Video Transcript: Lesson 4

Welcome back to Writing for Ministry. I'm Adam Navis. So far, we've identified  who we are going to try and reach our audience. 

We've also identified who we're going to bring into our conversation because we know we aren't the first person to think about this topic, but in this week's  lesson, we're going to explore the various forms that our writing can take and  how these forms influence what we're able to say and how it's going to be able  to be received by our reader. Why is this important? We've looked at our  audience and we've tried to get a sense from the wider conversation about  what's going on. I've encouraged you to identify several conversation partners  you were going to engage in with your writing. 

Now we have to think about what form your writing is going to take. There are, of course, a thousand different forms. And while some people have biases against  quote unquote lower or quote unquote popular forms, I think a good writer  should try to use as many forms as possible. 

What do I mean by forms? I mean the shape our writing can take. Here's an  example. You can write about the Book of Romans. 

If you do it as a tweet on Twitter, the form is going to be digital and only 140  characters. In this way, it's pretty clear that the form determines what you're able to say. It literally is only 140 characters. 

But this is true of all forms. Books, articles, essays, and sermons are probably  some of the forms you're familiar with, maybe even most comfortable with if  you're in a ministry context. But depending on who you're trying to reach, you  may not want to use these forms. 

Here are a few other possibilities. Poetry, novel, short story, letter, children's  book, a curriculum, a Bible study, a blog post, a script, or an interview. I'm sure  you could name even more. 

You may even be comfortable mixing in video, photos, or other kinds of art. And  while that is beyond the scope of this course, I would encourage you to play  around with these ideas. Digital media is an ever-changing landscape, but it is  only going to get easier for people to integrate various kinds of forms. 

And audiences are going to begin to expect it as well. So think through, who am  I trying to reach? Who are my conversation partners? What form will my work  take? Here's your assignment. Pick two forms and think through how writing  about your subject might change if you used each.

For example, I can write about baptism. My audience is going to be young  adults, but it's going to be a different result if I preach a sermon, post to  Facebook, or write a novel. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, but  you're going to have to make a choice. 

Let's return to our graphic from last week. I've got my box around the picture of  the audience I'm trying to reach. I've got my conversation partners here, and I  remember to include a few you disagree with. 

Now let's put a box around the whole thing and write on the top what form our  writing is going to take. I've decided that I'm going to write an article for my  denominational magazine. So at the top, I'm going to write article, length 1,500  words, tone, semi-casual, personal experience. 

You can actually figure out these kinds of things from submission guidelines  from a lot of the magazines and journals. If you're curious about writing for a  specific magazine or a specific journal, you can inquire on their website or  through by reading the magazine. Sometimes they'll even have submission  guidelines in there. 

But maybe you want to write something different. Maybe you want to write an  academic paper. So you'd write academic paper, length 5,000 words, tone,  personal experience, formal, and then you can write lots of footnotes. Maybe  you want to write a children's book. So you write children's book, length 500  words, tone, casual. Then maybe you'll say use storytelling. 

Now at this point, these steps might feel really slow and cumbersome. You might be thinking this is a course on writing and I haven't done any writing so far. You  might want to just get down to the act of doing it. 

But trust me, these steps are important. And the good news is that eventually  these steps become faster and more intuitive. But know this, that even  experienced writers still have to slow down and ask these fundamental  questions. 

If I can't answer them early on, I know my writing is going to get stuck later in the process. So take your time and decide what form your writing is going to take.  Our next lesson is going to be about making sure that our reader knows why  what we are saying is important. 

We're going to talk about raising the stakes. Let's write.