Writing Advice from John Piper

One of the most difficult things to do is to write well. And part of the difficulty for me is just knowing how to organize my thoughts and actually get started. I recently listened to this two-part “Ask Pastor John” podcast (episode 581 and episode 582) from Desiring God, in which John Piper outlined 15 things he has learned about writing books. I think these lessons are probably true about the writing process in general, whether books, articles, sermons, etc. I hope to put these ideas into practice myself…

His comments were prefaced this way: I am assuming here that we are talking about a non-fiction book about a specific topic and I am assuming that people are writing against the backdrop of ongoing Bible reading and meditation and prayer and participation in a local church. That said, here’s a condensed version of John Piper’s writing advice and lessons he has learned about writing:

  1. Plan a block of time that you can commit to regularly.
  2. Decide on a general topic that you intend to address.
  3. Pray earnestly and call upon others to pray.
  4. Read over what you have already written about the topic…Well, I am assuming that if there is a topic on which you intend to write a book, you have thought about it. And if you are a writer, thinking about it means you have written down something. It might be in a journal, a blog, an essay, a sermon, a lesson, a notebook. Somewhere you have written about this or you shouldn’t be intending to write a book about it, not for a long time yet.
  5. As you read that stuff, make an idea list of all sorts of issues that could be addressed in the book.
  6. Step back and look at that idea list and use a pencil to draw…if you made that list on a computer, print it out…and start drawing lines between them. Circle them and block them and look for patterns on that jumbled sheet of ideas until you see things kind of falling together. And keep scribbling down new ideas as you do this because every time you start to make a connection, another question and another idea is going to come to your mind.
  7. Take a few minutes and jot down one of the ideas from that sheet that you think you could start writing about. It doesn’t matter whether it becomes a chapter or whether it was just something you could start writing about, put that at the top of a piece of paper, that idea, that sentence, and then jot down under it. Don’t take too long doing this — just 15 minutes of ideas that you might say about that.
  8. Start writing…Under God and his guiding work by the Spirit, the actual process of writing is the most important guide to how you are going to conceive your book. Now I know that sounds backwards to people. The actual process of writing is the most important key to the door of knowing what you think about this topic. People think they get that backwards. The actual process of writing is the most important portal by which new light shines into your mind on a topic.
  9. Since new ideas and issues and questions are always coming as you write, keep another file or sheet going to bullet those ideas.
  10. As you write, by hand or by computer, say out loud what you are writing. This practice will help you write for the ear. Even if readers don’t read your book out loud — and most of them won’t, I know that — most people, not everybody, but most people unconsciously hear your words in their head. That is the way most people read. And you are writing for most people.
  11. When you have said all you can on that first subtopic, stop and pick out another subtopic to write on. Make a few idea lists and then get going on that. And don’t worry whether this is going to be chapter 2 or 13. It doesn’t really matter where it is going to fit. Just write what you know next about this issue. And over time the ideas for how to put the pieces together will emerge.
  12. You may be three weeks into the project, like me, writing every day before you have a clear sense of what the focus of the book is going to be. For me it was longer than three weeks. It took me almost to the end of six weeks before I gave up on my initial conception. When gave it up, I said, “Okay, this is the book I intended to write. It is not the book I am going to write. I am going to get rid of that idea and do what I am really doing.”
  13. Feel free to track down some sources or read a bit about something you are writing about, but beware of this. I am talking about pausing in the writing to do some research. Beware of this. It is a great book killer. Perfectionists rarely write books. They are too busy reading everything. Realize that your book will be one small contribution. Humble yourself. You are not writing the final book. And that is a great liberator. No book says it all, so don’t suspend your writing indefinitely while you research something to have the last word on it. And here I really should put in a qualifier, because I am not talking about major scholarly books. I know that if you are writing a major scholarly book and you are bumping up to an issue that has just got to be dealt with, you may have to spend weeks researching that and figuring that out. I am not talking about that kind of major, scholarly work.
  14. As your idea list grows from all that is coming into your head as your write, don’t be paralyzed by focusing on it and saying, “No way will I ever be able to deal with all those issues that are coming to my mind.” Stay focused on what you are writing and then do another topic.
  15. Expect divine serendipity in answer to your prayers….God has plans for people who are trying to honor his Word, stay true, be faithful, help the Church, advance the mission.