Write for Women Encouraged
Thank you for your interest in contributing to the Women Encouraged blog!
The form is closed now. Some of our publishing guidelines have changed, so please review them before submitting.
When you share your writing here, you’re blessing the ever-growing, worldwide WE community. It is a joy to partner with writers who desire to share the transformative power of the gospel with our audience.
We are always interested in original, well-written content. To ensure that the content of your submission is consistent with what we are looking to publish, please read through our guidelines thoroughly as they have been updated to assist WE contributors. We also ask that you ensure your submission is consistent with our statement of faith and vision statement.
Why We Write
The word encourage literally means, “to make strong, or to fill with courage”. Women Encouraged exists with the understanding that we need to be filled with fresh courage every day. We need to be made strong to live faithfully, to face the challenges of daily life, to face sin, doubt, grief, and pain. Our hope is in Christ alone, and our strength comes from him alone.
Our desire is to be an encouraging, truth-telling, grace-filled, joyful, and welcoming place. This is a place where women can listen, learn, and grow, being encouraged to faithfully connect to God’s word and the body of Christ.
The WE community and readership is made up of women of various ages and stages – married, single, and many are mothers. Some are new Christians, many are lifelong believers, but all are longing for community, connection, and gospel hope.
You’ll find our editors are drawn towards compelling pieces that apply Scripture and feature strong writing, conveying conviction and gospel hope.
We appreciate the use of story to enhance the content of the post, but please know that our blog editors strongly believe that all stories we publish should ultimately assist the reader by pointing to the gospel.
Editing
We can’t accept every post submitted, but we do commit to:
- Reading and prayerfully considering each submission
- Editing in a process and manner that respects the author’s intent
- Communicating with the author regarding submissions, and informing them if and when a post will be published
Editing process:
- We will only accept original content that has not been published anywhere else, including your personal blog.
- As we work through the editing process, we will not take away from the author’s story or writing voice, but we may seek to enhance posts to help them fit with the WE mission and vision.
- Submissions will be checked for spelling, grammar, and punctuation and we reserve the right to make changes we see necessary. We may alter the title to enhance it or communicate the tone more clearly.
- We are only able to receive posts that have been proof-read and edited, so we highly encourage you to ask one or two other people you trust to read and proof your submission. The editing process is often time-consuming, so we are seeking content that is clear, easy to read, and requires minimal editing and formatting.
- Before you submit an article, please ensure that the content flows smoothly and that the transition between paragraphs is clear and uncluttered.
- Unfortunately, if we receive a submission that appears unedited, we will determine immediately that we cannot publish it.
Publishing:
- We value your time, and understand you put a lot of work into your article. We will make every effort to respond to your submission within 4 weeks.
- If your article is not selected, it may be for a variety of reasons. Some of those reasons include: the article is too close to another article we’ve accepted for publication; the article doesn’t match our guidelines; our submissions calendar is full, etc.
- Due to the volume of articles we receive, we can no longer offer specific feedback or suggestions to writers or reasons why your article was rejected.
- If we’re not able to publish your article, we will do our utmost to ensure it is returned to you quickly so that you can use it on your personal blog or submit it elsewhere.
- If your piece is selected, the WE editors will contact you for an author bio and picture. We may need to shorten your bio for formatting purposes.
- Women Encouraged will credit you and link to your blog (if you have one) as well as your social media forums.
- On the day of publication, please post a few lines or a description on your personal blog (if you have one) using a different title for SEO strength, and linking to the WE blog page. Please also share on any of your social media platforms linking to the WE blog page and social media (Instagram and Facebook).
Formatting
- If you wish something to be used as a heading for a new section, include that information: For example: “Jesus Changed My Life (new section heading)”
- Please be conservative in your use of italics and bold words.
- Do not use all caps for any reason. Do not include any emojis or hashtags in your submission.
- All Scripture referenced or included in the article, whether directly quoted or paraphrased, must be cited and properly referenced.
- For the sake of continuity for our blog readers, it is possible that we may edit the translation of the Scripture you include. We most often utilize ESV, NASB, and NKJV. Please note that Women Encouraged does not utilize paraphrases of the Bible, such as The Passion Translation or The Message.
- Please keep your article or essay between 600-2000 words. (Tools like Word Counter are very helpful.)
- If you do not have a title for your piece, that is okay. We’re happy to look at articles titled “TBD”.
Writing style
We believe every writer’s voice is unique and want to respect and honor your style, not detract from it. However, we also believe that in order to best serve our audience, we need to maintain some style standards so that we ensure Women Encouraged continues to be a gracious, encouraging community and platform.
- We place a high value on a writing style that seeks to apply the gospel to the chosen topic.
- We believe in encouraging one another to obedience and we’re not afraid of naming sin. If the goal of a particular piece is to point out sinful habits and choices, it should be done in a way that is loving and humble, in a spirit of gentleness (Galatians 6:1).
- We want to be women who build up Jesus’ body, the Church, not ones who tear it down. We won’t publish generalized language such as, “The church is doing a terrible job of…” or a writing tone that sounds bitter towards a body of believers or an individual person or people.
- We encourage you to use clear language, framing statements as positively as possible, and using terms that maintain a spirit of graciousness.
- We believe that God is clear in His commands, but that He is also merciful and patient with us. He abounds in grace toward us as we grow in our sanctification and learn more and more how to walk faithfully with Him. We encourage writers to use “us” and “we”-type phrasing wherever possible, rather than “you”-type statements. For example, instead of saying something like, “God wants you to…”, try something like, “God is calling us to…”
Content
We accept submissions related to:
- Bible reading and Bible study encouragement
- Devotional material on specific passages of Scripture
- Theology
- Motherhood and parenting
- Christian friendship
- Singleness as a Christian woman
- Marriage
- Christian lifestyle encouragement
- Grief and loss
- Faith-based inspirational
Thank you again for your desire to bless and encourage the WE community.
We look forward to reading your submission! Our prayer is that God blesses your writing and that you will be gifted with many opportunities to bring hope to women through the ministry of your written words.
