Lysa TerKeurst’s Manifesto for Writers

Letters with great potential become words.

Words crafted become sentences.

Sentences wrestled into sticky statements become quotes.

Quotes that people can’t quite shake, linger.

And when that lingering improves the reader’s life, we see just how much words matter.

Many writers stop at just the crafting of sentences. They rush them into paragraphs and word counts and books that people start but don’t finish.

But what a disservice to that reader stuck with only hastily crafted sentences.

Just a little more intention on the writer’s part would have grabbed the attention of the reader’s heart. And compelled them to grab that marker of yellow and declare, “This must not be forgotten!”

When people stop highlighting a book, they stop reading a book.

And what a shame that is.

Oh, writer of words – want more. Work more. Demand more.

More from those letters turned sentences turned statements. Statements that hold such possibility but only if we, like an artist, work with them. Not just write them.

Weave them together to form something that walks right in line with truth.

Not that we ever want to add to God’s truth. But we certainly don’t want our words to subtract from that truth either.

Rather, determine to be a truth illuminator and an illustrator.

A painter of nouns.

A sculptor of syllables.

An architect of carefully placed phrases.

And a conductor of verbs that pop and zing.

Choreograph that empty page into a glorious display of wonder.

Resist that tragedy of typical. Bomb the boring. Reject the run-on.

Make good use of the delete button. If you said it well in 50 words, say it even better with 15.

But strangle not that soaring place from which the words come.

Smart editing is good. Too much is paralyzing.

So be free. Dare to release that best writer within you.

And then.

And only then.

When you know you’ve given your words all you’ve got and just a little more hit send.

 

© 2018 by Lysa TerKeurst. All rights reserved.