As a parent, I’ve appreciated the beauty of catechisms for teaching important truths to my children in simple, accessible bites. It turns out that I still need these simple answers myself. Take the opening question of both the Heidelberg and Westminster Catechisms: “What is the chief end of man?”—or, if we rephrase this as a Wendell Berry question: What are people for? The catechism answer: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
All that we do in life must pass this test. For many of us, our writing is an obvious way to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. But the challenge is figuring out how to do it well—or, at least, better.
In part I of this series last week, I suggested that the first and essential step is to read good writers. Fill your mind with beauty and truth and goodness! But that alone isn’t enough. One can read wonderful fiction and nonfiction with joyous abandon for years, one can memorize large swathes of the most glorious poetry imaginable, one can find her soul shaped for beauty by these experiences, and yet… Reading Tolstoy will not just magically make you into Tolstoy. Just how does one translate all of this reading and reflection into one’s own writing?
This is where thoughtful books on writing can be helpful for some writers. As with all guides, such books are highly subjective, which also means that the identity of the author matters. Andrew Le Peau, now retired, was a lifelong editor at InterVarsity Press. This makes his book, Write Better: A Lifelong Editor on Craft, Art, and Spirituality, a real treasure for anyone who has ever wished they could get inside a major press editor’s head—let’s face it, this includes every writer who would like to get published.
Unlike the legendary Strunk & White, more reference resource than beach reading, Le Peau’s book is one that you can just pick up and read (maybe even at the beach)—and then consult portions again in the future. Part I, “The Craft of Writing,” considers the basics of good writing—What makes for a good opening? How to structure the argument? What makes writing compelling or not? How to crack writer’s block? Part II, “The Art of Writing,” delves deeper into the beauty and power of the best writing—e.g., how to find an appropriate tone and how to use metaphors effectively. Finally, Part III, “The Spirituality of Writing,” addresses calling, stewardship, and more. Here are just a few pieces of Le Peau’s advice that especially stood out to me.
1. Write Better
It is apt to begin with Le Peau’s aggressive title—it is in the imperative mood, a command to the reader to just “write better”! While the command can seem annoying, I think this is a good point to remember at the outset: No matter where you are in your writing, you can always write better. That is the simple truth that applies to every single writer from my not-yet-fully-literate kindergartener to Nobel Prize winning novelists.
Working on improving your writing may not make you the next Tolstoy (to be honest, if you learn more about his life, you’ll be glad for it). But it will make you a better writer. And that is rather exciting.
2. Fiction and Nonfiction Are Closer Than You Think
Speaking of novelists, while Le Peau’s advice is for writers of nonfiction, many of his examples throughout the book come from works of fiction. Good prose is good prose, and we should get our inspiration where we can. So, for instance, Le Peau mentions the very familiar opening of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice as an example of a great thesis opening: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”
Most of all, you will notice, the best writers in any genre are really good storytellers. Research repeatedly demonstrates that our brains respond differently—better!—to stories than to dry recitations of facts and proofs. This has been the basis of much pedagogical research—students retain more information from lectures that incorporate storytelling. But this is also the case for writing—readers enjoy nonfiction that is closer to fiction in its emphasis on stories to make its points.
For Christians, perhaps this should all make more sense than to anyone else—the Bible is the ultimate collection of stories, beautifully told in many different genres, adding up to a single overarching story.
3. You Need Community
One significant point Le Peau makes throughout the book is about writing in the context of relationships—with friends, other writers, editors, publishers. No writer is an island, and becoming a better writer requires the assistance of other people. Pulitzer Prize winning authors have editors working with them too, after all.
So how does one get such assistance? Well, the easiest way is through the traditional publishing route, as Le Peau himself points out in describing his experience writing one of his books. After sending his finished manuscript to his editor (yes, professional editors too have editors editing their work; just like dentists go to other dentists for dental care), he received fairly extensive comments that required effectively rewriting the entire book. While not exactly thrilled, Le Peau followed his editor’s advice, and the resulting book was much stronger.
In writing all of my books so far, I have asked friends to read over brief portions of my work in progress. In every case, the feedback was very helpful. Then my editors at both Zondervan Academic and IVP Academic have made each of my books much, much better. I am feeling awash with gratitude anew this week, in fact: I’ve just received comments from my editor at Zondervan for Christians Reading Pagans (coming in late 2025!). As I read her comments, I just keep nodding: Yes, this will definitely improve this sentence, section, chapter, and (in the case of a few overall suggestions) the entire book.
Le Peau’s focus is on book writing, but I will add that the best way to keep receiving such feedback on a regular basis is by writing essays for publications with great editors. I’ve been VERY fortunate in this area. Every time someone edits your work, you receive detailed feedback—and hopefully learn something.
4. To Glorify God and Enjoy Him Forever
At the end, though, becoming a better writer is not just another self-improvement project of the sort that our modern therapeutic culture is so quick to glorify. Rather, Le Peau notes, our writing is a task of stewardship, a way for us to glorify God and enjoy Him forever:
By exercising the spiritual disciplines of generosity and gratitude we also turn our attention to the One who is the source of our gifts and abilities. We don’t have ourselves to congratulate for our talents. We are stewards. We have been given certain resources we are responsible to handle wisely, increasing and expanding God’s presence in the world… Stewards are given something that belongs to another and are made responsible to not just protect it but use it as the owner intended (see Matthew 25:14-30). God’s intention was to expand his loving presence throughout his creation. As stewards we join in that work.
While our eyes are fixed on the next world, we still live—and write—in this one. Next week, we turn to the reflections of another writer who wrote about this craft, but with an eye to societal/cultural changes that (he worried) were making his students (and other wordsmiths) into worse writers than before—the social critic and National Book Award winner (in 1980), Christopher Lasch.
Elsewhere This Week
On Not Losing Out Minds to Technology (Front Porch Republic). A short piece on avoiding the excesses of technology for parenting.
I’m learning so much from this series. Thank you!