{"id":605,"date":"2007-10-02T14:23:17","date_gmt":"2007-10-02T18:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/605"},"modified":"2007-10-02T14:23:42","modified_gmt":"2007-10-02T18:23:42","slug":"best-advice-on-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/605","title":{"rendered":"Best advice on writing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had several conversations with people about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153how to write\u00e2\u20ac\u009d lately. That topic seems to come in waves and in seasons. Over the course of several weeks all of a sudden it seems people get interested in the matter of writing, becoming a writer, or beginning a writing project. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m never sure about how to help people who come for advice on writing. While I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve published a few books and write a lot, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t identify myself as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a writer.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d For me writing is more about having an opportunity to think than it is about getting my name in print, or feeling like I \u00e2\u20ac\u0153have something to say.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d More often that not, writing for me is a cathartic mind dump. Or, as I kid, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It helps stop the voices in my head.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Below are some of the points on writing I offer by way of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153advice\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when people ask. There are more literary and more poetic and inspiring advice on writing out there, but these are the ones I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve found helpful:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Keep a journal.<\/strong> I keep two, one beside the bedside where I jot down ideas and phrases I come across while reading. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one from last night: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Courage is the virtue of the weak.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d A great line I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll unpack sometime in the future.\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Write every day<\/strong>. Writing is a craft, and like all crafts its mastery is the result of the discipline of practice. If there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one reason to blog, this is it.\n<\/li>\n<li>Publish a newsletter. A specifically focused way of writing with a specific audience and a specific purpose. After publishing a newsletter for a few years I had enough material for a book.\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Read good literature. <\/strong>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Read books on writing.<\/strong> I read at least one book on writing per year. On occasion I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll also subscribe to one of the writing periodicals.\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Write letters.<\/strong> A lost art that should be reclaimed. Read over the letters of Civil War soldiers and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be convinced. E-mails aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t letters.\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Learn to type\u00e2\u20ac\u201deven if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s using the hunt and peck method.<\/strong> Some people prefer longhand, which is fine. I like the feel of the flow of a fine fountain as much as the next person. But unless you want to forever pay a typist for manuscript services, learn to type.\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Have something to say when you write. <\/strong>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Write about what you know.<\/strong> We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t often belief that what we know will be of interest to anyone else, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just not true. Share what you know.\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Avoid vagueness terms<\/strong> (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153would,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153may,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153perhaps,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153some people,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153could be,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d etc.).\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Be precise <\/strong>(say what you mean and mean what you say).\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Write simply <\/strong>(leave the big words for the dissertation writing).\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Prepare an outline before writing.<\/strong> Better yet, learn to use mindmapping. I can usually mindmap a book project in about 40 minutes cold, and the final project won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t change much from there.\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Edit your work<\/strong>, get someone else to edit it, then edit it again. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the secret about writing: writing is in the editing. Most of my book projects required about five editorial revisions before being ready for consumption.\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Put the work aside <\/strong>for two weeks, then review and edit it again. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to read one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own writing when one is too close to it.\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Keep writing. <\/strong>The more you write, the better you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get at it. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not much more to it than that.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Adapted from <i>A Christian Educator\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Book of Lists<\/i> by Israel Galindo (Macon, GA: Smyth &#038; Helwys, ) You can order the book from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.helwys.com\/books\/galindo2.html\">the publisher<\/a>,  or from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Help-Christian-Educators-Book-Lists\/dp\/1573123471\/ref=sr_1_8\/002-1348573-6678418?ie=UTF8&#038;s=books&#038;qid=1189370984&#038;sr=1-8\">Amazon.com. <\/a><\/p>\n<p><img src='http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/06\/galindobanner3.jpg' alt='galindobanner3.jpg' \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had several conversations with people about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153how to write\u00e2\u20ac\u009d lately. That topic seems to come in waves and in seasons. Over the course of several weeks all of a sudden it seems people get interested in the matter of &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/605\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,36,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-education","category-curriculum","category-technology-and-education"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}