advice to writers: get a “freditorial” team
Prov 11:14 …in an abundance of counselors there is
safety.
Blogging is not for the faint of heart -- anyone who has ever
read blog comments is aware of this. As a writer, my hope is always to be read
and understood. This doesn’t mean that I expect my readers to always agree with
me, but that their agreement or disagreement would be formed based on an
accurate reading of my message. Because of this, I never post without the help
of my “freditors” – my friend editors who offer feedback as co-laborers in my
writing ministry. The more trusted eyes I can get on a post before it goes up,
the more assured I can be that it communicates what I intend with as few errors
as possible.
So, when other writers ask me for writing advice, I don’t
offer style tips or opinions on the Oxford comma (clearly, it’s awesome),I start
with this: Get a freditorial team and use it consistently. What kinds of
freditors have proven the most useful? Here’s who I have on my team:
The Casual Reader
I need this person to read the
post like the average person will read it. I’m not looking for much other than
how it hit them – what were their overall impressions and take-aways from the
piece? Did they understand what they read? It helps if the Casual Reader is
familiar with what other bloggers are writing about.
The Writer
This person critiques me on mechanics,
style and word choice. She helps me reorganize my arguments when they don’t
flow. She is a gorgeous writer herself, and she will call me out if I forget to
pair clarity with artistry. She says things like “There’s a rhythm problem in
this sentence.” I love that.
The Theology Police
This person checks to make sure I’m
not a heretic. Sometimes the smallest word choice makes the difference between
truth and error, and one set of eyes won’t always catch the nuance. I don’t
have formal theological training, so I don’t need to be convinced of my need for
the Theology Police. I tend to think that even if I did have formal training I’d
still want this layer of help. I never want to place beautiful words around
faulty thinking.
The Devil’s Advocate
This is the person I can rely on
to nitpick. She drives me crazy, but it’s the good kind of crazy. She reads
looking for controversy or holes in my logic. She’s basically like a rational blog
commenter who gets to see an early draft. She says things like, “You can’t
possibly do justice to this topic in 750 words.” She also says things like, “Did you write this
mad? I don’t think you should write mad.” Which usually makes me mad. But she’s
right.
The Man
If I need a perspective from the
other gender, The Man helps me out. And even though we’ve been married for over
20 years, he never complains. But sometimes The Man needs to be a man I’m not
married to. Since Jeff helps me process my thoughts so much before they turn
into writing, I may need a fresh set of male ears to hear them once they turn
into a post. The Man helps me avoid unintentionally communicating gender
stereotypes. He also helps me write in a voice both men and women can hear.
The Doppelganger
This person thinks like me. She
cares about the same topics I do and thinks about them extensively. (She's actually much smarter than me. She's like me, smarter.) I send her my
drafts to make sure I’ve represented my thoughts and positions accurately.
Sometimes I can get so close to a topic that I get sucked into the small points
without clearly articulating the big ones. The Doppelganger makes sure I have
not assumed anything as general knowledge and helps me keep the main point the
main point.
The Specialist
The Specialist provides help on an
as-needed basis. If I am writing about worship music, I send the post to a
worship leader. If I’m writing to pastors, I ask a couple of pastors to read. I
once sent a post to a person of another religion to make sure I hadn’t
misrepresented his beliefs in a point I had made. I recognize I’m a prisoner of
my own experience to a certain extent. The Specialist helps me write balanced
content.
I know, that’s a big team. But I don’t use every freditor on
every post - a few posts go to the whole team, most go to some combination, all
go to at least one. One freditor may fill more than one role, depending on the
piece. But nothing goes up on my blog with zero frediting.
When you read a post on a major platform, it has probably
been critiqued by a team of editors before it posts. When you read a personal
blog, this may not be the case. The larger a person’s platform, the less likely
it is that they are just typing out their thoughts and hitting “post” when they’re
done. But I don’t think writers should wait for a big platform to begin seeking
more eyes on their drafts. The last thing a blogger wants is to write a post
with a gaping error or miscommunication in it, only to find out too late that
her words have brought down a hailstorm of justified criticism.
All bloggers learn to expect critique – that’s part of the double-edged
privilege of having a platform. Critique doesn’t bother me, but my own poor
editing or unintended lack of clarity do. Personally, I’d rather avoid having
my post’s limitations exposed by anonymous commenters after it goes live. I’d
much rather do due diligence by consulting the input of people I respect and
trust before I post anything in the first place. Then, when critique comes, I’m
able to remind myself that my words were weighed. There’s peace in knowing that
the people who know me best have my back.
So, my best writing advice is this: Let iron sharpen iron. If
you blog, build a freditorial team. Through both affirmation and correction, they
will hone your writing, helping you communicate with precision and integrity. A
writer can ask for no truer friends than those.