writers-block
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I’ve recently heard from many people who are aspiring writers, looking for advice on the publishing process.  I am only two books in myself, so my experience isn’t very deep (and it also has been atypical of most writers I’ve talked with), but I do regularly recommend a couple of resources and one piece of advice:

 

 

1. Read this blog by literary agent, Rachelle Gardner – it’s full of stuff you need to know before you waste your time writing the wrong kind of book proposal or query letter.  Also worth reading is Margaret Feinberg’s Writer’s Boot Camp.  She pulls no punches and that’s what you need even if it isn’t what you want. (In fact, most of the writing, editing, publishing process flips the need/want equation on its ear, so get used to that right out of the gate.)

 

 

2.  Remember this timeless principle lifted straight from the pages of an ancient book with pretty good staying power and sales numbers:

 

Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord.  {Psalm 102:18}

 

I’m not presuming I’m writing the Bible here, but I do very badly want to write words that will still be relevant and readable when my dance on this spinning globe is done.  Writing requires such a weighty investment of time, energy and discipline -I would hate to look back and see that I chose the wrong message or spoke too soon, spitting unrefined and unworthy words out into a world already drowning in nonsense and noisy opinions.

 

On my desk, is a paperweight inscribed with the words of Benjamin Franklin: Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

 

When it’s all said, done and written, I’d really love to do both.

 

So, a fun question for this beautiful, sunny Monday:  if you had just three books to spend the rest of your life with, which three would they be?

 

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5 Comments

  1. This is a wonderful and encouraging post, Bo! Thank you so much. 🙂 I would very much like to be a writer someday too. 🙂

    I love that quote by Franklin. 🙂 My three books would have to be books deep enough to keep me busy for the rest of my life. I’m tempted to pick three that I just love but couldn’t read over and over (Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Marilynne Robinson’s “Gilead,” and maybe Paul Harding’s “Tinkers.”) In reality, I’d choose the Bible, because I couldn’t survive without it! 🙂 And then I suppose I’d choose something of CS Lewis’s (but I don’t know what because I am not certain I could ever choose!) And then for my third, I might go with something really deep and complex and currently intimidating to me. Like an old theologian or something! Sorry I kind of didn’t answer your question. LOL!

    PS we drove through Bend this week on our way home from the coast. 🙂 If I didn’t have two small children pumped up on sugar and over-exhausted, I would have tried to look you up! It would be so fun to meet you and give you a hug. As it was we were pounding pavement to get back home. 🙂

    Blessings, sweet friend!

  2. As someone taking baby steps at mining words, these are very helpful! Thank you!

    My three books would be:

    1. The Bible
    2. Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer
    3. Open by Andre Agassi

  3. Lori Greenstone

    my nook, fully loaded (ok, I know that’s cheating)

  4. Well, the Bible would be the first one. Although which version would be the tough one. Read the entire NIV, now I’m starting “The Message.” I guess it doesn’t really matter as long as it’s a Bible!

    2. The Hobbit

    3. The Lord of the Rings trilogy all rolled into one big novel.

    Can’t live without my LOTR!

  5. Thanks for the advice. I shall write a book someday.

    I feel like the Bible is kind of a given…you should have said 3 besides the Bible.
    Ha. And maybe I spend too much time in the mental health care field but I would like to have a DSM (Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).
    I could also benefit from rereading the book Humility( by Andrew Murray, I believe?).
    And if the Bible is a given, then I would like a blank book to scribble in. I do that more often than read.