Holy Spirit Scribes Part 5

This is a series that might eventually end up as a book. We'll see. Many people have a desire to write a book. And many of them should. Some, not so much. This series will answer some questions for those determined to do so as well as those who should focus elsewhere...

Section One: Who Am I?

Preparations
Desire and calling need one more thing: Preparations.

Preparations are the things of life that make you ready to write. Above all, if
you are called to write by God, that is the most important element that you
need in your resume. Without that, being a Holy Spirit Scribe is never going to
work for you. That said, most Christians have some form of call to write for
the Kingdom. But that doesn’t mean you are called to write books.

Your preparations may come in many forms, but they all fall into one of two categories:

• Life Experience

• Education

Life Experience
Few writers gain much success as a young person. Mostly because their talents are limited to less understanding of life. Realizing that anyone could be the exception to the rule and the fact that some genres and concepts are geared toward the youth, it is difficult for someone in their twenties to really understand a character in their fifties. There are nuances and understandings they just have not gone through. This limits their ability to write in a way other’s can identify with.

With that said, much of what a person goes through in life that qualifies them to write. For instance, a person that has never been a police officer or had anything to do with it cannot legitimately write about what it’s like to live as a cop. Obviously that can be overcome with research.

In the same fashion, teaching on the Holy Spirit would be impossible for someone that has never experienced His presence. However, in this case, we know that even good research will not do the trick.

Education
You can educate yourself on your topic by significant research. I wrote a book called “Hutch”. It was about a Police Detective from Los Angeles that went to Alaska on vacation. He planned to visit his old buddy from school. It turned out his friend was doing something illegal and thought that our hero, Hutch, had figured it out. So he took him on a tour of the nearby mountains in a helicopter and pushed him out over a frozen hillside. The story focuses on Hutch surviving being lost in the mountains with very little knowledge of where he was or how to live off the land.

The results are a great book I am very proud of. And though I worked as a police officer for a time, I had never been to Alaska. But combining my personal experiences and a great deal of research, it was a success.

Education can also be school-taught education. And while I do not believe, personally, that a college degree is the answer to everything when it caomes to a person’s future, if you want to write, understanding your language becomes very important.

Which brings up the topic of editing. Which we will focus on later in another blog.