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It used to be that, for first-time writers, the best way to break into the publishing world was through writing nonfiction. Yet without a platform, today it’s difficult for writers to find traction in the market, and without a recognizable name, their personal stories, even if wonderful, are less likely to be purchased.

Let’s do an informal survey on nonfiction books.

• What are you interested in reading in the nonfiction realm?
• What have you liked in the past and why?
• What would you like to see published?
• What holes are out there, and what types of writers should fill them?
• How helpful has nonfiction been to your personal life?

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I’ve always loved memoirs. I’m interested in the personal, how and why people do things, and so a memoir provides me an opportunity to examine the writer’s life through his or her eyes. I even wrote a spiritual memoir several years ago and felt honored when one of my readers said, “I really appreciate how you just tell the story and let me draw my own conclusions.”

Testimonies have been a mainstay of Christian witnessing and publishing. Perhaps the most famous early book was Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, first published in 1563, which detailed the lives and deaths of the early Christians. More modern Christians made Elisabeth Elliot’s Through Gates of Splendor, the story of her husband’s martyrdom with four others in Ecuador, a best-seller in 1957.

A memoir allows the writer to recount events through his or her own understanding. While you can argue with the author about what his or her life meant, you really can’t argue with what happened to that person. In his 90 Minutes in Heaven, author and survivor Don Piper doesn’t even bother trying to explain why he had no vital signs for an hour and a half. He believes he went to heaven, and while it doesn’t make logical sense, since we weren’t there, how can we argue with him?

Memoirs are of perennial interest to publishers, though their popularity can wax and wane with the public. The secret is the quality of the writing. Memoirs aren’t the same as an inspirational story of narrative nonfiction that recounts the events in someone’s life. Memoirs are more about the writer’s interior terrain rather than about the events that occured. What changed in the person from the start of the memoir to its conclusion is the question the book answers.

Some of the best memoirs pull no punches in exposing the author’s life. I enjoyed Lauren Winner’s Girl Meets God, and many have commented about the strength of Mary DeMuth’s Thin Places. The author’s ability to express the near-unthinkable makes these works of special interest and value to a reader trying to make sense out of life. (My favorite memoir of all is not from the Christian canon, but it reflects Christian truth: Carlos Eire’s Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy.)

Long ago my honors English teacher said, “I don’t know why you kids bother to read fiction. You should read nonfiction. Not only is it even more amazing than fiction, but it’s also true.”

Reading memoirs, particularly spiritual ones, enables me to catch a glimpse of the unusual way God works in the lives of his followers. It encourages me, gives me ideas about how God might be working in my life, and shows me that each individual relates to life in a different, and often entertaining, way. Difficult circumstances remind me of people’s resilience and how I can trust God with my life, too.

And they’re frequently really great reads.

What memoirs have you enjoyed? Why?

What made you chose them in the first place?

What do you look for in a spiritual memoir?

Are you drawn to a famous person’s book more than an unknown with a fascinating, true story to tell?

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When I was in high school, I attended the local Lutheran church to play volleyball on Friday nights. Soon they invited me to Bible study, presented the gospel and encouraged me to read about Christianity. One of the kids recommended I start with Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth. Midway through, I prayed the prayer of salvation. I didn’t buy it all, but I sure didn’t want to be left behind if everyone was raptured and armed conflict broke out in the Middle East.

The pastor later recommended Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship, and I took a copy of that green paperback  to Europe my second summer in college. From Bonhoeffer I learned what it means to be a follower of Jesus, and my life hasn’t been the same since.

Quite an extreme choice of books to read–and therein is the breadth of theological interest in the book-buying public. Guess which book has sold more copies?

I’ve come a long way in 40 years of mostly light-theological reading. While I appreciate the rigor a good book about God requires, my brain is not philosophical–I need more simple and concrete concepts–and theology is not my preferred reading material. Still, I’ve managed to keep up with classics like J. I. Packer’s Knowing God and C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, almost always because some Christian I admire recommended them.

Which brings me to my major problem. How do you find quality theology books today for the simpler reader?

Christianity Today magazine regularly publishes a list of the best books published each year. This year I didn’t recognize a single title in the nonfiction category.

Publishing theology, with the possible exception of apologetics, is a small field in the Christian marketplace. While many theology readers exist, outside of seminaries and classes, it’s not a big mass market unless the author has a significant platform or publishes at a timely moment. What else would explain the success of Lindsey’s book which came out during an oil embargo in the Middle East?

If you are not a professional, how often do you read theology?

What elements draw you to a particular book?

Do you only read within your denomination?

Can you call it a pleasure read, or are you reading differently–for information?

And if you could write any sort of book with a theological theme–remember, theology means the study of God–what would you write about?

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Most Christian nonfiction is about Christian living–self-help books, advice on a myriad of subjects, or a manuscript on how to apply the Bible to life. A cursory glance at Christianbooks.com’s website today shows ten of the twenty-five top sellers as nonfiction projects.

What makes a project attractive to the nonfiction reader? One that identifies a “felt need” and provides advice on how to live with that need. This can range over the gamut from Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World–how to live a more spiritually-focused life within the context of our frenzied society– to No More Christian Nice Guy–a clarion call for men to stick up for themselves even at church.  While many of us would agree our lives are too busy and we really would prefer to be more like Mary who chose “what is better,” in Jesus’ words, Paul Coughlin’s title, No More Christian Nice Guy, probably piqued the curiosity of some of you.

And that’s the key to Christian living–either plainly declaring the subject (Where Have All the Good Men Gone?) or using a catchy title to draw the reader to a concept (How to Keep Your Inner Mess from Trashing Your Outer World). It can include humor (Getting Old Ain’t for Wimps), how to’s (Prayer Walk), and general reflections on life (Horse Tales from Heaven).

It also was the key to my early walk as a Christian. Growing up in an academic, non-church-attending family, I didn’t have a clue about how to diaper a baby, much less how to raise one in the Christian faith. I started with Dr. James Dobson’s The Strong-Willed Child, and from there became a regular reader of Focus on the Family materials. I could not have successfully raised my children without those important Christian living books.

These days my child-rearing is behind me, and my radio-listening is done in short spurts. While I used to learn about Christian nonfiction books that could help my life from friends and the radio, these days the avenues are not as broad. With so many Christian magazines truncating their content and book reviews, it’s harder than ever to find books that might pique my interest or fill a felt need. Which brings me to my questions:

Where do you find nonfiction book suggestions?

What types of Christian living books appeal to you and why?

What books have you recommended over and over again?

And what Christian living-type book made a difference in your life?

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Among the things our agents noted while at the International Christian Retail Show last month (and shared with me–so now I’m sharing with you) was some editors continue to struggle with what will sell in the Christian nonfiction market. I find that ironic since long ago Christian fiction was anathema; only polemical works and staid commentaries were ready sales to the churchgoing public.

About 50 years ago the Christian reading market, which was almost exclusively nonfiction, began to expand significantly. The pastor of our home church, Larry Christianson, was one of the first big sellers with his The Christian Family. For our wedding, Pastor Larry and his wife Nordis gave my husband and me an autographed copy of their then-latest best-seller: The Christian Marriage. It worked; my husband and I are still happily married 32 years later!  :-)

Both these books would fall into the Marriage and Family category, along with a crucial book we took on our honeymoon: The Act of Marriage. (That one worked, too.)

Because I mainly read books from the public library, I didn’t see a lot of Christian-themed material again until we attended the military chapel at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. The Baptist chaplain understood the necessity of extra-source material and kept a box of books beside the Bible study door, free for the sharing. I read them all over the 15 months we were stationed at the sub base.

I clearly remember the one thing they had in common: They were all published by Chosen Books. Titles included The Hiding Place, The Cross and the Switchblade, and Chuck Colson’s Born Again. Astronaut Jim Irwin also wrote an unusual book for them: More Than an Ark on Ararat: Spiritual Lessons Learned While Searching for Noah’s Ark.

All of them were testimonies of some sort. The writing quality was uneven, but I took away encouragement and spiritual insight from reading about the practical way God worked in others’ lives. Isn’t that what good Christian nonfiction should be?

What type of Christian nonfiction do you like? Are you a hunter–specifically tracking down the answer to a question? Or a browser–randomly picking up whatever looks interesting?

Have you seen changes in what you read, or what you want to read?

Did any one nonfiction book change your life?

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This week I’ve touched briefly on significant impediments to writers being able to produce quality work. Physical ailments, such as hand problems and blindness, can be frustrating for writers with the urge to create. Emotional impediments and addictions tossed into the mix of ailments can be nearly impossible to overcome. Yet for writers with an impelling voice or story to tell, such hurdles made a challenging life just a little more difficult; their stories still got told.

For those of us with less vexing circumstances, healthier lives, and fewer demons, writing still can be full of obstacles.

How do you encourage yourself on days of discouragement?

How do you keep the spark of creativity flowing?

What steps do you take to enable your body to physically handle the stress of sitting in a computer chair hour upon hour, day after day, possibly forever?

How do you get past barriers to the pure joy of telling a story in your unique voice?

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I grew up in a community of folks who knew how to party well on Saturday nights. Charming, funny, clever and lovely, they nearly all enjoyed a drink or two. And then they thought themselves  funnier, more clever and devastatingly attractive. I learned early to distrust alcohol and the words of people even “slightly under the weather.”

Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hunter Thompson and Lillian Hellman all were famous for their “alternate reality” ingestion while creating literature. I’m sure we all know more authors who had a problem with drink and drugs. Did it help their creativity?

Hemingway notoriously said, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” Is it possible these talented writers needed the alcohol to get them past the personal horrors from which their writing came?

And is it only alcohol and drug abuse that’s the problem?

Kay Redfield Jamison detailed her life with manic-depression in her well-known book, An Unquiet Mind. I’ve never forgotten, however, how she described her reluctance to take lithium because while it moderated her “lows” it also took the edge off her manic “highs,” thus leaving her feeling less creative. (Nowadays she knows to take her medicine and feels she leads a more productive life.)

Hemingway and Fitzgerald succeeded in writing fine works of literature because they had an uncommonly devoted editor: Maxwell Perkins. Famous for his uncanny ability to find the glorious writing among the rough, Perkins nursed a generation of writers through their demons to produce quality work. Among other heroic activities, Perkins induced Thomas Wolfe to cut 90,000 words out of his first novel, Look Homeward, Angel.

Where does creativity come from? Does it need a chemical “start?” What types of non-addictive behavior  have you observed or used to encourage your own creativity or writing life?

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Pity F. Scott Fitzgerald, a talented Ivy Leaguer who fell in love with a beautiful Southern belle of exceptional creativity and beauty with a terrific name: Zelda.

Their flamboyant life during the Jazz Age–a term Fitzgerald coined himself–served as backdrop to some of the finest writing done during that period. But the toll of trying to pay the bills and keep up with a wife diagnosed with schizophrenia drove Fitzgerald to the brink of emotional breakdown himself.

Depression, in particular, seems to be a frequent problem for writers. Someone told me once “depression is anger turned inwards,” and with a career based in rejection and on the hope of acceptance, writers would seem particularly vulnerable. Among noted writers who struggled with depression were L. M. Montgomery, Ernest Hemingway, Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf.

Some of the problem may stem from the nature of the job–irregular hours, isolation, lack of exposure to sunlight, little money.

How can writers cope with emotional impediments, days in which just turning on the computer seems like too much?  Does the creative gift go hand in hand with emotional imbalance?

For many, like me, the act of writing helps pull us out of the “downer” times. Being able to put into words on paper the feelings coursing through me helps. Often I only figure out what I really feel once it’s written down. Indeed, journaling is a common tool psychologists use to help people to process the good and bad experiences in their lives.

Moderation and balance, along with professional help, can help to stabilize those susceptible to depression or other mental illness. Prayer, a healthy spiritual life and the encouragement of others can go a long way, too. What have you seen work in the lives of creative people to keep them balanced and emotionally healthy?

And before you write anything down, think of five things you’re grateful for.

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Yesterday I wrote about my own challenges with writing; today we’re going to talk about what others have dealt with.

Prior to fifty years ago, blindness was a common problem in many parts of the world. You may not be surprised to know, therefore, that one of the greatest works of English literature  never actually was read by its author.

John Milton wrote his definitive Paradise Lost over a ten-year period in the mid-seventeenth century by dictating to  whomever was available to transcribe–most notably his daughters. They read back his work, and he edited by voice.

Other notable blind writers include Homer, Jorge Luis Borges and Helen Keller. To write blind in the past, you needed someone with a pen in hand or supreme confidence in your touch typing ability.

These days, however, better tools are available, and we can experience Scotty’s attempt to dictate to a computer in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. How many of us snickered when the engineer spoke to a screen and expected it to start typing? Today, such behavior is possible. My physician urged me to purchase voice-activated-software when I first visited with hand problems. “I use it all the time for dictation,” he explained. “It’s a life saver.”

I bought it, I read aloud into the microphone for several hours to acquaint the program with my voice and syntax, and then I went to work.

Forty-five minutes of slow, carefully enunciated syllables produced…three paragraphs. When I read through the work, tapping my toes in my urgency to get moving, nearly every other word was a homonym of misspelling. Obviously my dragon needs further training.

My personal engineer (i.e., husband) assures me technology should be harnessed to serve our needs. I can e-mail my own manuscripts to my Kindle and then listen to the machine read it back with expression commonly found in the most stultifying GPS voice.  Still, it enables me to hear when things don’t sound right and then return to the scene of the verbal crime. I need my eyes to do the work, but being able to listen can ease the strain.

The eye doctor also has weighed in on the use of computers. “Make sure you blink often. Stare into the distance frequently. Get special glasses if need be. And make sure your screen is at the proper height.” Both my Kindle and the computer will allow me to make the letters larger and thus easier to read. If it helps, who cares if the kids laugh.

What else do you do to enable your eyes to work well with your writing life? And hey, make sure you blink once or twice before you comment!

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It started innocently enough at Thanksgiving. My adorable two-year-old grandson began to cry. When I picked him up, I nearly dropped him from the strain on my thumbs. Hyper-extension? The pain stabbed through my thumbs and left my hands throbbing.

I typed carefully, but by Christmas I could barely function–using scissors burned my hands like fire. I longed to rest and tried icing, heating, Ibuprofin and temper tantrums demanding help. Nothing soothed the dragons engulfing my thumbs. I bought carpal tunnel splints I called “mitts,” but typing actually didn’t hurt all that much–it was everything else I did using my hands that hurt, including playing the clarinet.

I scoured the Internet and became more frantic. When I finally saw the doctor, he was matter-of-fact: “Not carpal tunnel. Severe tendinitis in both thumbs. Take Aleve, rest as much as possible and stretch. Do you have to type?”

What a relief! A different set of mitts to stabilize my thumbs, hope for the future, and a determination to be careful.

It didn’t last.

Ten weeks of physical therapy followed by x-rays that showed minor arthritis. “Do you have to type?”

How could I not type? I was a writer. yet my hands hurt so much I could barely manage a pen.

Six weeks later the hand specialist was more blunt: “No cure. You have arthritis, not tendinitis. Forget about yard work, you’ll play the clarinet in pain, and all I can do is give you a shot. Do you have to type? Next.”

I have always thanked God for capable hands and eyes that can see. I’ve never taken either for granted. I’ve always been careful. How can this have happened? And how do I write if I can’t use my hands?

I’m working pain free today; we’re just back from two weeks of vacation where I did not touch a computer, clarinet, dish, laundry or anything else more challenging than a Rick Steves’ guide book. I’m hopeful, but leery–the typing is going great, the traditional 120 words per minute–but I have no clue about the future.

The last eight months have been a roller coaster of questioning emotions. Do I have worth if my hands don’t work well? Can I write in pain? What can I do to mitigate my hand use? Should I switch musical instruments? Do I need to type?

Let’s examine impediments to writing this week; I invite you to join me in brainstorming how to get around physical and emotional difficulties.

In the meantime, however, do as my physical therapist recommends: Step away from that keyboard, and stretch your hands!

When you return, tell us about writing impediments you’ve experienced.