Sometimes we wonder how certain people are gifted with greater opportunities to showcase their talents or contribute to a cause or increase their influence. How did someone pick up their work? How did they get connected, recognized, and known? Why are they being asked to step forward and use their skills in growing ways? There’s … More Do Your Best Work in Private
In my former life as a professor, I once spent a week grading 68 undergraduate papers, each 8–10 pages long. In the process, I noticed enough trends that I decided to throw together a series of writing tips. The number came to 25. I was focused on academic writing, but most of the principles are … More 25 Tips on Writing
The person you want to read is the person who’s starving to write. Anyone can string a handful of easy words into a recognizable sentence, like a Scrabble player with no patience. But the sentences you want to read are written by the guy who writes like he always has the impossible Scrabble hand: seven … More Starving to Write
In recent months I’ve seen an upsurge in tweet-threads among those I follow on Twitter. The increase has been obvious, within my (very) limited sphere. If your first thought is “Who cares?!” I applaud you. You’re likely living a happier life than those who do care. My interest, though, is not Twitter itself but what … More The Rise of Tweet-Threads and the Quality of Public Discourse
It’s like anything else. If you want to write well, you have to work at it. You have to do it, and keep doing it — especially when you don’t feel like it. There’s no other way. Writing can be a magical and miserable experience. The magic often gets us started, but the misery often … More Exercising the Writing Muscle
The majesty and mystery of writing are matched only by the misery of the writer’s roadblocks. I’m consistently energized by the magic of writing, but constantly humbled by the inexpressible difficulty of the craft. I recently gathered with a small group of young professors with the goal of pushing each other forward in the writing process. … More Three Clarifying Questions for the Roadblocked Writer
There are some things you never forget. Back in 2002, during my last semester in college, Professor Todd Bolen returned my final assignment for his History of Ancient Israel class. He had spent an hour grading my 10-page paper and had stapled a full page of typed comments to the back. I’ll never forget what he wrote, … More Twenty-Five Tweets on Writing
The man who regularly speaks without a burden should stop speaking until he finds one. Or one finds him. Until our lives have weight, our words will have none. And until we bear a burden, our lives will be weightless. Burdenless lives produce weightless words. A man’s burden tells us who he is. It tells us … More The Burdened Life and the Weighty Word
Bret Lott is a writer, he’s a creative writer, and he’s a creative Christian writer. I don’t think he would write a normal review — summary, strengths, and interaction. That would be the easy route. That would, in terms of its category, “borrow from the vast steaming pile of clichés we always have ready at … More Letters and Life: On Being a Writer, On Being a Christian by Bret Lott (Review)
I have written a little, and would like to write more. Dave DeWit is Senior Editor at Crossway and has spent nearly three decades in the Christian publishing industry, mostly with Moody Publishers. I met Dave on a recent trip to Chicago, and after hearing some of his experience and perspective in person, I wanted to hear … More Wisdom for Would-be Authors: Interview with Crossway’s Senior Editor Dave DeWit
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