{"id":4186,"date":"2010-05-27T10:18:33","date_gmt":"2010-05-27T14:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/?p=4186"},"modified":"2010-05-27T10:18:33","modified_gmt":"2010-05-27T14:18:33","slug":"4855-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/2010\/05\/27\/4855-words\/","title":{"rendered":"4,855 words"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"This<\/a>
This photo goes with one of the stories I've been editing. You'll have to get the magazine to find out what they're doing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Seems like my office should be knee-deep in words.<\/p>\n

You see, I\u2019ve been editing articles for the August issue of the New Tribes Mission magazine, NTM@work<\/em>. (It\u2019s free, by the way, and donors get it automatically. No, that\u2019s not a hint. If I said, here\u2019s a link to give,<\/a> that would be a hint. But I\u2019m not going to do that. Nope. Instead, here\u2019s a link to sign up.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Editing has been crucial for the last several issues. Most of the articles have been written by missionaries outside our department, folks out there in the tribes and in foreign lands. That\u2019s a great thing; they\u2019ve got great stories to tell. They just need help telling them.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s part of my job. I\u2019m responsible for the words in everything our department puts out, which is the vast majority of what NTM \u201csays.\u201d So over the last few days, I\u2019ve whittled seven stories down from a collective 11,363 words to 6,508 words. As I said, seems like my office should be knee-deep in words. Four thousand, eight hundred and fifty-five of them, to be precise.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t cut the stories because shorter stories are easier to read. Have you ever started to read a short article that was so bad you gave up? I have. And if you\u2019ve read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy multiple times (yes, I\u2019ve done that too), you know a long story is easy to read if it holds your interest. We\u2019d fill an entire issue with one story and few pictures if it was the right story. At times we have.<\/p>\n

I cut the stories for the same reason our missionaries spend years studying the culture, and then present the Gospel by working through the Bible chronologically. I cut the stories because I have a goal in mind, and in order to meet that goal I need to communicate effectively in this culture.<\/p>\n

The goal for our magazine as a whole \u2013 and for each article \u2013 is the same as the goal for everything we do in Communications: to help people like you get involved in the work God is doing among tribal people.<\/p>\n

Since I know you\u2019re all in a hurry \u2013 or at least you often feel rushed or pressed for time \u2013 I know I have to do something at the very beginning to make you want to read the story. I often start off with something I hope is intriguing, such as, \u201cSeems like my office should be knee-deep in words.\u201d If you\u2019ve gotten this far, it worked.<\/p>\n

Once I\u2019ve got your attention, I can digress a little. But I really need to tell you a story. So in these articles, I needed to find something intriguing or interesting or right to the point, and then peel away a lot of background information and stuff the missionaries wanted to say, in order to get to the story.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t need to tell you how to understand the story, and we sure don\u2019t want to act like you\u2019re not smart enough to understand the story. If we tell the story well, you\u2019ll get it.<\/p>\n

And once the major cutting is done, I can go back and clean up individual paragraphs and sentences and phrases. I need to ensure that the story is communicated effectively. In most cases, that means shortening the way things are said. In some cases, it means expanding a bit so the story is clear.<\/p>\n

So this:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had been helping David Ogg with the revision of the chronological Bible lessons and he would bring them home and read them aloud to his wife in the evenings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Became this:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs he helped David revise Bible lessons, he took them home and read them aloud to his wife.\u201d<\/p>\n

The point that sentence needed communicate in the story \u2013 he read Bible lessons to his wife \u2013 was originally lost behind a long inactive phrase. Shortening the first phrase and making it active makes the point clear.<\/p>\n

This step requires me to think through paragraph after paragraph, sentence after sentence, phrase after phrase. I\u2019m asking myself, what is the purpose of this in the story, and can it be said more effectively?<\/p>\n

At the same time, if I do my work well, the missionary who wrote the article will see his or her work, only better. It needs to sound like they wrote it, and the best way to do that is by preserving everything that doesn\u2019t get in the reader\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

That can be a difficult balance to strike.<\/p>\n

But having a purpose in mind, and knowing the culture we\u2019re trying to reach, makes it a lot easier.<\/p>\n

Now if you\u2019ll excuse me, I have to sweep up some words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seems like my office should be knee-deep in words. You see, I\u2019ve been editing articles for the August issue of the New Tribes Mission magazine, NTM@work. (It\u2019s free, by the way, and donors get it automatically. No, that\u2019s not a hint. If I said, here\u2019s a link to give, that would be a hint. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[38260],"class_list":{"0":"post-4186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ministry","7":"tag-magazine","8":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}