:: in.a.mirror.dimly :: A theology and culture blog with the Bible in one tab and a news feed in the other.

I’ve been busy revamping things at my writing blog over the past few days. While I still have a ways to go as far as personalizing the design and graphics as my very own, I did manage to make a nifty little pencil graphic. However, with me it’s always about the writing.

Since I’m moving towards the publication of my first book (there’s a link to it on Amazon now, but that’s it) and have now entered the marketing phase, I thought it may be fun to revisit some of the steps I have taken over the past 3.5 years to arrive at this point. I created a category called “publishing” and will be posting a few times each week on some practical things you can do to get published. Though my ultimate goal will be publishing a book, publishing magazine articles are all part of the process, and so I’ll be able to address a variety formats.

Of course there is no sure-fire way to get published, but I have found some great ideas in reading the stories of other published authors and even managed to rule out a few things that would not have worked for me. Even if you’re not looking to get published, I find that many people are interested in knowing what goes into publishing.

I’ve actually reduced it to a simple formula:

hard work + lots of rejection + late nights + small victories + resilience + help from published authors = published book

Well, that’s a bit simplified and, if I may say so, formulaic, but you get the picture!

It’s 1:21 AM and I have just finished the last of the edits in my book Coffeehouse Theology. There will still be things to tweak down the line I’m sure, but I am so relieved to have set this milestone.

What a trip this has been!

Writing a book has been one of those experiences filled with mountaintops and valleys, moments of elation and moments of despair. I have pushed myself to work like I never have before. It’s like I’ve never quite been done because there’s always some part of the book to work on. I’ve always had it on my mind.

There were moments when I really felt lost, unable to go on with a particular chapter that seemed to be going no where. Sometimes I had to scrap it all and start from scratch, remembering that everything I wrote was not wasted, but merely helped prepare me for the draft I will eventually keep. At other moments the words flew into place. I felt sharp and on target, as if there is nothing in the world I’d rather do.

And now I’m on the edge of another abyss of sorts. I’m done my first book, but it’s not going to be released until September 2008. That means I’ll have time to start chipping away at other projects, planning promotion, and doing who knows what else to keep myself out of trouble.

Maybe I’ll just come home after work and sit in the living room, doing absolutely… nothing.

The more I reread my own writing during the editing process of my book, the more I’ve noticed just how combative and preachy I can sound. In fact, the more I read blogs in general I notice that many are written with a sharper tone: preaching, ranting, provoking. That’s kind of the blog style I suppose.

After making the major changes to the content and structure of my book, the majority of my time is now spent rewriting the parts that come off as condescending or combative. Part of the problem is I’ve been blogging for three years now and each blog post is a brief article on a particular topic, a drive-by of sorts that engages with a particular point and then runs off to the next topic. I can hit hard, soften my tone in the comments, and generally assume that most of my readers have a certain level of familiarity with who I am and won’t get too worked up. Even if I don’t say it well, I think readers are more likely to give bloggers the benefit of a doubt.

A book is a different animal. It’s kind of assumed that if you’re writing a book, you have to know something about your topic, and so writers face the challenge of using their expertise and perspective, but not flaunting it, rubbing the readers nose into it. Books are the focused development of very specific ideas, not the topical grab bag of a blog, no matter have niche-focused it may be.

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Sometimes we need to just get a thought out there. We toss it up for grabs and sometimes people catch on and run with it. Other times the idea hits the ground with a thud.

Throwing out a half-baked or simplistic idea on a blog is often labeled a “Musing” or “Thought.” In fact, I have a whole category on this blog called “Thoughts” because, ya know, sometimes I just think of things to share and don’t quite know where they fit.

Sometimes that flies. Sometimes that really can work for a blog. In fact, Musings may be one of the most popular words used in blog titles.

But are these generalizations, these simple, unembellished thoughts and musings just a sign that I as a writer am acknowledging my lack of creativity, my inability to sit and think of where my post fits into common knowledge, and just how exactly I can label it for the benefit of my readers?

I can’t speak for anyone but myself–and I’m really not opposed to bloggers using the word “musings.” I have found lately, as I have less and less time and brain capacity to blog (until that blessed February writing deadline hits that is), that I want to just drop an idea out there, call it a musing, and hit “Publish.”

Reading that paragraph, I’m thinking, “Wow, that is really lazy. That just doesn’t fly.”

Part of writing is the title and the category. I hate both of these. I just want to slap something simple and accurate into the title and click on the “thoughts” category. Thoughts can be categorized in any number of ways, and a good post needs a catchy, concise, and accurate title. Readers need some simple category clues to sort information. These things just make blog posts more accessible and valuable.

Of course these are just my own half-baked musings on titles and categories.

Perhaps I should make a new category “hypocrisy.”

This afternoon I was listening to an interview of a director from the archives of Fresh Air. The director’s father is a renowned director as well, and so Terry Gross asked one of her million-dollar questions, “Did your father give you any advice that has stuck with you,” or something that’s classic gross, I mean Gross.

The father had told his son, “Don’t try to create a scene that is dramatic or funny, just try to make something that is true.” The director added, “That is fantastic advice that I never received in film school.”

And if that wasn’t enough, the director shared another story about his days as a pre-med student who didn’t think he could replicate his father’s success. His father encouraged him to reconsider his career because being a doctor just didn’t have enough magic for him (the son). He was right.

Wow, how many of us are stuck in a job just for the respect that comes with it, not to mention the salary? The magic bit sounds cheesy, but I believe in cheese, I believe in that kind of metaphorical magic, and so I guess I believe in being cheesy.

But the clincher for me was his remark about creating something that is true. Yep, I agree. I bang my head on the keyboard trying to think of something clever, witty, funny, or deep to write and of course it’s a classic case of the watched pot.

And then there are times when I have story to tell, a list to share, or an observation to post from my study of scripture and those clever, silly, and deep thoughts sneak onto the page. I admit that I surprise myself sometimes, asking, “Where did THAT come from?” Of course the cause of that surprise is not always a good thing…

Today is the “ahead of schedule” deadline for the last study guide draft for my Coffeehouse Theology book. I planned to be done by now, but after proofing one of the chapters at a cafe–yes, yes, you HAVE to write a book with that kind of title in a cafe, such are the rules of engagement–this morning, I realized that it needed to be rewritten. Sigh. I am looking forward to having more time for this blog, as I have so many things to post on. For now I’ll leave you with two thoughts and then get back to work:

• My motto for editing and writing in general: “I never wrote a sentence that I couldn’t delete.” I suppose you could also write that quote out like this: “I never wrote a sentence that I couldn’t delet
• I will be posting some book reviews soon, and the one I’m most excited about isn’t the latest book by Brian McLaren. Consuming Jesus is Paul Metzger’s look at the connection of consumerism and racial division in the church. He’s a fabulous writer who cuts right through all of our marketing, self-centered crap to confront some major systemic issues in the church today.
• Did I say two thoughts? Well here’s another. What if the greatest danger to the church today is cultural syncretism? Think about it. I’ll post more on that soon as well.

I’ve made the same mistake at least twice now. The first time I was renovating our rental home in exchange for cheaper rent. The second time I was working on a draft of my theology book this past August. Linking these two projects is my crushing drive, tenacious, nay reckless attack of each seeking to complete them in a brief period of time.

Friends and family marveled at my discipline and dogged determination to wrap both up ahead of schedule. Nevertheless, in both situations I nearly fell apart down the home stretch. During the renovations I remember spackling about one hundred nail pop holes in the guest room/office and just wanting to run away.

While working on the draft of my book I hit the wall on the last chapter and could not will the words onto the page. I reread that chapter last night and marveled that instead of slowing down with a neat concluding paragraph I run the reader into a closing sentence at full speed.

Such happens when discipline takes on a life of its own.

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As of right now I’m still a loyal user of WordPress. I’m pretty happy with the Minyx Light theme, mainly because it’s very simple and does not require tweaking with images, colors, or lines. I don’t have much time for design right now.

Nevertheless, while I’m talking about the theme of this site, I was wondering if this site is easy to read? I made the “about” box yellow-ish to help stress the two column look, but I’m also toying with the thought of making a line down the middle in between the two columns. I find the site easy to read, but I also spent a lot of time looking for this exact format, so I may not be the best judge. I’m open to any reader suggestions on how to improve this site.

While writing yesterday I also took some time to revamp my professional writing site: www.edcyz.com. While I do blog there occasionally on writing, the weight of my book deadline, a few small projects, the insanity of our personal lives that has kept us constantly on the road, and the intensity of work during the Fall season all make it really hard to keep this blog and that site well fed with posts. Therefore the blog on my edcyz.com home page and has been moved to it’s own page.

When you visit www.edcyz.com, you’ll now hit the “About” page where I talk about my current projects. As always there is a page with links to some of my writing, though not all of it is available quite yet.

E-mail newsletters are becoming very popular of late as a way of communicating with friends, customers, potential customers, or members of a particular community. Whether the goal is keeping in touch, building interest in a project, or sharing local news, e-mail newsletters should do a few things well, such as passing information efficiently and being readable. Unfortunately, many of the newsletters I receive do not fit into this category.

Common Sense Rules for E-mail Newsletters:

• Pick a template and stick with it. I shouldn’t have to search the maze of boxes each time to find the information I want.
• Test your template on various e-mail programs. Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Outlook, and Thunderbird all have their quirks and will display your newsletter differently.
• Go easy on the colors. White background and black font are standard for a reason: they’re easy to read. If you feel the need to express yourself, choose a cool picture for the header image or play with the colors of the border area.
• Use a standard font. It’s much easier to read fonts such as Arial, Georgia, Times New Roman, or Trebuchet MS. Our eyes are used to them. For the love, please resist the urge to use Chiller or Comic.
• Keep the newsletter content short. If necessary, provide links to read more of the article, but the newsletter itself should not run way down the page. I can think of several newsletters where the authors could cut their content by 1/4 and still give the same amount of valuable information. If you’re providing community or business news, then you really need to keep each section to a max of 3 sentences in the e-mail itself. Provide a “read more” link to your own web page, which is a win-win scenario.
• Spel Chick.

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I was having a bad day. No, it was actually a bad week.

People all around me were falling apart and having all kinds of spats. A number of things weighed on my spirit. I needed hope: something to cut through the haze.
In that state I began to write a little piece I called, “Broken.” It’s now published on the ooze.

I have been pleasantly surprised by Stephen King’s book On Writing. At first I just dismissed it. What does a horror writer have to teach someone who writes about theology, fiction that reads like a Wodehouse novel, and other little memoir-ish pieces?

Well, a lot actually. For one thing, Stephen King is not limited to horror. He’s a very, very funny writer. I began reading this book in bed on Tuesday night and soon found that I was on page 60 without even realizing it. The candid stories of his childhood adventures are laugh-out-loud funny. I also see myself in a lot of the awkward writing and school newspaper stuff that he was involved in.

The most important thing I’ve learned from King is optimism and persistence. He simply loved to write, and that is enough. He worked all kinds of jobs and still kept at his writing. The nail on the wall that held all of his rejection letters soon was replaced with a large stake. And still he wrote novels, novellas, and short stories.

It’s also fascinating to learn about another writer’s habits and where he finds his stories and characters. If anything, I have learned from other writers, including King, to observe people closely.

For example, I had a waitress today who has to be perfect for a book some day. She joked with customers, shared that she double-majored in theater and physics, and someone brought up SM with some French folks at the table next to mine. Then she dropped their brownie.

Ah, the old adage: truth is stranger than fiction. You just can’t make up stuff like that.

Technorati Tags: stephen+king - on+writing - writing - fiction

For all of you aspiring writers out there, such as myself, I wrote a little piece on my writing blog about how to effectively start writing when you have a long period of time such as a day off or a weekend.

The key for me is to build momentum through writing. Just starting to write something is the key. That is something you can build on. I share how I’ve been doing it at edcyz.com.

Technorati Tags: writing - fiction - creative - non-fiction

In preparation for Christmas I have spent a good deal of time in the prophets, looking at the people of Israel during the time of anticipation before the coming of Christ. The chapter I can’t escape is Zechariah 7. That led to some thoughts on giving late one night and I scribbled them down.

I hammered it out the next day and shipped it off to the Ooze. You can read it here.

I can’t explain my love for Advent and the Advent wreath. It’s an incredible time of anticipation and the slow-burning candles of the Advent wreath are the silent messengers commanding that I wait and savor the moment.

The candles say to me, “Enjoy this week. This week is an event in and of itself with meaning and significance. Don’t become so caught up in Christmas that you miss out on the GIFT of anticipating it and preparing for it.”

After leaving the Catholic church for the Baptist gang, I began to really miss the Advent wreath. It just wasn’t as prominent and meaningful as in the old Catholic days. Naturally when we began meeting in our home and basically found ourselves having to redefine church, the Advent wreath was sorely missed.

Two years ago I took action. I bought a cheap wreath and some even cheaper candles and carefully balanced the candles on the wreath to make a lame, super-duper lame that is, Advent wreath. It wasn’t much to look at, but it felt better than nothing.

This year we have a nice little home to decorate and have to buy a small tree that will sit on a strand in order to keep it away from the claws, paws, and jaws of our rabbits. This means that we need to beef up the other decorations. In particular, I’m talking about the Advent Wreath.

It was hard enough to find an Advent Wreath in the Philly metro area. How much more so in hippy/crunchy, Eastern-mystic, post-Christian, don’t-have-many-shopping-options Vermont. Finding an Advent wreath in Vermont seemed as likely as finding an optimistic Philadelphia sports fan.

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Though I cannot share my current writing projects because publishers must know they have first dibs on the material, I sent a few articles to the local Manchester papers. I don’t usually keep tabs on all of them at this site, I usually have them over at my writing blog edcyz.com. Just look for the writing link.

Nevertheless, the articles in this week’s paper are available online at the Manchester Journal’s web site. In case you were wondering what’s happening in my little corner of Vermont, my articles cover some of what’s happening in the non-profit scene:

The Groundbreaking at First Congregational Church
The December Meeting of the Northshire Non-Profit Network

Other Announcements
Advent: I thought I should mention that I’ll be starting a series of posts for the Advent season. My theme will be the exile. Since Jesus is God’s ultimate answer to our exile from Him and since the exile was basically the context of Jesus’ coming, it seemed to be a suitable theme.

We’ll start off with a bang in the book of Daniel. It’s time to look at exile from an apocalyptic point of view and put the dispensational escapism of the Left Behind Series to rest.

Ads: OK, I cracked. I have been resisting the placement of ads on this site for so long because I did not want this site to become about making money. After trying to make a little money on another web site and failing, it seems that the temptation and expectations are gone.

So you may notice a few ads hiding in the columns. I hope they don’t seem deceptive. I did not want to steal from the visual appeal of the site for the sake of having flashy ads that scream “click me.”

I will certainly need to keep an eye on myself. This is a blog about the intersection of Christianity and culture . . . with some thoughts thrown in about my life here in Vermont. If I start pushing products, like, oh, I don’t know, a LENOVO LAPTOP or a CANON POWERSHOT CAMERA, which I own and use all of the time and highly recommend, then I hope someone will challenge me on that . . .

In addition, if I start trying to bump up my stats by constantly covering politics and tabloid news, then it’s time to drop my posts about Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, or even George W. Bush. There are enough bloggers covering these topics who do it better and know a lot more than I do.

Faith, culture, and Vermont: that’s what this blog is about.