A Writing Secret

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

In many ways, as writers we live visible public lives. Our work gets published with our name on it in magazines and books. We speak to groups about our books or teach our particular topic. Yet not everything we do has to be visible to others. In this article, I want to tell you a writing secret and then give you a challenge.

 

I’m comfortable writing about this author and his writing secret because he’s no longer living yet his story continues to be an example in my own life and work. Jamie Buckingham was a remarkable writer, bestselling author and contributing editor at Guideposts, which is one of the top 20 circulation magazines. If you want to read the fascinating story of how Jamie got started in the publishing world, I encourage you to get a copy of Another Chance, How God Overrides Our Big Mistakes by Dean Merrill. Jamie’s story is one of the chapters.

 

I want to tell is a different story about Jamie.  Early in my writing life, I lived in Southern California and worked at the Wycliffe Bible Translators office. Many people have forgotten but I spent 17 years with Wycliffe (10 years in linguistics and seven writing). My kids were young and often on a Sunday afternoon I would go over to the office and write--when the office was dark and no one there. One time, I noticed the lights on in the director’s office so I walked past and found Jamie Buckingham sitting at a keyboard. He told me, “Today I’m a jungle pilot, Terry.” No one knew but twice a year Jamie would come from his home in Florida to our offices in California. Then Jamie would write all of the print pieces that our director needed--his column for the magazine, his column in a member publication and finally his letter to the Wycliffe donors. My supporters would tell me they gave to many organizations and didn’t read the donor letter--but they always read the one from Wycliffe. What these readers didn’t know is in secret those words were crafted from Jamie Buckingham. He did this work without credit or payment. I knew about Jamie’s writing because of my editorial work at Wycliffe. It was a great example to me about Jamie’s remarkable writing life and his servant leadership. 

 

What can you do with your writing talent which is in secret? Possibly you edit your church newsletter or write for a publication without your name or you write for someone else and your name is not included. There are endless possibilities and opportunties. Or possibly you mentor or teach someone (maybe your own child or grandchild). No one pays you or knows about this investment into another life.

 

While the public may not know about your writing in secret, God watches and records our every action and step. I’m certain there is celebration in heaven because of Jamie Buckingham’s unheralded writing work. It’s a huge example in my own life and now hopefully will be so in yours.

 

Not all of our writing has to be done in public. Is some of your writing secret? Let me know what you can in the comments below.

 

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Writers Must Wear Many Hats

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

As a writer, I get a lot of enjoyment telling stories—whether the stories of others or my own stories. Crafting those details on my computer screen is a lot of fun. Yet as a writer, the task is much more diverse than just telling stories. As writers, we must wear many different hats and play many different roles.

 

Many years ago as a young journalist, I learned a life-long lesson about myself and what I do.  I love to write, craft stories and put these words on paper then figure out how to share them with the world. Admittedly many others want to do this skill as well and at times it is a challenge to make a living in this work—but possible. There are many ways to use your writing. Many people focus on books but your writing can be used in many different ways. I detail some of the possibilities in the first chapter of Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. Get this free chapter here and look at the different writing possibilities.

 

I've written more than a dozen books for other people as a co-author and a ghostwriter. As a part of that writing process, I get to pretend to be in the mind and shoes of that other person. This little mind trick is one of the ways to successfully write those stories for others. As a part of my writing life, I spent 17 years with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Ten of those years were in linguistics then I returned to my writing and began writing for magzines and eventually my first book was published. During this period, my children were small and I would do some of my writing at the Wycliffe office—often on a Sunday afternoon. Almost no one was at the office during this period.

 

I noticed a light on in the director's office. On the way to my office I walked past to see who was there. To my surprise it was bestselling author Jamie Buckingham. Twice a year without any fanfare, Jamie came to our office and wrote the donor letter and various articles for our Wycliffe director. His name never appeared on these articles but Jamie was the storytelling pen behind this writing. He would tell me, “Terry, today I'm a jungle pilot in the jungles of Peru, South America.” I met people who gave to many different missions and said they normally tossed the donor letters and did not read them—but every time they read the Wycliffe donor letter. They loved trhe storytelling in that letter and behind it was the pen of Jamie Buckingham.

 

As a writer, we need to learn to pitch our work to the media, to editors and to literary agents. We have to learn to write documents called “book proposals” and others called “query letters” in this pitch process. Some people would call this pitching process, marketing. Your writing just stays on your own website or your own notebooks if you don't learn to pitch. It's another skill you need to learn and develop as a writer.

 

Also writers have to become editors—at least of their own writing. I will often write something, set it aside for several hours or days, then return to it and rewrite or edit it. Editng your own writiing is a skill each of us have to develop and then use over and over as writer.

 

Writers are also researchers to compile information and find interesting facts and statistics. We have to learn to ask good questions to get the stories and information that we need from others.

 

As our books get published, we have to become proofreaders (or hire an expert at this point in the process). Also in this process we need to gather endorsements and have to be connected to others in order to get these endorsements. Networking and your connections to others as a writer is another important skill or hat.

 

In this article, I've given you a starting point. We need a diverse set of skills in this business or wear multiple hats. Which hat are you wearing today? Have I missed some roles or hats? Let me know in the timments below.

 

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The Unexpected Role Model

I loved to come into my California office on a Sunday afternoon. At the time, I had small children at home and I found it hard to write and meet some of my freelance deadlines. So I would often slip off to the office for a few afternoon hours. To give you the right timeframe, it was in the mid-80s and I rode a Honda Scooter back and forth from home to the office.

On one of these Sunday afternoons, when I came into the building, I noticed the lights were on at the director's office and since everything else was still, I walked past to see what was happening. A friend of the director, Jamie Buckingham, was sitting at the keyboard. He looked up and greeted me and said, "I'm a jungle pilot today flying planes in the Amazon." The writer of such bestsellers as Run Baby Run by Nicky Cruz, Jamie was a prolific writer and yet a couple of times a year, he wrote some material that never held his by-line and he didn't earn a dime. As a pure ghostwriting ministry, Jamie wrote all of the public material from our director.

When readers would rave to me about the director's engaging storytelling, I would always smile and say, "Yes the writing is terrific." I knew the director didn't write any of it but the words came from Jamie's pen.

Many readers of these entries might not remember Jamie Buckingham but millions of people are still reading his writing and his ghostwriting. He was a favorite columnist for Charisma magazine and died of liver cancer in 1992. I learned a great deal from his life and his teaching about writing--through his words and through his actions.

Here's a story that few people remember about Jamie but I write it to encourage you about second chances. Dean Merrill wrote this story about Jamie in a little book from Zondervan published in 1981 called Another Chance, How God Overrides Our Big Mistakes (long out of print but you can get as an inexpensive used book). On page 59, Merrill includes an excerpt from Buckingham's Where Eagles Soar, "Well-known author and speaker Jamie Buckingham describes how God painfully confronted him with a sin--not once but twice. He was a successful pastor in his mid-thirties at the time, but only after this canyon of embarrassment did his wider ministry as a writer emerge."

In October 1965, a group of 20 deacons in a large Baptist church in South Carolina confronted him with stern faces. They forced his resignation and he writes about calling his wife and asking her to come get him at the church. "She found me, the shepherd of the flock, crouched in a fetal position in a basement hallway, huddled against the landing of the stairs. 'It would be better for you, for this church if I were dead,' I sobbed." She comforted. She smoothed. She never asked for details. There was no need."..."There was a desperate reaching out for friends, only to find they had all deserted. I was like a leper. Unclean. I wrote letters--more than 90 of them--to pastoral and denominational friends. Only one man dared respond and that was with a curt, 'I received your letter and shall be praying for you.'"

The Buckinghams returned to his home state of Florida and led a small but growing church. "But as Vance Havner once remarked. It doesn't do any good to change labels on an empty bottle.Nothing inside me had changed. I was still the magnificent manipulator, the master of control, the defender of my position. I was still pushing people around. I was far more politician than a man of God."...:"Soon echoes from the past began drifting down to Florida...I continued to fight, to brave the growing onslaught of fact that kept building against me. It took 15 months of a stormy relationship before the Florida church cast me into the waves to calm the sea--just like Jonah."..."I had no choice but once again to slink home and huddle with my wife and children while the fire of God continued its purging work. Often, I have discovered, we can not hear God when we are busy. Hearing comes only when we have taken--or are forced to take--times of quietness."

In his idleness, Jamie picked up a copy of Guideposts and learned about their first contest for writers. He submitted a first-person 1,500 word story about a young man who prepared to go to South America as a missionary pilot. "Since I had nothing else to do. I wrote the story and sent it in. On October 1, 1967, "I was stretched out on the bed in the back room of our little rented house when the phone rang. It was the Western Union telegraph office. Jackie took the call and copied the message on a scrap of paper. It was from Leonard LeSourd, editor of Guideposts, stating I was one of the 20 winners--out of more than 2,000 submissions."

At that workshop, Jamie learned more about how to write the stories of others and met the publisher who was looking for someone to write Run Baby Run for Nicky Cruz. His career as a ghostwriter and co-author was born.

It was my privilege for those few years to see Jamie on a regular basis and watch him work. He even taught a several day writer's workshop for our staff during the early days of my own writing life. It was way before I co-authored any books with anyone. In many ways looking back, Jamie served as the unexpected role model for this part of my writing life.