Set a Timetable

YOU are a good writer! YOU can do wonderful things for the Lord if you learn how to get your computer running, your mind turning over, and your brain moving to proclaim the truth through the written word.

Years ago, the author of a very successful book which had recently come off the press, tells about meeting with Winston Churchill,

"How long did it take you to write?" Churchill asked him.

The author said he didn't know---over a period of 5 months, in patches---he said he had found regular work impossible. He had to sit waiting for the mood to write...

"Nonsense! Go to your room regularly, at 9 o'clock and say I am going to write for 4 hours."

"What if I have a headache or indigestion and so on?"

Churchill told him, 'You have got to get over that. If you sit waiting for inspiration, you will sit waiting until you are an old man. Writing is like any other job. Like marching an army with your troops, kick yourself, irritate yourself, move out. You can produce something very ingenious by keeping office hours." Churchill, himself, proved that.

If we are here to proclaim the written Word, we can only find audience by honing our skills. By choosing not a word, but the very best word. We are to be strategic in planning and crafting our sentences. We must smooothly transition from parapraph to paragraph. We must have the clincher firmly in place when we begin. Have you started collecting a file of picturesque speech, neat words and anecdotes and colorful language sentences? Save them from newspapers and magazine articles. They will prove invaluable.

We can pray: "Let our words, O Lord, be a fragrant offering, pleasing in your sight." 

The View From the Texas Governor’s Mansion

Did I mention that our First Baptist Church in downtown Austin stood next to the Governor's Mansion? Yes, and every Sunday when church was over, I came down the church steps wearing my white gloves and hat, looking over at the beautiful structure.  The heavy oak trees surrounding the house and lawn held out their huge arms as if embracing all of Texas.

I think the historic Mansion enjoyed looking out on Congress Avenue at all the business establishments, the traffic, grand movie houses, the Paramount and State Theatres, and the Capitol itself. (You do know our Texas Capitol dome is slightly higher than the one in Washington, D.C., don't you?)

 The famous landmark, Lamme’s Candies, must have felt prominence, being watched by the stately Mansion just up the hill.

 First Baptist Church felt a sense of pride, having Governor Allan Shivers in its congregation. In fact, the Governor taught my dad’s Sunday School Class. What a time in Texas history! Can’t you picture the handsome Texas governor, crossing the street from the Mansion on Sunday morning, in long, purposeful strides, his gray sideburns visible beneath his big white Stetson? The epitome of a Texas governor, Allan Shivers’ steady brown eyes, tall figure, and courteous manner filled the Texas tradition of orator, horseman, gentleman, and church-goer. Did I mention the Secretary of State who served with him, Zollie Steakley? He was chairman of the First Baptist Church deacon body!

Like night riders, Texas politics rode rampant in my hometown. Three doors down, 

my neighborhood housed, (when Congress was in session), a future U.S. president. No wonder I found myself working to help elect the next governor, while still in high school! My mother and dad worked in every political race, (local, state and national), giving and wearing buttons in support of their candidates.

*I’ll stop for this writing, but see what I am doing?  You can do this, too---write your story!  It's like nobody elses'! Get busy!

If It Is To Be It Is Up To Me

You can read the Writer's rukes I post all day long...but why not get busy and write!  Ten little words that serve me well: If It Is To Be, It Is Up To Me. I want you to take them for yourself.  You have a story to tell. Maybe telling you mine will make you see how easy it is and get you started. Mine may bore you, but remember it is to my children I am writing, and my grandchildren. 

Maya Angelon, poet, wrote in 1928, "There's no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you."

Let's see, I was born in Harris Memorial Hospital in Ft. Worth,Texas. At age 5, my folks traded Cowtown for Capitol, Austin.

We lived in Tarrytown, almost in shouting distance of Lake Austin, and this great body of water drew us all. Now 'brother Gene, almost 11 years older, was shackled with me from time to time, reluctantly carrying his 5 year old sister on his handlebars down to the lake. On weekends, he and Richard Sturdivant worked endlessly to rebuild boat motors. My brother, would, actually,. dive for lost motors from the boat dock where Enfield Road ends at the lake. 

Any spare hour he could slip off without me, he would take off fishing below the dam. About dark mother would  drive the car down there back and forth across the low-water bridge, giving the signal--- 3 short honks on the horn, and he would emerge, usually carrying fish.

He played football on the State Championship team of the Austin High Maroons under Coach Tony Burger. Because I could twirl a baton, I got to be the mascot that year! He red-shirted at the University of Texas one year  before he and all his football buddies enlisted in various branches of the service. He chose the Air Force, I remember Ruell Nash enlisted in the Navy. 

The Texas University tower continued to guard the Austin skyline as did the Capitol itself.  As a citadel, the Tower's round, gold-faced clock declared the time in four directions. It' s shadow almost reached Wooldridge Elementary, an experiental arm of the University, where I attended grade school.You might want to know that we had our own private war on that grass-dotted, gravel playground, over who gets a piece of the much-coveted Fleer Double Bubble Gum! 

(more next week). How's yours coming along?

  

IF It Is To Be, It Is Up To ME

I once knew a man who could figure and plan the stories he intended to write
But the minutes, the hours, even weeks flew by, with never a word in sight.
He'd set up his platform, work through the night, a great protagonist to defend!
He'd dream and envision, mark the revisions, with the greatest novel to thank.
Imagine the surprise in everyone's eyes, to find when he died, his pages were blank.

  My dear readers, remember, there is someone out there who needs your words---your story.
*.  Your Own Story. James Gilcrest Lawson said writing a book changes you throughout the process. You will be a different person after you write and reflect.
*  Your Family. 
*   Future Generations. My distant relative wrote his book years ago. I doubt he everthought about his great-great-nephew reading it.  There will be poeople in your family yet to be born who will be proud and touched by the book you wrote.
* People You Minister To. The people you connect with are going to feel and receive your message.Your book is the furtherance of your calling.
* People Who receive A Copy. Think of the impact of books passed to you.
* PeopleBeyond Your Circle.  You have no idea where your book can end up around the world.  The possibilities are endless---and so is the number of hearts it can change.

   ..Until next time, think on these things...

Checklist

Benjamin Franklin, said, "Either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing about."
Someone else said we are our own worst critic. Good! Else we miss the best opportunity for improving our word structure.
And you do know how to be a good critic.
But first, you must start well, in order to finish well. Verdell Davis Krisher says:
Three Things a Writer Must Possess:
*     passion                   (desire)       "Purpose-Driven --- a reason to write?"
**   perspective            (distance)     "How far are you willing to go?"
*** perseverance          (discipline)  "Will you pay the price?"
Now start two checklists: One you may use before you begin, but if you are already 'into it', the other may be in order.

Before:
1.  Is you goal clear and specific?
2.  Have you fixed your audience or readers in mind?
3.  Are you coming to them as a know-it-all or as a fellow human?
4.  Have you gleaned enough material so that you can incarnate your mesage, telling it in terms of people (if possible)?
5.  Are you setting aside adequate time to organize your ideas and to find just the right words to express them?
After:
1.   As your eye falls over the page, do any colorful words or names of people or places stand out?
2.   Is your first sentence short? Is it interesting?
3.   Does it begin "There is" or "There was" or "It is", or "It was"? C If so, change it.
4.   Have you used strong, descriptive words?
5.   Have you overworked, "this", "that""How many 'have's" and "has's" did you use?
6.  Have you used present tense whenever possible?
7.  Is there an obvious antecedent for every pronoun?
8.   How many words can you eliminate without destroyinng its thought or power?
9.   Have you used all the senses available and told your reader in concrete terms what happened?
10. Would you like to read what you have written?

Where Do We Go From Here?

My, how time flies! I'm still seeing the dust settling from the race. Where did it all begin? Let's see. First of all we looked for a publisher on line and in Christian Writer's. We narrowed it to two. Both insisted in their opening files that the manuscript would be submmitted in photo-perfect style. You see,
 PDF files have many advantages over native software files. For instance, all fonts and graphics are embedded into a PDF, eliminating most converison errors and the need to send fonts and artwork.

In order to present a picture-perfect manuscript means editing and editing and editing.  Then reading it aloud. Actually, reading it to myself left something to be desired. *(After publication, I'm telling you), I found myself reading it to a group of children in Barnes and Noble one Saturday afternoon before Christmas.  At that reading, several sentences, when ommitted, kept the sequences running and dancing along the page, and better served the story.

"A word in time could have saved nine,"  the same as  "a stitch in time saves nine." So read on, and on and over and over to a live audience and you're sure to uncover unnecessary words, or any break in the rhythm.

Writing is much like music, you see. It has rhythm, movements, crescendos and yes, rests. Whereas classical music, as well as, written clasics, appeal to an ever wider audience, your story must declare its precise audience. Spend your time wisely deciding if your readers are eight to twelve, or young adults, retirees, or other.  (more next week)