Below you will find a summary of all the materials that will be available in the Writers Handbook. This book is currently in preparation and each new chapter will be made available to those who have enrolled in the Writers Ministry Corner as they are completed.
Essentials of Communication
Principles of Communicating
We communicate with words and actions and the words are either spoken or written. You will learn how to communicate effectively using writing the same way you do when you speak.
Communicating to the Five Senses of the Body
Our mind thinks mostly in terms of our senses. When you are thinking you are seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting. Your writing should appeal to all of these senses to be effective. We will teach you how to do this.
Communicating to the Three Parts of the Soul
To be effective in writing, you must appeal to every part of the soul
Informing the mind
The mind must be able to ‘see, hear, feel, smell and taste’ what you are communicating in your writing. So you must do far more than just inform the mind. You must ‘show not tell.’ We will teach you how to do this.
Stirring the emotions
Our emotions become stirred by what is in our minds. So in order to stir the emotions of the reader, you must paint clear pictures in the mind that will have an effect on their emotions. You do this by using the right words, which we will teach you to do.
Challenging the will
Your writing must do more than just give people information. It should stir them to action to put into practice what you have given them. Your writing should have the effect of demanding action from your reader, and we will teach you how to do this effectively.
Appealing to the Temperaments
There are four different temperaments, and each person has one main temperament with a mixture of some others. To be effective in your writing, you must learn to influence all of the temperaments and not only those who share your temperament.
We will show you what each temperament responds to and teach you how to appeal to all of them.
Communicating to the Human Spirit
To reach the spirit of your readers, you need to trigger some of the templates that have been created in them. You also must come up with something original that is different to what they already know. It takes wisdom to do this, and we will show you how to tap into spiritual wisdom and use it effectively in your writing.
Correct Use of Grammar
Most of us hated studying grammar at school, but you cannot avoid it if you wish to become a good writer. There are things you need to take into account, such as which person to write in, how to use direct speech and pronouns and avoid passive voice.
You must know how to use adjectives to describe the objects in your writing and adverbs to enhance the actions in your writing.
You also need to keep things simple and avoid long sentences and multi-syllable words. We will teach you how to do this effectively.
Correct Use of Punctuation
Do you know where to put commas, semi-colons and colons in your writing? Do you know when to use Capital letters for certain words.
You will learn some important guidelines and use a system that will help you to get it right.
Correct Use of Vocabulary
Many writers try to impress the readers with their great knowledge and ability to use good vocabulary. But not all your readers are intellectuals, educators, professors and doctors.
Your writing should always be understandable to those at the lower levels. We will give you a utility that will help you to assess your writing, and show you how to avoid this mistake.
Correct Use Of Words
Basic Principles
The mind cannot receive words as text because it only understands the five senses. If your writing does not appeal to the senses, it is soon forgotten or not even understood.
Your words should go deeper than the minds of your readers, but sink down into their unconscious where they can become an inner resource for the future.
Since previous materials have already been deposited down there, your words should have the power to stir up what is already inside the person. This causes emotions to rise up and the person feels things based on past experiences and knowledge.
Without this effect, your writing will be soon forgotten and as it were, go in one ear and out the other.
Left and Right Brain Thinking
It has been suggested that there are two kinds of people where the mind is concerned. Those who are left brained, largely the male gender, tend to think logically and systematically, whereas those who are right brained largely the feminine gender, think more intuitively and emotionally.
Right Produces Pictures Which Affect Senses
The most effective writers are those who appeal to the right brain, which includes tapping into the inner mind and getting revelation. You will learn how to do this, even if it is not your natural inclination.
Left Produces Facts Not Affecting Senses
Left brained writing is great for those who are technically oriented and want to know how things work. But this is a limited market and it only appeals to those who think purely in technical terms.
This has a place, and requires a specific way of writing, which you will learn.
Bringing Words To Life
Words that stir the senses are the most effective. There are ways of creating this effect in addition to the specific words that you use.
One way is to use similes and metaphors which help a person compare what you are saying with something they already know.
Some words act as triggers that activate hidden templates in the reader. You will learn the concept of templates and triggers to help you do this effectively.
Using Common Characters to Trigger Emotions
There are people in your life that carry memories and have thew ability to trigger specific emotions in you. People such as mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, friends and associates, church member and leaders all can have such an effect.
You will learn how to include some of these characters in your writing specifically to accomplish this.
Paint Familiar Scenes And Events
If your writing makes a person think of a past event, this can triggers emotions that are connected with that event. You may to create this effect, but be careful to avoid negative experiences unless you specifically want that to happen.
You can also paint pictures that inspire aspirations, goals and dreams. This makes your writing more appealing and encourages the reader to continue reading.
Releasing Spiritual Power With Words
Since all words originate in the human spirit they have an ability to tap into the spirit and release spiritual power.
When you speak your mind forms an idea and the your spirit gives expression to that idea using words. Those words should be similar to the words that you use in normal conversation.
The danger in writing as opposed to speaking, is that you produce words from your mind rather than from your spirit. This results in you communicating using someone else’s voice.
You will learn how to avoid this in your writing, and always communicate using your own voice.
Problem Areas
When you speak you tend to use everyday language, but when you write you use educated language. Your writing will also tend to be more structured than your speaking.
Writing also tends to be formal and unemotional, whereas when you speak you are addressing a specific person in an informal setting.
You will learn how to keep your writing more informal and personal to the reader.
Synchronizing Thoughts and Words
When you speak your mind often cannot keep up with what you are saying. While writing this is not the case, unless you write really fast.
You must learn to keep a flow going while writing in a similar way to what you do when you speak. Avoid correcting your writing while you are doing it. Rather go back and edit later, or you will lose the flow.
One way to overcome this is to speak and record your words, then go back and transcribe them afterwards.
Developing Writing Techniques
If you combine speech and writing, you can improve your writing technique. So practice story telling out loud. Get pictures in your mind and then write down what you said.
You can then improve the picture with better words in an editing process.
Use The Fastest Writing Method
Today few people still write the old fashioned way with pen and paper, although some still prefer to write that way. Since we use computer keyboards now to do most of our writing, it is important to learn how to type with as many fingers as possible.
But there is a new powerful way to write that enables the use of speech and writing together. It is called Dictation and is now available on all forms of computer hardware, including mobile devices.
We will show you how to improve your typing and also how to use Dictation effectively in your writing.
Mind versus Emotions
Your writing has to move beyond the mind of the reader and stir up some form of feelings or desires, so you have to do more than simply give facts.
As a writer you do not have the ability to add visual actions while writing, as an actor can do while speaking. You have only words to play with, so you must choose your words carefully and inject not only emotion into them, but spiritual influence.
Using Visualization
Your readers must be able to turn the words they read into pictures. This encourages right brain thinking and causes the emotions to be stirred up.
So when you write, stop and think about what you see after reading the words that you have written. Then make the necessary changes to bring the pictures to life.
Using The Right Words
There are so many different words in your language that you can choose from, no matter what language you speak. So when you come to write try as much as possible to look for words that produce pictures, include action, and are emotionally charged.
Good use of adjectives, which describe an object along with adverbs that describe an action will bring both objects and actions to life. And you can also add similes, where you compare one object or action with another that is more familiar to the most people.
Memorization Techniques
A method known as the Loci method for memorization uses visualization and storing pictures in specific locations to help you remember things.
The key is to create images in your mind that include both objects and action to make them more memorable.
We will show you how to use some of the principles of the loci method to help people remember what they have read in your writing.
Dealing With Writers Block
Since all words originate in the human spirit, the main cause of what is known as ‘writers block’ is a blockage in your spirit.
Spiritual Blockage
When your spirit is blocked you stop getting inspiration and revelation from your spirit. This then leads to a blank mind and very little emotion. Instead of being excited about writing, you become bogged down and bored.
This can be caused by different influences and you need to identify where the blockage is coming from. We will show you how to exercise your spirit to make writing come easily and to identify things that are blocking the flow.
Spiritual Flow
When you quiet your mind and stop feeding inwards from the senses, you will automatically start experiencing an outward flow from deep within you. Just close you eyes and shut your ears and wait and suddenly pictures will start to surface from inside you.
If you have not learned to journal this will be your first step towards developing a good flow in your writing. We will show you how to journal effectively as preparation for becoming a good writer.
Stories will come as you review your own life experiences and the things you see around you. A lifetime of different experiences stored deep inside you provides a wealth of resources for putting together a story, whether it is fictional or real life.
Cause of Spiritual Problems
There are many things that can cause spiritual problems which interfere with your writing ability. Amongst these are experiences such as frustration, conflict, selfishness and simply sin in your life.
We also have an enemy who will try to block your spirit by surrounding it with a shell to prevent you tapping into those powerful inner resources. When you learn to deal with these, your writing will also break free.
Ways to Overcome
Here is a simple method that will help you to overcome some of these things. You will learn this in more detail in this course.
Start by stilling your mind and heart and listening to your spirit deep inside. Also bring your body into subjection because most of the wrong influences come both from the world around you, and from the desires of your body.
Ways of Writing Stories
Real Life Stories
One of the best ways to write stories of real life is to write biographical materials. These can be about the life of someone else, or your own life.
Autobiographies are one of the most common forms of writing, since everyone knows their own story and wants to talk about themselves.
But do not assume that everyone out there wants to know your life story, unless you are already a popular well known personality or already famous.
Fictional Stories
This is the largest and most popular form of story telling and there is much material already available from famous authors on how to write fiction.
But there are some important principles that you must bear in mind when writing fiction. There are different styles of writing and common story plots that are used.
In this section you will get guidelines on how to do these effectively
Non-Fiction Writing
Most believers want to do writing as part of their ministry, so their writing comes under this category. Although it is possible to combine fiction and non-fiction together, as I have done in my book The Blessing Code.
Teaching
Writing for the purpose of teaching can cover a variety of different genres. You might want to teach technical principles or give instruction on specific subjects that can be either secular or spiritual.
Teaching from a spiritual point of view will usually involve either teaching doctrine or using a teaching ministry to explain principles from the Scriptures. Both of these require both training and experience.
Solomon told us that there is nothing new under the sun, so to be effective in teaching, you need to come up with something that is different to what readers have seen before. We will show you how to do this as a teacher.
Inspirational Writing
When writing inspirational material your goal is never to impart knowledge for people to learn and remember. It is more to create an emotional effect in the person which will benefit them in their life.
This takes a special skill and requires some approaches that need to be learned. We will help you to get this right if you want to write to inspire.
Proofreading and Editing
Nobody writes perfectly without making mistakes, so this is an essential activity before you release anything you have written.
The ability to edit is not something everyone can do, so you may want to enlist the help of someone you know who has skill in this area. But today computerisation has made it possible for you to do much of this alone using software that has been created for this purpose.
We will show you how to identify and fix spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and typos using free available software on your computer or mobile device.
Formatting Your Writing
A whole load of words on a page may contain valuable information. But if it is not presented in a way that makes it easy for the reader to absorb what is written, it is not likely that many will read your powerful words.
You will learn some of the do’s and don’ts in the way you present your writing so that what you present will attract attention and stand out, and encourage readers to keep reading.
Publishing Your Writing
There is little point in pouring out in writing if there is no opportunity for anyone to read what you have written. So once you have produced written materials you need to find ways of publishing them for others to read.
In the world this is done mostly for financial benefit or fame. But as believers our motivation should be different. You certainly could charge for your work, but you should first get it out to as many as possible to see the effect it has on readers.
We will show you ways of publishing your writing, including ultimately putting together full packages of writing in books that could be made available for purchase.
Book Marketing
Marketing is an activity that we cannot avoid in life. Essentially it means persuading someone else to do something, usually that will benefit you. Do not assume that this is only necessary if you are selling something.
You will find that even if you offer your writings freely, you will still need to persuade people to read it. Selling is never confined to the salesperson who sells products for an income.
We will teach you some basic selling techniques that you can use to get your materials out where people will read them.