and many others who want to share their experiences with God have learned to write sticky devotionals and meditations by using the principles found in this book. It’s a fun and easy-to-use guide packed with examples, writing tips, and “Try This” exercises to help you put the steps into practice right away. Author Kathy Widenhouse shares these principles drawn from 15 years of her experience producing hundreds of devotionals for clients, leaders, and publishers.
My Thoughts: This book fills a very specific need in a very specific niche for writing. In spite of its narrow focus, this is a book that I would heartily recommend to all kinds of writers, not just ones who are looking to write devotionals. There is so much good, practical advice in here that all writers can benefit from many of these pointers. We should all desire for our writing, whether fiction or non-fiction or devotional, to be sticky with our readers.
Whether she is discussing what a devotional actually is, how to identify the readers you are trying to write for, or what makes content sticky, Widenhouse’s content itself is sticky. The chapters are short, to-the-point, and center around only one point within the topic. This is something I try to get across to my Composition students, the necessity of drilling into only one topic at a time in order to make that part of the paper more effective. I could see the wisdom in this book being something that could apply to an entry-level composition class.
Overall, I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who is writing, whether you have an interest in devotionals or not. It is a short read that can be managed in small chunks and, in fact, it is designed to because many chapters end with some tasks that you can do to put the principle covered into action. I have aspirations to someday write a devotional, and I know that I will be pulling this back out again when the time comes to work on that.
Author David Wiley 