Table of Contents
Deadly Delay
Deadly Dullness
Deadly Diffusion
Deadly Dishonesty
Deadly Dereliction
Deadly Domination
Deadly Disputation

1. DEADLY DELAY

Nothing could be more deadly than to delay your writing to the point that you never get it done. As obvious as that may be, it is a common problem, if not in undertaking projects, at least in finishing them. DEADLY DELAY grows out of something more than negligence, and it therefore needs something more than a pep talk to overcome. DEADLY DELAY grows out of a lack of conviction. The efforts of many writers are sabotaged because they lack conviction that this is something God definitely wants them to do. Their own ego interests, their mixed motives, their confusion about purpose saps their drive. If you work under such conditions, maybe you should not try to be a writer. Or maybe you need to work through your motivation issues in prayer so you can "write right," and persistently.

Sometimes DEADLY DELAY will express itself not in failure to complete a piece of writing but in failure to do it well. I serve as consultant for a glossy denominational publication. I meet with the staff writers as they prepare each issue. Our meeting time serves as their deadline; they must have their articles ready for critique. This solves the problem of coming right up to press time and then dashing off something inferior. Now, they have asked to move our meeting time even earlier to provide more time for their rewrites between critiquing and publication. They are in the process of overcoming DEADLY DELAY.

Human nature being what it is, many writers can get to the job only when they face a deadline. If you are one of them, and don't have a structure such as the denominational one I just described, you need to create your own mechanism. One way to do that is to join a critique group. That will automatically provide regular deadlines because you must have something ready each time. Or make yourself accountable to another person, a writer or some other friend to whom you report regularly.

Another technique is to build in sanctions. Provide yourself with rewards for performance and penalties for non-performance. Maria Tolar once wrote a $100 check to a cause she despised; if she failed to complete her article on time, that check would go into the mail.

If you have been caught up in the writing sin of DEADLY DELAY, the good news is you can be strong in the very area where you have been weak. The key word here is "deadline." When you agree to a deadline, or set your own, you have given your word that you will deliver at a designated time. It is a matter of Christian honor to keep your word. Treat deadlines as a sacred obligation.

Personally, when I agree with a publisher on a deadline for a book, I set my own deadline about two months earlier. That way, if unforeseen difficulties arise, as they often do, I have a margin. Writing ahead of deadline reaps several important benefits:

1) I deliver on time without the incredible stress of a mad dash to my deadline.

2) I deliver a better product because I have had more time to let it "ripen" and to rewrite where needed.

3) I keep my word as a Christian.

4) I treat my publisher right and do not cause him extra work, worry, and expense by being delinquent.

5) I earn my publisher's respect as well as my own.

6) I walk worthy of my Lord Jesus Christ.

Aren't all those benefits enough to turn you away from the sin of DEADLY DELAY?

2. DEADLY DULLNESS

The seven deadly sins of writing are essentially sins of communication, by which I mean that they apply to speaking as well. You handicap yourself fatally if you are a dull speaker or writer. Now, granted, there are plenty of both around, so how can I call this a deadly sin? It hasn't seemed to kill these communicators; they are still blithely boring everyone.

OK, but dullness is deadly to your purpose, which is to communicate. You speak, but do people listen? You write, but do people read with interest and understanding? We must not be so narcissistic as to think that people will be fascinated with what we present just because we are such fascinating people. Fascinating to ourselves perhaps. Our readers, our hearers are more fascinated with themselves. (Let's tell the truth here.)

The first principle for overcoming DEADLY DULLNESS, then, is to achieve what we call "reader identification." The reader must identify with what you write or your presentation will be deadly dull to him or her.

Elizabeth Baker began the preface to her book, "The Happy Housewife" as follows: "In the past I have read articles and books about how to raise kids and run a home that I feel sure were written by a fat bachelor in his mid-60s." As a book editor wading through stacks of proposed book manuscripts, I reacted to that opening line with, "Eureka, I have found it." Here was a writer who understood the need for reader identification. And she had a colorful, interesting way of saying it. That meant she likely would not fall into the same sin herself.

Be direct, honest, vulnerable, real. Writing that speaks most effectively to the human condition must come from a writer willing to let his or her own humanity show. Use anecdotes. These well-chosen, short, slice-of-life experiences are made to order for achieving reader identification and overcoming DEADLY DULLNESS.

Even the individual words you choose make your writing dull or captivating. Use strong active verbs: stroll (not walk casually), strut (not walk proudly), stomp (not walk angrily), stagger (not walk unsteadily). And get rid of all stilted preacherly abominations such as "that which." (Faith is that which brings down God's blessings.)

Go through your manuscript and replace weak verbs with strong ones, stilted expressions with plain talk, long unrelieved narration with anecdotes and dialog. Your reader will bless you, and you will strike a blow against DEADLY DULLNESS.

3. DEADLY DIFFUSION

You probably know when you are falling into the first deadly sin: Deadly Delay. It's pretty obvious: you simply aren't getting the writing done.

You also probably realize that you are always in danger of falling into the second deadly sin: Deadly Dullness. Your content could be fresher, your style more captivating, your word choice more vivid.

With regard to the third deadly sin: DEADLY DIFFUSION, you probably do not know when you fall into it, which makes it all the more deadly.

Many editors have told me this is the most common failing of the manuscripts that come across their desks. They express it in different ways. They may say the writing lacks focus, that it has no "red thread" tying it all together, that it wanders, that it does not clearly say one thing, that it is blurred, indistinct, confusing.

"Diffuse" means "to pour out so as to spread in all directions." Or, "to perplex" (Webster's). When your writing spreads out in all directions, it does perplex rather than enlighten. The reason you are unaware of the diffusion is that in your mind everything you have written is connected. However, the reader is not in your mind, but must depend on the words you put on paper.

DEADLY DIFFUSION often results from an earnest desire that our message be heard. We so urgently want to communicate some point that we let it insinuate itself into our writing where it does not belong, with the predictable result that the reader is perplexed. Why are we talking about "b" when the subject was supposed to be "a"?

Years ago I teamed with Dr. James D. Mallory, Jr. to write THE KINK AND I--a Psychiatrist's Guide to Untwisted Living. Mallory emphasized that being made in the image of God was a base for healthy self-esteem. I saw a chance to strike a blow for capital punishment, because Genesis 9:6 says, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man."

Mallory objected that my use of this passage was, first, off the point of our book and, second, dealt with a controversial issue that would lose readers who disagreed. He was right. I was falling into DEADLY DIFFUSION.

At a writers conference in Arizona, a woman showed me her manuscript on Christian ministry to youth. It was quite excellent. Until she could not resist taking some swipes at then-president Bill Clinton. When I told her that material did not belong in her book, she replied, "That's what others have told me, but I feel strongly . . . ." Her passion to communicate had plunged her into DEADLY DIFFUSION and she was unwilling to change.

Sometimes DEADLY DIFFUSION results from our inserting copy "because it's just so good and who knows whether I will ever have a chance to get it published if I don't put it in here?"

Since we are usually unaware of our own DEADLY DIFFUSION, we need our writing to be critiqued by those who can see it more objectively. I can't count the number of times I have heard critiquers tell other writers, "You actually have two articles here." That's a gracious way of saying it's diffuse. It might in fact be two articles or it might not even be one, but for sure it lacks clear focus.

You can also discover DEADLY DIFFUSION by use of a good outline. If you write without an outline, you need to go back afterward and outline the article. You will likely discover that the material is not all in proper logical order of development, and that there are extraneous passages or comments.

Recognize the problem of DEADLY DIFFUSION. Work hard to overcome it. You don't want to perplex your readers. You want them to nod their heads in understanding, not shake them in bewilderment.

4. DEADLY DISHONESTY

I wish I didn't have to talk about this to Christian writers. We write in the name of him who said, "I am the truth" (John 14:6). By contrast the devil, our adversary, "is a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44).

Paul wrote that our battle against evil requires we wear the full armor of God, and the first piece he mentions is "the belt of truth" (Ephesians 6:14). Truth is what buckles the whole business together. Without truth, what do we have that is genuine? Paul also declared that he had "renounced secret and shameful ways, we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God" (2 Corinthians 4:2). For Paul to say what he did clearly implies that deception is to be decisively rejected.

Despite these clear teachings from the Lord, dishonesty is not only present but rampant in Christian writing (and speaking and living). Too often we should say, "How do I deceive thee? Let me count the ways."

I deceive you when I say or imply that what is really my interpretation of the word of God is in fact the authoritative word of God.

I deceive you when I destroy straw men--when I misrepresent another's teaching or position and then demolish it.

I deceive you when I tell anecdotes to "prove" my point. In fact, anecdotes can easily distort the truth even when they are told with scrupulous fidelity to the facts (which often they are not). Even a true anecdote can be untypical of what usually happens. Anecdotes are great communication tools so use them to illustrate but not to prove.

I deceive you when I toss around statistics to make it sound like my claims are based on solid research when in fact I may have no idea of the source of the statistics, much less their authenticity. (As one wag put it, 74 percent of statistics are simply made up to prove a point.)

I deceive you when I misrepresent my own Christianity as all joy and light. In fact, I struggle. I fail. I doubt. I seek my own interests at the expense of love for God and my brother. When I pretend otherwise, I essentially lie about what it is to be a Christian. This is not that much different from Playboy or Penthouse magazines. Their sin is not that they talk about sex, but that they lie about it. Our virtue, if we have any, is not that we talk about God or Christianity but that, when we do, we tell the truth about it.

The count, unfortunately, could go on. This dishonesty is a deadly sin. One of only two things can happen when we use deception. One is we may be believed. The other is we may not be believed. Either is a disaster.

If we are believed, we have succeeded in misleading our readers. They now either believe something that is false, or they believe the truth for false reasons.

If we are not believed, we have exposed ourselves as unreliable writers. Since we are without credibility, why should anyone read us further or believe anything we write? We may also have damaged the credibility of other Christian writers, who will be put in the same category as we are.

Dishonesty among Christians is a form of closet atheism. If we really believed in God, wouldn't we know he doesn't need our lies to establish his truth? This deadly sin calls for heartfelt repentance and change.

5. DEADLY DERELICTION

A writer can give false or misleading information in two ways. One, he can distort facts, deceive the reader, commit the sin of Deadly Dishonesty. Two, he can be completely honest but also completely wrong because he has not adequately researched his material, tested its validity, or examined the other side of the issue.

Though such dereliction may be less reprehensible than dishonesty, it is only marginally less deadly. We are still misleading people, and damaging the credibility of Christian communicators in general, revealing ourselves to be unreliable writers, and failing our Lord.

Part of the cause of this dereliction is laziness. We don't take the trouble to verify our material. But there is often more involved than simple laziness. Too often, writers uncritically accept, embrace, and propagate whatever supports their views.

We are too eager to get our piece written and published, and not eager enough to make sure it will withstand scrutiny. We also have a tendency to parrot others we respect, not questioning what they say. Thus, their mistake (growing out of dishonesty or dereliction or human fallibility) is perpetuated and spread by our dereliction.

Some years ago, I edited a piece that stated that humans are unique among all animal species in that male and female mate face to face. The writer said, "This knocks the theory of evolution into a cocked hat."

I had two problems with that. First, its logic escaped me. That is, I could not see how the conclusion grew out of the premise. Why couldn't that uniqueness have come about through evolution?

More basic, however, I wondered if the claim was accurate. I did some research. Research the writer should have done. It didn't take long to discover scientific studies of gorilla behavior, complete with photos, that showed the claim to be false. Therefore, according to the writer's logic, that knocks the creation theory into a cocked hat. But, of course, since the claim was false, any conclusion drawn from it was invalid.

When the factual error was brought to his attention, the writer said he got the information from a well-known and respected religious leader. Because it served the writer's purpose, he had uncritically embraced error. And he had already propagated it all across the country in his speaking.

Some writers, when I uncover their fallacious "facts," seem to resent being called to account. One said the error didn't matter because her conclusion was true, whether or not this "detail" was accurate. In other words, the reader is supposed to believe her conclusions are correct because she says so, even though she has demonstrated that her pursuit of truth is sloppy at best.

The truth deserves to be better served than that.

6. DEADLY DOMINATION

Though we can, and have, considered these "deadly sins" independently, they are all part of a package. Carelessness, indifference, a bad attitude in one area tends to poison the whole work. That's how it is with Deadly Domination, when we "talk down" to our readers as if we are the AUTHORity and they are our inferiors.

The same writer who tends to be dishonest or derelict about his claims is often the one most authoritative in attitude. He does not know himself or his role, and is not a reliable guide.

Peter wrote that God's leaders (and writing is a form of leadership) are "eager to serve, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock" (1 Peter 5: 2-3). Similarly, Paul wrote, "Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy" (2 Corinthians 1:24).

We surely wouldn't claim to be more authoritative than Peter or Paul, but we may write with a lord-it-over spirit that implies the contrary. Peter and Paul were certainly among the greatest Christians who ever lived. In Paul's case, he was writing to one of the most troubled churches in the New Testament. If ever a dominating style seemed appropriate, that was the time. But Paul specifically renounced any attempt to lord it over their faith, and takes a "with you" not a "to you" stance.

There is only one Lord, and we are not him. Neither are we appointed to stand in for him in his absence. That is the Holy Spirit's work. How then can we exhibit deadly domination? How can we rhetorically lord it over God's people?

Certainly, some readers will bow to our leadership if we posture ourselves as spiritual authorities. That makes the sin of domination all the more deadly because we in fact are not the authorities. The Holy Spirit is.

Nothing I have here written implies that our trumpet has to make an uncertain sound. We can have strong convictions and champion them strongly. But we can't invest our own interpretations with divine authority. If we are not to fall prey to deadly domination, we have to know the difference.

7. DEADLY DISPUTATION

I could characterize some writers who are widely published today as combative. They seem to be looking for a fight. Some of the battles they most like to fight concern
prophecy, doctrine, social issues, and church worship styles.

You could ask, "Aren't those things important? Aren't the truths related to them worth fighting for?"

Sometimes, but there's a right and wrong way to do it. The wrong way to contend for the truth is to be combative or to initiate a dispute about it. The right way is to patiently and gently teach the truth.

Scripture is quite specific on this point. "The Lord's servant must not quarrel: instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 2:24-25).

Scripture also warns against the person who "has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of corrupt mind" (1 Timothy 6:4-5).

Jesus once confronted his disciples about their disputation with one another. "He asked them, 'What were you arguing about on the road?' But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest" (Mark 9:33-34).

Today's disputers, whatever the ostensible subject of their disputation may be, are too often actually arguing the same thing the disciples did--who can win the dispute and be greatest.

I began by saying some disputers are "widely published." Their practice of disputation has not, then, been deadly to their desire to be published and read. But the fact that a reader's flawed character responds to a writer's flawed character does not make their mutual sin any less deadly to spiritual health and wholeness. Reader and writer simply feed each other's illness to the dishonor of Christ and the gospel.

Renouncing disputation may take some of the fire out of your writing, but if so it is the strange fire of the flesh. Let us burn instead with the holy fire of the Spirit of God.

Stanley C. Baldwin is author of 21 books and many articles. Four of his books have sold 300,000 copies each. Stan has served as editor of Power line papers for Scripture Press and of Victor Books. He presently directs International Christian Writers, a worldwide email fellowship for writers and a sending agency for third-world writer training.

International Christian Writers is open to membership to writers of all levels.
It is an all-volunteer organization and all of its services are provided without charge. Members receive a monthly Report that includes news, writing instruction (such as these Seven Deadly Sins), and occasional publishing opportunities. To join send a request to Stanley C. Baldwin: scbaldwin@juno.com

The Seven Deadly Sins of Writing is (C) 1972, revised 2004 by Stanley C Baldwin. Printed by American Christian Writers, P.O. Box 110390, Nashville, TN 37222

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