Creative Writing
for Women
A Celebration Church Small Group
Meet the Small Group Leaders
Group Leader
Laura A. Farrar
Fiction/Apologetics Lead
Christy Ash
Co-Leader
Katie Lewis
Illustration Lead
Alexandria Farrar
About Our Group...
We meet every 1st and 3rd Tuesday at various "to be announced" locations from 6pm to 8pm.
This is a good place to have fun, write with other women, and make friends with like interests. Our group is meant for all writing levels and is intended to be a creative meet-up where we discuss our current and future projects. (We do not typically write while at our meet ups.) Serious writers and those that just want to hang out and give this creative storytelling thing a try are welcome!
We will discuss various writing information, personal development as a storyteller, and help to guide you and encourage you to complete your writing. No judgement is allowed, but we will have opportunities to have creative feedback and critique, as well as how to best use that feedback when you get it. Our group is a safe place with accountability to get you motivated to succeed!
If you are an illustrator, this is a great place for you, too. We have multiple members that are illustrators, including one of the leaders. You will get good encouragement and feedback. This is a place where you can be built up and have the opportunity to build up others.
Our mission in this small group is to build a community of creatives that want to honor Christ with their gifts.
Meeting Times:
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1st & 3rd Tuesday of every month.
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6pm - 8pm
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Check the current RSVP Invite for Location
We have membership dues each semester...
There is a recommended donation to be a member of this group of $15 per semester. (There is no pro-rated version of this fee. Whether you come one time, or every time, the recommended donation is the same. If you would like to be considered for a scholarship, please reach out to us! Donations can be made in person, or via Venmo.)
The funds will be used to pay for the rental fees on our locations and sponsor other members that wish to attend but need assistance with a scholarship. In other small groups, it is common for study guides and books to be purchased to participate. We do not offer books to buy, but we do have helpful links available to our members for free resources, as well as books that members can purchase on their own that we found to be helpful.
At the end of each semester, Laura will provide a report of how the donations were used to maintain accountability within the group.
We use GroupSpot to organize our small group and communicate...
Since the church as implemented ROCK for communication and managing small groups, we use it to send emails and connect with new members, however, we have found it difficult to get interaction through ROCK alone. Our small group (which is actually quite large) needs feedback and interaction on a regular basis, so we are choosing to add the GroupSpot App to help us manage events, RSVPs, reminders and various communications. We want to serve you well. To be a part of this group, you will need to download GroupSpot to your smart phone or use it via your web browser and create an account for yourself. When you are added to the small group on ROCK, we will text and email you with a link to join our GroupSpot group.
Where to get GroupSpot: https://web.groupspot.app/
Contact Us & Prayer Requests
Make a donation to help cover the rental fees for our meet up location and provide materials for our group. (Recommend $15 per member per semester.)
Useful Links
Writing Help & Tutorials
Writing Worksheets
Enjoy these great downloads. If you look on www.eadeverell.com/ there is a lot more for you to check out! I am so impressed with what they offer!
Information to Help Illustrators
How can you learn to be a better illustrator at a VERY reasonable price?
Where are all my illustrators? In an effort to make sure you guys have some guidance as well, I have a little treat for not just the writers, but also the illustrators. One of my very favorite illustration resources comes from SVS Learn. Will Terry, Lee White, and Jake Parker are simply amazing and we have learned so much from them. If you are looking for some great instruction their online illustration school is really a must have. They have a 30-free trial, but lets be honest, its only $24.99 a month and brick and mortar art school IS WAY MORE! (This is not a paid endorsement of SVS Learn, but I really believe in them and have greatly benefited from their work.)
Self-Publishing Information
Self-Publishing Formula
This is where we (the Farrar family) learned how to market and self-publish. Highly recommended.
SPF is your one-stop shop for everything you need to know about self publishing. We have a value-packed free weekly podcast, with amazing guests to inspire and teach; vibrant facebook communities where you can get support and advice from other writers just like you; free writer resources and guides; and our acclaimed courses where I walk you through everything you need to know to help you make a career from your passion.
Free YouTube Resources
Laura's Recommended Writing Books
Recommended Writing Applications
These are the apps that Laura has personally used to help write and keep track of files.
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Scrivener is Laura's preferred writing tool. It is robust. Highly recommend. There is a little bit of a learning curve, but there are a lot of tutorials to help you figure out the best practices for your work.
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If you are looking for a FREE word processor app, Open Office is excellent.
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Grammarly is good for basic editing. It will catch a lot of writing mistakes and offer solutions. You can also use it to check to see if you have accidentally plagiarized known published works.
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Essay.App is brand new. The purpose of using the app is to help you outline, write, convey and rearrange complex ideas. It looks really promising. I can think of a lot of times where it would have helped me when I was struggling with order inside my chapters.
