My Galatian study that took a record one month to complete, dedicated to my fromer mentor Dr. Sawyer

Life in Front of the Keyboard (II): How to Write a Book ...

Some people are curious as to how I write a book. I suppose it is not much different than writing a paper. This is the second installment about the writing life. This information may be helpful for readers of technical books to see how ideas get formed so that they can read a book with an educated eye, while appreciating where the author is coming from.

A Good Idea: Not Just Any Orthodox Idea

There is a common misunderstanding, especially among seminary students, that an orthodox idea equals to a good idea. That’s asking too little of a writer. Orthodox ideas may be good, but they do not necessarily make a book good.

The first thing about a good idea is its creative narrowness. Orthodoxy is important, but creative narrowness is equally important. It is a kind of narrowness that does not restate the obvious but is thought-provoking. It should give you that “hmmmm...” feeling. For example, a student is given a topic in relation to God’s sovereignty. He then loudly proclaims that he’s going to write a paper on God’s sovereignty, based on Calvinism. This idea may be orthodox. It may even be something that is helpful to the student, but it is too broad. When I hear this, I often ask, “What about God’s sovereignty? What aspect?” Writing generally about God’s sovereignty is like writing a book on the sky being blue. It is a complete waste of time and paper. Such a book is not needed.

Whenever I write a book, I have to ask myself this question, “In what way am I contributing to my readers’ community?” I must contribute. Otherwise, the book is not worth writing. I’m not saying that everything I’m writing is revolutionary, but it has to be innovative enough from present body of common knowledge to be worth printing. Merely retracing someone else’s path is a waste of paper. This is one of the commonest mistakes made not only by novice seminary students, but even among some so-called “scholars” who really don’t have the “stuff” to be writers. I have seen books printed in Chinese that is a mere catalogue of Bible verses under certain topics (often quoted out of context), being passed as doctrinal training material for mainland Chinese. Let me share one observation: mainland Chinese are not simpletons. They can look up the verses themselves. There are far better materials out there for the said purpose that are either already written in Chinese or are translated from other languages than a catalogue of Bible verses. In recent years, a well-known American biblical studies scholar attempted to write a systematic theology that is a mere repetition of biblical exegesis of certain passages plus a repeat of what Berkhof had written long ago. Why in fact do we need a book like this is way beyond me. Thus, a good idea must contribute!

The Book Writes Itself

I have learned one very important lesson from my good friend and former mentor Dr. Sawyer when he supervised my master thesis on Acts: the book will write itself. Before you think I’m talking about some magical text like one of J. K. Rowling’s tales, the book indeed will write itself when I have everything lined up. What do I mean by that?

Before I come up with the narrow topic to write, let me back up. How in fact do I come up with the topic to begin with? I do so by collecting blurbs of ideas. In my previous blog, I talked about keeping a notebook of ideas. The book rises out of these ideas. After getting a sense of what ideas are collected on paper, I begin to order them in a way that makes logical sense. I usually do this by thinking about one, two or even three different biblical studies methodologies (e.g. sociological-rhetorical model etc.) in order to organize these ideas. This is why the more we understand methodologies, the easier it is to write an organized book. Otherwise, either book or paper will come out looking more like a rambling of a drunkard on a Saturday night rather than that of an organized mind. People do not buy our “streams of consciousness,” no matter how brilliant we are. Thus, the first chapter should lead to the second and the second to the third and so forth. The method we choose should allow us to organize a book that builds from the first step to the last in convincing our audience that our idea is indeed helpful.

The outline of the book should really reflect the route by which the writer will arrive at his conclusion. They should not be randomly selected. This is why I always tell my research method students to never skip reading the outline and introductory chapters of the book. All chapters should follow a logical order from one building block to the next. Therefore, once the methodology is set, the book will indeed write itself.

Each Paragraph a Mini-Book?

Before anyone freaks, it is true that every paragraph contains its own mini-book. A book has an introduction, exposition and conclusion. Every paragraph should also begin with some kind of lead-in, followed by exposition of relevant topic before concluding about that topic.

Each paragraph should also lead to the next paragraph. Then every chapter can be a mini-book and so on which is why computers come in handy for editing. Sometimes, in our rush to get everything down, the logic or flow of paragraph arrangement may not be as orderly as it should be. At that point, it is important to rearrange the paragraphs so that they flow better throughout a chapter.

Conclusion

Writing is a habit. The more we practice, the better we will become. Writing should be a discipline every educated person masters. It is one more form of communication that can minister to others. Write on ...