Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. “ (John 1:1)

As a writer and editor, I spend most of my day thinking about words: Their power and how they make us feel. Words can make us smile or feel appreciated or they can make us defensive or angry.

Words can also inspire us, as shown in this short film by Alonso Alvarez*

Writing is a process – of writing, reviewing, and revising. It takes time - and thought - to make the words tell the story I want to tell, inspire the reactions or actions I want to inspire.

Often, I write my words, then step away. I come back to them, and reread using the lens of my audience – what message have I sent? How do these words make me feel? What am I being asked to do? Is message 'sent' the same as message 'received?' What changes are needed?

Writing well is challenging. Here are some tips which help me with my writing:

1. Write about what you know.  
2. Use words with commonly understood definitions. 
3. When you must use 'church speak' or other jargon, provide a definition or lexicon somewhere in the document.
4. Ask someone else to read what you've written and then ask them to share their understanding of what message is being communicated or what action they are being asked to take.
5. Sleep on it. Finish your piece, then put it away - overnight or at least for a few hours. Time away often helps me to see things (awkward phrasing or a spelling, punctuation, or grammatical error) that I missed earlier.

*There's another, shorter, version of this story circulating on Facebook. Learning that the English language version is a knock off of the original Spanish language film - and that the knock off is being used for commercial purposes - changed the way I feel about the English language version. That's context - and perhaps the topic for a future blog.