How to Write an Article

Writing an article for Hope of Heaven for Teens could be a great way to help other people in their grief journeys by sharing advice you’ve learned so far on yours or help people know how to help a friend who is grieving.

In this article, we’d like to share some tips and guidelines, but first we want to say thank you for considering writing an article. God has given you insights to share and He will give you the words to write if He has called you to write an article.

Initial Guidelines: 

At Hope of Heaven for Teens we have three writing guidelines and a few legal guidelines coming later.

1. The article can be as long or short as you want. There are no legal guidelines.

2. You can write as many articles as you want. We welcome all submissions with great joy. However, it is helpful if each article focuses on one theme or topic.

3. We do require that whatever you write contains no bad language and is consistent with our statement of faith. (www.hopeofHeavenforteens.com/statement-of-faith/) If the content is not God-honoring, we do reserve the right not to publish it.

Step 1: Decide what to write about

If you already know what you want to write about, skip to step two.

Deciding what to write about can be very hard. If you don’t already have an idea, these questions might help you:

• What is one thing God has taught you so far?

• Do you have advice to pass along to other teens?

• What is one thing you wish you’d been able to read about earlier in your grief journey?

• What is a scripture passage that has brought you peace, encouragement, or hope? How does that passage relate to how we should live? What about the passage gives you peace, encouragement, or hope?

Start by choosing a question that resonates with you and write down all your thoughts on it. Often, this can help lead you to the topic you were meant to write on.

If this method doesn’t help, here are some overarching topics to consider:

• Heaven (It’s helpful to talk about where our loved ones are now. Do you have any favorite scriptures or insights on this?)

• Remembering your loved one (Traditions, habits, or anything else you find helpful)

• Prayer (Do you have any advice about talking to God and relying on Him in grief?)

• Holidays (Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, and any other celebration can feel so empty in grief. How do you and/or your family approach this?)

• Friendship (Social relations of all types get complicated in grief. Do you have any advice on how to navigate this?)

• Emotions (Do you have advice on handling tears, anger with God and others, grief-related fears, or any other emotion that tends to go crazy in a grief journey?)

• Helping a friend who is grieving (When someone is grieving, most of us really want to help them somehow, but we don’t always know how to help. Regardless of which side you are on (the one who is grieving or the one who has been supporting a grieving friend or family member), your advice could be very helpful for someone else.)

• Catholic Theology and Grieving (If you are Catholic, it could be helpful to write on the meaning and hope of your traditions and theology, especially to help a reader who has not yet been confirmed understand what you may know from confirmation classes.)

• Anything else about relating to God

There are so many other topics too. If you have an idea not already mentioned, go ahead and start writing as long as it follows our three writing guidelines. If you are still not sure what to write about, here are some concrete examples:

Grieving as a family

An article about this could explain tips on avoiding fights with family members and friends also impacted by grief and offering tips on how to understand their emotional needs.

Spending time in Creation

This article could focus on a few reasons why spending time outside, if possible and if safe to do so in your area, can help you connect with God.

Heaven, above all, contains the presence of God

This article could trace where we have seen God’s presence in scripture and what the Bible promises about how we will see God at His fullest in Heaven.

When the friend you’re trying to support gets mad at you

This article, addressed to the friend who is trying to support someone who is grieving, could focus on three key points:

1. Your friends’ anger could be unrelated to you, so don’t immediately assume you’ve done something wrong.

2. As someone with a deeply compassionate heart, you may be focusing too much on the person who is grieving. Support is different from caretaking.

3. If your friend confronts you about something you did that did make him or her mad, listen to their advice on how you can help them. If you don’t understand what they want from you, it rarely hurts to ask. Doing this will help you to trust you and know that they truly do care. Not listening could add to their emotional struggles right now.

There are many, many other possibilities.

Step 2: Write!

You can either organize your thoughts and then write OR you can just spontaneously write. We do suggest reading over your article a few times before submission to make sure it’s clear and to fix any typos you may have missed.

Notes on Quote Use

If you plan to use quotes that are not Bible verses, we do need you to formally cite your source to avoid breaking copyright laws.

You can list your sources below by using footnotes. All of the form citations below are the forms you would use for footnotes, but you can look up the bibliography format if you do not understand how footnotes work. For a more bibliographic format, you would just need to list the source information right after the quote. For readability we tend to prefer footnote format, but as long as the quote is cited, you can use whichever format makes most sense to you.

Most mobile devices do not let you do footnotes, so you may need to do this on a computer.

Citing a book: Author first name Author last name, Title of Book (place of publication, year of publication), page number

Citing a Web Article: Author first name Author last name, “Title of webpage”, name of website, publication or revision data, access data if you can’t find publication or revision data, URL 

(Footnote: “Web Sources”, Purdue Owl, accessed on July 30, 2024, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/chicago_manual_17th_edition/cmos_formatting_and_style_guide/web_sources.html)

(Many web articles do not list authors, so if it does not say who wrote it, you can just move to the title.)

Citing a TV show or movie: Author first name Author last name, Title of Work, directed/performed by First name Last Name (Original release year; City: Studio/Distributor, video release year), medium.

If you need to cite a source with no example above, you can always type the search ‘Chicago Style citation for _________ [the type of source you want to cite]’. Unfortunately, if you use a quote and do not cite the source, we cannot publish your article.

Notes on Bible verse use

You do not need to cite Bible verses, but it is helpful to put the verse reference next to the verse with the translation in parentheses. For example:

“Work willingly as if for the Lord and not for man.” Colossians 3:23 (NLT)

Step 3: Title It!

Titling is optional, but highly encouraged. An effective titling strategy is to make sure your title answers the question ‘How would you summarize this article in five words or less?’. Making the title both fun and clear can be difficult, but it is necessary.

Step 4: Add a Picture

This is also optional, but often helps the article look appealing to readers. It does not need to be a monumentally gorgeous art piece, but it does need to be:

• Your own work

• An image involving no distinguishable person’s or trademarked fictional character’s face.

We encourage using a hand drawing, a digital drawing, or a paint piece you made rather than taking a photograph.

Step 5: Check the Guidelines

Please read over the guidelines one more time and make sure your article follows them.

Writing Guidelines:

• Must be God-honoring and consistent with our statement of faith

Legal Guidelines:

• Make sure you cited all quotations 

• Make sure the article and accompanying artwork (if you choose to include a piece) are your own work

• Make sure the picture does not involve a distinguishable face of a person or trademarked fictional character 

Other notes:

Hope of Heaven for Teens reserves the right to edit your article by fixing grammatical errors and/or typos, deleting or adding words, and editing the length or structure of the article itself.

We also reserve the right to not publish your article if it breaks one of the four  guidelines listed above.

Step 6: Pray

Before submission, we highly encourage you to pray that God will use your article to bring hope to someone in need of advice or encouragement. We also encourage you to pray for the readers, that they will continue to grow closer to God in their situations and that He would bring them peace, hope, and healing.

Step 7: Submit!

You can submit your article here (link to article submission form) in this Google Form or you can go to our ‘Contribute’ page to access our form that way.

Step 8: Wait and Celebrate!

It may take a week or two for your article to be published. The management team does read each submission and occasionally edits them if we feel edits are necessary.

Conclusion:

Thank you so much for considering writing an article! We pray that you do, that your writing process goes well, and that these tips and questions help you feel more confident about writing an article.