Advance Your Message
Pencil, pen, or keyboard, writing is a powerful resource for us. It helps us with our thinking. It is clarifying, sharpening our focus. It communicates who we are and what we do.
Writing actually enhances the function and capacity of our thought process. Stephen Covey says that writing is more powerful than visualization (The 8th Habit). “Writing bridges the conscious and the subconscious mind. Writing is a psycho-neuromuscular activity and literally imprints the brain.”
This is Nigerian writer, Ben Okri. He lives in London.
Note his pauses in this short segment – he clearly values precise thoughts and well-chosen language as he relates his views as a writer.
What do you think about his perspective?
“I grew up in a tradition where there are simply more dimensions to reality: legends and myths and ancestors and spirits and death. You can’t use Jane Austen to speak about African reality.”
“We like to think that the world is rational and precise and exactly how we see it, but something erupts in our reality which makes us sense that there’s more to the fabric of life. I’m fascinated by the mysterious element that runs through our lives. Everyone is looking out of the world through their emotion and history. Nobody has an absolute reality.” Ben Okri: Novelist as Dream Weaver (The National)
Though I don’t know that Ben Okri is a believer in Christ, I see Kingdom themes in his approach to creative writing. We can certainly apply his perspective in a Kingdom way …
I believe there is a Master Narrative at work in the world, an our lives are stories in this narrative. There is a flow; our personal stories can be traced back to the foundation of the world in Christ (Ephesians 1:3-6 NASB).
I love how he likens personal story to the composition of music: “an interval in the enchantment of living, phases of music.” There really is a divine enchantment in which our heart and mind are made alive to authentic Kingdom experience – a restoration to magnificence.
A word … a sound or combination of sounds filled with meaning. In essence, words are energetic and hold power: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Prov. 18:21 NKJV). They are creative, sustaining and uphold everything. In addition to being released vocally, words of course are also represented in writing and print.
Whether in oral tradition, on a page, or on a screen, words turn thought into language. And language conveys substance, intention and force. “Word” in the English comes from the Latin verbum, giving us verb and verbal – words create action and movement.
“Just say the word, and my servant will be healed.”
- Roman centurion, by word of messenger, to Jesus
Publicare from the Latin means “to make public.” I believe we are always “publishing,” going public, radiating our influence in our world.
And so I’m challenged to place great value upon my thoughts, words, and language… realizing that my life and my world respond to my influence.
photo credit: jpstanley (Creative Commons)
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Voice is one of the most important elements in successful writing. If readers do not pick up our unique voice through the words we write, they will tune us out and we’ll lose them.
We may have a meaningful story to relay. We may have leading-edge content which will really help people. But if we cannot capture and sustain the reader’s attention, they will not benefit from the story or the content.
But if readers lock in to your signature voice, it’s a different story. Your readers can actually “hear” your unique signature voice through your words – whether they are on paper or on a screen.