issue : ICW Report, May 2005

This issue of the Report contains:
1. Virtuous Practices of Better Writers, # 7
2. Writing Reviews for Amazon
3. New Books by Members
4. The Secret to Feeling Energized

1. THE SEVEN VIRTUOUS PRACTICES OF BETTER WRITERS

7. Better Writers are Organized and Creative

Some writers produce well-organized documents but they lack enthusiasm or
creativity--what I call "the verve factor." When this happens, readers' eyes
begin to glaze over after about half a page.

Other writers have verve aplenty on every tangled, disjointed, and confusing
page, but they lack cogent, well-reasoned, clear expression. Cohesive
thinking seems never to have been a part of their mental portfolio.

Better writers hold themselves to a firm standard in producing materials
strong in both organization and creativity.

The Critical Importance of Good Organization

Natural disasters such as earthquakes demonstrate the importance of
organization. After such disasters everything is a tangled mass of wreckage.
But think of it. The only difference between that pile of debris and the
home or business that used to stand on the
spot is organization. The materials remain; the structure is gone.

Is your writing more like a jumbled mass of debris or a thoughtfully
designed and constructed building? Few writers produce only verbal debris
piles, but many turn out work that shows evidence of poor design and
haphazard building practices.

The organizing principle I'm writing about is foundational to writing
because it is foundational to creation. "In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty." Or perhaps
better, "the earth was unformed and chaotic," as the Berkeley Version puts
it (Genesis 1:1). All the materials were there, but to bring meaningful
order out of the chaos occupied the Creator for the next six
days.

As writers, we also have not done our work when we acquire ideas, no matter
how grand and potentially powerful they are. We must organize them carefully
for an intended effect. If God had to organize his work, we should not
expect ours to need less attention.

Essential to organization in writing is an outline. I am sometimes asked at
writers' conferences, "Do I have to outline my piece?" My answer is yes. Not
necessarily before you write it but at some point in the process.

Some writers--and I am one of them--want no structure to stifle our
creativity. I usually do not outline first. I just write. I write
enthusiastically on something I care about. Period.

I have learned, though, that when I "just write" I must go back and organize
(outline) what I have written. Usually I will find something that needs to
be rearranged. Or deleted from this piece entirely.

On personal profiles and experience pieces, I may just list the major
elements of the piece, then arrange them around some theme, rather than
create a formal outline.

Organizing or outlining or arranging my material will sometimes reveal some
gap I need to fill--something I have omitted so far as adequately addressing
my theme. Few things exasperate me more than to read an article that does
not answer for me the obvious questions it raises. For example, if I have
written about the need to write with verve, I also may need to suggest some
ways this can be done.

The Verve Factor

Your style may be to write with a well-organized outline to guide you. In
that case, you need to go back afterward and invigorate the piece.

Pursuing the house/debris analogy, I said that organization makes a critical
difference. However, one could have all the materials organized and still
not have a house. The lumber is all stacked according to its dimensions.
Over here the wiring and the light fixtures are neatly arranged, over there
a pile of plumbing supplies.

To have a house, we must organize the materials in a certain way, with
skill. And to make the house a delightful work of beauty requires
creativity, imagination, and painstaking attention to detail.

Author Charlie Shedd says that in the process of rewriting he pays special
attention to his verbs, going through his manuscript to introduce living
ones in place of the dead. This means substituting strong verbs for weak
ones. It is one example of how to create verve.

Another way to add verve is to inject natural unaffected humor. Or use
well-chosen anecdotes. Or employ colorful words such as verve to brighten
your writing.

May your verbal houses and mine always show evidence of both careful
organization and enthusiastic creativity. Then our readers will be glad for
the opportunity to come in and stay a while.

2. WRITING REVIEWS FOR AMAZON
Recently Betty Hockett wanted to write a review of my new book A Funny Thing
Happened On My Way to Old Age for Amazon. She found the process mystifying.
I had similar problems myself.
I asked Judi DeJager in the marketing department at InterVarsity Press for
help. I reproduce her instructions below for the sake of those who now or
in the future may want to take advantage of this opportunity for book
promotion. (Just substitute your title and particulars in place of mine.)

To write a "customer review," do as follows:

First, get to the page for Stan's book on Amazon.com.
To do that, type in either 0830832785 (the book's ISBN #) or A Funny
Thing Happened on My Way to Old Age (the full title). When you first
do that, you will likely see his book pictured at the top of a list of
"all results" for your search. Click on his book or the title to get to
the actual book page.

Once you're on the page for his book, scroll down the page past
"explore this book" and past "product details" to an area called
"Customer Reviews." In this case, there is already one review posted
by Kathryn E. Miller. This is where your review will be posted

Scroll just a little further to a "Share Your Thoughts" section. This
is where you need to be in order to post your comments.

Notice that you can "rate this item" by clicking on the stars. Click
on the 5th star, of course, to give it the highest rating. You can also
indicate whether or not you own the title.

Then, click on the part that says "Write a Review."

Once you click on that you will automatically be asked to share your
password if you already have an account with Amazon.com. If you
don't yet have an account with Amazon.com, you will be directed to a
page where you will be asked to share your name (Feel free to use an
initial as your first name if you're more comfortable with that), your
email address and your birthday. This is all information they request
so they can effectively create an account or a means for you to share
information on their website. You'll need to come up with a password
for your account.

Unfortunately, after you do that, you may need to type in either
0830832785 (the book's ISBN #) or A Funny Thing Happened on My
Way to Old Age (the full title) again in the search box.
Just follow the steps I outlined again, scrolling down to the "Share
Your Thoughts" section, where you can "rate this item" by clicking on
the stars and, more importantly click on "Write a Review."

Then, finally, the form should be pretty self-explanatory. Be sure to
rate the item, be sure to enter the correct, full title of the book, and
then
type in your review in the box. Be sure also to click the box
that verifies you're over 13 years old.

When you click "preview my review" you will probably be directed to
an area that will ask you to "create your Real Name." This just means
that Amazon.com wants you to verify that you're a "real person." So,
you're going to have to give them a credit card number and give them
your name as it appears on your card. They won't charge this credit
card. This is, again, just a way for them to make sure they don't
have people making up multiple identities and then writing a bunch of
positive reviews for one book.

Once you give them that information, they will ask you to choose your
"real name," (which should be your real name) and then you can
create your personal signature which is the name that will be used
with the review you post. They use "book maven" as an
example. Also, they ask you to indicate where in the world you are.
Which doesn't mean giving them your address. It just means giving
them a major city and state, or whatever.

Then, they ask you to verify how you want your name to
appear. Click "continue" and you will FINALLY get a preview
of your review - after which point you can either edit it or save it.

If you already have an account with Amazon.com, it will go much
quicker, of course.

I apologize for all that information and, trust me, I am not the one
who decided that a credit card is necessary in order to do all that stuff.

But, I just went through the process myself and wrote out how it went
so it is hopefully easy enough for you to do.
Blessings,
Judi DeJager

3. NEW BOOKS BY MEMBERS

Note: Beginning this issue, the Report will carry notices of new books
published by members. Books must have been released within the past six
months. Include your email address so members can contact you if they wish
more information. These will be notices only, not book reviews. Send your
notice to scbaldwin@juno.com

Congratulations to:

Peggy Kirk on release of her two new books: You Aren't Alone: The Voices of
Abortion and "You Aren't Alone: The Voices of Homosexuality, Blue Dolphin
(peggykirk01@comcast.net).

Bette Nordberg on her new novel: Detours, Harvest House
(bettenordberg@msn.com).

Jeannie St.John Taylor on her new book for children: Does God Have a Job?,
Kregel Publishers (jstjohntaylor@juno.com)

Leslie Gould on her new novel: Beyond the Blue. WaterBrook Press
(lesliegould@comcast.net).

W. Terry Whalin on his new book: Book Proposals That Sell, 21 Secrets to
Speed Your Success, Write Now Publications (terry@bookproposals.ws)

4. THE SECRET TO FEELING ENERGIZED
By Lesley Dormen ~ Contributed by Michael Gossett via Jeanne Halsey
Small Changes
I had a discouraging year. I was working on a book that wouldn't flow,
trying to write stories I felt fearful to feel and ill equipped to tell.
Nothing bad had happened to me, yet I was spiritually cranky and emotionally
depleted. Even my ordinary daily pleasures - a perfect cup of morning
coffee, the late-afternoon light illuminating the cityscape outside my
window, the proper degree of curl in my hair - left me feeling unimpressed.
No matter how often I told myself what you probably tell yourself when you
feel grumpy and frustrated - a hundred versions of "Be grateful you're not
sick or homeless or living in Iraq" - nothing helped.
Then I spent the summer at an artists' colony in the woods of New
Hampshire. For seven weeks I enjoyed what was for me, a city girl, an
exotic escape. I was mesmerized by the deer and wild turkeys that grazed in
the meadow beyond my writing studio. I listened to the trees shiver and the
insects gossip. I read and read and wrote and wrote. My lunch turned up in
a basket outside my door, and in the evenings I laughed with new friends
around the dinner table, played some Ping-Pong, then let the stars guide me
back to bed. In that alternate life, I rediscovered what I'd been missing -
the pleasure of being myself. Through some alchemy of sky and grass and
quiet and laughter, the fear retreated, the sentences came, and the
dissatisfaction melted away. "How lucky I am," I found myself thinking in
those woods many times over, as I savored the color of the sky, the flavor
of the soup, or just the ease of my own breath. It was when I tried to give
my luck a name that the name turned out to be gratitude.

Why It Feels So Good
According to a series of new studies, the well-being I felt in the words has
a scientific basis. "Grateful people tend to be the happiest," says Michael
McCullough, PhD, an Associate Professor of Psychology and Religious Studies
at the University of Miami. McCullough was one of the investigators on the
Research Project on Gratitude and Thankfulness. Study subjects who did
regular "gratitude interventions" felt so much better afterward that even
their spouses noticed the difference. "People who are grateful tend to have
low rates of depression," he explains. "With gratitude, there is virtually
no downside."
We've long accepted the idea that a grateful outlook on life is desirable,
but more because it speaks to one's character rather than life satisfaction.
After all, we've been schooled since childhood to give thanks, be it in the
form of a handwritten note or Grace spoken before a meal. We are surrounded
by paeans to the gratefully lived life, whether it is the prayerful
"Namaste" (thank you) of yoga class, or the reflective readings at spiritual
retreats.
All of which makes the latest research into gratitude's measurable benefits
so intriguing. It implies that simply by noticing, day by day, the
relationships, events, and experiences that benefit us, we can extend
gratitude's psychic rewards to our physical health and our psychological
attitude.
Gratitude's Rewards
How is it gauged? In one study, researchers asked a group of healthy
college-age adults to keep a weekly list of five things for which they were
grateful ("the generosity of friends," "the music of the Rolling Stones,"
"wonderful parents"), while another group of students was asked to track
hassles ("stupid people driving," "messy kitchen no one will clean,"
"finances depleting quickly") or to rate their responses to various life
events ("learned CPR," "cleaned out my shoe closet"). A third group, this
one consisting of adults with chronic neuromuscular diseases, wrote down
what they were grateful for each day for three weeks ("my boss for
understanding my needs," "my paperboy for being so reliable"), while a
similar group counted burdens instead.
According to results published in the March 2003 issue of Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, the participants who counted blessings -
whether they were the healthy students or the chronically ill adults -
reported feeling more energetic and a heightened sense of mental well-being.
The students exercised more; the chronically ill adults reported sleeping
well and waking up more refreshed. The grateful groups also reported
feeling optimistic and better about their lives as a whole - they looked
forward to making progress toward important goals. Gratitude also turned
out to be measurable in the moral sphere. The grateful groups were more
likely to help someone with a personal problem or to offer emotional
support.
Psychologists and other experts speculate that some people are genetically
predisposed to be grateful, much the way some have a flair for drawing and
others are shy in a group. "There are people who seem on the face of it to
have very little to be thankful about, yet they're still grateful," observes
Sharon Salzberg, a Meditation Teacher in Barre, Massachusetts. People with
grateful natures tend to feel grateful whether something good happens to
them or not. Feeling grateful is, in essence, their baseline mood, their
personality's default screen saver, if you will.
Noticing the Positive
Of course, Science has yet to invent a once-a-day gratitude pill. But even
if we're tough to impress or our life has hit turbulence or we're simply
feeling feelingless, we can still get a significant boost by acknowledging
whichever events and experiences have gone right for us - a sunny day, a
good parking space, our mate bringing us a cup of tea unbidden, a favorite
song coming over the radio. "It's not about forcing a feeling," says
Salzberg. "It's about paying attention in a different way. Challenges can
feel permanent, as if they'll never go away. But the truth in life is that
everything changes. And in the meantime, we can make a conscious effort to
look at the good."

Elaine Porter, a 46-year-old Sales Associate in Chicago and the mother of
two sons, chose gratitude as a response when she was a girl, growing up in a
chaotic home. "My Dad was an alcoholic, and my parents fought a lot."
Porter says that her older sister watched out for her: "She even took me
along with her on dates." Porter remembers understanding at a young age
that, to get by, she would "have to look for what was positive," an attitude
that has gone on to serve her well. Her first husband died, and her second
marriage ended in divorce. Her mother is ill, and her 25-year-old son
recently confided that he has been struggling with a drug addiction. Still,
Porter continues to choose gratitude. "I feel grateful that my son came to
me and told me about his drug problem, so that I could help get him into
rehab. You can't choose what life throws at you. But you can choose the
way you look at those things."
Seeing the Future
So why don't more of us make that choice? Exhaustion. Just refocusing our
attention can feel like operating heavy machinery if we're feeling spent,
says Barbara Holstein, PhD, a Psychologist in Long Branch, New Jersey, and
author of The Enchanted Self: A Positive Therapy. "We can be taken to the
best restaurant or the most wonderful store, but if we're running on empty,
we just don't care. We may go to church and say, 'Thank You,' but if we
don't have the deep-down energy to appreciate life's small moments - the
sparrow outside the window or the green of the plant - we're just going
through the motions."
We owe it to ourselves to address and overcome that fatigue so that we can
look around and mine the pleasures and satisfactions in each day, says
Holstein. "By the time we've reached our 40s and 50s, life has thrown all
of us curves. We've all suffered losses. Cultivating gratitude is more
essential than ever if we're going to equip ourselves for our life ahead."
We can fight fatigue by being good to ourselves. "Make a date to have a
long, talky dinner with a good friend," says Holstein. If you can choose
pleasure - whether that means leaving the video store with our own personal
Audrey Hepburn film festival, taking piano lessons, or putting aside one
night a month to enjoy the ballet with a friend - you can replenish
yourself, and by so doing, tip your mood toward gratitude.
It's important to remember that you don't have to wait to get lucky in order
to feel grateful. Even an otherwise humdrum day contains gratitude
epiphanies if you look. "I love getting into bed at night on my new
mattress!" a friend exclaimed the other day. "Is there anything better than
a sharp knife and a good tomato?" my husband calls out from the kitchen. A
stranger who has run for a bus rewards the driver who waited for her with an
enormous grin; "You made my day," she says gratefully. After spending the
day interviewing a woman who is quadriplegic, an editor friend gets a
parking spot far from her destination and says to herself, "I am
able-bodied - I can walk it."
Small moments with the people you love may hold gratitude epiphanies in
disguise. Did a friend or colleague appreciate your sensitivity to her
concerns today? Did you pick the fastest-moving line in the supermarket?
Take a moment to appreciate how the planets have realigned in your favor.
Which is not to say that gratitude means ignoring life's misfortunes.
Short-story writer Ann Harleman, 59, who teaches Fiction Writing at the
Rhode Island School of Design, continues to be surprised by the unlikely
sources and circumstances of gratitude in her life. "My husband and I had
been married for nine years when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
I was terrified for him and for myself." That was 14 years ago. As her
husband's health has declined, Harleman has felt grateful for the depth of
feeling that fuels her writing. "Through my pain and his, I can feel
compassion. I can put those feelings into my stories, so that someone else
can know that they have company."
Her family's hard situation has given her other things to be grateful for,
as well. For one, there are wonderful people caring for her husband.
"They're magnificent and smart and funny. They even comfort me when I cry.
And I would never have encountered them but for this." And her husband, who
is hospitalized now, and who spent years feeling bitter and angry over his
illness, has passed through the hard feelings, says Harleman. "He expresses
an amazing generosity and sensitivity. He's having this period of beauty
and calmness, and we're experiencing the love we feel for each other now,
which is irrevocable and unquestionable. I feel lucky to have that."
Start where you are. Look around at this very day, as if you were looking
at your life through the eyes of a stranger. A friend who says she looks
for gratitude day by day shared some words she once saw scrawled among the
graffiti on a construction-site wall: "The best preparation for the future
is the present well tended." What do you see?

[Copyright (c) 2005 Microsoft Corporation; all rights reserved; used with
permission. http://women.msn.com/1047829.armx?GT1=6367]
Disclaimer: Inclusion in the ICW Report does not constitute endorsement of
all content.

Until next time,
Keep writing,
Stanley Baldwin, Director

Copyright © International Christian Writers. All rights reserved.