Abbey
Cherry is a spunky, fun-loving young writer from Cincinnati, Ohio. She can most
often
be found laughing and having a good time with friends. Her more serious
side is founded in her
joyful faith in God.
Cherry
is working towards her bachelor degree in Journalism and Public Relations with
a minor in Missions and Ministry as a senior at the University of the
Cumberlands, a Southern Baptist school in Williamsburg, Ky.
While
UC's known as a Christian school, Cherry recognizes that not everyone at UC is
a Christian. She has a passion to live out her faith and get other students
excited about God and sharing the gospel with others.
Cherry has done so by being involved in Baptist Campus Ministries for
all of her four years at UC, ministering at Disciple Now and being involved in
Appalachian Ministries. She has also been a small group leader and a resident assistant
for two and a half years. She shares her faith through her articles on her blog
and for UC's campus newspaper, The Patriot.
I
spoke to Cherry about her inspiration for writing, how she gets readers hooked,
and the importance of being passionate about what you’re writing.
Lydia Huggins: How
long have you been writing?
Abbey Cherry:
Looking back, I started really writing in middle school. I was always on
a platform academically, athletically, socially, within the church, etc. So I
always had to watch how I responded to situations because eyes were always on
me. Therefore, I started writing just as a way to get my mind clear of stuff.
Through high school I began really channeling my writing and discovered, “Hey
maybe I can do something with this.”
LH: What inspires
you to write?
AC: Whatever I’m passionate about. If there’s
something that I really enjoy, then I’m going to put all my emotion that I can
into it. That’s what I do in my writing, find something that I can connect with
and the words just come.
LH: What makes you
passionate?
AC: If you’re going to write about something, you
have to write about something you’re passionate about. For me, faith comes up
in everything that I do. My faith is a huge aspect of who I am and it evidences
itself in my writing.
LH: Why do you feel
so passionate about faith-based writing?
AC: God is involved in every aspect of our lives. I
believe there is a story to be told whether it has to do with sports or even
with something as serious as the weather, like a hurricane or something.
There’s always a story there of someone saying, “God got me through this.”
Faith and God is in every aspect of our lives. We just need to be looking for
Him.
LH: How do you get
people who don’t have faith interested in your writing?
AC: When I write about faith, I’m not putting God up
on a platform. It’s writing about things that people are interested in. Writing
about say the football team, who this past season went undefeated, that is a
story that people want to know about. In writing it, I incorporated how Bible
studies were being started. You take a hot topic and you’re not shoving Jesus
down their throat, but you are still incorporating a faith-based element to
your human-interest piece.
LH: Do you think
that your stories have much impact?
AC: I’ve gotten emails from faculty members. I had
one just a couple of weeks ago. Somebody emailed me asking if they could run a
story that I wrote, in their hometown newspaper. It’s really awesome to know,
hey, people are reading this. When someone retweets, “Hey, check this article
out that Abbey wrote.” That’s really awesome and for any writer getting
readership is always huge, especially when they’re complimenting you on the
piece.
LH: What was your
first published story and how have you improved since then?
AC: I wrote for my school newspaper in high school.
I had a piece that went to a small town newspaper. It was a funny piece on
black Friday shopping. That was the first time I realized that I could be funny
with my writing and people would appreciate it. As far as the school [UC], I’ve
written for The Patriot. Gosh, I look back at some of my earlier pieces and I’m
like oh my gosh that is so embarrassing [laughter]. I have grown as a writer.
That comes with experience. The more you write the more you’re going to become
more acquainted with finding your style and voice.
LH: You mentioned
that you write faith-based stories, but you also said something about funny
stories. What is your favorite story that you have written and why?
AC: I’d probably have to say, a four-page feature
story that I wrote about when I went to Uganda. It is probably my favorite
piece. Again, faith was a huge aspect of that. I wrote about a very hot topic talking
about Joseph Kony, a guy that was raiding all these villages in Uganda, killing
people left and right. I had an interaction with one of the girls affected by
those village raids. I had an amazing conversation with her while I was in
Uganda and I felt that her story was worth sharing because through everything
that she had encountered, her faith in God grew so much through that. Those are
the stories that are worth sharing, people that are overcomers and defeating
the odds. There was a lot of emotion that I put into that story and it was
something that I personally really connected with. As far as readership, the
most feedback I’ve gotten on a story was from one I didn’t think was that
great. It was the “Guns and God” article that I wrote. I found out that there
was a professor on campus using it for an English class. I got about six
different emails on that article. For whatever reason, I guess because we’re in
Kentucky, they like their guns and they like their God so it went over fairly
well.
LH: I know you have
some background in video journalism. Do you prefer video or writing Journalism?
AC: Definitely writing. It’s really awesome to be
creative with video journalism. It’s inspired me for creating kind of a
ministry out of it; not really sharing factual news story per say, but telling
stories in a creative way, visually. That is something that I really did like,
but as far as straight news stories that’s really not my cup of tea. You won’t
find me at channel five anytime soon [laughter].
LH: What are your
plans after graduation?
AC: Church answer, wherever God leads. I am in a
social media class and lately one thing that I’ve been really fascinated with
is the idea of combining online based content: social media and blogging with
the church. We can connect these two forms with my two passions writing and
faith. With the growing social media age that we have, there’s a huge platform
for sharing Christ in a new and creative way. I’m really excited about getting
involved in that exploding field.
LH: I know you’re a
faith-based writer, but would you consider writing in a secular work place and
how would you incorporate your faith-based writing there, if so?
AC: I would consider writing anywhere. It’s like I
said, you can find faith and God in any aspect of your life. Sports have always
been a huge interest to me. If I wanted to write about sports, I would
definitely pursue that. How would I incorporate faith? You can get your point
across in a very subtle way. One thing that does aggravate me, and I think is
something where the church is really wrong, is shoving Jesus down people’s
throat, which is why I am such a big fan of Relevant Magazine. They take Jesus
into the culture in such a beautiful way. But as a writer, you’re taught to be
creative. You learn to find aspects in stories where you can just put a little
blurb of the message of Christ in there. If we just come up with creative ways
to do so then the message of Christ will get out whether it’s simply sharing
about his love and his grace.
LH: It seems pretty
easy how you put in Christ subtly through your writings because that’s what
inspires you to write is your faith, but what is the biggest challenge that you
face as a young writer?
AC: We live in a world where the church has a very
bad image. For me, wanting to write about faith and about God there is a
challenge because people don’t necessarily want to read it. At the same time,
that’s also the driving force for me: finding how can I relay this message in a
relevant culture driven way. As much as it is a challenge, it’s also a driving
force for me saying let’s show people that God is in all aspects of their life,
whether they want to admit it or not, He’s there.
LH: What kind of
advice and encouragement can you give to other young writers?
AC: Find what you’re passionate about and go for it.
You can write about anything. I know there are magazines out there for if
you’re a donkey owner or there are magazines for boats just like all this
random stuff. There’s a target audience out there for you. Find whatever it is
you’re passionate about and pursue that with all that you have. If you, as a
writer, are not passionate and don’t believe in what you’re writing, then your
readers will never believe as well. Own what you’re writing and give it
everything that you’ve got from there.
