A Bridge to New Writing Adventures

by Julie Lavender @JLavenderWrites

When my six-year-old grandson Benaiah visits, we always find new adventures. The older he gets, however, the riskier his adventures become. 

During Hurricane Helene, a large oak tree fell across our small stream. Benaiah decided we should walk across the fallen tree. Now, I’m all for adventure, and the tree was really only about five feet above the ground. And the stream? Well, it was only about a foot wide and two inches deep. 

I told him I’d just walk beside him—with my feet on the ground.

On his first trek across the tree, Benaiah wanted to hold my hand. He crept across, one foot in front of the other. When he got to the other side, he turned around carefully and walked back across. 

The next time? He wanted to cross without holding my hand, but still needed me to walk next to him on the ground. 

You can probably guess what happened next. 

“Grandmommy, I want you to walk across the bridge with me. It’s fun.” 

“Oh, no,” I said, shaking my head. “Not me.”

“You can do it, Grandmommy,” he said. “Be brave.”

Well, it’s hard for me to say no to my little guy, so, yes, this grandmommy followed her grandson up onto the trunk of the fallen tree. Benaiah led the way, and I inched across. Gingerly, slowly, cautiously. 

And, you know what? Beniah was right. It was a fun, new adventure.

My trek across the stream reminded me of a recent writing project I tackled. For a long time, I’ve wanted to write educational books for children. When my biologist hubby retired, I decided the time was right to go for that new adventure. 

Was it scary? Yes, it was to me, because educational writing is different than anything else I’d published. I proceeded with caution, although there was nothing “slow” about the adventure. Educational publishers, for whatever reason, typically work on very short deadlines. My husband and I wrote our first four educational books, Fox, Lemur, Seal, and Leopard, in about six weeks. 

Was it fun? You better believe it! My hubby and I had a blast researching, writing, working together, and revising. It truly was an adventure. 

I’m glad I took that first step. Those four books led to additional work—an assignment to do three six-book series – eighteen books in all!

The work is fast and furious, but we love it. We’re looking forward to even more educational projects on this writing journey. 

Have you thought about taking a leap into a new writing genre? Maybe you’d like to try your hand at writing devotions or a magazine article. Or maybe you’ve published fiction but would like to dip your toes into the waters of nonfiction.

5 Tips to Help You Get Started on a New Writing Adventure

1. Research articles online about the craft of writing in the particular genre you’re considering. Be sure to check this site, The Write Conversation, for a host of great information about almost any writing topic. Searching for “magazine writing” here, for example, brings up this great article: https://thewriteconversation.blogspot.com/2024/09/how-to-analyze-magazine-before-writing.html#more .

2. Gather mentor texts for the genre you plan to dive into. With our magazine example, locate several issues of the magazine you want to submit to. Read carefully and take notes on word count, placement of headings, tone of the article, sentence and paragraph length and so forth. If you’re thinking of a new book genre, find books in that area and read lots before you attempt to write in that genre.

3. Look online for publishers’ catalogs. Find a company that publishes the kind of book you want to write and peruse their catalogs. Read book descriptions and scrutinize covers. 

4. Pick an author who writes books or magazine articles or devotions—whatever new area you’re investigating. Visit that author’s website and read more about their journey to publication. If you’ve been blessed to meet an author at a conference who writes what you want to learn about, reach out to that person on social media or their website and ask a few questions. 

5. PRAY! Though I placed this step at the end, it’s obviously the most important. Pray about your decision to try something new. God may be leading you down a new path of writing, or He may be using your ponderings to solidify the fact that you’re already writing exactly what He wants you to write. 

If you’ve considered trying your hand at a new form of writing, something completely different than you’ve ever written, be brave! Take one small step, and then another, and then another until you’ve crossed the bridge to the other side. 

It might be scary at first, but there just might be an incredible adventure waiting on the other side. 

What about you? Have you taken a leap into a new genre of writing? How’s the view from your journey? Tell us about it below and join the conversation. 

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A Bridge to New Writing Adventures from @JLavenderWrites on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Putting her fears aside and faking bravery, Julie Lavender loves to try out new writing adventures. “One of my favorite writing mentors teaches in her conference classes, ‘Say yes and figure out how to do it later,’” says Julie. That motto has served Julie well with recent collaborative projects with her husband in the children’s educational genre, and she looks forward to three six-book series releasing later this year. She’s especially excited about the projects because she hopes her six-year-old grandson will enjoy reading each book.