CAMPFIRE CHAT WITH NEW
MOC PRESIDENT GRETCHEN STEELE
|
|
|
Greetings Fellow Missouri Outdoor Communicators!
Bear with me as I muddle through my first "Campfire Chat."
I'm more than a little sad that I missed everyone at the Mozingo Lake Conference. It looked like a wonderful place and a conference filled with many great outdoor storylines and adventures.
Thinking back about previous Presidents of MOC makes me a little anxious. These are pretty big shoes to fill, and I sure hope to be as helpful, thoughtful, and encouraging to others as our past presidents have been. I'm honored to be in this spot. To those past presidents, and most immediately Zach Smith, our outgoing president, I want to extend a hearty thank you for all of the mentoring, growth, and management of an excellent organization.
I can't say thank you enough to Kyle for facilitating things so that I could phone in and participate remotely in the business and board meetings. In the past couple of years, I think we've finally learned how to meet remotely and conduct business while we are scattered geographically. While remote meetings aren't the same as being there live and in-person, they allow many to attend that may not be able to travel for specific days, etc.
Additionally, because we've become adept at this, thanks to our work requirements, it behooves us to take those skills and share them in our own neighborhoods and local conservation/hunting/fishing organizations. Interestingly enough, the retriever club I belong to had been suffering from poor attendance at meetings for some time. When we added the ability to do them as Zoom meetings from the regular meeting, our attendance grew by about 75%. Consequently, the club decided to continue offering Zoom attendance as an option.
This is an area where I think, as communicators, it's vital for us to be of service locally and to the conservation and outdoor organizations where we have memberships. We can teach and enhance communication skills for those organizations we hold so dear and enjoy so much. One of the things that has always set MOC apart from other outdoor media associations, for me, is the vast spirit of giving to each other and giving back. Your communication skills are an excellent way to give back locally, whether teaching your local fishing club how to write a good press release or giving a program at your local library. Let's never lose our spirit of giving.
Circling back to the conference, one topic discussed during the regular meeting and during the board meeting was the importance of sharing our communication work about the conference site, sponsors, and activities.
The places and people that host us, whether for a conference or media trip, or even just an overnight stay, do so with the hope that their hospitality will provide for a good story for you (and for them). Too often I notice in the outdoor industry that, while the good press gets out there, we often forget a couple of steps in the process.
First and foremost, send thank you notes or emails. Kyle does a great job of consistently providing us with the appropriate contact information. Take a moment and go through that list and send out those thank you notes and emails to anyone you worked with or benefited from. If they have a social media presence, it certainly doesn't hurt to do a brief post thanking them for their contribution to MOC or you personally as a member. Be sure to tag or highlight the organization so that the donors' social media teams can capture it.
Once we get home and start putting together our articles, blog posts, podcasts, etc., send links and tear sheets to Kyle to track. I also take the time to drop a quick note and link or copy of the printed article to the folks involved as well. This type of sharing builds goodwill. It shows those partners that they can count on MOC members to produce that media coverage they expect.
An archive of media coverage our members have produced as a result of MOC events is good data to have when we seek new opportunities, sponsors, and conference sites. Even if it's just a photo and simple social media post, forward it on. We frequently see our donors and sponsors asking what they get in return for supporting us. This year, let's resolve to inundate Kyle with any of our work that we generate thanks to our affiliation with MOC.
I do not doubt that Kyle and our beloved Beenders Walker Group will turn all of that into an excellent example of the quality and quantity of work that MOC members routinely produce. This data can be a tremendous tool for the growth of the organization.
As the new president, my door is always open, and I'm looking forward to helping grow MOC, meeting more members, and learning from all of our new faces in the organization. Please never hesitate to reach out to me with any question, concern, need, or just a "let's visit and brainstorm a bit" call or email.
Here's to the beautiful people and places in the Missouri outdoors. Let's get out there and enjoy all we can. Let's also share that love and enjoyment with everyone that we can. Let's tell the story of what a fabulous place the outdoors in Missouri can be!
- Gretchen Steele, President
|
|
|
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE |
|
|
This has been a very unusual spring for me.
Back in November, my wife, Vara, and I ambitiously decided to sign up to participate in an Ironman 70.3 Triathlon in Florida scheduled for early May (counting down the days now...).
Hindsight always being 20/20, I didn't realize at the time just what I was signing up for. Yes, I knew that it entailed swimming 1.25 miles in the Gulf of Mexico followed by riding 56 miles on a bike and then immediately running a half-marathon afterward. That much I knew, but I foolishly discounted the amount of time required to pull off such a fool-hardy endeavor. I had not mentally prepared for the hours I'd have to spend swimming lap after lap after lap in an indoor pool, nor the miles upon miles I'd have to log on a stationary bike in our dark and cold basement. Week after week, month after frigid month.
But then, as it always does, spring rolled around and the weather warmed. With spring's arrival, we were able to take long runs and weekend bike rides along the beautiful Katy Trail, watching the countryside bloom into color and come alive with the sights, sounds and smells of the season. Suddenly, these workouts no longer felt like drudgery. Instead we came to enjoy them and look forward to our outdoor adventures, even if they were different than our usual springtime pursuits. The sense of rejuvenation and relaxation resulting from our time spent outdoors was palpable.
So far this season I have not yet put a canoe in the water, caught any fish, nor have I found a single morel (though we did watch with envy as a gentleman walked along the Katy Trail with a bulging grocery bag full of the springtime treasures). Nonetheless, I have thoroughly enjoyed the hours we've spent outside this spring. It has served as reminder of how many wonderful outdoor opportunities are available to us throughout our state, no matter your outdoor interests. For example, my home-away-from-home this spring, Missouri's Katy Trail, was just voted the second-best recreational trail in the nation by USA Today. And, as we all know, springtime brings fulfilling seasons of hunting turkey, mushrooms and catching a mess of crappie. There are amazing natural spaces all around us in Missouri and some very amazing people working hard to protect those places for our enjoyment and for the enjoyment of future generations of Missourians.
While it's easy to complain about the monotony of swimming laps for hours, a positive is that it offers a lot of time for reflection. For me, a fair amount of that time was spent thinking about this organization and what it means to me, and hopefully to you as well.
Perhaps it's my nature to always be an optimist, but I'm very excited to see what the future holds for Missouri Outdoor Communicators. We have a great new slate of officers and some esteemed new members of the board. Our organization continues to grow in numbers and in stature with new members bringing aboard new ideas and a fresh zeal for conservation in Missouri.
Spring is a season of rebirth and growth and I can feel that applies to our organization, the Missouri Outdoor Communicators, as well. I can hardly wait to see it bloom.
- Kyle Stewart, The Beenders Walker Group
Missouri Outdoor Communicators Executive Director
|
|
|
2022 MOC BOARD OF DIRECTORS |
|
The following slate of officers was approved at the 2022 MOC Board Meeting during the Missouri Outdoor Communicators Conference at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park in Maryville, MO.
The members of the board were approved by a vote of the membership prior to the conference.
The organization has an excellent selection of professional communicators that can, and will, continue to serve the Missouri Outdoor Communicators and make the organization proud.
|
|
MOC OFFICERS OF THE BOARD |
|
|
|
Supporting Member Liaison
|
|
|
MOC BOARD MEMBERS & TERMS
|
|
2022 MOZINGO LAKE CONFERENCE WRAP-UP |
|
Left to right: TightlinesUV Pro Staff members Jay Straub and Clint Cochran took MOC members fishing on Mozingo Lake on Saturday; Maryville Mayor Ben Lipiec demonstrates the differences of TighlinesUV lures under a microscope (photo by Brad Wiegmann); TightlinesUV Tackle founder Brett Ware welcomes MOC members for dinner on Friday night; When they say Bubba's BBQ is "award-winning," they aren't joking; Mark Crawford, president of Heatwave Hunting, discusses the technology behind his game-changing products (photo by Brad Wiegmann); Sintha Santosa of Eat MO Carp serves Asian carp nachos during Saturday's luncheon. |
|
The 2022 Missouri Outdoor Communicators conference got underway on an unexpectedly cold and snowy Friday in northwest Missouri at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park near Maryville, Mo. Although the weather wasn't ideal Friday morning, by that afternoon it had warmed considerably as attendees made the most of their time in the beautiful lakeside setting.
Unfortunately, due to the snowfall and wind chill, the 2022 Thayne Smith Memorial Service Day lakeshore clean-up did not occur on Friday morning as originally planned, but several members took it upon themselves to pick up trash along the lake during some downtime throughout the conference weekend.
|
|
Friday afternoon MOC members split their time fishing on the lake, hiking the various paved and natural paths around Mozingo, touring the Missouri Arboretum, exploring the Maryville area, and/or enjoying a reunion with fellow members. That evening, the conference got underway at the TightlineUV Lure Company headquarters where an incredible, award-winning dinner was served by "masters of the smoke" Bubba's BBQ. Following dinner, attendees were treated to an intriguing demonstration of the technology employed by TightlinesUV founder Brett Ware that makes this Maryville-based tackle company an industry standout. From there, MOC members headed back to the Mozingo Lake Event Center where we heard from Maryville City Manager Greg McDanel about the amazing work the community has put into outdoor recreational opportunities in the area as well as Maryville's bright future; Missouri Department of Conservation's Fisheries Biologist Tory Mason about the health of Mozingo Lake and its reputation for being one of the best bass fisheries in the nation; and we heard more about what TightlinesUV is doing to revolutionize the fishing industry. Afterward, MOC members enjoyed catching up with old friends while making new friends at the hospitality suite.
Saturday morning, MOC members enjoyed more outdoor activities, including an incredible open-trailer tour of The Nature Conservancy's Dunn Ranch Prairie near Eagleville, and fishing with TightlinesUV's pro staff, followed by another delectable meal compliments of Bubba's BBQ. During the luncheon program MOC members learned about the incredible work that Dr. Mark Morgan and Eat MO Carp are doing to combat malnutrition in underserved populations around the globe utilizing the highly invasive Asian carp. MOC members also were treated to samples of Asian carp nachos, which were simply delicious.
That afternoon, attendees went back out on the water to fish for largemouth bass, headed into town to tour the Missouri Arboretum or explore the City of Maryville.
Saturday evening's program got underway at the Mozingo Lake Event Center with a presentation by another cutting-edge Maryville-based company - Heatwave Hunting - that is revolutionizing the deer hunting game. We learned about the Whitetail World Championship and heard from four-time champion Evan O'Brien. The 2022 Toyota Community Generosity Award was presented to Lynette Harbin, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Nodaway County, a Maryville-based non-profit that works to clear the path to a child's biggest possible future by matching them with a caring adult mentor in a one-to-one friendship to help every participating child succeed and thrive in life.
The inspiring Wayne Hubbard, Emmy Award-winning host of Urban American Outdoors TV who is based out of Kansas City, was our keynote speaker for the evening.
The 2022 conference auction and raffle was a success as MOC raised just over $1,600 to go toward the organization's general operating funds and future MOC service projects. Thank you to all that donated and helped to make the auction a success.
On Sunday morning, the membership convened for the annual business meeting followed by the 2022 board meeting.
There were five new MOC members in attendance at the conference - Wayne Hubbard and Candice Price of Urban American Outdoors TV, Jonah Chismore of ALPS OutdoorZ, and freelance communicators Dan Zekor and Neima Shahdadi.
To view the minutes from the 2022 MOC Business Meeting and Board of Directors Meeting, please click here.
Note: The password to view the above pages is MissouriOutdoors
|
|
Left to right: Scott Pauley with Candice Price and Wayne Hubbard of Urban American Outdoors TV; Lynette Harbin of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Nodaway County is presented the 2022 Toyota Community Generosity Award on Saturday evening; Dunn Ranch tour participants view the resident bison herd; MOC members ascending the scenic overlook at Dunn Ranch Prairie (Dunn Ranch photos courtesy of The Nature Conservancy's Doyle Murphy). |
|
By Neima Shahdadi, Mentorship Member
A typical weekend around the second week of April in Missouri can offer outdoor enthusiasts a glimmer of hope after the cold, gray slog of winter. Crappie are beginning to spawn, redbud blooms and daffodils are coloring the once beige landscape, and morels are starting to pop in the southern and central parts of the state.
As we left Columbia and made our way north along Highway 13 through the gusting 30 mph winds and overcast sky toward our destination, it was clear that we were in for the other kind of typical weekend around the second week of April in Missouri. The kind with snow and 23-degree wind chills.
Nasty weather aside, there’s nothing to complain about when you get to spend a few days with one of your closest friends traveling to unfamiliar parts of the state, meeting new and fascinating people, learning, fishing, and eating some outstanding barbecue.
I’m new to MOC, officially becoming a Mentorship Member less than two months before the conference. I’m quite familiar with the “M” and the “O,” but less so with the “C.”
I studied English and have some background in writing, but nothing similar to the usual output of MOC members. Constantly aware of my shortcomings, I was a little nervous going into the conference weekend; unsure of my place in the group. What I found in Maryville was a kind and welcoming bunch of people who share many of the same passions and values as I do. And, I also found an experience I won’t soon forget.
Despite the urging from Kyle Stewart, my friend for over 26 years now, I was initially hesitant to join MOC. I like to contribute and add value if I’m going to be a part of something and wasn’t sure I could be much of an asset. It’s easy to stay in your lane and shy away from things outside your comfort zone, but it doesn’t provide for much growth.
Ever since I said “yes” to becoming a member and the intro email went out, I’ve felt nothing but warmth and hospitality from the MOC members, receiving personal welcomes and offers for guidance from so many unfamiliar people. Unsurprisingly, that hospitality and warmth extended into the weekend when I got to put names to faces and experience the annual conference myself. The MOC members, staff at Mozingo Lake, TightlinesUV crew, and everyone in between, made me feel welcome and confident that I joined an incredible group of people that can help me grow as a communicator and that I look forward to seeing again soon.
|
|
CONGRATULATIONS TO MOC'S HONORED MEMBERS |
|
Three MOC members were recognized for their outstanding contributions to conservation and outdoor communication during the 2022 Conservation Federation of Missouri Annual Conference at the Lake of the Ozarks in March.
2022 Conservation Federation of Missouri Conservation Achievement Awards:
Outstanding Lifetime Achievement - Larry Whiteley
Conservation Communicator of the Year - Heather Feeler, MDC
Conservation Organization of the Year - Missouri Hunting Heritage Federation
- - - - - - -
The winners of the 2022 MOC Joel Vance Excellence in Outdoor Communication Awards are:
Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation's Youth in the Outdoors Contest
- Zach Smith - 1st Place
- Larry Whiteley - 2nd Place
Karen Hood Memorial Outdoor Destination Story Contest
- Brandon Butler and Nathan McLeod - 1st Place
Congratulations to all of you. Keep up the outstanding work!
|
|
COMMUNICATING RESPONSIBLY ABOUT
SENSITIVE LOCATIONS
|
|
By Gretchen Steele
Full disclosure: This piece is a result of several meetings with natural resources managers and professionals early this spring and last fall regarding culturally and ecologically sensitive sites. The huge uptick in visitor numbers has put some publicly-accessible sites at risk. I was invited to the meetings as a member of the outdoor media. My invitation to the table was in hopes that we could begin to change how we report about these sites and, in turn, use our respective platforms to help educate visitors.
The resource management professionals have spoken. These changes mean that we must begin to think differently about what we write, the things we describe, and how, what, and where we share.
Historically, it's been our job to share information about locations we visit and enjoy in the outdoors. Our job has been to promote the things unique and special to an area, especially those located on publicly-accessible properties. Historically, when it came to sensitive areas, the information did not travel far from a specific audience. We were somewhat assured that it was typically seen by people who shared our values regarding the specialness of these sites, the need for protection, and preservation.
Yet here we are today, and the internet and social media have changed everything. Now it's a quick internet search and pin drop request away. We have learned (in many cases the hard way) not to reveal locations of hunting honey holes, fabulous fishing spots, and, more importantly, the rare, unique, and sacred places. Increasingly we are learning that what we say online lives well beyond our original reason for posting. Once it's out there, it's out there; it can't be reeled back in. Despite best efforts to remove, edit, walk back or delete –somebody somewhere has a screenshot.
Knowing this, what we used to share about unique, endangered, and fragile places with select readerships cannot be shared the way we used to. In the new cyber society in which we dwell, anything we put out can have potentially far-reaching consequences beyond our control.
In the past, it was unthinkable that writing an article about an ecologically or culturally sensitive location would reveal that place to thousands or millions of people. Today, like the old game of telephone – our readers/listeners/and viewers will share that information. Heck, we hope that they share that information!
Unfortunately, this new era makes it necessary for us to be thoughtful about the way we tell the story. The information we share will be stored, tagged, archived, and likely rendered searchable in many ways. It is a given that those who search for it and use it will not all share our concern for places of great beauty, fragility, and solitude. Of late, we are starting to encounter those who intentionally use the information to harm these places. The harm ranges from monetizing it for their personal gain to stealing artifacts and poaching rare plants and animals.
Some of that harm is purely unintentional and done because so many visitors today are very new to the outdoors and have no idea what the consequences of their actions may be.
We must rethink what we write and where we share it, reducing the specificity of information that endangers the very things that we love so much. Go ahead and identify a particular site by its mapped and official name, i.e., Shawnee National Forest. Don't add GPS coordinates to a problematic and dangerous area that, for instance, is home to a collection of rock art or endangered flora and fauna.
Here's what I end up with as a "Top Ten" wish list from multiple meetings and conversations with natural resource professionals:
- Reach out to the Public Information Officer (PIO) for the agency or site you intend to cover. These folks welcome inquiries, and there may be something particularly noteworthy they would like to see included.
- Be generalized about locations. Encourage readers to contact the managing agency for more information about a sensitive site. This allows those managers to gauge increasing visitor interest and traffic and use that opportunity to explain to visitors about site-specific safety, hazards, rules, do's, and don'ts.
- Be clear about the difficulty and skill set needed to access the site. Is it an easy hike suitable for most? Does the reader need to know that you have to be a darn good hiker, half billy goat, and pack special equipment to reach the site? Tell them honestly that this isn't for beginners. Explain what type of equipment and clothing they will need for this journey.
- Share the risk level involved in accessing the area. Provide site-specific safety rules such as slick or crumbly rock surfaces that frequently result in falls and the frequency of flash flooding if a storm comes in.
- ALWAYS include the principles of Leave No Trace and Recreate Responsibly in your work.
- Explain WHY specific site rules, such as staying on the designated trails, no pets, and not creating user trails, are in place.
- Suggest times to visit when crowds may be fewer and smaller to avoid stressing local infrastructure and resources.
- Make the reporting more about the experience and less about the location. Explain why a location is considered sensitive. Explain why visitors should approach it with care and reverence.
- Include a sidebar or infographic that captures, in a nutshell, any site-specific concerns, regulations, and tips for preventing unintentional damage vs. precise location information and a map to the location.
- Suggest alternative, less sensitive, but equally exciting sites in the same area that visitors would enjoy. Provide readers with options if a parking area or trail seems overcrowded or out of the reach of their abilities upon arrival.
In the end, our work is about making a thing of beauty that expresses something about our own experiences. We serve to inspire and educate others to find their own enjoyable outdoor experiences and areas of interest.
I expect that I will meet with some objection to this "new" idea of being less specific rather than more. It usually comes from two camps.
"The bad guys will still get to those places, and you cannot save them by keeping them secret." Sadly, this is ultimately true. No longer do we enjoy certain levels of protection for any of these places or resources. But the fact that some bad things might still happen does not excuse us from doing what we can to reduce the harm. It doesn't excuse us from being thoughtful and working with resource managers to help protect these sensitive areas as best as we can through thoughtful work and communication.
"You are just trying to keep your special locations for yourself! Public land is for everyone!" No, that is not what any of us want to do. We want people to go outside and learn to love nature and its miracles. Conservation, preservation, and protection drive us to be communicators about the outdoors. The recent changes in visitor numbers, level of experience, and how they get their information shouldn't cause us to communicate less. It should only encourage us to inspire better and educate the millions of new folks stepping into our woods and waters in a manner that protects both the users and the resources.
|
|
"CHARLIE'S CHUCKLES"
FUNCTIONAL PUNCTUATION - PAUSE AND EFFECT
|
|
By Charlie Slovensky, MOC founding member and father of MOC TALK.
This column is dedicated to all those outdoor communicators who couldn’t make it as clowns in a circus or standup comedians in Vegas. It will be a combination of humorous quips and anecdotes to give us food for thought as we self-analyze our writing styles. It is offered free of charge and free of malice, and with the keen knowledge that none of us can afford the option of a therapist, not that visiting one would be helpful.
Functional Punctuation –
Pause and Effect
(First of a three-part series)
Punctuation is more than symbolic; it gives substance to what matters, character to composition. It stresses what we intend to emphasize, and controls the pace of our prose.
Commas
Commas give us pause. They lift and separate, like a good bra or jock strap. They function to delineate items in a list, phrases in a clause, and clauses in a sentence--especially a sentence that goes on and on, running away from the reader.
I personally prefer the grammar rule that requires a comma in the last item before the final “and.” For me, this clarifies a sentence such as “The components of scouting for turkeys include habitat familiarity, flock habits, and prospective hunting strategies.” Without the second comma, it reads “. . . habitat familiarity, flock habits and prospective hunting strategies . . .,” implying not three subtopics, but two.
Semicolons
Semicolons slow us down further; they aid the reader in digesting what he’s reading. It’s a way to combine two short sentences into one; for example: “Semicolons slow us down further; they aid the reader in digesting what he’s reading.”
Don’t forget to add a comma after a qualifier following semicolon, as in “Semicolons slow us down; furthermore, they aid the reader in digesting what he’s reading.”
Colons
Colons back us up even further, allowing us to divide the digested material and focus our attention in order to pass things along from one sentence segment to another. For example, “Digestion can be divided into three physiological processes: Separation of nutrients from food, absorption of water, and elimination of waste products.”
I think you’ll agree, colons help us avoid constipation in our compositions as well as in our constitutions.
Hyphens and Dashes
Hyphens and Dashes adroitly enable pause for effect. The difference between the two is that one involves a single symbol (-) and the other doubles up on it (--). This nuance reflects the appropriate length of the pause.
In a hyphenated word, like fly-fishing, you wouldn’t get in a hurry by dashing away to fly—fishing. Conversely, you wouldn’t use a dash to create an inappropriately abbreviated interruption: “He called the gobbler into shooting range in a relatively short period—it only took three-and-a-half hours.”
Next time I’ll lift up apostrophes and quotation marks, and in the third installment, I’ll wrap up with sentence end points.
|
|
WRITING FROM
YOUR HEART
By Larry Whiteley, Member of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame and National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame
In light of Larry not being able to deliver this Craft Improvement piece in person at the Mozingo Lake or Bennett Spring conferences as originally planned, he has contributed his planned remarks for this Craft Improvement installment.
“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” ― William Wordsworth
Over my many years of writing I have done lots of articles and radio shows on outdoor tips, product reviews and travel destinations. There are lots of those types of articles, radio shows, podcasts and blogs out there. Those I enjoy doing the most now are when I write or talk about things that touch the emotions of those that read or hear them and hopefully make them laugh, cry, smile or think. It’s called writing from your heart to touch the hearts of others. It is one of the most rewarding and enjoyable things you will ever do.
To write or talk from your heart it needs to be about something that has a deep meaning to you. I like to write and talk about outdoor memories I have made with friends, kids and grandkids. Things I think about alone in a tree stand or turkey blind. The eagle I see or the loon I hear while out fishing. What I feel out hiking or camping. The thoughts I have of time by myself or with others around a campfire.
I want them to get a tear in their eye when they read “The Last Cast”. I want them to have a lump in their throat when they read “Generations of Soldiers”. I want them to think about their own deer camps and laugh when they read “Deer Camp Characters”. I want them to smile when they read “Everyone Needs a Special Place”. Paint a picture with your words.
You need to be vulnerable in your writing and in your life and that’s not very easy for most of us to do. People listen and read when you’re vulnerable. When you do this and include inspiration in some form in your writing and broadcasts, you automatically share from your heart.
You will never be able to write or talk from the heart though if you don’t honestly be you. Don’t think about how others will perceive your words. Everyone will get a different meaning from what you write or say anyway. Just concentrate on pouring in emotion and being you. You need to be you because no one else can tell your personal stories like you can.
It takes courage to write from the heart because that’s where we hide things we care about. But that’s what makes them enjoyable to read or hear. By writing from the heart you will never run out of words. What’s in there, both the big and small things, really matters. What you share from your heart will touch other people’s hearts and hopefully get them in the outdoors making memories.
To sum it all up, write from your heart not from your brain. Write from your heart not to impress or show off. Write from your heart so it engages the reader or listener and touches their heart and soul. Write from your heart so it encourages the reader to get out in God’s great outdoors and do the things you wrote about or talked about from your heart.
Here’s one last thought for you. I love to use quotes like the one I began this article with and the one I end it with. Quotes help add impact to the story you just shared from your heart with your readers and listeners. Like the below quote says; while enriching the lives of those who hear or read your work, you enrich your own life.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT:
“Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well.” ― Stephen King
|
|
For future issues for MOC TALK, please send story submissions, photographs, inquiries and upcoming events to Kyle Stewart of The Beenders Walker Group at Kyle@TBWGroup.net.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
