Why write? What’s the purpose of writing?

• Communicate ideas

• Explain

• Teach 

• Persuade

• Tell a story

    Nonfiction methods are typically used for the first four methods. The fifth, tell a story, employs fiction.

     Much of our culture is entertainment driven, so weaving storytelling into nonfiction aids in communication, explanation, teaching, and persuading.

     What do you want to accomplish with your writing? If you ask yourself what you want to take away from reading a book, your response becomes the answer to the initial question.

     As a copyeditor and three-time Christy Award judge, I am amazed at what gets published. To me much of it is substandard. It’s second- or third-rate writing. By that I mean several things, some of which include: The plot is not compelling, and/or the conflict is not challenging, ever growing. Often the characters are stiff or flat. Word choice might be boring, even full of mistakes. Maybe the point of view is all over the place.

    One well-known author said this about her work: “Write truth. Sometimes it hurts a great deal to peel away the layers of self-deception . . . but it draws us closer to Jesus. It also ministers to others who are struggling with the same issues. Just as Jesus used parables to explain the kingdom of God, I would like to follow his example by writing stories that show what these things mean in practical, day-to-day living.”

     I believe she has focused on the noble purpose of writing: a tool to help others who may be struggling with issues in their lives; not just to entertain, though it certainly can do that, but to open our hearts to the truth.

Last week I promised we would discuss pet words. Two groups of pet words crop up in writing. The first is comprised of words such as “somehow,” “suddenly,” “some,” “things,” “kind of,” and the like. Much like “empty” words we talked about a few weeks ago, they take up space but don’t tell or show readers anything. Get rid of them. If you don’t, you’ll have to pay the copyeditor to do it for you.

            A second group of pet words are those that individual authors favor and seem to find a way to fit into every manuscript. If these words are strong “showing” words, use them, but sparingly. If you overuse them, they lose their freshness and effectiveness.

            My sister, a writer, loves to use “brandish”—weapons, fists, anything that is brandishable! (She’s older than me, so you can only imagine what I had to put up with while growing up in her brandishing shadow!) As her editor, I let her use it once or twice in a manuscript. If she’s writing a short story, she gets only one shot. Of course, in both types of manuscripts, she can only include brandish if it fits well within the context. And if all her characters brandish weapons or other items, it grows tiresome and wears on the readers. In this case, less is better.

            In our next session, I’m going to make a little shift and talk about the art of writing. But don’t worry, I’ll continue to add snippets of self-editing tips each session. By the way, “snippet” is one of my pet words!