Vinita Hampton Wright - The Art of Spiritual Writing: How to Craft Prose That Engages and Inspires Your Readers

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2013 Vinita Hampton Wright

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Cover art credit: Simon Oxley/iStockPhoto.com/ThinkStock

eBook ISBN: 978-0-8294-3909-0

Based on the print edition: 978-0-8294-3908-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013943382

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First of all, you need to know that this book is a manual. For more than two decades I have advised writers and edited their work for the spirituality market. Now I have tried to distill the best of what I know for those writers who hope to serve peoples spiritual needs. You wont find stunning prose heremainly I provide lists and short paragraphs designed to instruct and help.

If you have spent many years reading books, you probably remember the day a mere paragraph changed your life. Perhaps you have experienced multiple conversions while at the mercy of words on a page. Good writing can do that. Spiritually astute writing has that kind of power.

You have picked up this particular book, an indication that you desire to write life-changing prose and, perhaps, publish it. You want to inspire, inform, challenge, or delight the person who takes in your phrases and stories. You hope to write paragraphs that set fire to readers souls, the kind of paragraphs that people underline and take to heart.

Such writing is deceptive because it takes hard work, but once that work is done, the sentences and phrases read as if they came naturally and without effort. Thats why we call writing a craftyou have to become good at it. If you dont become skilled at the craft, you simply wont reach the heart and mind of your reader. Instead, you will bore the reader and muddy the idea and get in the way of the writer-to-reader encounter that leads to inspiration and transformation.

Several years ago, I wrote another book, The Soul Tells a Story: Engaging Creativity with Spirituality in the Writing Life. That book explores the creative process in more depth, was written to inspire and encourage, and in places has a measured, contemplative feel. If you want to understand your creative process better and learn how to do the whole-life work of a writer, I suggest you first go to The Soul Tells a Story. I tell more stories in that book. Actually, I use a sweeter voice in that one, too.

If youre ready to get to the business of writing and publishing, however, keep reading.

A significant number of the suggestions in The Art of Spiritual Writing are given to help you make your writing more marketable. As an editor for a Jesuit publisher for the past decade, I have seen a good deal of writing cross my desk. My editor colleagues and I feel that many writers have important things to say but are not knowledgeable about what it takes to write for an audience beyond family and friends. These are the issues we deal with daily as manuscripts and proposals come to us. That lack of knowledge in potential authors is the primary reason we turn down manuscripts.

In The Art of Spiritual Writing, I try to help you get the job done. I presume that you are already inspired and have something to say; the goal is to help you say it effectively and get it published.

So, lets get to it.