Category Archives: Writing: books and other stuff

Writing for the Glory of God (Exposition)

Posted on by
1

A couple of weeks ago I published the Introduction to my workshop “Teaching Writing by Teaching Rewriting.” Here are some highlights from “Rewriting Exposition” (essentially, “non-story”).

If somebody is trying to write an article . . . or a newsletter . . . or a research paper . . . or a nonfiction book . . . . being aware of a few potential pitfalls can help.

First, in the organization. If you don’t start with an outline but instead write your piece as if you were writing an email (“here’s something I thought of, and oh I don’t want to forget this”), then you’ll need some help with rewriting. I actually really enjoy, in my editing work, helping people get their papers organized.

Second, in the tone. Writers can sometimes sound pompous and condescending or too flippant. There can even be an angry or downbeat or bitter tone to a work that can obstruct the writer’s message.

Third, in the use of passives and nominalizations. (Passive: “Permission was granted to us” instead of “She let us.” Nominalization: “She met the requirements of qualification” instead of “She qualified.”) For some reason, people who write exposition often think that they need to use lots of big words and write in a way that’s somewhat obscure. But just because our government does this all the time doesn’t mean the rest of us should do it—we actually want to be understood. (I think some people in the government are afraid of being understood, but that’s a matter for a different time.)

And last—and this is the hardest one—getting creatively specific.  It’s all too easy to write exposition in generalities. After all, that’s what I’m doing right now.

But I gave a specific about getting specific, borrowed from Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace (mentioned in my previous writing post).

Original statement, to rewrite: “People who live in big cities are generally threatened by street crime.”

Nothing wrong with that statement. It doesn’t violate any rules. But the replacement he has rewritten in the back is even better:

“A New Yorker can’t walk down Park Avenue without getting hit over the head.”

And suddenly, you see it.

Writing is all about drawing the reader in to your own thinking, to help him see what you see through his own eyes. Writing with creative specifics helps accomplish that goal. (After all, fiction isn’t the only “creative writing.”)

I gave my students—who were all teachers—a rewriting assignment. It was a (real) newsletter, poorly organized, full of passives and nominalizations, with a very negative and pompous tone. It needed to be cut in half and lightened up and given a positive tone, with a few creative and specific touches. Some of the teachers did an excellent job—maybe almost as good as the rewrite that my ninth-grade student did years ago.

This original newsletter came from the president of a Christian women’s group that eventually folded. As the teachers read the newsletter, someone said, “I can see why.”

If someone had helped with a rewrite?

It could have changed their history.

 

 

 

 

Writing for the Glory of God (Introduction)

Posted on by
Reply

Just before Thanksgiving I returned from a convention of the Florida branch of the Association of Christian Schools International in Orlando. It was a busy time, and preparation for it made me put my book writing on hold for a while.

But that’s not so much what I want to talk about. I want to give an outline of my two presentations. This one was called “Teaching Writing by Teaching Rewriting.”

One way to learn writing (or in this case, help our students learn writing) is to work on revising already-written material, either to help it meet some basic standards, or to accomplish some other purpose.

Why is this helpful?

For one thing, it removes the questions about what to write about. You know, for all those students who have some trouble getting their imaginations going.

But even for those of us with no end of imagination, rewriting the work of others can  still help. That’s because the writing belongs to someone else.

It’s comparable, I told the convention delegates, to the difference between cleaning out our own attic and cleaning out someone else’s. We’ll have no sentimental feelings and will be able to approach the writing more objectively.

‘Cause if you’re a writer, you know the feeling that this is your baby, and it’s very hard to cut off its arm. Somebody else’s? No problem.

Well, maybe that analogy wasn’t the best, but you get the idea.

The principles you use to work on someone else’s writing are ones that you’ll learn to objectively apply to your own, because ALL of us can afford to tighten and improve our writing.

And I recommended a book! It has served me well, yea, these 30 years. I’ve gone through it in-depth at least twice through the years and scanned it pretty thoroughly a third time.

It’s a unique book, I think, for learning rewriting, because the author teaches the principles, then gives assignments, then gives answers in the back so you can compare your work to his.

In the five stages of writing (prewriting, rough draft, revising, proofreading, final draft), it’s the third step, the revising, that gets short shrift, again and again. This workshop is designed to help remedy that problem.

The principles of rewriting are a passion for me, because rewriting is what my writing is all about. I find great stories, tweak them, add conversation and details, and help the work of God come alive for another generation.

I’ll explain some of the primary principles next time.

Looking for a publisher for your non-fiction book

Posted on by
Reply

Since several people have asked me for publishing advice, I’ll finally write what I’ve been considering writing for a while. My experience is limited, but I’ll tell you what I know.

When you’re writing non-fiction, first of all, you have to have either some sort of marketable uniqueness, or what is called a “platform.”

Uniqueness: You have to be able to show to the publisher that nobody else has published a book like yours, and there is definitely a market for it. Perhaps, for example, you can show that your book about Amy Carmichael is the first children’s biography of its kind, and that children need to know about this amazing woman. This takes research, but with the internet, the research is far easier to accomplish than it used to be.

Platform: Let’s say you’re writing a book on a topic about which there are already a hundred books, like, for example, a book for women about joy. Not only does your book need to be fresh and different, but also you need to show that you’ll have a significant ability to market the book yourself. Maybe you’re the pastor of a megachurch. Maybe you teach very large Bible study groups. Maybe you write regular magazine articles. You’re creating your own market. (Publishers want the author to be able to sell his own book.)

Second, I recommend getting Sally Stuart’s book The Christian Writer’s Market. A new edition comes out every year, with book and magazine publishers, and now even internet publishers. The market is constantly changing, so Sally keeps it up to date. Study this book and find all the publishers that seem like they would probably be interested in your book. This takes time.

Then, take that list of publishers and go to the internet and study the website of each one. If you’ve done your first assignment, you’ll know which ones have already published a book similar to yours, so you won’t want to pursue them. Look for one that might have a gaping hole in the very area you’re writing about.

Most publishers these days will describe online how authors can submit manuscripts, usually through an Author Information form and a Book Information form. The next step is, from the best publishers that you’ve chosen (probably around five to ten), take time to fill out these forms well and thoughtfully. This will take a lot more time.

Finally, submit these forms. Then wait. This will take more time, but at least you can be doing something else while you’re waiting (like catching up on all the housework that got backed up while you were working on your submission).

These are the basics. I’ll be glad sometime to elaborate on any aspects that aren’t clear. Also, I want to hasten to add that there are REAMS of information about this very topic out here in cyberspace written by people a lot more knowledgeable than I am. But I’m writing this for those people who have come, and will come, to me personally.

All best wishes in your writing. By God’s grace, for God’s glory!

Book-writing serendipity

Posted on by
2

One day in 2007, a friend began telling a long story he had heard that had left a deep impression on him. It was about a young man in Ethiopia who, in a desire to become rich, followed a coffee trader to a distant city and there finally heard the gospel and was saved. His voice was then recorded with the gospel message, and. . . .

I found the details fascinating. “Where did you get that story?”

“It’s on an old cassette tape Aunt Bonnie lent me.” (Aunt Bonnie was a ninety-year-old lady who was everybody’s aunt.)

“I’d like to listen to it,” I said.

A few days later he put it in my hands. Indeed it was old. It was from 1982, twenty-five years earlier. This missionary, Dick McLellan, was speaking at a local Bible school here in Greenville, telling one amazing story after another about the amazing work of God in Ethiopia.

So of course as I listened I thought, “I want to write a book.”

After months of dilly-dallying, transcribing the tape and trying to get the stories organized, I finally communicated with the Evangelical Institute of Greenville, asking for information about this man who was probably dead. After all, in 1982 he had already been a missionary for many years. How could he still be alive? I simply hoped that some family member would give me permission to write a book about him.

The head of the Institute referred me to Global Recordings, the mission group who had recommended this speaker. I wrote to them, and they forwarded my message, lo and behold . . . to Dick McLellan himself, who was alive and well and living in his hometown of Sydney, Australia.

All this correspondence happened within the course of a few days. I marvelled at the work of God to my teenage son: how, with modern technology, these letters had flown around the world and back again so quickly. He just gazed at me placidly and nodded.

And then Dick McLellan told me that he had recently self-published a book, containing most of the stories from the old cassette tape as well as many more that had occurred since 1982. The book had come out only since my friend had told me that story.

Within days it was in my hands.

I stood in awe that the Lord had given me not just a tape, but a book on which to base the stories I wanted to write for children.

And now the children’s book is in production, With Two Hands: Stories of God at Work in Ethiopia, the first in the Hidden Heroes series. Christian Focus Publications of Scotland will be releasing it next spring.

And even as I stand in amazement of the work of God in one story after another that this book portrays, I also stand in amazement of the work of God that brought the stories into my hands and allowed me to be one of the instruments He has used to get them to the hands of children and their parents.