Write away

Blogging for beginners: for whom do you write

2010-08-29T16:45:00.000-07:00

This is a challenging question for all writers. The fact is you really cannot please everyone and it is often useful to find yourself at odds with at least some audiences. The alternative is to so average yourself that you end up not standing for anything. It is far better to be respected as a leader or authority in your focal area.

Writing, tough as it is, is still the easy part. Getting published, a near impossibility, is also relatively easy especially if you self-publish or put your own money on the table. Those all represent big enough challenges, of that I have no doubt, but the greatest challenge, by far, is marketing your work.

I use marketers for my training and public speaking assignments, because I am, at best, only good at a few things. Marketers, eat, sleep and breathe their trade, and they are good at it, so it makes much more sense to be in partnership with them. However, for the sake of good stewardhip, I am very careful about who I partner with, for as Paul said, "That which we receive from God, we commit to faithful souls".

Without delving into what publishers and other marketing partners contribute to a writer's success, let me say that you can at least control your marketability ... and you better, because you won't get far otherwise - after all, how will a marketer or publisher ever discover you unless you get their attention and why would they take a risk on you if you can't sustain that. To achieve marketability, you must differentiate yourself from others, because being distinctive is the primary driver of effective marketing.

The trade offs between what various parties can do to contribute to your overall success as a writer or blogger, point to a vital principle. It applies to anyone who wants to make a difference in life, especially those who feel called to Christian ministry or service. It is the principle of "proving your ministry".

I have sat under numerous apostolic leaders, which taught me that a ministry had to be proved and recognised before it could be released. I contrast that against the orthodox practice of gaining and promoting a qualification or the more contemporary practice of self-advancement. Although I am not against qualifications, "qualified" ministries often lack the vitality of "unqualified" ministries. Maybe that is why so many "less likely's" impacted the bible, for it takes more revelation than qualification to shake the world.

However, qualified or not, nothing gives anyone a right to be heard - it has to be earned. Qualifications and paperwork often presume entitlement, which leads to the lowest form of leadership: positional leadership or leadership based on title, rank or position. The highest form of leadership, legitimate leadership, is always the product of years of proving, which culminates in winning the right to be heard.

Such a long-term project demands a focused life. You have to decide what you are trying to be, or more importantly, what God is calling you to be, and then go down that road, without deviating from it. Malcom Gladwell describes the "Tipping Point"as a golden ratio of 10,000 hours, the time it takes to accumulate sufficient experience and exposure before we "tip" into acceptance and recognition.

Jesus proved the point. In truth, He did not do many things in His short life, rather He did a few things exceptionally well, which ensured that His brief life-tenure was of eternal significance. Similarly, if you want to gain respect for your position or ministry, be prepared to do just the same. Don't try to be a jack-of-all-trades or a generalist. As Mrs Lincoln once said to Abe, "Be something".

To be that something, you must be guided by your heart, not by popular opinion. A great communicator is not someone who tries to appeal to a majority. On the contrary, they often start their careers appealing to an audience of one: the great God upon His throne. Someone once said to me, "If you win your audience through popular appeal, be willing to keep them there". That is a mug's game if ever there was.

However, the soul that resonates with what God intended them to be, is like a rare Stradivarius, a finely crafted instrument of God's grace, fashioned and perfected for His purpose, which produces the sweetest notes and the richest chords. To that end I can only say I am not a writer at all, I am merely a faithful scribe of what God pours into my heart during my times of intimacy with Him. I am just the pen of a ready writer.

I close with a simple but poignant illustration. A renowned orator was asked to recite Psalm 23 at a function. He agreed on condition that someone else would do the same. An old pastor accepted the challenge and so the orator steped up to deliver what was a rousing and much applauded rendition of the great Psalm. But when the old pastor concluded his recital, the audience was stunned into moist-eyed, silence. The orator softly added, "I may know the Shepherd's Psalm, but this old man ... knows the shepherd".

Blogging for beginners: what should you write about?

2010-08-20T03:59:00.000-07:00

Only you can really answer that question.

That said, the answer is as relevant as the answer to your career choices? Most people who choose to do what they were never designed to do, fail to do much that matters. Oh, of course, life is often like Joseph's dungeon, where we end up in spite of all our best intentions, yet, even then such dark moments are not about diverting our life course down another road. Indeed, it is in such dungeons that God lights up the dark to enflame the passion of our lives.

Who knows how relevant you will be for all your struggles and what a difference you could make for having worked through the issues that stand between you and victory?

We are but pie in the sky, empty clouds without water and hollow vessels, if our conversations are merely the product of reason. No amount of reason or learning can ever substitute for experience. Thus it is all about experiencing the heart that beats for this world, because we can only truly bring life once our hearts are ignited by the zeal of God.

To be more specific to blogging, it generally makes most sense to find your niche and to persist in that until it works. Methinks that over-spiritualisation of life issues, often detracts from practical solutions. It rarely helps to fret over what you should do or to agonise over your choices until balloons rise, clouds break or the tides turn. Do whatever God places in your hands to do and persist in that - God will meet you there.

Chances are really good that if you follow your passion, it is because God put that passion there, which predicts that He will bring it to its own fulfillment. But even if you are on the wrong road, the road you are on will not represent one wasted moment, for God is a master at restoring all the years of the locusts. Every single life experience will make a difference, in time, if you persist with Him.

So find your focus and work it. Don't try to be all things to all people. Don't even try to be popular, as such, for the chances are you will end up going around in circles. Rather decide on a course, then, like Jesus, set your eyes aflint towards your objective.

Of the same Jesus, let me say that He never had many objectives. Rather, He had a narrow focus, which the writer to the Hebrews reduces to: "sacrifices for sin thou would'st not have, but a body you prepared for me, for in such sacrifices you have no pleasure - I have come to do your will Oh God."

If you persist down your road, you will (I promise you) find others who relate to you. You will gain a following, because a soul that pursues a cause ceases to be a follower and starts to be a leader - of opinions, trends, ideas and concepts. Sure your followers will be touch-and-go at times, but keep going and stay your course anyway. Never grow weary in doing well, for in due time you will reap if you faint not (Galatians 6:9).

Obviously you should choose an area where you already have a certain amount of knowledge, or at the very least have the skills and yen to develop a specialisation. That is the key to your energy and passion, and that is what will carry through to your work until you touch your world.

However, that too obliges you to stick to a narrow specialisation and to grow in stature within that brief. Malcolm Gladwell described "The Tipping Point" as a golden ratio. He contends that anything pursued for more than 10,000 hours will tip and come into its own. The Beatles are cited in His book - He describes how they did nightly gigs in Germany and steadily built therir audience until they were invited to a gig in the Cavern, Liverpool - it was a tipping point that changed the course of popular music forever.

Blogging for beginners: Why blog at all

2010-08-17T12:57:00.000-07:00

You may well think, as you look around, that blogging is irrelevant, the pursuit of individuals without a real life or who want to rant and rave even if no one is listening. That is somewhat naive, for there are many very useful sites out there and not a few of them belong to very significant people, people who use blogging as a real part of their Public Relations and Marketing efforts. As such, there are many very rich and meaningful sites out there that are really making a difference.

So why should you blog?

There are a number of good reasons:

- Publicity

- Self-evaluation

- Accessibility

- Networking
- Economic

Publicity

Your own blog is a vital part of publicly declaring who you are and what you stand for. It is a vital window on your craft, revealing your writing style, ethos and world view. It is a simple reality that without publicity you will never have an audience or customers. How can you expect others to even find you, let alone follow you, unless you are visible? In the past that may have involved putting up a billboard next to a busy road or, as some wise guy recently did in the Tour de France, waving your advert in front of a popular lens. Well, today the busiest of all highways, and it is growing exponentially, is the Internet highway. I am amazed at how many leaders of churches and other organisations have failed to grasp just how big the opportunity is, but what is even more saddening is that audiences have drifted onto that highway away from traditional channels, so by ignoring the opportunity we effectively ignore our publics. Publicity also implies credibility, namely the process of gaining respect as a subject matter authority, which is so vital to your marketability.

Self evaluation

There can be nothing more irrelevant than self-delusion. I hate to be crude, and forgive me please for using this analogy, but it just is so pertinent. Where I once worked, consultants often referred to a process of "intellectual masturbation", by which they referred to activities that look grand and make you feel good, but do squat for others or the wider needs of the organisation. The best safeguard against that is the honest, often brutally so, feedback and commentary of those who read your blogs. It has pained me much to not even get comments from friends, but I have had to see that as passive criticism and a cue to keep looking for what will work, including the need to look for new audiences. That is the power of feedback and its ability to give us a self-evaluative mirror on our efforts.

Accessibility

It amazes me to see significant people using a blend of blogging and social networking to make themselves more accessible to their publics. I even connected with the Prime Minister of a country, leading political figures, global authorities on leadership, CEO's, market leaders in publishing and world class authors. I don't care much for the canned, mechanistic and dehumanising communications that have evolved through automated telephone or email response systems, because competitive advantage in this highly cmpetitive age, is always going to be about differentiation (a big word used in marketing to describe the act of doing something different). One of the most compelling ways to be different is through good old human touch, the lost art of engagement, recognition and dialogue. It is a very powerful marketing glue.

Networking

The term "hooker" derived from a practice in New Orleans, whereby ladies of the night, forbidden from walking the pavements, would literally hook a man's hat from his head. When he stepped inside to retrieve his hat, he was all but "hooked". Well, networking is about developing hooks within the restrains and norms of the Internet pavement. Many internet marketers are as exploitative as hookers, using spam and other nefarious means to hook audiences, but for those with a soul, genuine networking and relationship building is by far the better hook. Its about showing an interest in others and doing a lot more listening. Its also about engaging and helping each other, which involves a lot of mutual support across websites. Women have always networked readily, not so men, but in this age it is the ability to network effectively that will define the movers and shakers from the also rans.
Economic

There be money in them thar hills. I don't currently pursue a direct economic motive, because my ultimate goal is to get published and to take that further in terms of ministry. To me fulfilment of God's calling is my currency, but I still use the Internet just as true money makers would, to generate traffic and a market base.

That'll do piggy

Okay, enough said. I hope you have some reasons to explore this channel. This is the start of a bigger series, so I hope I can motivate you further as we go on with the subject.

(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net
Image: http://www.blogtrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/blogs-about-blogging.jpg

Some inspirational quotes and poetry for writers

2010-08-06T20:31:00.000-07:00

"Writers, like teeth, are divided into incisors and grinders” ~ Walter Bagehot

"We talked about our voices as writers--how they are strong and brave but how as people we are wimps. This is what creates our craziness. The chasm between the great love we feel for the world when we sit and write about it and the disregard we give it in our own human lives”~ Natalie Goldberg

"The story arises in the unconscious” ~Dorothea Brande

"What is The Subconscious to every other man, in its creative aspect becomes, for writers, The Muse”~ Ray Bradbury

"One writes out of one thing only--one's own experience. Everything depends on how relentlessly one forces from the experience the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can possibly give” ~ James Baldwin

"It is a paradox of creativity that the very way to move beyond the conventional stage [of writing] is not to try harder, but to take a seeming step backward: to reawaken and cultivate in ourselves some of the ways we had of perceiving and expressing when we were children" ~ Gabrielle Lusser Rico

Poem by Frederick Lehman

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

Total communication is systemic, touching the entirety of others

2010-08-01T04:55:00.000-07:00

Humans use multiple communications channels. Our five senses are vital for sensory inputs and for expression. Indeed, it might surprise you to know that people are far more influenced by perceptions than by what is actually heard or read. Non-verbal language accounts for over 60% of communication and listening is often better than telling.

That is why we experience so many mixed signals and misinterpretations in electronic communications. Without the further dimensions of non-verbal cues, communication is often cold, wooden and mechanistic. Symbolic gestures that amplify our feelings on a given subject, do help e.g. emphases, bold text, italics, emoticons, visuals or the tone of our communication. Its never going to be as rich as the real thing, but to preserve the efficiency of electronic communications, trade-offs are inevitable.

That said, written communication can certainly stimulate the non-verbal sensors of audiences. The style of a blog site or the garnishings of written text, can communicate things like respect for audiences, intent, quality, values, etc. Sadly, the psychology behind all of that has been so abused by advertisers and spammers that trying to reach an audience often fails causes people to just switch off.

That brings me to a few vital points:

Communication must be holistic. You cannot rely on limited channels or methods. People need to see, hear, touch and feel what you are saying, through a mix of approaches. Banks tried internet-only strategies, which failed, because customers saw direct channels as complementary to face-to-face channels.

Less is more. I personally limit myself to 500 word articles and many are half of that. Even that may be too much. Crowding of social network channels with short quotes and messages, can elicit a negative response - it often looks like spam.

Consistency is king. It takes a long-term commitment to win an audience. Large-scale exhibition firms, bank on running new shows at a loss for the first few years, because it takes so long to reach the tipping point. The Beatles played in a German pub for a few years, before they reached their own tipping point.

People are not reading less, they are reading differently. Thanks to the high pace of modern life, we prefer bite-size chunks of information, not long essays. But if a long essay is broken down into logical bites, it can still be effective.

We must repersonalize. Depersonalization of call center, internet and social network channels, raised the attention threshold of people, so be effective our communications must be distinctive, not more of the same. That implies a need for warmth, empathy, connectedness, responsiveness, etc.

Engagement is critical. You cannot pump out outputs to an audience that is always more concerned with being heard. People value an empathetic ear. Engagement must be real, inclusive, relevant and ongoing. The thin, one-dimensional feedback offen given in blog or social network sites, is not engagement and as such, is not sticky or sustainable.

(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net

7 habits of great writers: 7. Develop multiple communication channels

2010-07-20T09:13:00.000-07:00

Before Jesus was born, the way (channel) was prepared so that when He stood up to speak to the people, his platform would be assured. God actually prepared that platform over a period of 4,000 years so that His ministry would have relevance to that world. Sin and judgment were two primary concepts that were ingrained in the social conscience before He came.

God also prepared the physical distribution channels, by introducing Jesus to the world only once the Romans had completed their roads and the Greek language had universalized communications. This also shows great attention to detail, which reflects how deeply serious God was about the process of salvation and judgment.

Then Jesus built on that platform to establish a higher platform for the cross. Jesus used His three short years of human life to meticulously prepare for the cross, approaching His destiny with absolute single-mindedness. Indeed His miracles were far more about laying foundations for the cross rather than a gratuitous act of mercy.

Once He had made His great sacrifice and written our salvation story in His own blood, God raised up heralds (apostles and followers), who could take the message to the nations and then He kick-started the process by scattering those believers to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth.

Thus God left nothing to chance – He knew how to prepare for life after the cross and He prepares in advance for the conclusion of those projects that He entrusts to us – things will not catch Him by surprise, but you will need to follow His lead and apply your faith to see your writings successfully birthed. He will almost certainly continue teaching you His ways in the process of getting your works to market, but then He is a very good marketer – He executed an effective marketing campaign to disseminate the gospel to the four corners of the earth.

He also used channels that were relevant to that culture, notably the Greek language, Roman roads, Jewish synagogues, Greek debates, etc. Our channels today include the Internet, email, networking, e-books and blogging, amongst others. Paul would have recommended using all of those, that “by any means some might be saved”.

I advocate a similar multi-channel strategy. One new writer harnessed all these channels including networking through established networks, like Christian magazines – to get her books to market. She has seen a steady increase in orders and hits for her various marketing channels, a great example worth following.

Relying on a single channel, like a publisher or a pulpit, simply does nothing in terms of adding real value to your readers. You have to go to them and stop assuming that they should come to you. God set the example, reaching out to the world and meeting us at the crossroads of life, without waiting for us to come to Him. Its hard enough to build a following or get published, so better you get used to trying every channel you can find and keep doing so long after you succeed, because it takes substantially more to win an audience than sustain one. Besides they deserve to be rewarded for their support.

7 habits of great writers: 6. Write right

2010-07-08T03:46:00.000-07:00

The term, “well done good and faithful servant”, is reserved for those who faithfully steward what God entrusts to them. The Apostle Paul also challenged believers to “wait on your ministry”, implying that a gift needs to be honed into an effective instrument.

Cain was a man of original ideas, who showed no sensitivity to the needs of his audience and critic – God. If he had been more in touch with God, he would have taken a lot more trouble to do the right things, which Abel intuitively did.

Therein lies the soul of an effective writer or blogger – like Paul of old, that which we receive from God we faithfully entrust to the righteous, by the way we carefully steward His priceless truths.

I am often amazed by the mistakes that Christian communicators make. The specter of preachers waffling on with scant regard for the attention spans or other needs of their audiences, is a case in point. But, we are not a law to ourselves. We serve an audience and the prerogative vests with them – they alone define our platform or extend to us the right to be heard. Rights of expression must defer to an audience’s right to hear.

Leaders also often presume that a one-dimensional approach to communication is just fine, eschewing other channels like Blogging, Facebook or Twitter. They fail to establish where their audiences are and how to connect with them, either because they assume the right to speak or they don’t understand or respect other communication channels.

So, for me, writing must be a total effort. It is not enough to pen your ideas and trust that to be good enough. Some get lucky breaks, but publishers are conservative – more inclined to reject than accept a manuscript. They make their money by connecting writers to audiences, an activity that is fraught with risk. Thus they focus their imprints and study how to connect with target audiences. The problem is that authors often assume the right to be heard, instead of doing whatever they can to make themselves marketable.

The details that we must worry about in writing, include: planning, writing, editing (1000-2000 times should do), market research (I have always tested my audiences and incorporated their thoughts), grammar, spelling, layout (I researched books in book stores to get that right), cover design, prologues, back cover text, introductions, referencing, text style and spacing, logical flow, testing, review, packaging and pricing.

Most of those principles are also valid for blogging, where I so often see glaring mistakes – flowery fonts, poor visual design, cumbersome pages that load too slowly, bad grammar and editing, lack of attention to detail, verbosity (I try always to stay below 500 words), poor initial impact, fuzzy headings that don’t clarify a blog’s objectives, weak follow through and poor engagement (commentary is not engagement).

If you want God to do justice to what really came from Him in the first place, then honor Him in your application. A book or blog is not done until He signals that it is done and you will know when that is, but know that timing is often the most critical variable for Him who knows the beginning from the end. Most of all, behave as the pen of a ready writer and never elevate your works above the author and finisher of our faith.

7 habits of great writers: 5. Touch their hearts

2010-06-29T00:13:00.000-07:00

A good book, especially a spiritual one, should make them laugh, make them cry, make them sit up and make them act. Never be one-dimensional. God has always filled my life with delightfully amusing moments that were illustrative, yet so relevant and practical.

He used the same style when He illustrated deeper spiritual principles and concepts through the ordinary lives of contemporary biblical characters. He wove insights into each story that each truth lent itself to many different situational interpretations. It is because the bible so adequately vindicates itself through my real-world experiences that I now simply scoff at gainsayers – you cannot judge the bible from an aloof distance the way a critic assesses a book or a movie – you have to feel it.

The story of the man at the pool of Siloam is a delightful example of God’s very human literary style. Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath and told him to “take up his bed and walk”. He could have waited another day to avoid a conflict, but Sabbath was the day He chose anyway. On seeing him walking around with his bed, the Pharisees castigated the man, in spite of the fact that he was walking for the first time in his life. That’s like telling a child not to open his presents on Christmas morning.

The simple fellow exhibited his joy in the very spirit of the Sabbath, rejoicing in the love and mercy of God - as we all should do. Thus, when they asked him about it, all he could say, whilst grinning like a Cheshire cat, was “Hey guys, I don’t know much, but I do know that Jesus healed me today”. It’s a really funny moment, told with such dry wit that it is easy to miss the moment. Yet as much as it is funny, it very effectively illustrates a powerful point without any need for preaching or elaboration. Having made them laugh, maybe even cry when the disciples talked about it later, Jesus also made them sit up. His was a very efficient style that provided remarkably teachable moments.

Another evergreen favorite, also set near water (Jesus is the water of life), relates to the time when Jesus met a woman from the other side of the tracks at Jacob’s well in Shechem. He was alone with her, a potential dilemma that created a fascinating dramatic backdrop to the unfolding story. Given the differences in their world-views, Jesus the Jewish Rabbi engaged the easy-living Samaritan, using everyday ideas. He reasoned that a bit of water, a well and a thirst was more than enough material to invoke a good debate. Picking up on those he skillfully led the woman beyond her more obvious social issues and the fact that she had been with so many men, to get to the heart of her problem.

He discerned a far deeper thirst in her and knew that to be the real reason for her otherwise deviant behavior. Instead of judging her behavior or the symptoms of her cause, like a good physician He addressed the root causes of her dilemma. Yet in so doing, He also addressed the root issues of her community, enabling a whole village to grasp that the God who was once either limited to Jerusalem or Samaria had come to dwell amongst them.

It is a story that has kept countless theologians and believers, enchanted throughout the ensuing centuries and a very useful template for all writing.

(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net
Image source: http://janet_elaine_smith0.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/open-bible.jpeg

7 habits of great writers: 4. Be relevant

2010-06-24T04:53:00.000-07:00

The stories of old, provided reference points for historians. They highlighted cultural and environmental contexts and helped put the audience in that time and place. That is why we relate to those stories. It is also the reason that we so readily refer to historic stories to inform the present and future. I am not sure we always learn from history, but we certainly do tend to take history into account as we go forward.

Similarly, your story must not be out of touch with your current culture else it will never find an audience. The people that spoke then spoke to “then-audiences”, but we speak now and should address “now-audiences”.

Does that demand a contemporary style of writing? I don’t think that ever limited timeless stories, but try and read something written a century ago and you will be bored out of your skull. We must at least speak in the vernacular of our culture and use examples and illustrations that they can relate to. Someone tried to translate the bible into a lesser African language and came to the concept “white as snow”. There was no way to translate that idea into the culture, so they chose something more relevant – perhaps “as white as the down-feathers of a goose” or “as white as the white of your eyes when you bump into a lion in the forest”.

Don’t borrow ideas or pretend to be something you are not – that will rob your story of its soul. Tell it from the heart and relate your real world experiences and how God has been relevant to you in those experiences. Also layer in the real world witnesses of those around you. Be relevant.
Relevance also relates to the need to convey your real experiences to your audience.

I also believe in being accessible. I don't have a natually casual style of writing, because I love good use of the English language. That could distance me from my audience, but if that were true then Moses, David and the writers of the gospels would be irrelevant today. Sure we enhanced their accessibility by modernising the King James style of writing, but that is not what makes their stories so accessible to us. The secrets to their writings included the use of real people in real circumstances, who wrote what God dared not write Himself for fear of not being understandable to the common man. Also, God wrote through them by casting their lives into journeys and crises that helped to bring such relevant commentaries. They also used everyday examples and situations to reference their stories. Their stories cut across cultures, genders, age and all kinds of potential sterotypes, to ensure that the bible would transcend time and the comings and goings of peoples.

There are so many cues in that for you. Use everyday analogies and examples. Speak about the kind of issues that touch the real lives of people. Broaden your audience by identifying with people from diverse cultures, genders and age-groups. Reference your context - describe places, events, historic moments, the textures of your reference culture and anything else that brings your referenced world to your audience. Take them there, let them smell, feel, taste and touch real contexts, by enriching your narrative.

I would also avoid contentious subjects, although I am often controversial. There is a difference. I avoid subjects that are known to polarise and upset people, especially audience or advocates (people who influence audiences, like leaders, pastors, etc) - what can I add to an already inflamed and well debated issue, other than to tarnish my own brand. I also avoid subjects that I am not qualified to comment on, or at least, if I do engage such topics I do so unpretentiously (as a layman). Your brand is precious and can take ages to build - so don't ruin it by being contentious. However, if controversial ideas can stimulate debate and get people talking, that can be very useful to audience building. Its a fine line.

Be authentic. I watched a few episodes of the iconic US reality show, "Pop Idols" and heard the judges repeatedly insist on two vital points that only few (normally the winners), ever grasped. They constantly criticised song choice, inferring that singers were punching above their weights, were not showcasing their real voices or did not seem authentic. The second point made to the singers, was to know who they were and build their identity through the show, although time and again they ended up trying to be someone else. In a nutshell they were being advised to be real, authentic and consistent to their own heartbeats. The last point had is more of an observation than something that judges said - winners were often simply accessible, pleasant, pliable, willing to learn and always in touch with their public. Losers though nothing of singing fringe music to conservative US audiences and whenever they did I correctly predicted their falls.

If all that advice is relevant to musicians, it is as true, if not more so, to writers. It burns emotional and creative energy to mimic others (I generally don't read other Christian books, so I can be real to myself and never feel bad when I see my own thoughts in others' works), but we will find a deep, endless vein of energy and passion in doing what God has called us and shaped us to do and be.

Image source: Calvin & Hobbes

7 habits of great writers: 3. Its a journey

2010-06-20T23:46:00.000-07:00

Once the intent of a book or blog post or some other communication, has been established and your passion for the subject is ignited and God’s spirit has filled your sails, set your course and stay with it. Jesus set His eyes as a flint towards Jerusalem, in much the same way that a book embarked on, is a mission that must have a destination.

En route to the cross, Jesus healed people and we are often inclined to see that as the defining feature of His life. Yet He never once diverted from His course, to become a man of wonders. He did as many miracles and healings as was necessary to achieve His surpassing purpose and that gave credence to His defining work at the cross.

En-route to our own Jerusalem, we also have a journey to walk that will be interspersed with relevant experiences that will complement the greater story and provide it with rich fabric. God will lead you to people, places and events that will help to give the story credence. However, no experience will exist for its own sake, nor will such events be ends in themselves – they must become part of the journey to your destination and be shared as relevant moments along the way.

As a Toastmaster I was taught: Tell the audience where you are going, take them there and then tell them where they came from. The whole story must confirm and validate the passion and inspiration that was the raison d’être for which the book or post was birthed in the first place. Then it must deliberately and progressively lead the audience towards a clear objective. Once there it should confirm that they have arrived.

Accordingly, the prologue, introduction, opening chapters and back cover, should provide a clear indication of where you are going. Then you must fulfill your promise, a marketing term, by taking the audience there and thereby fulfilling the expectations first aroused in them.

It is for this reason that I believe content (the experience or story) to be more relevant than style – anybody can learn style, but only you can write your own story and that is the story God wants you to tell, despite its other imperfections.

God wrote stories through ordinary people in a style that was, in many respects, very down-to-earth, unpolished and potentially style-less. He delivered truth using everyday imagery and stammering lips. However, where they sowed or watered, God added the increase, layering in that third dimension that separates ordinary text from great literature, to leave us with the greatest literary work in human history - an exquisitely balanced, multi-dimensional and sophisticated work, far beyond the scope of its individual contributors.

Therein lies a vital consideration of your journey. God will lead you, by pillars of fire (inspiration) and cloud (introspection). He also always leads progressively to a determined destination. He always advances, never regresses. He has clear waypoints along the way, places of learning and instruction, but He never leads us one way to arrive somewhere else.

As we walk our journeys, we would do well to always realize that it is God who orders our footsteps. We are merely the pens of a ready writer and no matter what we write, we will still have a limited impact unless we allow ourselves to become channels for His heart. If we want to bring the works of our hands, we must take our chances, but if we want to express His heart He will add the increase.

To that end, I will share my own secret. I am merely a scribe. I get my inspiration in my times alone with God and through the people he brings across my path. I claim nothing for myself - Indeed, I would never have written a word had He not led me to write, but, as Paul said in a different context, whatever I received from God I faithfully delivered through my writings - so that God made be glorified through the profound tapestry that has weaved through countless faithful hearts across history.

Image source: http://farm1.static.flickr.com

7 habits of great writers: 2. Get to it

2010-06-14T04:50:00.000-07:00

I started writing a journal of my experiences in a time of great personal struggle. That start was analogous to being able to steer a moving vehicle, as opposed to trying the same with a stationary vehicle - which is not quite as much fun.

Once I had set my sail and cast off, I moved out of my safe moorings into open water and then was able to feel God’s breath fill the sail – the adventure was underway. I had to make the first move. I had to depart and get out of the departure lounge – after all we don’t fly in order to have the lounge experiences, we lounge in order to fly.

There is a principle with God, that in giving we receive. In following that process, generally to the point of freely giving away my most treasured material, I found God to be a bottmless well that always, always filled up again. I have never come near to expending His limitless potential - except in times when I stagnated and stopped outpouring what He gave me, into the lives of others.

As I wrote my journal, God gave life to my words and started to reveal His heart in the context of my pains. I became the pen of that same, great, ready writer who, in His profoundly down-to-earth style chose to reveal His heart through people – it was always that way. He called ordinary souls from ordinary circumstances and when they responded He showed them great mysteries.

When He had finished writing those stories, He arranged for them to be bound into a single book and then allowed us to call it “the bible”. It’s a book whose pages are alive with powerful human drama interwoven with deep truth. It was not written as a manual, but as a narrative that progressively reveals His heart to us, because He so yearns for a personal and rich relationship with His people. The same spirit works to bring significance to all our lives and specifically, in this context anyway, to those who feel called to write about the author of all things.

Time and again I have counselled aspirant writers to just do it - or as Richard Branson rather irreverantly said, "Screw it, let's do it." Even if you never get published, doing it will teach you such vital skills. Eventually (they say after 10,000 hours of persistence) you will reach a tipping point where your writing will acquire a life and vitality of its own. I wrote, wrote and wrote again, fully editing my first book over 1000 times, until I had learnt my lessons and got it "write". Don't hesitate for fear of failure - darn it, let me tell you upfront that you are probably useless, but you will get better and you will master this craft if you stick at it. You will never gain an inch if you stand like a deer in the headlamps willing your next book to get written. Great writers are not born, they are merely ordinary people, full of flaws, who persist long enough to reach greatness.

The greatest value of writing, whether you are ever published or not (to me that has become a secondary goal), is to create a disciplined framework within which God can speak into your life and interpret your life journey. If you want to know what His purpose is for your life, then write and He will flood your writings with sense, inspiration, life, words, meaning and so much more.

In closing, know that the greatest pastime of all great biblical characters was writing, which includes the "author of our faith" - but in writing they all became history makers. So do it - and God will meet you in that mountaintop, reveal His heart to you and then give you the pattern or template of your life calling.

Image source: www.breathoflifevm.com

7 habits of great writers: 1. Start at the end

2010-06-12T01:02:00.001-07:00

Stephen Covey coined the principle of starting with the end in mind - its a good principle, for if you don't know where you're going how will you know when you get there?

The principle is just as relevant to writing. One of the big mistakes we see daily in marketing, is a tendency to say, “Here is a solution, let’s see if I can find a problem to fit it”, or rather “Lets make your problem fit my solution”.

The counter-view is best described by the story of a man who went to a store to buy a drill, only to be asked, “What do you want to do?” He replied, “I need to make a hole in the wall”, to which the store manager replied, “Ah, well then what you need is a thing that makes holes in walls”. It seems obvious I know, yet many salesmen have spent frustrated careers pushing a product instead of solving needs.

A good marketer should start with a blank sheet and ask the customer, “What is your need and what can we do to solve it?” – that is the new marketing paradigm.

It is no less true that a book should satisfy a need. To that end, an effective author would sit down, prayerfully to determine what a book is intending to achieve. Are you writing to satisfy your ego or your needs, or is the need of your audience more important.

Airbus built the A380, the largest passenger aircraft in history. Boeing on the other hand asked what the customer needed - the answer to that was the smaller, Dreamliner. A remarkable plane, it flies non-stop from point to point, without having to hub via airports like Atlanta or Chicago. It is very fuel efficient and sized to optimize occupancy levels. It also has many comforts that make long-haul flight a delight. So where did Airbus go wrong? They seem to have set out to please themselves and satisfy their own egos and it blinded them to their customers.

This principle also relates to internet writing or blogging. If you are seeking to push your position, you may be frustrated, but if you engage, elicit commentary and connect with your audience, you will actually meet some very fundamental human needs and that will grow your base.

(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net
Image: www.crimethinc.com

Managing perceptions when blogging

2010-06-10T02:21:00.000-07:00

... and now for something completely different.

One of the most fundamental of all marketing principles relates to perception. When a guy sees a pretty girl it is all perception – “she must be great, because she looks great”. Overheard whispers in the pews behind me during a church service, suggest that either the minister is going beyond the call of duty or my new electric shaver is making up for the disuse of aftershave. Actually, I just think gals also form first impressions of other good looking guys.

After the initial phase of seeing and meeting, perceptions give way to deeper issues, where they either confirm initial perceptions or fulfill the worst of fears. It’s like letting donkey speak in Shrek, where he should know that its better to be deemed a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.

Well, much as that sounds like worldly advice, the fact is that perceptions equate to reality for most people. As flowers smell nice or look beautiful to attract birds and bees, so God made all living creatures vulnerable to perception – Lions do it, Octopi do it, seals do it and people do it. Paul confirms in Romans 8:20 (KJV) that “God made us subject to vanity.”

You know that first impressions are lasting impressions. As your window on the world, your web identity also creates perceptions. Although we may need to engage further to discover what you stand for, fact remains that it’s the initial experience and perceptions around that, which induce us to inquire further. I was similarly taught, in Toastmasters, to get and hold audience attention with a strong opening.

A site must be true to its themes, because initial perceptions will affect different people in different ways. It must tell me, almost within the first 5 seconds, “What is this site about, does it suit my needs and am I interested in reading further?” That means your header must be unambiguous, clear, bold and appealing.

In the next 10, breathless seconds before the golden-moment passes, it must say as much to confirm your stance as can be said in 10 breathless seconds, which means that your initial communication is generally symbolic. It is true in human relationships too. If someone shambles instead of walks, wears ill-fitting clothes and has unkempt hair – you will assume the worst, without one shot of real communication being fired. That is why you must take responsibility for the image and presentability of your site.

Once they have come through the door, connect quickly. People tend to browse and move on fairly quickly, so like a good Indian salesman in Delhi, make eye contact before they go next door and buy from your sister's brother half uncle. That means your goodies, the richness of your offering, must load quickly, present well and be easy to navigate.

Finally we get to the soul of your blog – the content. That is where you will confirm all that went before. If you portray yourself positively don’t throw it away with badly edited content, long posts, ill-formed ideas, complex logic, or any deviations from the objectives of your site. Your content is what will bring them back again and again - if it fulfills their needs.

So … what first impressions put you off a site?
And … what first impressions have drawn you to sites?
Also … are you initially drawn to style or content?
What can you tell about a site long before reading any content?
What gets you to look under the hood and find out what is really going on in a site?
If a site can suffer from limited impact, how can an overdressed site also lose audiences?
What do you expect to find or experience when you first enter a new site?

(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net
Image source: http://informedvoters.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/blogging.gif

Manage email, don't let it manage you (some tips)

2010-06-08T02:24:00.000-07:00

Now to get off the subject a bit. I follow the very relevant and topical site of Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers. He raised some concerns about his email overload and elicited comments.

After boring him with my own feedback, I did some general research and here are my findings gleaned from various sources:

Manage expectations - deliberately coach senders about things that irritate you and gently move them to a different style e.g. get to the point, shorter please, etc. In fact, send back the email and ask them to reformat appropriately and you will undoubtedly progress to a cleaner inbox. Let people know upfront that you do not want to get certain messages - like those cute little "pass it ons". Also politely ask people to remove you from their "general circulation lists".

- To avoid offending I once put in a rule that sent an appropriate message to emails that asked me to onsend to someone I care about. There are other rules you can set up, or if you can't, mimick a rule i.e. send a reply email that seems automated - it will be less in the face than a direct confrontation and once set up and approved, your personal assistant can happily use it where needed. Rather get complementary channels to link back to your primary site. Also elicit inter-debate so that the debate itself draws people, rather than you having to feed them. Also use surveys to elicit opinions, rather than driving up traffic.
Use rules

Limit your media channels - If you do need to maintain a social media presence, fine, but stick with one else you will quickly bog down. If you are really busy, appoint someone to PR for you - a secretary or a ghosting service (many CEO's do just that). Keep a separate mailbox for VIP correspondence.

Cap all boomeranging - either ensure closure in your mails by indicating as such e.g. "Let's leave it at that" or something similar. Else revert to rule 1 and instruct the offender to change the habit.

Use filters - eliminate all SPAM, but whatever you do never reply to SPAM - you will just confirm your e-presence and invite them to keep going. Email software generally offers other filters and corporate servers provide SPAM walls. However, if that still fails and if you can afford it, consider at least outsourcing clean up duties. Ask your secretary to remove all "for info's" or other irrelevancies.

Let the Secretary reply - in many cases that is quite fine. Many bosses get a hardcopy of all mails (duly cleaned up), every morning and they jot down a quick action note on each - then leave the secretary to do the padding and relevant niceties. However, be careful, your secretary was designed for a different role, so being your email batman may be self-defeating. A skilled PR person or a secretary who has PR skills, may be invaluable in complementing your role by managing your PR, but true delegation is not offloading. If need be train her, equip her to ghost you, send her on a course, etc. However, don't delegate your ultimate responsibility to your constituencies, because that brings us to what we had before email - a barrier.

Stop before sending - its a tough confession, but I often asked myself, "Is this so important" - if in doubt I delete and see if it comes knocking again. More often than not it doesn't. Also ask if you really need to engage, because each email sent does generate traffic.

Get to the point - be brief, use the subject heading strategically to properly introduce your objective, state what you have to say in the fewest possible words and intimate, where possible, that a reply is unnecesary.

Avoid contentions - email is generally for information. If misunderstandings are evident or clarity is needed or a fight is brewing, stop it - use the phone and cut the cycle short, or call a meeting.

Delay your response where applicable - it always cools things down, regardless of the nature of the engagement, but it also helps you to avoid rushing into a response that might fuel a fire.

Schedule your email time - you will waste too much time responding as and when - I find it best to manage my inbox before or after work.

Protect your brand - don't be led by technology. Determine who you are and how you want to be perceived and harness the technology to help you get there. Also take special precautions about your language, tone, spelling, grammar - as they all say something about you. However, keep your style simple as it ensure better understanding and less recycling. I truly believe that accessibility and responsiveness is a vital brand quality and life value, but even Jesus was discriminating in how he managed his different audiences - he had three close confidantes, a near group of disciples, a less near group of 72, a broad following, wider adherents, a few intimate relationships and he set an absolute priority on all communication with His Father. He managed each differently.

Always be polite - as the bible says, "a soft answer turns away much wrath". This should be your default setting as it will always pay back. Even if you have to correct, do so with tact and if you can't don't use email to say what needs to be said.

Change your habits - a very high percentage of executives maintain bad, wasteful habits, like "reply to all" or other avoidable mistakes - do the self-reflection and change your habits. If need be, ask your colleagues for feedback and act accordingly - if you don't, you won't know why you keep irritating them.

Use good filing habits - delete when read or file in a logical filing system - it will save time and unclutter your life.

Declare email bancruptcy - it really helps to close down a mailbox from time to time and to start again, because bad habits are a part of email clutter.

Introduce email free days - some firms are banning all emails on Fridays to give it a break.

Use an internet template - if you are able, develop a template that controls length, forces subject selection, manages priorities, feedbacks immediately where possible, does relevant filtering, redirects based on subject selection, etc. Then complement that with an "in-list" based filter on your private email. Be careful how public you make your email or template, but for those who do use your email and yet are not on your "in list", use a rule to immediately redirect their mail to your private template. Some firms already provide employee contact templates on their sites but most have a "contact us" template - those are fine, but a more private variation on that theme could give busy executives a valuable tool for managing their inbound traffic.

The oldest profession

2010-06-06T10:23:00.000-07:00

We all know what comes to mind when we speak of the oldest profession, but for various reasons I think writers have a greater claim to this title. No I am not saying that writers were the first prostitutes although the term does describe how writers are tempted to sell the soul of their craft to popularity, commercialism or plagiarism. I am merely arguing that writing is the older and more worthy profession.

Prostitutes may be "professionals", but they are not "professors". They do not occupy seats of learning, although they may at times share the beds of the learned. A profession speaks of a collection of professional occupations that includes doctors, lawyers and so on. They are highly skilled specialists in a given field of practice. Writing, by implication, can be regarded as a profession, prostitution is just prostitution.

Secondly, we have been around for as far back as history goes, because that is in fact what defines how far back history goes. History is the recorded past. If it isn't recorded it isn't history and it most certainly isn't recorded history. Okay, so maybe dinosaurs didn't write and they predated humans so perhaps fossils go back further, but as far as human activity is concerned our records of their existence are substantiated through cave graffiti, carvings, clay tablets and written scrolls.

The very fact that Moses wrote about Adam and Eve some 2,000 years after they were last sighted implies that some evidence was carried down to him. The fact that he chose to write about it suggests that he used written evidence.

If there is a basic human urge behind the more widely accepted oldest profession, there was a potentially greater, more surpassing instinct to write ... we don't have any sense of the sexual exploits of the cavemen, but we have their writings and they tell of their social and cultural activities.

The other reason I claim writing as the oldest profession is because it has preserved all of the past. Throughout history, writers faithfully recorded past events and passed their stories onto succeeding generations.

It was an almost religious pursuit, resulting in libraries (Alexandria) and the hiding of sacred scrolls from their enemies. That was how ancient civilizations preserved their cultures. It was taken so seriously that a scribe could work for days on one page and have to start again for the sake of the slightest error.

The fourth reason is because our entire faith has been articulated through writing, not through oral traditions, art, music or anything else - only through a written text, collectively referred to as the bible.

So right or wrong, there is nothing left to say, but that write is right and by rights authors should be given their rightful claim to being the oldest profession ... so put that in your pen and write it.