Life lesson #2: We all need a group of editors.

An editor does things differently. An editor takes what they are given and offers corrections and suggestions based only what is before them. They do not keep copies of your previous submissions. They may notice patterns, but they do not keep a systematic and conscious account of all that you have done in the past. Their job is to take what is given and get it to better place.

Too many of us have accountability partners. More of us need editors. And we need a group of editors, not just one. When I wrote Holy Rewired, I had input from several people across multiple disciplines. They gave their input, offering criticism on content and grammar. Some were specialized, offering comment on just grammar and others offered comment on the content. But there were several of editors. And the book is better because of their input.

Who are your editors? Who do you trust to partner with the Holy Spirit and get you from where you are to where He wants you to be?

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• Life Lessons Learned from Writing part 3
• Holy Rewired is now available!
• Life Lessons Learned from Writing a Book part 1
• Book Review – Crush It!
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Life Lesson #1: Despite your own thoughts, if you have haven’t done something well many times, you are not going to be good at it.
I went into this process with the mindset that writing would be easy. The hard part would be putting aside the time to write. I was wrong. This book was birthed in 2006-2007, early in my doctoral work. In fact, my intention was to also produce a publishable manuscript in addition to the dissertation. So when I set out to write my dissertation, I enlisted an editor who had edited some well-known books. It was then that I learned how bad of a writer I was.

I would get back from her a document that looked like she had bled all over it. And the criticism was difficult. I didn’t explain things. I didn’t define things. Some things just didn’t make any sense. I had mis-matched metaphors. And that didn’t include all the grammar issues! She was tough, yet I was immensely greatful.

When I turned the dissertation into a book, I had to write differently. I had to transition my writing from an academic work to a work for the masses. I had to clean up language, dumb down language, and make it understandable to those who might not think critically or want to get deeply involved in a intellectual exercise. That took a great deal of work, which I hope I have now accomplished.

Now truthfully, I thought I was a pretty good writer. I thought I was a good writer because I always got good grades in English and when I did papers in graduate school no one ever really criticized my writing. Working with a professional, however, showed me I was wrong.

After getting this book done, I’m actually trying to work on my writing by taking some free creative writing classes through several universities as part of the open courseware consortium. I am trying to be more careful with my language and my metaphors. I am trying to be more cautious with how I express my thoughts. I am trying to pay more attention to details (more on that later).

There is an old saying that practice makes perfect. That is not true. Practice makes permanent. Many of us have practiced something over and over again and now it is permanently part of our behavior. That doesn’t mean its perfect, unless you believe that you can do something perfectly wrong. Unfortunately, that is what I did. I developed a style of writing and that style became permanent. But it wasn’t good writing.

Anything that is worth doing is worth doing right. It is also worth doing well. To do that, however, will require the help of an editor. More on that in the next post.

Related Posts:

• Life Lessons Learned from Writing part 3
• Life Lessons Learned from Writing a Book part 2
• Here’s the Plan for 2009
• Happy 64th Birthday Mom!
• Book Review – Crush It!

Related posts:

• Life Lessons Learned from Writing part 3
• Life Lessons Learned from Writing a Book part 2
• SBC Pastor’s Conference – Day 2 – Jerry Vines
• Let the Writing Begin!
• A Fresh Start

Links for the Week

Some favorite links from around the web this week:

ARIS study released this week

The Coming Evangelical Collapse: A Statistical Review by Michael Bell
An evaluation of iMonk’s claims on the coming evangelical collapse through the eyes of statistical analysis

Losing My Religion? Not So Fast… Loren Green of Foxnews.com thinks that ARIS might not be so negative after all. She looks at the stats before 2001 and after to demonstrate the potential impact of 9/11.

Suburbia

Suburbia R.I.P. Does the downturn spell the beginning of the end for suburbia? Some experts say yesterday’s cul-de-sac is tomorrow’s ghost town.

Communication

How to Squeeze Writing Inspiration from Every Experience Do you have days where you sit in front of an empty page – and find nothing, absolutely nothing you could write about? I used to. But now I’ve learned to squeeze inspiration from every experience.

Tell Stories We live in a world with information overload. Data, facts, statistics and definitive answers to specific questions are immediately available from search engines on the internet. But people want more than facts. They want understanding. They want meaning. They want context. They want stories.

Ministry

In Search of Dolphin Leather The acquisition of the leather is irrelevant. It was the quest that mattered. Having a community-based quest means that there’s less room for whining, for infighting and for dissolution. Having a mission not only points everyone in the same direction, it also creates motion. And motion in any direction is often better than no motion at all.

Instilling Missional Habits in a Congregation – As You Walk Among Your Community How do we lead a church community to engage mission as a way of life? How do we steer a congregation out of evangelism programs into everyday missional living? How do we train a congregation out of Christendom habits and instill post Christendom virtues (character for living faithfully in post Christendom)? I think leaders walk along and among their communities.

Who Should the Church Pay to Serve? Neil Cole begins to examine this issue and share who is supported “full time” in the NT.

Who Should The Church Pay: Double honor to the preachers and teachers Paul does mention giving “double honor” to elders, and especially those that work hard at preaching and teaching. I am in favor of giving honor and double honor to godly elders who shepherd, mentor and teach the churches. But I have a hard time interpreting “double honor” as a full-time salary and benefits. We have come up with the word “honorarium” based on this expression in the New Testament. When we present a speaker with a financial token of appreciation I actually think we are closer to Paul’s intent in this passage.

Related Posts:

• Book Notice: Start Here
• The Ontological Church
• Saturday’s suggested reads
• Ministry Idea: Adopt a business
• Worth a Read: December 16 2009

Writing/Blogging:

1. 24 Things to do When Stuck for a Topic to Blog About
2. Word 2007 for Writers: Part 3 – Master Documents and Outlines

Science/Technology:

1. Makers of Firefox come up with a new Web browser
2. Magnifying Taste: New Chemicals Trick the Brain into Eating Less: Scientific American
3. The Frontal Cortex : Morality and Distractions
4. The Supercollider is about to go online.

Ministry:

1. internetmonk.com » Do Baptists Believe “Once Saved, Always Saved?”
2. JDGreear.com: Attempting to Do Ministry Against the Strong Man
3. Thoughts from the Edge – a new podcast by Todd Littleton where he talks about the difference between right belief and right behavior.
4. The Suburban Jesus Hates Me by Michael Spencer, aka iMonk.

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• links for 2008-05-27
• On Baptist baptism and communion
• SBC Young Leaders Gathering

1.  An Intrinsic Interest in God by Brenna Phillips.  People have an intrinsic interest guiding their quest for knowledge. I began to think specifically as a children’s minister and how to apply that to a child’s intrinsic interest in understanding God and faith.

2.  Dark Knight Shift:  Why Batman Could Exist – But Not for Long at Scientific American Mind.  To investigate whether someone like Bruce Wayne could physically transform himself into a one-man wrecking crew, ScientificAmerican.com turned to E. Paul Zehr, associate professor of kinesiology and neuroscience at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and a 26-year practitioner of Chito-Ryu karate-do. Zehr’s book, Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero (The Johns Hopkins University Press), due out in October, tackles that very question.

3.  Sleep on It: How Snoozing Makes You Smarter at Scientific American Mind.  During slumber, our brain engages in data analysis, from strengthening memories to solving problems.

4.  The Mr. Spock Guide to Effective Blogging by Copyblogger.  When the author sat down to write about the need for rational, logical planning for your blog, he found no better model. Sure, blogs are personal, emotional constructions. But if your blog isn’t performing the way you want it to, try using a little Vulcan logic to move it in the right direction.

5.  Networked structures: Liquid v. Solid church by Alan Hirsch.  If Apostolic Genius expresses itself in a movement ethos, it forms itself around a network structure. And once again this tends to be very different to what we have come to expect from our general concept of church.

6.  Paris Hilton mocking and ad by John McCain at Fox News.  This is a real funny story and a funny video (at the bottom of the article.  Attention…Paris in a bathing suit.

Related Posts:

• Saturday’s suggested reads
• Worth a Read: December 16 2009
• Worth the Read December 1 2009
• Worth a Read – Nov 30 2009
• Around the Web

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• links for 2008-05-27
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I ran across this post this morning and thought it was excellent.  The details of each of the 9 points are found in the original post, so check it out.  Enjoy!

Write one thing today, and write it well. Here’s how.

1. Simplifying your writing.

2. Create a clear goal.

3. Set your goal the night before.

4. Focus on something important.

5. Block out time.

6. Pour all your energy into it.

7. Be proud of the job you’ve done.

8. Take time to review this accomplishment.

9. Prepare for tomorrow.

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• Stuff I Did on 2008-04-14
• I Will Carry You
• links for 2008-06-14
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• Turns out I was wrong about what McKnight was talking about…