by Christine Sine
Yesterday I sent the first draft of my manuscript off to the publisher. Did a happy dance and now have my fingers crossed now that they like it. The photo above gives an idea of how I feel today and I am off to have some fun.
It reminded me though that I needed to get the last few posts on writing a book up for those that are interested (and it seems to be quite a few of you). So before I head off for the day here is post #3…..
Step Six: Create an enjoyable process for writing.
- Create a fun way to record your ideas and developing thoughts. I write fairly organically and have found that my blog is a great way to gather thoughts and ideas for future writing projects. When I start on a new project I begin by gathering all the blog posts that I think are relevant. It is fun to look back over these, see the ways that God has inspired me in the past and allow the Holy Spirit to use these to develop an outline.
- Keep a notebook with you. When I am working on a writing project I may not write for more than a few hours a day but I live and breathe my project. Ideas come to me in the middle of the night, when I am walking or talking to friends. I find it helps to carry a notebook with me to record these ideas, otherwise I end up with a motley pile of notes written on envelopes, note cards and scrap pieces of paper. I have also used the note app on my phone but that is not as appealing to me.
- Create a fun exercise to begin your writing time. Know what stirs your imagination and inspires you to write effectively. Consider beginning each writing session with a short 3-5 minute meditation exercise that stir your creativity and help you focus. Doodling, meditation, coloring and writing in longhand are some of the tools you might like to experiment with. For my upcoming writing project I have started a special journal providing myself with opportunities to colour lettering, create pictures, highlight important ideas and images that impact and inspire me, as well as providing a place for me to develop new thoughts as I write and imagine.
Walking finger labyrinths can also be helpful when you have questions you need answers to or thoughts that have not gelled properly. Start with a deep breath and your finger or stylus raised ready to begin the path. Ask your question or imagine your idea. “Walk” into the centre. Re-ask the question or reimagine the idea then walk out again. It is surprising how often this stirs our brains to respond with solutions.
My friend Kim Balke, who is an expressive arts therapist suggested another intriguing exercise that is also highly effective to stir imagination in a writing project. Here is how she explained it to me:
From my point of view as one who works with children most of the time, I wanted to suggest another exercise to help free your soul based on Jesus’ words, “Unless we become as children we cannot enter the kingdom of God “(the most creative dimension I know of!). Here it is: take some time to enjoy a few picture books for children, some from your earliest childhood memories, some contemporary. They may help foster a heart posture of openness, curiosity and wonder. Here are my suggestions:
Visiting Feelings, by Lauren Rubenstein
I Dreamt, A book about Hope, by Gabriela Olmos
Maybe Something Beautiful: How Art Transformed A neighborhood, by F. Isabel Campoy
The Night Gardener, by The Fan Brothers
Daniel Finds a Poem, by Micha Archer
What Do you do with and Idea? by Kobi Yamada
Always Remember, by Cece Meng (about grief,loss)
My Blue Is Happy ( I forget the author)
Dreamboats (I forget the author)
After reading a story, respond with a doodle, drawing, poem or even keep a few rhythm instruments handy and discover the sounds that hold something that stood out for you in the story…a page of illustration you are drawn to, perhaps.
- Use software you are familiar and comfortable with. I have a Mac computer and like using the Pages word processing software on it. I have also recently started using Skrivener, a shareware software that helps organize files. It is a great tool for drawing together your research into one place. Pinterest is another useful tool for this. As I research on the web I paste links into Pinterest so that I can easily find them again.
- Use software that allows you to edit easily and make changes without wasting a lot of time. Both pages and scrivener help with this. Also, you’ll eventually want to send your manuscript to be edited and formatted, and it’s much easier and less expensive if you’re able to send it in a format your editor can easily edit.
- Reward yourself when you are done. Fun time, down time, self care time are essential. What are some fun activities that you could incorporate into your daily schedule as a reward for the good work you have accomplished? These could be anything from time in the garden to playing with your kids or going for a walk. Rewarding ourselves for what we have accomplished is an excellent way to keep the energy and enthusiasm alive for your project. I find that these fun times often provide creative inspiration for the next stage of my writing project too.
Different people have different writing styles. I find that writing for 2-3 hours in a morning works well for me. I then need a break, a walk and a change of pace. I also like to limit my writing to 3 mornings a week. I might schedule other project related activities like meetings with advisors or practitioners on another morning however. I also find that reviewing blog posts I have written over the last few months or years can help my writing. Sometimes I even cut and paste blog posts into my draft and then adapt them to fit in with the rest of my writing.
My husband likes to work in much larger blocks and can even sit for up to 10 hours in a day for several days in a row. He intersperses meetings and phone calls to collaborators in with his writing. He also does a huge amount of research for any book project, ripping and tearing from newspapers, collecting web articles and reading books that are relevant.
If this is your first writing project, start small with a goal of writing 200 words each day for the first week. Then increase the number of words until you reach 1000-1500 words a day. If you are an experienced writer you probably already know how many words a day are comfortable for you. Make that your goal and stick to it.
This is part of a 4 part series.
Writing a Book – Part 1
Writing a Book – Part 2
Writing a Book – Part 3
Writing a Book – Part 4
Ash Wednesday is just over two weeks away and it is time to think seriously about what you will do to refocus your faith during the season of Lent.
by Christine Sine
Last week I purchased a couple of grow lamps for my increasingly spindly and anaemic looking succulents. I am amazed at the change in them in just a few days. Their spindly stems are still the same, but green leaves have turned red and gold and pink. They are drinking in the light and finally flaming with the richness of their true colours. How sad that it took me so long to notice how deprived they were.
I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life. (John 8:12 NLT)
These words of Jesus to his disciples ring through my mind as I look at my succulents today. I wonder how often I too am deprived of my true colours and of the fullness of life God intends for me because I step away from the light of Christ and don’t even notice it.
What keeps us in the light of Christ?
The natural response to this question is: reading the scriptures and praying. And of course that is right. We all need the disciplines of scripture study and prayer to nourish us and fill us with the light of Christ. However I wonder if there is more to it than that. Walking in the light of Christ is not just about getting the right information from the scriptures, it is about applying it too.
You might say my succulents had all the information they needed to thrive. They looked healthy, they were growing vigourously, but they were still light deprived. Their colours were dull and uninteresting compared to the vibrancy they were meant to have.
What amazed me is how quickly their colours revived. The reds and golds and pinks were still their, waiting for the light to reveal them. Perhaps I am stretching the analogy a little here, but it seems to me that their colours are like a light hidden away.
No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. (Matthew 5:15,16 NLT)
How often I wonder do we seem to be growing and think we are healthy yet we lack the vibrant colours God has woven into our being? And perhaps the vibrancy of our colours needs us to shine with good deeds in order to be fully revealed.
Are your colours dull and uninteresting because you have not applied the light that God shines on you? What are the good deeds God is asking you to perform so that your true colours can emerge and those around you will praise God as a result.
The Season of Lent begins on Valentine’s Day, February 14th this year. This is rather humorous since the tradition of Lent has a fasting component and often involves giving up things like desserts, sweets, and chocolate! I agree with Father Ed Hays that giving up chocolate just makes people angry and mean and really doesn’t bring anyone closer to Jesus. It was Father Hays who introduced me to the concept of using the 40 days of Lent to fall more in love with Jesus rather than the sack cloth and ashes stereotype or tradition of Lent.
What if we chose to spend the 40 days of Lent falling more in love with Jesus? What would that look like?
When we fall in love with someone we often get a little crazy and we do things to show just how much we love the other person. My first real boy friend was in 8th grade. I went to an all girls school in town and he went to the all boys school. We met at church and were in youth group together. I was smitten! And since I am an artist, I expressed my love for him with a hand crafted Valentine. I took a piece of cardboard and collaged it with words and phrases and pictures cut out of magazines glued on to a piece of card board. I even used my mom’s “pinking shears” to cut out the heart and give it a special edging. And since i was too young to drive, I had to get my dad to drive me across town to the boy’s house to give him this created treasure! I’m not sure he really appreciated the time and effort but for me it was an act of love to create something special. My husband expresses his love to me through amazing meals and fun cards. I have friends who write songs for one another. I know friends who go on hikes together and even take retreats to plan together and reflect on their lives. There are just as many ways to express love to someone as there are people!
Consider how you express love and how you experience love yourself. How have you shown someone you loved them in the past? How do you show some one you love them now? How do you show love to your friends? Your family? Your co workers or teammates? How do you like to experience love? Is it through Time, Gifts, Conversation, Creativity? Something else? Take some time to think about this and make a list.
Years ago, I created a sacred space prayer experience based off Father Ed Hay’s book The Lenten Hobo Honeymoon. Father Hays and I are kindred spirits when it comes to experiencing God and practicing our faith in touchable, tangible, symbolic ways. This book is still my all time favorite Lenten devotional. After hosting this Sacred Space for my church and youth group, I was invited to do something at the near by convent. Since it was still Lent, I didn’t create anything new, I just set up the same Sacred Space and sent nuns on a honeymoon with Jesus!
What if we saw Lent as a honeymoon with Jesus? How could this help you focus your time and Lenten practices?
Like in any relationship, you have to start small. Usually you date awhile before you get married and go on a honeymoon. So since we have a couple of weeks before Valentines Day and the beginning of Lent, let’s start!
Plan a date with Jesus. What do you do? Do you go out for a walk? Do you get out in nature? Do you go out and have coffee and take your journal? Could you find some old magazines and create a collage Valentine with words and phrases and pictures expressing your love to Jesus? or cook dinner for someone who is lonely? Bake some cookies for the neighbors or take flowers to friend who is sick? What will your date with Jesus look like? I’d love to hear about it! Mine definitely will involve chocolate!
A beautiful prayer by John Birch —
by Christine Sine
This is the second post in a series on my experience of writing a book
Step Four: Set up a schedule for the entire project.
This is a very important part of writing your book. You can’t write only when you feel inspired or motivated. You must create a regular writing habit.
At the beginning of my current writing project, I used Meistertask, a free planning software to help me visualize my entire project and the tasks involved in each part. I divided it into research, writing, publishing and marketing with specific tasks and timelines in each of these. It was very helpful for me as I visualized what I needed to do, but less helpful once I began writing. I am not a detail person and I think that the detail it encouraged me to use was a little overwhelming.
I also find that spelling out my weekly schedule in detail, blocking out time not just for the writing project but for other responsibilities like household duties, time with family and friends, self care, spiritual disciplines and exercise help me keep focused and on track. Looking at my commitments as a whole has helped me relax and have fun in the writing process without overextending myself.
Things to consider:
- Overall schedule: When would you like to complete your manuscript? How many words will you have to write each week in order to accomplish this?
- Research schedule: How much preliminary research will you need to do before you start writing? How long is that likely to take before you can begin writing?
- Writing Schedule: When are you most alert and productive during your day? Can you block out time during that part of the day for writing? What is the optimal length of time you can write for at one stretch. Mine is 2-3 hours, my husband can work in 5-10 hour blocks in a day. Write it on your schedule to see how realistic this looks with your other commitments. Does your proposed schedule feel comfortable or is it overwhelming? What other priorities need to be taken into consideration?
- Publication Schedule: how long will it take from the time you complete your manuscript for review, rewriting and editing before you are able to submit it to the publisher? What is the editorial process that the publisher uses? How long will it take for the book to be published once it has been submitted?
- Marketing Schedule: What kind of platform do you already have established that will help you market this book? What do you need to establish between now and the publication of the book?
Step Five: Create a relaxing and fun environment.
Find a spot in your home where you feel relaxed and ready to write. Maybe it’s your office, a standing desk, or your dining room table. Decide exactly what you need in advance so you’re prepared every day when you sit down to write. Do you need music playing? If so, what kind? Are you distracted by background noise and conversation or by messiness in your space? How can you avoid these? Do you want a candle or special image to focus on? Do you need a cup of tea or coffee, a snack or energy booster? Do you need to be near a window? Having all of this determined in advance will help motivate you to get started and to make writing an enjoyable ritual.
Some people prefer a library or coffee shop as an ideal place for them to write. Others like to find a retreat cabin they can inhabit for a few solid days or even weeks of writing. It all depends on whether background noise is distracting or comforting for you. Know what is most comfortable for you, find it and stick to it.
This is part of a 4 post series. Here is the entire series
Writing a Book – Part 1
Writing a Book – Part 2
Writing a Book – Part 3
Writing a Book – Part 4
by Christine Sine.
Many of you know that I am in the process of writing a book on creative spirituality. A number of you are writing books of your own. Others are hoping to. Many have asked about the process I use so I thought you might like a glimpse into what I have been doing over the last few months.
Writing a book is like embarking on a journey. It requires much preparation, involves some hard slogging and discipline, is best conducted in the company of friends and always includes some unexpected surprises. It is as much about creating an enjoyable process as producing a useful product.
I could just about write a book on this topic alone so thought that I would break it up into small chunks that are easy to digest. If there is advice you would like to share with others about your own writing process please comment below – we learn from each other.
There are ten steps I want to share with you – here are the first three!
Step One: Define your topic and your audience
What do you want to communicate or teach with this book? Writing is not about waffling on paper. We need to have a clear idea of where we want to go and what we want our audience to take away from the book.
Who is your intended audience and why would they be interested in this topic?“ Who will read your book and why” are important question that should be addressed up front. This can be more fully addressed in the marketing strategy, but if we do not know our audience from the beginning we will not know the best ways to connect and inspire them.
Why should you rather than someone else write this book? Years ago Philip Yancey told me “write to your passion.” It was very important advice that I continue to remind myself of when embarking on a new project.
Even then I find narrowing down my topic is not easy. There is always so much I want to say! Yes I can be verbose both in spoken and written words. Rather than covering a broad overview, consider how you could go deep with one element of the topic. This allows you to share much more information with your reader and gives you the opportunity to write additional books related to the topic.
Step Two: Research your topic
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9) This is always a good starting point. It keeps us humble and willing to listen to the wisdom of others.
It is unlikely that you are writing on something that no one has written about before. Identifying who has already written on your topic, what they said and why you think you have something fresh to contribute are always important considerations. Don’t be discouraged when you find a book that seems to say much of what you wanted to write about. What I find is that the spirit of God often speaks through many voices on a topic at the same time. We need all the voices that God has anointed.
There are four types of research that I find helpful before starting on a draft for a book
- Reading – What are the best books and web articles available on this topic? When starting on a new project I enlist the help of my social media followers to get their book & website recommendations. For my most recent book project the list of suggested reading was a little overwhelming which made me aware that I had not communicated my topic very well and that there were already a lot of books out there that dealt with creative spirituality. On the other hand I got some very valuable advice that has helped me shape my book to make it uniquely my own.
- Conversation – Who are both the writers and practitioners you need to consult as you write this book? How will you engage with them? What questions would you like to ask them? It might be helpful to develop a set of questions that you ask each person you talk to. Working on a list like this often helps us clarify our thinking, objectives and goals.
I suggest connect to four groups of people: those who are experts on your topic, those who are practitioners, those who are searchers for information on your topic. And lastly to friends that can help you gather research or critique the research you are doing. How will each of these groups enable you to create a richer product?
- Visitation – Talking to people about what they are doing is great but visiting is even more effective as it helps us visualize and then put into words what we are seeing. It is also a good source of images and stories for your writing project. Before you plan visits ask yourself: what will I gain from this visit that I would not gain from a conversation? Again a list of questions that you send out before the visit might be helpful.
- Experimentation – my writing revolves around creative spiritual practices. I like to experiment with my own practices as well as gathering examples that others have created and trying them out. My creativity has blossomed as I worked on this book which is very encouraging for me as it suggests that I am on the right track.
Research needs to both precede and follow the writing of an outline. Preliminary research helps me know the elements I want to incorporate in a book. Writing the outline after that helps me know where I need more research.
Step Three: Recruit Collaborators
“A three fold cord is not easily broken”. In 2010 I was introduced to the Quaker discernment process, a group process that encouraged reflection, prayer and discernment in the context of community, moving us from a task oriented to a discernment oriented approach. In Mustard Seed Associates we came to see this as an essential part of any meeting as it focused on ourselves as community rather than on the tasks we needed to accomplish.
Like our meetings, most projects, especially the writing of books, are task-oriented. We have limited time to write. We have an agenda. We have deadlines. We open in prayer, knock out the details, and close in prayer to ask God to bless our words and our process. A better way is to weave prayer and spiritual attentiveness throughout the process, so that the writing moves from “task orientation” to “discernment orientation.” to make this happen we need friends, collaborators and advisors.
Recruiting a team of 3-5 people who can help guide you on the path to a completed manuscript will strengthen what you write and how you develop your book. They don’t need to be experts on the topic, though at least one or 2 of the people should be knowledgeable about your topic. Make sure that at least half of this team are part of your target audience. Consider this as a pilot discussion group for testing your product. Schedule a monthly meeting either individually or as a group (https://zoom.us/ is a good tool for such meetings if your team is not local.)
This is part of a 4 post series. Here is the entire series
Writing a Book – Part 1
Writing a Book – Part 2
Writing a Book – Part 3
Writing a Book – Part 4
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