By Quentin J. Schultze

I have written over a dozen nonfiction books and am working on a few more.  I also lead workshops on writing faith-related nonfiction books for publication.  Earlier I posted tips 1-5.  Here are five more of the tips that I cover in my workshops.  I hope you find them helpful.

#6 Serve a Particular Audience
Who is your reader?  Imagine your audience even before you write the first chapter.  Picture readers in your mind as you write.  Consider what they are thinking as you write specifically for them.  The best prose is written by someone in particular for others in particular.  (Contrast that with the uninteresting prose in most academic textbooks, which are written by no one in particular for everyone in general; textbooks are increasingly the product of marketers, not writers.)  After all, you’re not writing just for yourself.   If you are, why write a book?  Just keep a journal.  You’ll be much happier, without the stress of trying to get your manuscript published.  Most of my writing is essentially journal material that will never be published.  I write in order to clarify and express my own thoughts to myself and to serve my students.  When I write for publication, however, I imagine the readers.  You can journal to express yourself.   Write books in order to serve a particular audience.

#7 Use Humor Carefully
“You had to be there.”  That’s our excuse when our half-baked attempts at humor fall flat.   Humor is one of the most difficult things to write well.  Satire is probably the most difficult of all. It’s easy to arrogantly offend rather than winsomely illuminate.  Never assume that what’s funny to you will be comical to others.  Always try out your stories to see if others truly find them humorous.

#8 Read Proven Writers
We tend to read what we enjoy and to write like the authors that we read.  Make sure you’re reading the kind of quality prose that you would like to write.  I devour many contemporary books, but I savor classical nonfiction books that have stood the test of time; I read and re-read them.  The latter help me to think and imagine like a proven writer; they flex my literary muscles.  They feed by literary spirit.  They inspire me to write wisely and well.   I also need to make sure that I’m reading “up” so I don’t write “down” to readers.   It’s so much easier to tickle readers’ ears than to touch their hearts and open their minds.  If you write as a Christian, you simply must read authors such as C.S. Lewis and Søren Kierkegaard.  If you’d like a book beyond scripture to feed the writer in you, buy a copy of Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard.  If you didn’t buy that book, do it now on Amazon for about $14 (see latest price at the bottom of this page).  No kidding.  As Kierkegaard puts it, “Life very much depends upon being alert to catch one’s cue.”  Or try this quote from the book, “The true Christian is one who becomes a sacrifice in order to call attention to the truth that Christ is the only true sacrifice.”

#9 Clarify Your Real Purpose
Why are you writing?  There are many fine reasons—including to inform, persuade, and delight readers.  Perhaps the many worthwhile purposes actually boil down to one: to serve others.  That’s why I get a bit concerned when a writer makes statements like these: “I just want to express my opinion.”  “I’ve got to tell my story.”  “God is calling me to write this book.”  Writing is a type of service that requires a lot of effort to do well.  Many people feel called to write a book for publication.  But who’s the caller?  What’s the caller’s message?  We don’t always hear correctly.  We fool ourselves.  So listen again.  Question whether or not you’re merely pleasing yourself or you’re really serving others.  As I see it, a calling is a moral obligation to serve others.  I wrote a book about that.

#10 Write with the End in Mind
One of the biggest problems especially for new writers is that they don’t know what they’re  writing until after they’ve written it—and even then they’re often not so sure.  They write in order to determine what to say.  That’s not all bad.  The process of writing always requires research and exploration, retrospection and introspection.  But you need to know in advance of drafting the actual manuscript what it is that you are aiming to say.  Otherwise you’ll write in circles,  revising to the point of exhaustion, like a cat maniacally chasing its tail until it eventually has to give up (and then the cat pretends like nothing happened).  I made this mistake once and ended up dumping my entire book manuscript in the trash and starting over from scratch.  As you conduct your research, make notes, and create possible manuscript outlines, be sure to discern your conclusion.  Then begin writing the manuscript.  Next, revise your manuscript to make sure that you’ve said what you set out to say.  Finally, revise the manuscript again, especially for style, so you say it well.  Then every draft will become a less-frustrating opportunity to clarify what you have already said but could have said more lucidly, convincingly, or artfully.

Thanks for reading.  I hope these suggestions serve you well.  You might want to read tips 1-5 if you found these helpful.

— Quentin Schultze

P.S.  Now buy that Kierkegaard book I mentioned above!  You’ll be a better writer if you read it.  You’ll be a better person, too, but that’s another story yet to be written.

By Quentin J. Schultze

I have written over a dozen nonfiction books and am working on a few more.  I also lead workshops on writing faith-related nonfiction books for publication.  Here are a few of the tips that I cover in workshops.

#1 Engage Your Readers as Listeners
Read your writing out loud to “readers.”  See how they respond.  Good nonfiction engages readers as listeners.  Moreover, it’s easier to tell if people are engaged with your prose by looking at and listening to their reactions to an oral reading than it is trying to gauge their immediate responses to silent reading.  Friends almost always will tell you that your writing is great, but how do they really feel about it?  When you read out loud, avoid sounding preachy or academic.  Don’t try to impress listeners.  Just read in your natural but lively voice.  Soon you’ll discover what actually engages readers and what doesn’t.  You’ll become a better writer as well as a more adept oral interpreter of your own work.  After all, most nonfiction book readers “hear” the writer when they read silently—just as they hear fictional characters’ dialogue.  I learned the importance of engaging readers as listeners by reading short sections of my work to my college students.  Their faces never lie.

#2 Title Your Chapter Drafts in Parallel Form
Perhaps each of your chapter titles should begin with a verb or a noun.  Maybe each chapter title should be one word or a short phrase.  In any case, be consistent in order to maintain the same voice and perspective across all chapters.  For instance, two of the chapter titles in my public speaking book are “Addressing Challenges” and “Crafting Artfully.” I wanted to encourage the reader to imagine herself or himself “doing” the subject of each chapter.  A chapter titled “Challenges” or “Art” would not fit that cross-chapter purpose.  Parallel titles will keep you focused and organized.  Without them you’re more likely to confuse yourself and your readers.  Note how I titled each of the tips on this page.

#3 Discuss Your Writing with Writers (and Authors)
Authors need one another.  Writing is personal, but learning about writing is communal.  Every author depends on the work of earlier writers.  This is true for style and content.  We all need feedback from other writers as well as from readers.  Discussing our ideas and manuscripts with other writers helps us to discover what works and what doesn’t—and why.  Join a local writers group (e.g., through a bookstore), read one others’ drafts, and offer kind but honest feedback.  If possible, invite some published (but humble) authors into the group.  Eventually, sitting at your keyboard or staring at a notebook will not seem so lonely, intimidating, and baffling.

#4 Address a Proven Topic in a Fresh Way
Publishers lose money on most books. T hey know that very few books become bestsellers.  But even if publishers can’t predict big winners they can try to avoid big losers.  How?  By reducing their risk, especially by rejecting both overly innovative manuscripts and manuscripts that address unproven topics.  Publishers prefer a modestly unique approach to a market-proven topic.  The one major exception is extremely timely topics.

#5 Thematize Your Work
What’s your book’s theme?  State it in one complete sentence to keep yourself on track.  Do this for memoir, too.  Unless you’re a well-known author, your memoir is not likely to be published.  Why should readers care about your life?  To get published, you need more than your personal story.  You need thematic significance.  Again, your best chance of getting published is by developing a novel approach to a a timeless topic such as parenting, love, health, faith, work, success, failure, and friendship.  The modestly unique theme of my public speaking book is that the purpose of all good speaking is serving the audience—not serving the speaker.

Thanks for reading.  I hope these suggestions serve you well.

Read tips 6-10.

Learn about my writing workshops and my thoughts on writing nonfiction faithfully.

— Quentin Schultze

Quentin Schultze in the video control room at Calvin College

Faith + Experience + Skill = Book

That might seem like a strange equation, but writing is always an act of faith. Faith nurtures our desire to serve readers. Faith directs our writing. Faith convinces us that we can write an entire, publishable book. Faith gives us perspective, sound ideas, concrete illustrations, and a passion to love readers. Faith even equips us to discern the call to serve readers vs. the desire to serve our egos.

But faithful writing also demands skill. Skill, in turn, requires experience and practice. Practice alone is not enough. You can practice writing all day long for weeks and fail to make progress if you lack basic skills such as expressing and organizing your ideas, crafting introductions and conclusions, choosing the right words and phrases, and employing the best examples and illustrations. These skills can be learned from those of us who have already discovered them—especially those of us who are called to teach as well as write.

The book I am holding in the photo, High-Tech Worship? Using Presentational Technologies Wisely, was a delight to write partly because I felt called to address the topic of using technologies like PowerPoint in worship and partly because I already had learned how to write nonfiction books from beginning to end.

Still, the call to write the book came in spite of my disinterest in the topic. Knowing that I teach about technology and communication, a friend encouraged me to write such a book because he was concerned about the overuse of projectors and screens in worship. I didn’t think PowerPoint and the like were much of a problem so I declined to pursue the idea. My own church was using technology very moderately and, I believed, wisely.

Then my wife and I spent a sabbatical in Florida. While there, we attended many churches. We enjoyed learning about different worship styles (the good, the bad, and the “cheesy”). Along the way, we discovered that projection technologies and software were not always used appropriately; they were becoming distractions from worship. I wondered what, if anything, I should do about the situation. What should I say? With whom should I share my concerns and positive suggestions?

High-Tech Worship?

I recalled my friend’s urging to write a book on the topic. I wondered if his encouragement and my Florida experiences were evidence of a calling. Ouch! I had plenty of other ideas for books. Yet before I knew it, this subject rose to the top of my mental list. Soon, while contemplating the topic, I discovered my thesis: the problem is not technology or worship, not even technology and worship. All worship is technological; worshipers employ voices, ears, printed materials, etc. The problem is that worship planners and leaders wrongly try to fit worship to technology, rather than fit technology to worship. They begin with the goal of using a particular technology rather than with the desire to plan fitting worship. Worship must come first; the purpose of worship should dictate how we use technologies, not the other way around. I actually had something to say. Now I really had to write the book.

Fortunately, I had taken notes while visiting Florida churches. I had good and poor examples of worship technology. With the help of some friends who gave me invaluable feedback on three manuscript drafts, I was able to write the book  in about three months. If I hadn’t known how to write a book, I would still be rattling my keyboard, laboring in fits and starts if not circles. From the time I discovered the idea for the book until it was available in bookstores, I applied the basic skills that make writing fun, interesting, and successful. And I did it as faithfully as I could, attentive to the One who calls, grants the necessary wisdom and skill, and provides essential life and literary experience.

We all need faith, experience, and skill to write books that serve readers. Faith + Experience + Skill = Book. If you have the necessary faith and life experience, you still need the literary skill. I conduct nonfiction book-writing workshops to teach others these skills so that they, too, might serve readers. Maybe you and some friends or colleagues feel such a calling. If so, you can find out more about my workshops and then contact me about leading a workshop at your organization (e.g., a school, church, or writer’s group). If you teach, I’ll work with your academic administrator to see if we might offer the workshop on behalf of all of your interested colleagues.

Best wishes as you ponder what it means to write books faithfully.  It’s both an exciting calling and a unique responsibility.

Quentin Schultze

“Everybody needs approval, but nobody needs it more than authors: approval of editorial alterations of manuscripts; approval of cover art and copy; approval over reprint, book-club, and foreign licenses; approval of titles, ad texts, and more.”1

I work with quite a few aspiring book authors and I find that many are easily hurt by criticism even when it’s delivered gently.  Writing a personal journal or blog is more suited to them because they don’t have to contend with all of the “approvals” needed for getting books and articles published.  The problem is that writing for personal benefit or enjoyment can give the impression that “everyone has a book in them.”  A book?  Maybe.  A published book?  Probably not.  The lack of approval is too devastating for most aspiring authors.  That’s why many editors and agents recommend writing a book only if you have to.

1 Richard Curtis, How to Be Your Own Literary Agent: An Insider’s Guide to Getting Your Book Published, Rev. Ed., Houghton Mifflin, 2003, p. 19.