Digging for the Truth in All the Fandoms: My Process and How to Get Started!

Greetings, fellow fangirl! This is a post that I’ve been meaning to write for YEARS now, but especially since the release of the Fangirl: Fulfilled devotional journal on Amazon! Today I’m giving you an in-depth description of the process that goes into every fandom post and journal page, in hopes that you’ll be equipped and inspired to start your own Fangirl: Fulfilled journey. Enjoy!

Using a Devotional Journal

I designed the Fangirl: Fulfilled journal with daily or weekly practice in mind. As believers, it’s important to consistently spend time in the Word, in prayer, and in fellowship with other believers. I believe that this journal can be a tool to explore the Word and grow in our faith in a way that specifically speaks to our fangirl/boy hearts. With that said, you don’t have to do a full exploration of a fandom every single day! It’s up to you: some things may be a one-sitting process, while others might take a few days to fully digest. You can use this journal every day, or come back to it whenever you feel inspired to explore a particular fandom! It’s your game, friend 😸

Choosing a Fandom

We all consume media of various forms on a daily basis, whether we want to or not. When I’m listening to a new song, watching a new show or movie, or reading a new book, I always try to keep this verse in mind:

Finally, brothers [and sisters,] whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Philippians 4:8 NAsb20

When I was first designing the Fangirl: Fulfilled journal, I wanted this to be the recurring theme throughout, the filter through which all the fandoms we choose to explore should be viewed. Most of the fandoms that I love have elements that point to the key words in Philippians 4:8. The beautifully written love songs, the characters that will do anything for the ones they love, the unlikely heroines who spread the idea of revolution and resistance simply by doing what they’ve always done, all point to things that are true, lovely, noble, just, excellent, etc.

The Vision Board

I put a couple of pages at the beginning of each Fangirl/Fandom: Fulfilled devotional journal to set an intention for what you hope to accomplish by working in the journal. For me, this has ended up as a sort of creative storytelling experience where I imagine who, what, when, where, why, and how I’d like my time with the Lord to be. I’ve done this twice now and it’s been so cool to see how different fandoms influence my imaginary scenes and personas each time! Here’s a picture of the first Fangirl Vision Board I made:

I’ll be posting a flip through of this completed journal and how I set up the vision board for my new one on my Instagram very soon!

The Fandom Pages

Each fandom that you unpack has SIX WHOLE PAGES dedicated to it, four of which have different prompts to guide you through the process. There’s also a How To Use This Journal Page in the front of the journal to reference whenever you need to 🥰 Here’s a look at how each page functions:

The Fandom

The first page is dedicated to FANGIRLING over whichever story or song you’ve selected for a particular day. If you’re digging into a book, movie, or show, I recommend narrowing it down to just one specific scene, character, or underlying theme per page. This will allow you to extract as much meaning as possible without getting overwhelmed by alllllllll the things you love about your fandom! If you’re exploring a song, you can use this space to write down your favorite lyrics (which in some cases is all of them 😆)

Here’s a look at a couple of my Fandom pages; as you can see, some of them end up being more decorative, while others are just straight writing all the way down the page.

This is your space to go ham on your fandoms, obsessing over the beauty and the goodness and the wonderful amazing things that humans have created! Give yourself permission to think and write about those things, because it will bring you joy and, ultimately, glorify God in the process.

The Verses

The next step in this process is to pull out the themes and topics in the fandom that you just spent time admiring and appreciating, and then finding Bible verses and themes that match with it. Think of it like a scavenger hunt, like Elsa following the mysterious voice-that-feels-like-home into Ahtohallan and discovering a new side of who she is. This can be the best part of using this journal! Let me break it down just a little bit more:

1. Find the subjects or themes of your fandom (unconditional love, loneliness, hope, resistance, seeing the good in people, etc.)
2. Think of/find Bible verses on the same topic – if you need help, a good Google search will pull up some options, or you can use this resource : )
3. Watch out! Make sure that you consider the context of the verses you find so that you don’t misinterpret them. A simple way to do this is to look at the surrounding verses. If you’re still not sure, you can use the wealth of free online resources to help you with commentaries, word studies and cross-references. I recommend this one, which allows you to look up verses and pull up each tool as you need it. For commentaries, David Guzik and Charles Spurgeon are my favorites. This is the resource that I use on every single one of my fandom posts, so any that you read will include all the nerdy word-devouring tools to use : )
4. Write out the verses you find. If you’re a visual human like me, writing each one in a different color can be helpful! I also like to use a particular color for the references to make them easy to find.

Once again, the aesthetic of this page can be a fun element to the process, but the most important thing is to find, write down, and meditate on the Word of God. I’ve found and understood SO MANY verses in a new way because of this method! It’s also a fantastic record of how you’ve been growing in the Word and in your faith, and your journal will make a wonderful testimony of the ways that God has spoken to you through the things you already love. Here’s a look at how some of my verse studies have gone:

Application

Okay, so now we’ve spent some time appreciating a fandom, and we’ve found some truths that go with it, but this next step is especially important: applying it to your actual, real life. The Application page is split into two parts: a blank space to write down any extra notes you might want to get down, and an “I Will” section where you can write down two or three actionable statements of how you can live out the truths you’ve just uncovered in your daily life. This can sometimes be hard, but it will hopefully keep you accountable to become more obedient and faithful to the Word that you’ve just uncovered! It can also be helpful to look back on these pages a few days, weeks, or months later and see how you have or haven’t grown. Come to think of it, I should probably do some of this myself 😅😆

Here’s a look at how some of my Application pages turned out:

Prayer & Share

To close out our devotional time, I included two more prompts to work through. First, there’s a space on this page to write out a prayer in response to what you’ve learned. You can make this fancy and beautiful by using your very best pen, or color over it when you’re finished to cover up what you’ve written. Whatever the case, it’s important to acknowledge that anything we accomplish, especially being obedient to the Word, is dependent on God. I need to hear this too! This is a good opportunity to ask God to shape your heart and make you obedient to the truth you’ve just learned, bringing it to mind when you need it. He is faithful and will work in your heart when you ask Him to : )

Here’s a look at how a couple of my pages have gone:

The second half of this page is a way to make sure that you SHARE what you’ve learned with fellow fan-people (and normal humans too, I guess). I’ve included an online category for your social media of choice and an “irl” category for your real-life people. This is an excellent space to connect with fellow fans of your fandom and gain a new way to share truth and speak life to them.

Platform/Free Space Pages

The last part of each fandom journal space is a two-page free space that I’ve called the “platform pages.” These pages are designed to give you a place to strategize how you can turn each and every one of your fandoms, from Owl City to Moana, into a way to share the Gospel with your fellow fan-people. It can also be a place for you to come back to your fandom pages later on and reflect on them again, discovering new truths or being reminded of what you learned. Some (okay, many) of the Platform Pages in my current Fangirl: Fulfilled journal are still blank, and that’s okay! Even when every page has been assigned a fandom and I’ve moved on to a new journal, I can still come back and rejoice in my fandoms all over again 😊

Here’s what some of my filled-in “platform pages ended up looking like:

Conclusion

I hope you were inspired by this in-depth look at my process of digging for truth in all my fandoms. Here’s how you can start your own journey!

• Download a FREE printable version of the Fangirl: Fulfilled devotional journal from my ko-fi shop! This a previous iteration of the design that may someday be available on Amazon, but is currently exclusive to ko-fi. It includes pre-designed borders on every page to help get your creative juices flowing, and you can print it as many times as you’d like!
• Follow me on Instagram, TikTok and through WordPress to keep getting inspired – I’d love to be digital friends!! Please feel free to send me a direct message or email thefangirlfulfilled@gmail.com anytime. If you follow me and it looks like we have a shared love of all the fandoms, I’ll most likely follow you back!
• Purchase a bound copy of the Fangirl: Fulfilled or Fandom: Fulfilled (the gender-neutral version that ISN’T pink or purple!) on Amazon for as little as $5 on Amazon – WITH Prime shipping!! The black-and-white version is only $4.99, the colored versions are just a little bit pricier : )

Once again, I hope you enjoyed and were inspired by this post. If you do decide to do any of the things listed above, I’d love to know!!

Happy fangirling!