Introduction
Where do I begin?
How do I get started writing a meditation?
Tips to keep in mind
When are the deadlines?
Special emphases
Our response to your work
Where do I send my meditation?

| Writers' Corner |

Introduction

The meditations in each issue are written by people just like you, people who are listening to God and trying to live by what they hear. The Upper Room is built on a worldwide community of Christians who share their faith with one another.

The Upper Room is meant for an international, interdenominational audience. We want to encourage Christians in their personal life of prayer and discipleship. We seek to build on what unites us as believers and to link believers together in prayer around the world.

Literally millions of people use the magazine each day. Your meditation will be sent around the world, to be translated into more than 39 languages and printed in over 76 editions. Those who read the day's meditation and pray the prayer join with others in over 100 countries around the world, reading the same passage of scripture and bringing the same concerns before God.

Have God's care and presence become real for you in your interaction with others? Has the Bible given you guidance and helped you see God at work? Has the meaning of scripture become personal for you as you reflected on it? Then you have something to share in a meditation.

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Where do I begin?

You begin in your own relationship with God. Christians believe God speaks to us and guides us as we study the Bible and pray. Good meditations are closely tied to scripture and show how it has shed light on a specific situation. Good meditations make the message of the Bible come alive.

Good devotional writing is first of all authentic. It connects real events of daily life with the ongoing activity of God. It comes across as the direct, honest statement of personal faith in Christ and how that faith grows. It is one believer sharing with another an insight or struggle about what it means to live faithfully.

Second, good devotional writing uses sensory details -- what color it was, how high it bounced, what it smelled like. The more sensory details the writing includes, the better. Though the events of daily life may seem mundane, actually they provide the richest store of sensory details. And when we connect God's activity to common things, each encounter with them can serve as a reminder of God's work.

Finally, good devotional writing is exploratory. It searches and considers and asks questions. It examines the faith without knowing in advance what all the answers will be. It is open to God's continuing self-revelation through scripture, people, and events. Good writing chronicles growth and change, seeing God behind both.

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How do I get started writing a meditation?

When you find yourself in the middle of some situation thinking, "Why -- that's how God is, too!" or, "That's like that story in the Bible . . .," that can become a meditation. Excellent ideas come from reading and meditating on scripture, looking for connections between it and daily life. When you see such a helpful connection, here's a simple formula for getting it on paper:

  1. Retell the Bible teaching or summarize the passage briefly.
  2. Describe the situation that you link to the Bible passage, using a specific incident. Write down as many details of the real-life situation as you can. For example, if you write about an incident when people were talking, write down what each person said.
  3. Tell how you can apply this spiritual truth in days to come.
  4. After a few days, look carefully at what you have written. Decide which details best convey your message, and delete the others. Ask yourself whether this insight will be helpful to believers in other countries and other situations. If you feel that it will, add any elements that are necessary to The Upper Room's format. Then you are ready to submit your meditation for consideration for possible use in The Upper Room.

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Tips to keep in mind

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When are the deadlines?

We continually need meditations, and you can submit a meditation at any time. However, seasonal material should reach us fifteen months before use date. Below are the due dates and special emphases for the various issues.

January - February Issue
Deadline: August 1 of second year preceding. (For example, 2009 should reach us by Aug. 1, 2007) Special emphases: New Year, Epiphany, Ash Wednesday

March - April Issue
Deadline: Oct. 1 of second year preceding. Special emphases: Lent, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter, World Day of Prayer

May - June Issue
Deadline: Dec. 1 of second year preceding. Special emphases: Mother's Day, Father's Day, Ascension Day, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday

July - August Issue
Deadline: Feb. 1 of preceding year. Special emphases: Creative uses of leisure

September - October Issue
Deadline: April 1 of preceding year. Special emphases: World Communion Sunday, God and our daily work

November - December Issue
Deadline: June 1 of preceding year. Special emphases: Bible Sunday, All Saints' Day, Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas

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Special emphases

January-February issue:
New Year, Epiphany, Ash Wednesday

March-April issue:
Lent, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter, World Day of Prayer

May-June issue:
Festival of the Christian home, Ascension Day, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday

July-August issue:
Creative uses of leisure

September-October issue:
World Communion Sunday, God and our daily work. Tithing/Stewardship

November-December issue:
Bible Sunday, All Saints' Day, Day of Prayer for Persecuted Christians, Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas

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Our response to your work

If your work is being considered for publication, we will send you a postcard, usually within six weeks. Later, if your meditation is chosen for publication, you will receive a copyright release form to return to us. It may be as much as a year before a final decision is made. If you wish to be notified if your work is eliminated from consideration, include a stamped, self-addressed postcard for each meditation.

We buy the right to translate meditations for one-time use in our editions around the world, including electronic and software-driven formats, and to include them in future anthologies of Upper Room material should we choose. We pay $25.00 for each meditation, on publication.

We are unable to give updates on the status of submitted material or to offer critiques. All published meditations are edited.

Please be sure to include your postal address with each meditation, since we must send a form to be signed if your work is chosen for publication. If you submit by email, send your meditation as the body of the message, not as an attachment.

Meditations cannot be returned, so keep copies of what you submit. Please send no more than three meditations at a time. If you wish to know we have received your work, include a stamped, self-addressed postcard in addition to the one(s) previously mentioned. We will use the postcard to notify you that your work has reached us.

We look forward to receiving meditations from you to be considered for possible use in future editions of The Upper Room.

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Where do I send my meditation?

Meditations should be mailed to:

Editorial Office
THE UPPER ROOM MAGAZINE
P.O. Box 340004
Nashville, TN 37203-0004
E-Mail:
TheUpperRoomMagazine@upperroom.org

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