Someone asked me how to get started writing. I told them to first create a storage and retrieval system. A place of storage provides a way for you to accumulate what you have written. It also provides a method for future retrieval. Without a storage and retrieval system what you write will be lost.
Donald Miller, the author of Blue Like Jazz, said if you want to find out what his next book will be to read his blog. Because Miller had a place to store what he had written, he was able to retrieve his material and assemble it into book form. For each of my six books, I never sat down and decided to write a book. Over time, each of my books emerged from the content of what I was processing with God during the preceding season. When I felt a book was to be written, I simply retrieved and assembled the content and edited the flow and style with the help of my editor-in-chief daughter, Anna Elkins. As a result of that process, a book emerged ready for publication.
Before you begin writing, set up a way to store and retrieve what you write in a word document, a blog or a personal journal. I even use my iPhone to capture my thoughts on the fly when I am not near my computer.
If you do this, when the time comes to write a book or an article, you will have the material needed to assemble your thoughts around the thesis of what God wants you to share resulting in a more formal publication.
Donald Miller, the author of Blue Like Jazz, said if you want to find out what his next book will be to read his blog. Because Miller had a place to store what he had written, he was able to retrieve his material and assemble it into book form. For each of my six books, I never sat down and decided to write a book. Over time, each of my books emerged from the content of what I was processing with God during the preceding season. When I felt a book was to be written, I simply retrieved and assembled the content and edited the flow and style with the help of my editor-in-chief daughter, Anna Elkins. As a result of that process, a book emerged ready for publication.
Before you begin writing, set up a way to store and retrieve what you write in a word document, a blog or a personal journal. I even use my iPhone to capture my thoughts on the fly when I am not near my computer.
If you do this, when the time comes to write a book or an article, you will have the material needed to assemble your thoughts around the thesis of what God wants you to share resulting in a more formal publication.
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