"10 Tips on How to Write Less Badly" Article

Al Mohler tweeted this article on how to write less badly. His favorite line was #5, "Everyone's unwritten work is brilliant."

My favorite was #2, "Set goals based on output, not input." No matter how long it took me to write this post - 10 minutes or 10 hours, the results are the same: my result is one post.

The genius of this simple statement is easily applied to a wide variety of tasks, writing-related and otherwise. Definable goals based on output make a big difference.

I'm sure I'll be revisiting this, oh, about November 1st.

Writer's Digest Books - Everyday Biblical Literacy

Writer's Digest Books - Everyday Biblical Literacy

I find it fascinating that anyone recognizes a need for this. But even more fascinating is that it is a secular publisher of books on writing. It leaves me wondering who exactly perceived the need?

I haven't read the book, or even seen any excerpts. If anyone knows anything about it, make sure to drop a note in the comments.

How Do You Write?

I've posted about how I write. Now it's your turn.

I'm asking an open-ended question that is as broad or narrow as you want to make it.

How do you write?

I'm curious about everything, from the process to the tools.

What do you use to compose your posts? Text editor? Word processor? Blogging client? Which one? Is there anyone who uses pen and paper?

Where do you get your ideas? Do you outline, or just sit down and write? How long does the typical post take from inception to completion? Do you endlessly revise, or is your post close to completion by the time you type it out?

Give me details.

Or, as a guideline, you can work off the questions I answered.

1) What blogging tools do you use?
2) How do you post?

Edit: the "how do you post" question was trying to find out if posts were planned or spur-of-the-moment, or a combination. Wondering who writes posts or series ahead of time, and whose writing is primarily a response to what they have read, see, or are feeling. Sorry that wasn't clear.

3) How do you get your ideas?
4) Who is your target audience?
5) What do you hope to say or accomplish with your blog?

P.S. You can leave your comments here, or better yet, make a post on your blog, and put the link in the comments for this post.

How I Write

Continuing with the mini-theme of writing I've had going on lately, I thought I'd take a couple days to focus on the mechanics of it. Today I'm jotting down some thoughts about how I blog. Next time, I'll turn the questions outward, and see how everyone else does it.

1) WHAT BLOGGING TOOLS DO YOU USE?

After briefly flirting with word processors of various types, I'm back where I started - text editors and ASCII files. It became too difficult to keep track of various document types over multiple computers. None of the word processors I used did a competent job handling a blog format (which is sort of a hybrid between plain text and HTML).

HTML itself was overkill, because the markup I use is minimal. I'm pretty unimaginative when it comes to formatting - I use mostly italics, with a hint of bold here or there. I add weblinks either using a text clip, or add it in Blogger's editor after I write my post. Pictures are usually the last thing I add. And I'll even use colour, but only on rare occasions. I'm like the kid with the big box of crayons who only uses black.

Normally I'll use a text editor, like TED Notepad, but I do use one word processor: XyWrite. It's a DOS editor from the early 90's which saves using an ASCII text format (sort of a proto-XML). I'm still in search of a free text editor which handles Unicode and will let me use editable macros, but what I use gets the job done for now.

For online composition, I have had some success with the Firefox ScribeFire extension. But I use the "post to draft" option (see next question for more details).

2) HOW DO YOU POST?

I rarely post anything directly to the blog. After the composition phase is complete, it usually gets posted as a draft, and then I make sure all the formatting is right. I would say close to half of my posts have been done completely away from Blogger's editor. That that number moves up to 2/3rds or more when you start talking about longer posts.

My typical pattern is compose and edit offline, post as draft, add markup, links, and pictures, and then post.

3) HOW DO YOU GET YOUR IDEAS?

It's pretty simple, actually. I usually just see something, and think "that would make an interesting blog." It can be from something I read or from a discussion I'm having with someone. Many times a point that comes up during one-on-one conversation seems like it would be interesting enough to throw out there for a larger audience.

When I was younger, my dad was always clipping newspaper articles. Some he saved for himself. Certain articles were clipped with certain people in mind. Sort of a way of saying "thinking of you."

I picked up the habit in high school. Later on, as my reading moved more to online stuff, I started sending e-mail links. Blogging was a natural fit. Sort of an online clip repository, where you could link to something and then say "this is interesting" and say what you liked about it.

That's how my blog started. It's kind of grown from there.

4) WHO IS YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE?

J. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5 and accomplished screenwriter (as well as writing comic books more recently), once said that his demographic was himself. He said "Basically, I write the story that I would like to see as a viewer."

That's pretty much my approach to blogging. I hope others are interested and read. What writer doesn't hope that? But at the end of the day, I write mostly about what I'm interested in. There are exceptions to this, where I have one person or a small group of people in mind. But those are for specific posts. For the blog as a whole, it's basically what I'd like to read.

5) WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO SAY OR ACCOMPLISH WITH YOUR BLOG?

As I said, one hope is that others would be interested and read. That's the writer part of me. The father in me hopes that this will serve as a record of some sort, and that there will be something redeeming in it for the next generation.

My expectations are pretty modest. Most weeks my readership is between 20-25 people per day. With rare exceptions, my best weeks have been in the 30s. Big numbers aren't why I write. Honestly, a post that gets a couple of comments is better than one read by bunches of people with no reaction or feedback.

My primary hope and desire is to honor God. After that, it's basically to express myself.

Flash Non-Fiction

Flash fiction is a term used for short-short stories. I picked up a book recently called The World's Shortest Stories, which is a collection of short stories just 55 words long, based on the 55 Fiction Concept. 55 words doesn't seem like a lot until you compare it to those who have limited themselves to even shorter lengths, such as the aforementioned 6 word stories.

Here's an example of the concept applied to non-fiction, courtesy of Pyromaniacs. 50 words is a severe limit no matter what you're writing, but particularly in the area of non-fiction. Kudos to the Pyro guys for coming up with posts that are both entertaining and edifying.

If that's not concise enough for you, Abraham Piper tries keeps his posts to 22 words. All I can say is wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Verbal decluttering, indeed.

For the rest of use mere mortals, 800 words is perhaps a more reasonable cutoff (suggested by Andrée Seu in a reprint of a World Magazine article on writing. (HT: JT).

6 Word Stories

Kim recently talked about verbal decluttering. It reminded me of an article I read recently from Wired magazine, where they had writers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror write an entire story in just six words.

Here were my favorites.

Computer, did we bring batteries? Computer?

- Eileen Gunn

Lie detector eyeglasses perfected: Civilization collapses.

- Richard Powers

Will this do (lazy writer asked)?

- Ken MacLeod

Steve ignores editor's word limit and

- Steven Meretzky  

AND

Help! Trapped in a text adventure!

- Marc Laidlaw

Writing and the Christian Life

For years I've dreamed of becoming a published author. And, because of my unique bent (I must be part graduate assistant or something), I invested quite a bit of time in learning about writing.

I subscribed to writing magazines, like Writer's Digest and The Writer, reading the tips and trying to gain the right mindset. I researched genres, like Science Fiction and Mystery, so that I would be as familiar and equipped as I could be to make my run at being published. I watched Book TV on CSPAN2, to hear real authors speak about their books. I listened to the audiobook for Writing Down the Bones, enduring Natalie Goldberg's Buddhist and Lesbian remarks, to try to glean tips about writing. (I got one very important thing from her, which I'll share at some point in the future.)

And then there were the books.

I started hitting up the used bookstores, trying to get my hands on books that would move me further down the path. I filled my bookshelves with books about the craft. I joined the Writer's Digest Book Club to pick up additional titles like Roget's Super Thesaurus, so that I would have the right reference tools on hand.

After that I began the quest to find the rest of the tools necessary to get the job done. I researched software, looking for the right text editor, word processor, notekeeper--anything I could find to help with my mission. Of course, on a limited budget, I didn't actually buy any software, though I did run across RoughDraft, which to this day I use to write just about everything that isn't text based--ie, needs formatting. It's free, and everyone running Windows ought to have a copy of it installed on their computer. Someday I'll finish my review of it and get it posted.

(This software search is an ongoing process, by the way. I still look for writing tools every so often, though I think I've gotten everything that's sensible; one I don't have yet is Writer's Blocks, but that's because it costs $300--that's a lot of money for virtual index cards. Don't even get me started on how many text editors I have installed on my computer...)

Here's where I need to confess something: I'm a sucker for reading about writing. I love it! Among my favorites reads on writing are (in no particular order) On Writing, by Stephen King, Telling Lies for Fun & Profit, by Lawrence Block, and Raymond Chandler's classic essay "The Simple Art of Murder," and the newsgroup musings of J. Michael Straczynski; I even have a book of "meditations for writers" called Walking on Alligators. Then of course, there is the abundance of writing books that sit untouched on my shelves, and though it's ever more likely that I won't be able to read them all, I can't bring myself to part with just yet.

But for all that effort, there was still something missing. I lacked one important element. The important element, in fact. See, in all my efforts to learn about writing, I had forgotten the cardinal rule of writing. The only one you can never break:

Writers write. And I wasn't writing.

It's cliche, I know, but true nonetheless, that for all my research, for all my books, both read and unread, I've learned more about writing by sitting in front of this screen and banging away at the keyboard than from all the rest combined.

Now at this point, some of you are saying "you're over 600 words, man, but where's the Christian life?" Others of you know where I'm going, because it's so predictably easy.

We've been talking about reading books, and about reading the Bible, but unless we're actually doing something, then it's all just an intellectual exercise. We're just going through the motions, and pretending there's something there when there's not.

Reading about Christianity, even the best books by Charnock, Owen, Calvin, and {insert theological heavyweight and/or favorite Christian author here} will not make you a Christian any more than me reading about writing made me a writer.

To be a Christian, you must have a relationship with Jesus Christ; merely passively reading books and yes, even the Bible, will do you no good if nothing happens as a result. So while I think it's great to set reading goals, and read through the Bible in a year, and all the rest, don't make the same mistake I made with writing. Earnestly pursue that relationship with him, so that your name will be published in the Lamb's Book of Life.