3 Questions Your Writing Must Answer

When we are writing to move someone to action, we must be clear. Not clever. Only crystal clear will do.
I recently attended the Hope Words conference for writers, where one of the speakers was Katherine Paterson. Mrs. Paterson is the author of over 40 books and the recipient of many awards for her writing, including two Newberry Medals.

She told us about a time when she got a note from her long-time editor about a certain paragraph. She had taken great care with this paragraph and she held it dear.

The editor's note said, “It’s beautiful, Katherine, but what does it mean?”

As a writer, I feel the pain of having something I’ve labored over being misunderstood or torn apart. As an editor,  I know it’s a question that must be asked.

All our beautiful writing and storytelling is worthless if it isn’t clear.
To be clear in our nonprofit writing, we must answer three key questions:

1. What is happening?
2. What does it mean?
3. What do you want me to do about it?

By answering these questions, you can provide context for your message and make it clear what action you want your readers to take.

If you struggle to tell stories, you’ll struggle to raise funds. 
In the Mission Writers course:

• Learn the exact stories that every ministry, missionary, and nonprofit needs to tell.
• Master the fundraising story calendar.
• Develop and practice essential storytelling skills to increase funding for your mission.
• Build your story library and your confidence.

Details at MissionWriters.org
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Transcript

Kay  0:08  
Hi, I'm Kay Helm, and this is the Life and Mission podcast. This week's episode is going to be really short. I am processing my notes from my time. About a week ago at the hope words conference in Bluefield, West Virginia. It was jam packed with some really wonderful writers. We had Esau McCauley Miroslav Volf, and Voskamp and the great Katherine Paterson and a lot more. I mean, it's just amazing, so much packed into two short days. And it's gonna take me a while to process but I've got lots of gems for you from that. 

Kay  0:49  
But today's episode really is sparked by something that Katherine Patterson said in her talk. Now, if you if you're not familiar with that name, Katherine Paterson is the author of more than 40 books. She has won many awards for her writing, including to Newberry metals, you may have heard of Bridge to Terabithia. Or Jacob Have I Loved this the two books that won the Newberries. She has also won the National Book Award. And she's been named a living legend by the Library of Congress. So really amazing lady, but did you know, she also was a missionary to Japan, and she was born in China, as the child of missionary parents. And so there's that connection there. And if you haven't heard her story, or read her work, go out and get that now that may be a really good read for you. And also a great, great example of great writing. 

Kay  1:50  
But what I want to share from her for you today is this little story that she she told us about a time when she was writing, writing one of her books and went to the editor, and she had this one paragraph that she had just really labored over and crafted it you know, and, and she loved it. You know, you have those things you write that you hold dear right? So this was one of those paragraphs. And she got a note back from her editor, and she has a longtime editor, Virginia Buckley, who worked with her for 40 something years. And the note said, "It's beautiful Katherine. But what does it mean?" 

Kay  2:40  
Ah, as a writer, I feel that pain of having something that I've labored over something I love being misunderstood or feel like somebody just is like, no, what, what do you mean, that's not you know, what I thought it was? And but as an editor? It's also a question that I know, we absolutely have to ask. And that's part of the job of an editor. So you may have heard the the old adage that preachers use, right, if it's a mist in the pulpit, there's a fog in the pews. So if there's a little bit of confusion in your writing, if it's not crystal clear, then your readers are going to make it even more fuzzy, and even more confusing. 

Kay  3:29  
And so we've really got to be clear when we write and so that's, that's what got me thinking today for you. How do you know your writing is clear? It's, well, first of all, get a good editor, get somebody to read what you write, at least somebody to say, Yeah, that makes sense. All of our beautiful preaching all of our great writing, all all of the teaching, and the storytelling and all of that, that we do, it's worthless if we're not clear. And that's one of the issues that I really find a lot. It's one of the things that we tackle and mission writers is how to make your writing clear. what do what do you do? What do you want me to do? So when you're writing for fundraising, what do you want me to pay you to do basically, is the big question that you're answering and so some writing that we do like it's for you, it's for you, the writer and, and

Kay  4:26  
 some of us you know, we write to think we write to process emotions. We write to experiment with different writing techniques or with just as a creative outlet for our own good for our just our own fulfillment to our own mental health. There's lots of reasons to write that type of writing that can be anything that it needs to be you can do anything you want, and that I had a season where I was really, really struggling to write anything, anything at all I just was blocked. And what I did to break it was I gave myself an assignment, I had to write 150 words, which is not a whole lot. And it could be nonsense, I did not have to have complete sentences. And I just would pick something. And the way I started was I would just look at something and describe it, or I would take something I remembered for the day I was in, I was actually in the Congo, when I figured out this is how I was gonna get over this block. And I would just take something that I saw during the day and try to remember as much about it in as much detail as I could that evening and just write those 150 words. 

Kay  5:42  
Or sometimes I would just write kind of things, you know, when you're driving in a car, and you see things along the road. And I'll just write a list of things I saw just something to practice putting words on the page. Now that type of writing that doesn't need to do anything except get my brain used to writing again, or get just kind of get my writing into gear again. So that's the whole purpose of that. But when you're writing for your donors, and for your supporters, and for the people that are working with you, those things that you write, just they need to be crystal clear, you have got to be clear in what you're saying, and what you mean and what you want people to do. 

Kay  6:23  
So when we are writing, to move someone to action, we have to be clear, not clever, just clear. And to be clear, we need to answer three key questions. All right, number one, we need to answer the question what is happening? This is pretty simple. What is happening and a lot of times, this is kind of the level that we stop at in our writing what is happening? You hear me talk all the time about, you know, we write reports instead of stories. Okay, so report would say what is happening? Well, we went to such and such a village and we taught this class. That's a report. That's what is happening. You've answered the question, what is happening? Okay. 

Kay  7:11  
But then the next question, this is another question that your writing needs to answer. What does it mean? Right? This is the question that, that Ms. Patterson's editor asked her it's beautiful, Catherine. But what does it mean? Okay, what does it mean? Now, that's where we get into storytelling in the writing that you do to your supporters, is the story is going to provide context for what is happening? Well, we brought this training into this village, because there's a need for this, or this will, this is part of launching such and such initiative. And here's the reason that is needed, because for several years such and such has been in this condition. And with this, we see a chance to take advantage of something else that's happening over here. You can you can really explain things out. And you can tell this in an interesting way. There's lots of ways to do this, but this is what your writing has to do. It has to answer what is happening. And then tell me what does that mean? 

Kay  8:18  
The third question is, what do you want me to do about it? Now, especially in your fundraising appeals, right, what do you want me to do about it? Well, you can get involved. But what is it mean to get involved? A lot of times we say, partner with us, all right? What does it mean to partner with you? What do you want me to do? Partner with you? Does that mean take your arm and dosey doe, that's a partner, you know, dance, go for a walk. Wave it you say Hey, good job there. Because sometimes encouragement is what we need. But let's be honest, you're writing to raise funds. So donate now would be inappropriate? What do you want me to do about it, or pray about this, pray into this, that this change takes hold, pray into this situation that such and such will shift so that this will stick there's a lot of things that you can ask for. It's not just all about money, but I do want you to whatever it is that you're hoping that your people will do. Don't just hope that they'll do it, be really clear with them and say, this is the next step that that we need for you to take in this to make this thing work. 

Kay  9:33  
So three questions, what is happening? What does it mean? And what do you want me to do as a reader about that? answer those three questions, and you are going to be communicating clearly, to your audience. Go write beautiful things, but make them clear, tell us what it means. Until Till next time, this is Kay Helm on the Life and Mission podcast. Find your voice. Tell your story. Change the world.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai