Writing As Revelation

For many writers, the act of writing is a revelatory experience.

I'm not sure why, but practically every time I open up a new Word document and start to type, I'm surprised. I usually come to a project with a goal, a thesis, in mind. Often, I have outlined a plan. Always, the writing involves work. But once I get going, the energy begins to flow. Ideas I hadn't considered before pop into my mind, sentences seem to structure themselves, and before I know it I'm taking a break at 3 a.m.

I don't mean to imply that the words write themselves. I review, revise, and rewrite until the piece feels right and I'm at peace with it (see my last post). But that initial creative burst usually takes me places I hadn't anticipated. When the draft is done, I sometimes sit back and wonder at the journey I've been on. I'm amazed at what I've learned and astounded that I actually wrote what I see on the screen.

It's a revelation to me, if to no one else.

In fact, the experience has a lot in common with the description of the revelatory process described in scripture. To Oliver Cowdery, who had been acting as scribe while Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon by revelation and who wanted to do some translating himself, the Lord said: "I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost" (D&C 8:2).

 
      Oliver Cowdery, by Ken Corbett

Oliver learned, however, that receiving revelation did not come cheap. It was not available just for the asking. "Remember," the Lord told him, "that without faith you can do nothing; therefore ask in faith" (D&C 8:10). Later, after Oliver had failed in his attempts at translation, the Lord clarified: "You have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.

"But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right, I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right" (D&C 9:7-8).

Oliver learned another thing about revelation. While the presence of the Spirit is energizing, it is at the same time peaceful. Before he began working with Joseph on the translation, Oliver apparently had asked God if what Joseph was doing was right and true. In response, the Lord said, "Cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know concerning the truth of these things.

"Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? what greater witness can you have than from God?" (D&C 6: 22-23).

No Latter-day Saint should be surprised that writing and revelation have so much in common. They are both creative acts, gifts bestowed by the Creator Himself.

"Seek ye earnestly the best gifts," the Lord enjoins us, "always remembering for what they are given;

"For verily I say unto you, they are given for the benefit of those who love me and keep all my commandments, and him that seeketh so to do; that all may be benefited" (D&C 46:8-9).

Writing Is Really Rewriting

If you're experiencing writer's block (and who of us hasn't), the problem may be that you're worried about getting the assignment right the first time you put fingers to keyboard.  Not going to happen.

Rarely do I get it right the first time.

I don't know any writers who do.

In fact, I know of one writer/speaker who goes through as many as 25 drafts before he feels confident enough to give his work to an editor. And then he'll go through several more drafts once he gets the critique back from the editor.

Some 90 percent of writing is actually rewriting. You get your first draft down, take a breather, and then start rewriting. Multiple times.

Recognizing that fact should be liberating. Something about not expecting to get everything perfect the first times frees up the right brain to do its creative work. Later, when the the ideas settle in and the structure you planned (see my last post) begins to fill out, you can start to worry about punctuation, spelling, sentence structure--all that left-brain stuff. But for now, give your right brain permission to run wild. Ruminate. Conjecture. Experiment.


Of course, going through multiple drafts takes time. You've got to be very good or very stupid to try to do your best work the night before an assignment is due. Start on it as soon as you get it, play around with the first draft or two or three. Then let it sit a day or two or three and come back for another look. You'll be surprised at how much you missed seeing before.

When you get to the point where you find yourself changing commas back and forth, maybe putting back that word you cut from the previous draft, you'll know you've arrived. You have your final draft.

Organizing Matter Unorganized

Writing--any kind of writing--is kin to the divine act that created the earth.

In the beginning, God decided to create the world on which we live. He did not create it out of nothing. Rather, after outlining a plan, He took unorganized matter and, using the laws of the universe, formed a planet with the right atmosphere, the right distance from our sun, plenty of water, and a moon large enough to create and control tides. He then seeded it with plants, animals, and us.

A writer follows the same pattern. He or she begins with an idea and begins to explore it. When enough related ideas begin to merge, the writer creates an outline--a plan that organizes those ideas into a coherent message. Then, applying the rules of grammar and rhetoric, the creator picks from the vast collection of words available in the language and organizes them into sentences, paragraphs, and content divisions that reflect the plan made at the beginning. In doing so, the writer seeds ideas that flower and populate in readers' minds, generating new ideas that themselves may become new conceptual worlds.

This is a divine act. The descriptions of the earth's creation in the holy scriptures are interesting in this regard. The writer of the Gospel of John, for example, noted that "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life: and the life was the light of men" (John 1:1-4).

In the book of Abraham, we learn that "at the beginning, . . . they, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth" (Abraham 4:1). And they did it according to a plan, "according to all that which they had said concerning every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Gods had not caused it to rain upon the earth when they counseled to do them, and not formed a man to till the ground" (Abraham 5: 5).

I find a great deal of encouragement in this concept. If in writing I follow the divine pattern of creation, the end result is what God Himself saw in His own organized creations: "I, God, saw everything that I had made, and, behold, all things which I had made were very good" (Moses 2:31).

You will know, by the light within you, if what you have created is good. And it will be, if you follow the divine pattern in organizing your thoughts and your writing out of the unorganized matter before you.