Can the first draft ever be good enough?

[BrotherDave]

Tim wrote:

>Brodave, sometimes I think we destroy the inspiration with over examination. Did Paul >edit His work? Or, for that matter, ask for anyone to critique it. If it feel inspired, I >am very careful about changing things. But maybe that is not writing, if we listen close >enough, all we need do is take dictation.

If I were the Apostle Paul, writing directly under the influence of Holy Spirit, I might agree with you. However, I cant begin to compare myself to Paul, and tho I've had times of inspiration, honestly I must admit that I've never found myself being dictated to in the shaft of the HS light he must have been in when he was writing Holy Scripture. I don't know any real published authors that will tell you he/she has.

An rare exception may have been CS Lewis who used to turn his first drafts in to his publishers. But I dont think Lewis claimed divine inspiration or an equlity with Paul, either. I can see where a little more work on some of the Narnia books might have helped a little.

I think even the pope gets his work edited, tho I can only imagine how much courage it would take to red line one if his divinely inspired sentences.

I can agree with you, however, about being very careful about changing things, not because I think I might be tampering with divine writing, but because I may dull the point of the message I have been given.

I have been handed writing the author said he got directly from God. "God gave it to me," they said. Well, in most cases I could see why God gave it way. It was awful and the author was just too Heavenly dumb struck to see the truth that some editing was needed.

And Paul didn't have publishers and editors to deal with, either. I thank God for anyone that will crtique and edit my work, or won't publish it until I work on it some more. It hurts, but it makes me a better writer.

I can't tell you how times I've looked over and changed this message, and you will probably still find typos and incompete thoughts.

Tim, I must say I'm enjoying your inquisitiveness and sharp mind. Keep challenging me here. I love it!

BTW, anybody else have any thots on the subject of First Drafts and Divine Inspiration?

brotherdave

[Tim Lamb]

Brother Dave, I find our last few exchanges very uncomfortable. the fact that you found this significant enough to make a thread baffles me, but ok.
In a discussion about self evaluation (under another thread) you said "Some people think that typing is writing, or that the first thing that comes off the top of their head and on to the paper is the final product".
I have put many thoughts to paper that were never editied for content and had people thanking God for the message it gave them. There may have been spelling errors and punctuation errors, I "humanized" it, but I believe the message was inspired by God and had to be left unaltered.
When I do see the need to edit I usually find myself whacking off the dead wood I attatched to the original thought. God is not writing a new testiment through me, I am not Paul, I doubt anyone will ever pay for what I wrote, but God does give me messages to pass on (not poetry, I know). Some times what feels like inspiration is just emotional ramblings, but it is good for me to put my thoughts on paper, there is no need to evaluate them for content either.
I still say too much self evaluation puts the focus on self, and not on Jesus, where it should be. Analyzing grammatical errors was never the issue, it was over analyzing our own thoughts, Oswald Chambers compared it to being so concerned about the out flow of the river, we forget about the source. C.S. Lewis was focused on spiritual matters, he was looking at the source of his writing, he wrote without hesitation because he knew from where the message came. And I have read some very inspired thoughts of yours in the threads of this site that I doubt you gave a second thought about putting out for all to read. Whereas, I am analyzing this word by word, and I'm sure I am still making very little sense. That is all I have in my own defence, this Lamb is ready for the slaughter. "Writing is putting thoughts to words"

[BrotherDave]

Tim,
Well said. I guess maybe it could come down to WHY we write. I write for money. I write to inspire, and I write for myself, as well.

If I'm writing for money I had better examine what I write to make sure it sells. If I write to inspire I better examine my words to make sure I am communicating. If I write for myself my writing seems to examine me.

brotherdave

[Tim Lamb]

I think you nailed it Brother, why is all important. When I write to editorialize local issues, or to express my opinions on world issues, I proof read carefully. I don't want to be misunderstood or come accross as un-Christian. I don't realy consider that writing except in the simplest sense, thoughts, into words. However, when writing a devotional piece, I have either prayed for inspiration or am already stirred to write, I do read and make corrections but am very careful not to change the meaning or even add to it, even an explaination can take away from the effect.
I don't possess the wisdom to write from a knowledge of God, if my words inspire, it came from Him.

[ProfessorAlan]

If I were the Apostle Paul, writing directly under the influence of Holy Spirit, I might agree with you. However, I cant begin to compare myself to Paul, and tho I've had times of inspiration, honestly I must admit that I've never found myself being dictated to in the shaft of the HS light he must have been in when he was writing Holy Scripture. I don't know any real published authors that will tell you he/she has.

I have been handed writing the author said he got directly from God. "God gave it to me," they said. Well, in most cases I could see why God gave it way. It was awful and the author was just too Heavenly dumb struck to see the truth that some editing was needed.

brotherdave

I have said these same things more than once among groups of Christian writers who think that the inspiration they felt when writing a piece meant it was Scripture-like in its perfection. I just shake my head and reapize we are on so different wavelengths I'll never be able to reach them.

[Tim Lamb]

maybe it was about what they, or you, expected. One seed doesn't look like much but it can change the world!

[kilohertz]

Just wanted to offer a quick thought- I finished my first novel several months ago, and went through a time of editing and revision, and there were times when I wrote it that I felt "on." Those sections worked and required, quite frankly, much less work than other parts where I was writing without inspiration, but only out of discipline. I can understand why some feel that their writing is "inspired." When things are really working, it feels like God is sitting on your shoulder.

I can understand what Tim is saying. I am also a singer and a musician, and there have been times when I thought my performance was simply terrible- and people have told me afterward that something I sang or played touched them somehow. The Holy Spirit reaches people in such personal ways, that even what one might consider awful will be used powerfully to draw someone closer to Him.

As writers, we must follow the Spirit in ways that He leads- and I have rarely found that He leads every person in precisely the same way. He tailors each path to our particular needs- and in a bigger way, tailors our writing to the people He knows that we will reach.

Interesting discussion, though...

[Tim Lamb]

Kilohertz, thank you, you said it much better than I.