Writing
My writings are featured on FaithWriters.com. Below is a short writing class I developed for aspiring writers. You may also see excerpts from my published work, Cardboard Astronaut by clicking here.
Writing is a vehicle to convey your thoughts, inspiration and ideas. What you do with your writing depends on where you want that vehicle to go.
1. The Mint.
Nita Green had a mustang that was in cherry condition. It was kept in a garage, covered and was started once a week for a few minutes. For her the value in the vehicle was the vehicle itself, unspoiled, pristine and hidden from view to keep it from being blighted. Some of your writings will fall into this category, the writing is the end in itself and the value for you is that you have it, tucked away some where. It’s an exclusive collection that you keep, look at every now and then. Maybe you even start into it occasionally to keep it fresh. I have a folder on my laptop called “Writings” that is full of tidbits of writing, verse fragments and book beginnings.
If you are already doing this, than you don’t have to change anything. This is for you and nobody else. You should have a collection of this type of writing that fluctuates in size. Most of my writing starts here, some stays, other stuff progresses all the way through the other types. This is “exclusive” writing.
2. The Personal Vehicle.
These writings are your expression.
Personal concepts and/or compositions that carry you somewhere. Journaling is a great personal vehicle. Something like a little two-seat sports car. Fast, sleek, impressive, but only you ride in it and maybe one other person, occasionally.
I have a private (not the same as exclusive) collection of writings that I share with the right people at the right time. This could be a permission based blog site with only one or two people who I share concepts with. As an example: I was collaborating with a friend in another state on a document about church planting in the 21st century and how we would do it differently if we were to pursue the concept. We were writing and discussing this in complete confidence because the nature of the document wasn’t “traditional” in the way we were conceptualizing it. An acquaintance of mine connected with me about the same time. I included him in the conversation and the concepts and before I knew it phones were ringing and people were angry because he talked about it publicly to some people who were threatened by the concept. Needless to say he doesn’t ride in my personal vehicle anymore.
You can use www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com among hundreds of other online blog sites for a permission based blog (online thought repository). Another vehicle, which is riskier, is to use email. We’ve all seen scandals where this personal vehicle is brought into a public forum and the intent (destination) is misunderstood or misappropriated.
3. The Family vehicle.
Carries a larger group, but limited to close associates that are going to the same specific destination that you are. Think leadership team, church planters, think tank.
Some of your exclusive content will make it here, much of your private content will make it here, and everything here will be influenced by the first two.
I have a small group of people that I share ideas with through www.igoogle.com. In Google Documents you can share and edit live online documents with your “family group”. It’s free, it’s brilliant, it’s accessible from any online computer and it’s free! These people are going to the same place I am, they are focused on many of the same projects. I am comfortable to share leadership ideas, challenge their thought processes and also open myself to their influence. The beauty of our digital culture is that we can do this totally live, totally paperless, in real time and free. Free is a big deal.
The online blog is also a great avenue for this because you can widen the audience and still maintain a smaller distribution. As a writer, you should see this vehicle as essential because it helps keep your ideas from stagnating or veering to far left (or right).
4. The Mass Transit (City Bus)
Carry people you don’t know well on a predetermined route. Some get on, some get off, they are usually regular in their participation and are happy to pay a small fee (in our case it could be monetary, but it could also be with time, respect, comments and/or recommendations).
They have a destination in mind but it may not be all the way where you are going specifically. You are part of the ride, important, but not exclusive.
This is where we all want to be, selling books, having thousands or millions of readers. Most of the personal and family vehicle content will come here in finished thoughts. Remember, though, when you “submit” your writing to a book publisher you are “submitting” it. They chart the course, plan the destination and even rework the material at their discretion according to their pre-established route. In some circles your radical ideas from the mint collection would be ruined here. At this point your writing will not remain pristine. If your work is outside of the box it will be vilified (you will be vilified) by some. The ideas may even be edited in a way that changes some of the original intent for the sake of the sale (the publisher’s ultimate destination).
Another way to move your work into the area of mass transit is to use the digital avenue of self publishing. It’s mass transit on a smaller route.
It probably won’t garnish a huge following overnight, but it will develop a mass that begins to connect with your concepts and ideas. Also, you set the course and the destination because you don’t “submit” the work to someone else. There are a few great avenues to drive this vehicle down. For paperless publishing the blog sites work. However, that can be a very limited audience because there are millions of blogs online, until you create a following.
For the self publisher talent is not the biggest asset, credibility is the asset you need most. Credibility doesn’t happen because you stand up and declare yourself an expert on some issue. It happens when people who know you begin to acknowledge your work as a reliable source for information.
A big part of successfully building a following is to understand your audience. People will read a 1,000 page novel of some one’s work that they already have confidence in. If they are reading the 1,000 page book, they’ve probably read the 150 page work first, or, they know someone who read the 1,000 pager and recommended it. Another reason they might commit their time is because they know the author and have confidence that he/she won’t waste their time. One more reason is that they are reading something because they have been mandated to read it.
So, if you’ve never self-published anything before, don’t throw your life’s work out there first. If you don’t have a following of people who are ready to receive it you may be disappointed and discouraged by the lack of response. Instead publish a collection of smaller works through various avenues. You may even publish the same writings through different mediums. For example:
I self published a book called “Cardboard Astronaut” through www.lulu.com, an online self publishing site. I was able to download a windows template so all of my formatting was correct and specific to the size of book I would publish. Then I used a FREE converter at www.pdfonline.com to convert my word document to .pdf and uploaded it to cafepress.com. I ordered 1 copy, proofed it, and then ordered 15 to sell.
I also took several of the chapters and published some of them as excerpts at www.faithwriters.com which publish some as for sale and some as read only. They also show up as reprint articles on a site called www.faithreaders.com They all have a link to my personal site where you can buy the book.
Faithwriters.com is a free online community for Christian writers. They then published my free reprint articles on www.faithreaders.com, another avenue for people to be able to read more of my work. People I have never met are not reading my work because of my credibility, but because of Faithwriters.com’s credibility. I also published several of these articles on my personal website, and blogs.
I also reference online published articles in discussions I have with various leaders through facebook, myspace and twitter. Through these avenues I can give bite size summaries that people will read and then, if they are intrigued or their interest is piqued they can follow the link and read the rest of the material. Here’s an example on facebook:
Eternity is not an event it is a place.
Monday, February 23, 2009 at 4:30pm
If there is no time in eternity, than time cannot be an event, it must be a place, like a book on a shelf. We think God is writing all of this as we go along and He’s surprised when we do something great, make a mistake or even sin on purpose, but to Him it’s already done. Who knows how many times our chapter has been read and re-read by God, or even ourselves. Whoa, that’s a little hard to wrap your brain around, but think about it. If we are someday going into eternity, than what does time have to constrain us from pulling the Book off of the shelf and reading it? He does it in Revelation:
“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” Revelation 20:12
A later comment from me:
Armando Heredia at 4:30pm February 23
This is from a longer article at this link:
http://faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=51418
A comment from a friend in Louisville, KY (emphasis added):
Chris Brooke Lusher at 10:13pm March 9
I read the full article, and was astounded. You have some great insight. Some people think outer space goes on for eternity, but I think it’s bound by time. However, I never really thought about time like it was a book. We teach the 3rd and 4th graders that distance traveled can be a measure of time passed; and, since God is omnipresent, He is not bound by time. It makes sense that he is holding the book. Thanks for sharing.
He read the entire article. That’s a big deal for me. Did he send me money or buy my book? No, and he may not, but he gave me something infinitely more valuable, credibility.
Facebook and other social networks are great places to begin to promote your work, free. Earning credibility is hard, but it grows exponentially every time some one gives it to you, especially if they are credible.
5. The Cargo Truck
This is a vehicle for hire that doesn’t carry people (usually), it carries goods. The driver is paid by the agent who was paid by the receiver of the goods. The driver doesn’t get the full amount, but his truck isn’t idling in the driveway, either. You are hired to move somebody else’s goods (thoughts, ideas, and concepts) in a specific way, to a specific place.
There are more if we use transit as the vehicle, but we’ll focus on these specifically for this session.
In all of these examples the writing is not the most important point. Obviously you need to be able to write and convey your thoughts and concepts. There are two other major factors in the equation: 1. the audience (or passenger) and the destination (intent) of the writing. It’s not a “if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it really fall” question. It’s a “who was supposed to hear the tree fall or maybe who was supposed to hear you shout ‘Timber’ and get the heck out of the way” question.
This would fall into the category of freelance or writing for hire. There again, you may not see huge monetary return (and you may not even get paid) but the return is incredible in terms of credibility. I was asked to write a daily blog for a month for a website called ninetyandnine.com which is a national website that at the time was very widely read. This catapulted my writings into a much greater audience. In the beginning when you get these offers, take them, maybe even for free, because it’s never for free. If you gain one more reader who is willing to give you credibility, than you have gained.