CJ Penn's Online Writing Hangout

The reason I write: To promote Christian truth and help Jesus get His Christianity back.

Tag Archives: Writing


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Learning the hard way

learning hard way

The most effective lessons are the ones you figure out yourself.

Almost daily, I earnestly ask God to show me how to do something, like solving a writing problem in the book I’m working on. Though I feel His presence with me, and at times, He does seem to give me the answer, He doesn’t solve all my writing challenges.

It just occurred to me that maybe God has a good reason for not showing me the solution to all my problems. Like any good parent or teacher, maybe God is telling me that for some problems, I need to figure out the solution myself.

What do you think?


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Writing with hammer and chisel

hammer and chisel

Though best known for his painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo’s passion was sculpting marble. And he considered that the figure he was sculpting was always present within the marble block. All he had to do was remove the surplus marble to reveal the figure within.

This is the way I’ve been approaching my writing lately. I keep chipping away at the block of words, removing the surplus junk to reveal something that will hopefully be worth looking at.

One of my favorite books on writing nonfiction is On Writing Well, by William Zinsser. Three of his key elements of good, nonfiction writing are clarity, simplicity, and brevity. This goes along with one of my favorite bible verses: “The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone?” (Ecclesiastes 6:11)

The first draft of the book I’m writing had grown to a flabby 205,246 words. Seven revisions later and it’s now down to 63,300 words, and still on a diet. I keep chipping away at the surplus stuff, making it simpler, clearer and way briefer. And I love the editing process. It’s fun to remove the junk that adds nothing, and discover the shorter message that is much more powerful. Though writing can be hard, editing is fun.


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How much longer?

So I’m writing a book – Christian nonfiction – with a theme that matches most of my blog posts. I challenge false ideas about Christianity with the truth. I’ve be at this, part-time, for 6 years now. For the past 3 years I’ve been getting up at 4:00 am just so I can get in a couple of hours of writing before heading off to work. In addition to wondering if I will ever finish this book, I’m curious about something… Is 6 years (and counting) a bit extreme for a first-time book written on a part-time basis?


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When will it be finished?

Yesterday I started working on revision 9 of the book I’m writing. I’m reminded of a line from a movie about Michelangelo, starring Charlton Heston and Rex Harrison; “The Agony and the Ecstasy.” In referring to the painting of the Sistine Chapel, Rex (playing the Pope), keeps pestering Michelangelo with, “When will it be finished?” And Michelangelo always has the same answer… “When it is done.” I’m feeling this way about the book I’m writing. When will it be finished? I have no idea.