Once you've figured out your heart and voice as a writer, you can move on to the work itself. This is the part that looks so easy and often turns out to be so hard...maddeningly, discouragingly, heart-breakingly hard if you're not careful. It doesn't take too long to figure out that there's more to it than just sitting down and writing. You have to have a plan. You wouldn't start building a house without a blueprint or hop in the car and drive somewhere unfamiliar without directions. Jesus warns us in Luke 14:28-30 against building a tower without counting the cost. While that passage refers to discipleship, the concept can apply here as well:
If you try to start writing without a plan in mind, chances are you're going to have an unfinished tower of your own. I know because I've been there, done that.
Fortunately, I've learned a good way to help plan my writing, and now I want to pass it on to you. The first step is a one-sentence foundation. Start out with one sentence that captures the main idea of your story, like a little blurb. You probably should try for something longer than 5 words but shorter than 20, give or take. Like a good blurb, it should not give away the ending. It should be tantalizing, making you want to know more--and it's as much about tantalizing yourself as it is anyone else. You have to make it something that you
want to go back and build upon. Here are a few examples:
- A pro wrestler issues a challenge, only to have it accepted by an unexpected foe ("The Alabama Hammer").
- A street preacher learns that the end of the world is coming much sooner than he expects ("Doomsday Falls on a Tuesday This Year").
- A depressed young man develops a bizarre obsession with a flea market trinket ("Enamored").
The next step, of course, will be to build off of that one-sentence foundation, which we will discuss next time. Until then, Philippians 4:13.--SMS
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