Jerry B. Jenkins's Blog, page 27

A Guest Blog from Stephen King—Yes, that Stephen King

Okay, let’s get a few things straight right from the top:
This is going to be a very long post, but I’m not going to apologize for it because: 1—I need to brag about how I know Mr. King; 2—I promise it’ll be content-rich; 3—You’re going to learn Voice merely by osmosis, beyond what he’s teaching overtly; and 4—You’ll be glad you invested the time. So grab your favorite beverage and settle in…
Though I work the inspirational side of the fiction writing fence and he the horror, we at one time happened to share the services of the same audio reader, the legendary Frank Muller, who remains, even post mortem, the unquestioned creme de la creme of that field.
We first met by phone when Stephen called one day to discuss how we might aid Frank’s family after he suffered a motorcycle accident that would eventually take his life. Then Stephen and I met personally in 2004 when we visited Frank in rehab, where he lingered for several years.
Stephen and I share a rabid love of baseball (he the Boston Red Sox, I the Chicago Cubs).
I have been accused of trying to scare readers out of Hell.
Stephen has been accused of trying to scare the hell out of readers.
We read each other’s work and respect each other and still keep in touch via email.
Writer’s Digest considered us strange enough bedfellows to feature us in a cover story.
I will insert myself into Stephen’s blog only occasionally to adjust for the fact that the piece is nearly 30 years old, yet remains poignantly applicable.
I expect it to stimulate spirited conversation, however be advised that my team and I will excise any off-topic comments. This is not the place to discuss Stephen’s use of naughty words, or his political, cultural, or religious views. Let’s stick to the subject of fiction writing.

I asked if I could share with you sections of his iconic piece from the 1986 issue of The Writer magazine, wherein he promised to tell budding fiction writers everything they needed to know about writing successfully in ten minutes. Much of it has been floating around the Internet ever since, and you may have seen it.

He kindly said, “Feel free to use as much of it as you’d like.”

And so, with thanks for that generous offer, here is all of it with a few notes:

 

Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully—in Ten Minutes 

By Stephen King

I. The First Introduction

THAT’S RIGHT. I know it sounds like an ad for some sleazy writers’ school, but I really am going to tell you everything you need to pursue a successful and financially rewarding career writing fiction, and I really am going to do it in ten minutes, which is exactly how long it took me to learn.

It will actually take you twenty minutes or so to read this essay, however, because I have to tell you a story, and then I have to write a second introduction. But these, I argue, should not count in the ten minutes.

II. The Story, or, How Stephen King Learned to Write

When I was a sophomore in high school, I did a sophomoric thing which got me in a pot of fairly hot water, as sophomoric didoes often do. I wrote and published a small satiric newspaper called The Village Vomit. In this little paper I lampooned a number of teachers at Lisbon (Maine) High School, where I was under instruction. These were not very gentle lampoons; they ranged from the scatological to the downright cruel.

Eventually, a copy of this little newspaper found its way into the hands of a faculty member, and since I had been unwise enough to put my name on it (a fault, some critics argue, of which I have still not been entirely cured), I was brought into the office.

The sophisticated satirist had by that time reverted to what he really was: a fourteen-year-old kid who was shaking in his boots and wondering if he was going to get a suspension—what we called “a three-day vacation” in those dim days of 1964.

I wasn’t suspended. I was forced to make a number of apologies—they were warranted, but they still tasted like dog-dirt in my mouth—and spent a week in detention hall. And the guidance counselor arranged what he no doubt thought of as a more constructive channel for my talents.

This was a job—contingent upon the editor’s approval—writing sports for the Lisbon Enterprise, a twelve-page weekly, the sort with which any small-town resident will be familiar. This editor was the man who taught me everything I know about writing in ten minutes. His name was John Gould—not the famed New England humorist or the novelist who wrote The Greenleaf Fires, but a relative of both, I believe.

He told me he needed a sports writer and we could “try each other out” if I wanted.

I told him I knew more about advanced algebra than I did sports.

Gould nodded and said, “You’ll learn.”

I said I would at least try to learn. Gould gave me a huge roll of yellow paper and promised me a wage of 1/2¢ per word. The first two pieces I wrote had to do with a high school basketball game in which a member of my school team broke the Lisbon High scoring record. One of these pieces was straight reportage. The second was a feature article.

I brought them to Gould the day after the game, so he’d have them for the paper, which came out Fridays. He read the straight piece, made two minor corrections, and spiked it.

Then he started in on the feature piece with a large black pen and taught me all I ever needed to know about my craft. I wish I still had the piece—it deserves to be framed, editorial corrections and all—but I can remember pretty well how it looked before and after he had finished with it.

Here’s an example:

[Note: King’s original copy showed Mr. Gould’s edit marks.]

Last night, in the well-loved gymnasium of Lisbon High School, partisans and Jay Hills fans alike were stunned by an athletic performance unequaled in school history: Bob Ransom, known as “Bullet” Bob for both his size and accuracy, scored thirty-seven points. He did it with grace and speed … and he did it with an odd courtesy as well, committing only two personal fouls in his knight-like quest for a record which has eluded Lisbon thinclads since 1953….

[With Mr. Gould’s edits applied.]

Last night, in the Lisbon High School gymnasium, partisans and Jay Hills fans alike were stunned by an athletic performance unequaled in school history: Bob Ransom scored thirty-seven points. He did it with grace and speed … and he did it with an odd courtesy as well, committing only two personal fouls in his quest for a record which has eluded Lisbon’s basketball team since 1953….

When Gould finished marking up my copy in the manner I have indicated above, he looked up and must have seen something on my face. I think he must have thought it was horror, but it was not: it was revelation.

“I only took out the bad parts, you know,” he said. “Most of it’s pretty good.”

“I know,” I said, meaning both things: yes, most of it was good, and yes, he had only taken out the bad parts. “I won’t do it again.”

“If that’s true,” he said, “you’ll never have to work again. You can do this for a living.” Then he threw back his head and laughed.

And he was right; I am doing this for a living, and as long as I can keep on, I don’t expect ever to have to work again.

III. The Second Introduction

All of what follows has been said before. If you are interested enough in writing to be a purchaser of this magazine, you will have either heard or read all (or almost all) of it before. Thousands of writing courses are taught across the United States each year; seminars are convened; guest lecturers talk, then answer questions, then drink as many gin and tonics as their expense-fees will allow, and it all boils down to what follows.

I am going to tell you these things again because often people will only listen—really listen—to someone who makes a lot of money doing the thing he’s talking about. This is sad but true. And I told you the story above not to make myself sound like a character out of a Horatio Alger novel but to make a point: I saw, I listened, and I learned.

Until that day in John Gould’s little office, I had been writing first drafts of stories which might run 2,500 words. The second drafts were apt to run 3,300 words. Following that day, my 2,500-word first drafts became 2,200-word second drafts. And two years after that, I sold the first one.

So here it is, with all the bark stripped off. It’ll take ten minutes to read, and you can apply it right away—if you listen.

IV. Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully

1. Be talented

This, of course, is the killer. What is talent? I can hear someone shouting, and here we are, ready to get into a discussion right up there with “what is the meaning of life?” for weighty pronouncements and total uselessness.

For the purposes of the beginning writer, talent may as well be defined as eventual success—publication and money. If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you cashed the check and it didn’t bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented.

Now some of you are really hollering. Some of you are calling me one crass money-fixated creep. And some of you are calling me bad names. Are you calling Harold Robbins talented? someone in one of the Great English Departments of America is screeching. V.C. Andrews? Theodore Dreiser? Or what about you, you dyslexic moron?

Nonsense. Worse than nonsense, off the subject. We’re not talking about good or bad here. I’m interested in telling you how to get your stuff published, not in critical judgments of who’s good or bad. As a rule the critical judgments come after the check’s been spent, anyway. I have my own opinions, but most times I keep them to myself.

People who are published steadily and are paid for what they are writing may be either saints or trollops, but they are clearly reaching a great many someones who want what they have. Ergo, they are communicating. Ergo, they are talented.

The biggest part of writing successfully is being talented, and in the context of marketing, the only bad writer is one who doesn’t get paid. If you’re not talented, you won’t succeed. And if you’re not succeeding, you should know when to quit.

When is that? I don’t know. It’s different for each writer. Not after six rejection slips, certainly, nor after sixty. But after six hundred? Maybe. After six thousand? My friend, after six thousand pinks, it’s time you tried painting or computer programming.

Further, almost every aspiring writer knows when he is getting warmer—you start getting little jotted notes on your rejection slips, or personal letters . . . maybe a commiserating phone call.

It’s lonely out there in the cold, but there are encouraging voices—unless there is nothing in your words which warrants encouragement. I think you owe it to yourself to skip as much of the self-illusion as possible. If your eyes are open, you’ll know which way to go—or when to turn back.

2. Be neat

Type. Double-space. Use a nice heavy white paper, never that erasable onion-skin stuff. If you’ve marked up your manuscript a lot, do another draft.

[Of course, today Stephen would say to use a large, serif type and transmit only work with which you’re entirely happy, spell checked and properly formatted.]

3. Be self-critical

If you haven’t marked up your manuscript a lot [or, today, carefully edited and rewritten it], you did a lazy job. Only God gets things right the first time. Don’t be a slob.

4. Remove every extraneous word

You want to get up on a soapbox and preach? Fine. Get one and try your local park. You want to write for money? Get to the point. And if you remove all the excess garbage and discover you can’t find the point, tear up what you wrote and start all over again—or try something new.

5. Never look at a reference book while doing a first draft

You want to write a story? Fine. Put away your dictionary, your encyclopedias, your World Almanac, and your thesaurus. Better yet, throw your thesaurus into the wastebasket. The only things creepier than a thesaurus are those little paperbacks college students too lazy to read the assigned novels buy around exam time.

Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule. You think you might have misspelled a word? O.K., so here is your choice: either look it up in the dictionary, thereby making sure you have it right—and breaking your train of thought and the writer’s trance in the bargain—or just spell it phonetically and correct it later. Why not? Did you think it was going to go somewhere?

And if you need to know the largest city in Brazil and you find you don’t have it in your head, why not write in Miami, or Cleveland? You can check it—but later. When you sit down to write, write. Don’t do anything else except go to the bathroom, and only do that if it absolutely cannot be put off.

6. Know the markets

Only a dimwit would send a story about giant vampire bats surrounding a high school to McCall’s. Only a dimwit would send a tender story about a mother and daughter making up their differences on Christmas Eve to Playboy—but people do it all the time. I’m not exaggerating; I have seen such stories in the slush piles of the actual magazines.

If you write a good story, why send it out in an ignorant fashion? Would you send your kid out in a snowstorm dressed in Bermuda shorts and a tank top? If you like science fiction, read the magazines. If you want to write confession stories, read the magazines. And so on.

It isn’t just a matter of knowing what’s right for the present story; you can begin to catch on, after awhile, to overall rhythms, editorial likes and dislikes, a magazine’s entire slant. Sometimes your reading can influence the next story, and create a sale.

7. Write to entertain

Does this mean you can’t write “serious fiction”? It does not. Somewhere along the line pernicious critics have infested the American reading and writing public with the idea that entertaining fiction and serious ideas do not overlap.

This would have surprised Charles Dickens, not to mention Jane Austen, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Bernard Malamud, and hundreds of others. But your serious ideas must always serve your story, not the other way around. I repeat: if you want to preach, get a soapbox.

8. Ask yourself frequently, “Am I having fun?”

The answer needn’t always be yes. But if it’s always no, it’s time for a new project or a new career.

9. How to evaluate criticism

Show your piece to a number of people—ten, let us say. Listen carefully to what they tell you. Smile and nod a lot. Then review what was said very carefully. If your critics are all telling you the same thing about some facet of your story—a plot twist that doesn’t work, a character who rings false, stilted narrative, or half a dozen other possibles—change that facet.

It doesn’t matter if you really liked that twist of that character; if a lot of people are telling you something is wrong with your piece, it is. If seven or eight of them are hitting on that same thing, I’d still suggest changing it. But if everyone—or even most everyone—is criticizing something different, you can safely disregard what all of them say.

10. Observe all rules for proper submission

Return postage, self-addressed envelope, all of that. [Obviously, this is different today, but the sentiment remains: follow editorial guidelines.]

11. An agent? Forget it. For now.

Agents get 10% of monies earned by their clients. [Today 15% is standard.] 10% of nothing is nothing. Agents also have to pay the rent. Beginning writers do not contribute to that or any other necessity of life.

Flog your stories around yourself. If you’ve done a novel, send around query letters to publishers, one by one, and follow up with sample chapters and/or the manuscript complete.

And remember Stephen King’s First Rule of Writers and Agents, learned by bitter personal experience: You don’t need one until you’re making enough for someone to steal—and if you’re making that much, you’ll be able to take your pick of good agents.

12. If it’s bad, kill it

When it comes to people, mercy killing is against the law. When it comes to fiction, it is the law.

That’s everything you need to know. And if you listened, you can write everything and anything you want. Now I believe I will wish you a pleasant day and sign off.

My ten minutes are up.

Isn’t it interesting how much of this advice holds up after nearly 30 years? What is your favorite of Stephen’s tips?

The post A Guest Blog from Stephen King—Yes, that Stephen King appeared first on Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild.

8 Quick Tips that Will Get You Closer to ‘Published’

Tired of dreaming about being a successful author while waking up feeling as if you’re running in place?

In five decades of writing, I’ve written and published more than 185 books, sold more than 70 million copies, and have seen 21 of my titles hit The New York Times bestseller list.

I don’t say that to brag but to assure you I’ve learned a lot that can boost your chances for success. Here are a few steps you can start taking today that will help you quit dreaming and start selling what you write:

Have something to say

Narrow your book’s message to one sentence. As you write—then especially as you edit and rewrite—you’ll find that will keep you on point.

Know your reader

When I sit at the keyboard, I keep one reader in mind. Not a room full of people, but one person. I write to an individual, “you,” not “some of you,” or “those of you,” or “many of you.” “You.”

Say it simply

I never try to impress with my choice of words. Writers who show off their vocabularies are like girls using makeup for the first time. Less is more. Unless you’re a gifted literary stylist—and believe me, there aren’t many, let the power of your story speak for itself.

Hone your skills

I don’t say this just because I train writers. Fifty years since earning my first dollar for writing, I’m still trying to perfect my craft every day. I belong to writers groups, subscribe to magazines for writers, and read every book I can find about the profession.

Polish your prose

Every writer needs an editor. At writers workshops I often show beginners how the first page of their novel can be condensed by as much as two-thirds. The truth is, I’m just as brutal with my own first drafts. Dare to cut, replace, and polish until every word counts.

Publish the right way

It’s never been easier to publish a book. But beware. If you must resort to self- or indie publishing, you’ll find that many companies prey on would-be authors, promising success in exchange for expensive packages. Before you invest, investigate. Know what you’re buying and how a company defines its promises, particularly in terms of quality editing, marketing, distribution, and sales.

Prepare to take an active role in selling your book

If you take the initiative to self-publish, your book’s sales and marketing fall to you as well. Here’s a link to a great article on this topic. Don’t wait until your copies are delivered to design your marketing plan.

Start small

You no longer have to order hundreds of copies at a time to get copies of your book at an economical price. Thanks to print-on-demand technology, you can now order just a handful of books, then order more as you need them. Paying less for inventory means you can invest your upfront dollars in editing and design, as well as in help with marketing.

This can be a great time to self-publish your first book—if you commit to doing it right.

Which of the above steps is next on your to-do list? Tell me in the comments section.

The post 8 Quick Tips that Will Get You Closer to ‘Published’ appeared first on Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild.

What You and I Can Learn From Writer Patricia Raybon

 

Who she is  

Her essays have been published in The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post, Guideposts, and aired on National Public radio.
The first two of her five books, My First White Friend: Confessions on Race, Love, and Forgiveness (Viking/Penguin) and I Told the Mountain to Move (Tyndale) were award winners.
Her latest book (Undivided: A Muslim Daughter, Her Christian Mother, Their Path to Peace) releases April 28. (She’s the mother.)

Her pedigree

B.A. in journalism from Ohio State
M.A. in journalism from the University of Colorado
Former editor of The Denver Post Sunday Contemporary Magazine
Former feature writer for The Rocky Mountain News
Former professor of journalism at the University of Colorado
Former stringer, TIME Magazine, Denver Bureau

Her personal life

Married 39 years to Dan
Mother of two grown daughters
Grandmother of five

 

What Patricia’s lauded career can teach us

Her writing awards already filled several single-spaced pages when she sold a personal essay to The New York Times Sunday Magazine that resulted in literary agents hounding her for a month. Her husband urged her to give book-writing a try. My First White Friend won a major award and is still in print after more than 20 years.

The secret? Sure, she was an accomplished writer. But there are many of those. Just not many with books that stay in print longer than six months, let alone two decades.

But Patricia wrote that essay from her passion, from her own experience, from her gut. And of course the resulting book came from that same place.

 

What she told her university students about writing

That good character makes good writing. “Talent helps, of course,” she says with a smile. “But hard work, persistence, integrity, curiosity, follow-through—these turn a dabbler into a professional.”

She says writing is about truth and courage. “When readers see that on paper, they are often stunned. It’s transparent and real. You want writing gold? Know your truth and have the courage to tell it.”

The biggest weakness she sees in beginning writers? “Fear.”

 

What she says makes a good book stand out

“It’s written for the reader, not for the author. Engage the reader, evoke an experience, as the famous editor Sol Stein advised. That tells the reader they matter.”

 

What impresses me most about Patricia Raybon

Her new book, Undivided: A Muslim Daughter, Her Christian Mother, Their Path to Peace, is a stunner. I read several books a month, so my standards keep getting higher. This one is riveting. Imagine your own grown child leaving the faith she was raised in.

I could tell you all the twists and turns and agonizing dynamics of praying, arguing, discussing, and wishing things were otherwise—all the while desperately loving your own flesh and blood and not wanting to jeopardize the relationship.

But this is one you have to read for yourself to see how a master writer handles a most delicate subject. Click here to get a copy.

What will you apply from Patricia’s writing life to your own this week? 

 

The post What You and I Can Learn From Writer Patricia Raybon appeared first on Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild.

How to Write Fiction that Grabs Your Reader

If you’ve ever studied writing fiction, you’ve been taught to begin your story at a high point of action.

But even a story that succeeds there can fail if you don’t compel your reader to care about your characters. Believe it or not, readers can actually become bored by action, even cliffhanging predicaments, if they haven’t been given a reason to become emotionally invested in your characters.

If we writers do our jobs, readers get caught up in more than just the excitement—because they feel they have come to know the players. If they don’t connect with your characters, they won’t keep turning the pages, regardless how dramatically you portray the action.

How to Make Your Reader Care

A car teeters atop a guard rail on a mountain road, a young mother and her baby trapped inside.

The threat of death, especially to a baby, will hold the reader for a page or two. But your goal is to grab the reader by the throat and not let go until the entire story plays out.

Discreetly work in enough details about your main character to make your reader care about what happens to her, and that reader won’t be going anywhere.

Knowing where and how to do this separates the pro writer from the amateur. Raise the stakes for the young mother and her baby and you’ll ratchet up your reader’s anxiety over their danger.

Were storm clouds roiling when the mother backed out of the garage, making her wonder about traction on the curvy roads?
Did she check her mirrors twice, recalling a childhood driveway tragedy?
Is she worried her husband might forget the baby’s first birthday party that evening?
Had he left just before her, following tension, even an argument, at breakfast?
Has he been distant since the baby was born, still tentative because they lost their first at birth?

All these elements foreshadow danger, and they also lead readers to care about your protagonist.

She’s thoughtful, careful, loving, hopeful, worried.

What’s riding on this birthday party?

Now that the baby is a year old, will her husband return to his old self, or need she still worry that his new secretary has caught his eye?

Now, when the brakes feel mushy, forcing her to take a mountain curve too fast and sending the car hurtling toward the guardrail, your reader cares much more than if you’d started in the middle of that harrowing scene with no mention of her background.

And even after she escapes that harrowing situation, your reader still feverishly turns pages to see whether the husband really tampered with the brakes, and if so, why? Not to mention all the other unanswered questioned above.

Character is the foundation for fiction.

Have trouble plotting? Put interesting characters in difficult situations and watch your story emerge. The operative words are interesting and difficult. If a scene lies flat, inject conflict. If character is the foundation, conflict is the engine of fiction well told.

In a movie you often meet the main character in a vulnerable situation, because that endears him to you. Some writing coaches call that the “pet-the-dog moment”—showing a character’s soft side.

Your hero must be a real, normal person who rises to the occasion. My characters say things I wish I would, things that in real life I don’t think of until it’s too late. My characters learn to be direct and brave after having been tongue-tied and afraid. They change and grow. That’s the definition of character arc.

Authors, too, must change and grow. If we do our jobs correctly, we should be different people by the end of the writing as well.

Tell me, how are you going to make your reader care about your characters?

The post How to Write Fiction that Grabs Your Reader appeared first on Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild.

10 Productivity Tips for Serious Writers

W   here should I write? When should I write?  How much should I write each day? Should I outline? Should I wing it?

Yes, as a matter of fact, I can hear the voices in your head, because they reside on a crowded, noisy street where writers of every caliber (including me) are often found—asking the same questions.

I wish I had a spoonful of sugar to help this medicine go down, but I don’t: Your daily discipline will make or break you as a writer. Books don’t make it to the bookstore shelf by your hoping for a series of productive writing days. I know. I’ve written more than 185 of them.

So here’s a humble offering of what works for me, in the hope that these may add some premium fuel to your writing week.

10 Productivity Tips for Serious Writers

Write in a life-giving place. When my writing cave was a hotel room or some other remote location, my time away from my wife Dianna was far less productive because it was so lonely. Nowadays, my writing cave is 100 feet from the house, so we’re together for meals or whenever I need a break or just want to see her. And when I’m done writing each day, she is my reward.
Know your body clock. First thing in the morning is the best time for me to write, before anything else has begun to cloud my brain. What I write before noon is usually my best work, and the most I’ll complete all day. If you’re a night person, write at night.
Write rested. Whether you’re a morning person or a night person, both, or neither, write when you feel most rested. But don’t wait until you’re completely cogent, coherent, and inspired or you may never get to the keyboard. You get better by flexing those writing muscles.
Set daily milestones. I know how many pages I need to finish each day to make my deadline. If you keep track by number of words, fine. But monitor your progress for that satisfying sense of accomplishment—and, more importantly, to stay on pace.
Tap into your muse. Ideas seem to hit me most often in the shower. Maybe the water stimulates my brain. I learned years ago to trust what some call the Muse. My muse is spiritual, that vital part of the creative subconscious I have surrendered to God. Foreshadowing and plot threads appear as I write. I may not be sure at the time why I include certain things, but later in the manuscript, the reasons become obvious. It’s important to know where your muse resides and to be able to access it.
Talk out your story. Many writers, primarily novelists, fear losing their creativity if they utter even a word of their story before getting it written. I find, however, that when I tell my story to someone I trust, I tend to expand on it, embellish it, flesh it out. Try that and see if works for you.
Jump-start the process instead of staring at a blank screen or page. Like stretching before exercise, I start my writing day with a heavy edit and rewrite of my previous day’s work. That seamlessly catapults me into today’s writing.
Turn off your internal editor. Once you’re into the new day’s writing, leave its revision to the next day and get that first draft produced. Consider it a hunk of meat that can be carved later. If you’re editing while trying to create, you’ll stifle your creativity.
Know when to stop. If things go well and I reach my goal before noon, I resist the temptation to try to knock out another batch of pages to make the next day easier. That’s it for the day. But on the other hand, if for some reason it takes till midnight to finish my pages for today, I stay with it. I don’t want to fall behind and be forced to write more tomorrow.
Stay at the task. It’s easy to beat ourselves up for falling behind or not producing at the level we or our editors) expect. The solution? Get your seat back in that chair and tell yourself yesterday is gone. Today is spilling over with fresh, pristine hours, and nothing—I mean nothing—will feel as good as actually doing the work. Poet Mary Oliver says, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”I plan to write. How about you?

I’d love to know your writing rituals. What works for you?

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An Easter Week Special: Faith-Based Words and Phrases

Guest blog by Dr. Richard Lederer

As Christians approach Easter, commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, this seems like a good time to think about the influence of faith on the words we speak and hear and write and read every day.

We think of carnivals as traveling entertainments with rides, sideshows, games, cotton candy, and balloons; but the first carnivals were pre-Lenten celebrations — a last fling before penitence. The Latin word parts, carne, “meat, flesh,” and vale, “farewell,” indicate that the earliest carnivals were seasons of feasting and merrymaking, “a farewell to meat,” just before Lent.

The word religion itself derives from the Latin religionem, “respect for what is sacred.” Carnival is one of many words and expressions that began in religion. Because our society has become somewhat secularized, we overlook the religious foundation of our daily parlance:

bonfire. Originally the bone fires that consumed the bodies of saints burned during the English Reformation. 


enthusiasm. From the Greek enthusiasmos, “a god within.” The word first meant “filled with God,” as did giddy, from Anglo Saxon gydig, “god-held man.”


The Latin word for cross,  crux, is embedded in the words crux, crucial, and excruciating, which has broadened from denoting the agony of the crucifixion to any kind of torturous pain. 


fan. A clipping of fanatic, “inspired by the temple.” The opposite, profane, describes a person who is irreverent and sacrilegious, from the Latin pro, “outside,” and fanum, “the temple.”


good-bye. Our traditional farewell turns out to be a shortening of the sentence “God be with you.”


holiday. Originally a “holy day,” descending from the Old English With the change in pronunciation has come a change in meaning so that holidays, such as Independence Day and Labor Day, are not necessarily holy.


icon. In its original meaning, icon was a small religious painting used as an aid to devotion. In its new meaning, icons are now people who achieve superstar status in the worlds of politics, sports, the arts, and entertainment. Many consider this a debasement of a perfectly good word.


red-letter day . So called because of calendar and almanac publishers printing the numbers of saints’ days and religious feast days in red ink. Such days now describe any distinctive day in a person’s life, such as birthdays, graduations, and the day the local sports team won a championship.


short shrift. In bygone days, political offenders, military captives, and heretics were executed almost out of hand. There was but a thin pretense of justice in which the prisoner could confess (shrive) his sins to a priest and prepare his soul for death. Those who kept these unfortunate souls in thrall often allotted but a short time for confession, and this hurried procedure became known as short shrift. Nowadays, this compound means “to give scant attention, to make quick work of.”


Why can story mean both “a tale” and “the level of a building”? Both words come to us from the Latin historia, “to know,” and French histoire, where it means both “a tale” and “the discipline history.” The endurance of the meanings “tale” and “floor” is architectural. In the Middle Ages, the custom in many parts of Europe was to paint scenes depicting historical, legendary, biblical, or literary subjects on the outside of the various floors of buildings. Each represented a story, and, before long, the levels themselves were called stories.

Dr. Richard Lederer is the author of 50 books about language, history, and humor, including the best-selling Anguished English series.

His column, “Lederer on Language,” is syndicated in newspapers and magazines throughout the U.S., and he is co-host of “A Way With Words” on KPBS Public Radio.

He has been named International Punster of the Year and Toastmasters International’s Golden Gavel winner. Richard is also a former Usage Editor of The Random House Dictionary of the English Language.

He has twice spoken at my Writing for the Soul conference to enthusiastic response. I am pleased to call him a friend and to share with you his guest blog.

Have a question or comment for Richard Lederer? Leave it here in Comments or write him at richardhlederer@gmail.com. His website: www.verbivore.com

 

 

 

The post An Easter Week Special: Faith-Based Words and Phrases appeared first on Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild.

5 Steps that Will Free You Up to Write Your Book

Are you finally ready to conquer the if-onlys and the yeah-buts and knock that badmouthing little gargoyle of negativity off your shoulder so you can get to your true passion of writing?

I’ve been mentoring writers just like you all over the world for decades, so there’s not an excuse I haven’t heard for why someone’s great book idea hasn’t been started or finished.

I tell them how I’ve written more than 185 books, and I hear sigh-laden responses like this:

Yeah, but I have a spouse to worry about…
Yeah, but kids demand a lot of time and effort…
Yeah, but publishers aren’t exactly beating a path to my door…
Yeah, but I’ve never written a bestseller, so I have to work fulltime too…
If only I had more time…
If only I had more resources…
If only I had better equipment…
If only I was a known name in the publishing world…

 Okay, let’s stop with the excuses and get serious about the discipline and the craft.

Fact: We all find time to do what we really want to do.

I’ve been deliriously happily married for more than four decades, and that wasn’t accomplished by putting my wife second to my writing career.

Dianna and I raised three sons to healthy and productive adulthood, and I rarely, if ever, missed one of their important life, church, or school events. By maintaining my family priorities, I was able to write without guilt—and, thus, more effectively.

Do you think I was always famous for writing bestsellers? If you know of me, it’s likely because of the Left Behind Series™, which came 20 years and 125 books into my career.

I started with a manual typewriter on a board plank between two kitchen chairs.

Bottom line: I was once where you and every other writer once was—unknown and unpublished. I had what we all still have: 168 hours in a week.

So let’s shuck the excuses and get going, together. A year from now you’ll be glad you made these changes.

5 Steps that Will Free You Up to Write Your Book

Carve out the time. You won’t find it. You have to make it. Go ahead and read that again. Schedule it and keep it sacrosanct (look it up).
Go on a media fast. Social media, television, podcasts, you name it—all zap precious writing time. So commit to cutting it out (or going dark for certain hours each day) if you’re serious about writing. Use an app like Antisocial to block pesky Internet distractions. Turn off the TV. The only way to write is with seat in chair.
Get up early or stay up late. If you have a job, a spouse, and kids, they are your priority and you need to maintain them as such. If writing isn’t worth this sacrifice, you don’t want it badly enough.
Don’t buy into your fan club. Stop listening to relatives and friends who praise your writing, unless they’re in the business and have a clue. They’re being nice, but they aren’t helping you get better and get published. Develop a thick skin and learn to take criticism from people on the inside.
Silence your inner critic—and GO! Don’t listen to that critic camped out on your shoulder either. That’s just you in disguise, and neither do you have a clue yet.

Oh, and one more thing: Let me help. I’m as close as www.JerryJenkins.com. I respond more than you may think, so give me a shout in the comment section, and let me prove it.

The post 5 Steps that Will Free You Up to Write Your Book appeared first on Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild.

5 Steps That Will Free You Up to Write that Book

Are you finally ready to conquer the if-onlys and the yeah-buts and knock that badmouthing little gargoyle of negativity off your shoulder so you can get to your true passion of writing?

I’ve been mentoring writers just like you all over the world for decades, so there’s not an excuse I haven’t heard for why someone’s great book idea hasn’t been started or finished.

I tell them how I’ve written more than 185 books, and I hear sigh-laden responses like this:

Yeah, but I have a spouse to worry about…
Yeah, but kids demand a lot of time and effort…
Yeah, but publishers aren’t exactly beating a path to my door…
Yeah, but I’ve never written a bestseller, so I have to work fulltime too…
If only I had more time…
If only I had more resources…
If only I had better equipment…
If only I was a known name in the publishing world…

 Okay, let’s stop with the excuses and get serious about the discipline and the craft.

Fact: We all find time to do what we really want to do.

I’ve been deliriously happily married for more than four decades, and that wasn’t accomplished by putting my wife second to my writing career.

Dianna and I raised three sons to healthy and productive adulthood, and I rarely, if ever, missed one of their important life, church, or school events. By maintaining my family priorities, I was able to write without guilt—and, thus, more effectively.

Do you think I was always famous for writing bestsellers? If you know of me, it’s likely because of the Left Behind Series™, which came 20 years and 125 books into my career.

I started with a manual typewriter on a board plank between two kitchen chairs.

Bottom line: I was once where you and every other writer once was—unknown and unpublished. I had what we all still have: 168 hours in a week.

So let’s shuck the excuses and get going, together. A year from now you’ll be glad you made these changes.

5 Truths that Will Set You Free to Write that Book

Carve out the time. You won’t find it. You have to make it. Go ahead and read that again. Schedule it and keep it sacrosanct (look it up).
Go on a media fast. Social media, television, podcasts, you name it—all zap precious writing time. So commit to cutting it out (or going dark for certain hours each day) if you’re serious about writing. Use an app like Antisocial to block pesky Internet distractions. Turn off the TV. The only way to write is with seat in chair.
Get up early or stay up late. If you have a job, a spouse, and kids, they are your priority and you need to maintain them as such. If writing isn’t worth this sacrifice, you don’t want it badly enough.
Don’t buy into your fan club. Stop listening to relatives and friends who praise your writing, unless they’re in the business and have a clue. They’re being nice, but they aren’t helping you get better and get published. Develop a thick skin and learn to take criticism from people on the inside.
Silence your inner critic—and GO! Don’t listen to that critic camped out on your shoulder either. That’s just you in disguise, and neither do you have a clue yet.

Oh, and one more thing: Let me help. I’m as close as www.JerryJenkins.com. I respond more than you may think, so give me a shout in the comment section, and let me prove it.

The post 5 Steps That Will Free You Up to Write that Book appeared first on Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild.

The Matheny Manifesto—Part 3

I was privileged to write this book with Mike Matheny, the young manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, in which he shares his old-school views on what’s wrong with youth sports, what we can all do better, and what real …

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The Matheny Manifesto—Part 2

What made St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny’s letter to youth league baseball parents go viral will also make the book that came of it resonate with so many when it releases February 3rd.

Matheny was a tough …

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