There are a few schools of thought on writing. One says writers need to work hard to make the writing clear and readable. Another says don’t worry about form; just write your stream of consciousness. They’re both right, but each is talking about a different part of the writing process.
In the early stage, I’ve found it’s best to give your “inner editor” a vacation. You don’t want your words to be critiqued before you’ve even had a chance to type them out. You want to stay as creatively open as possible when you write the first draft. Then you change roles. Now the editor needs to go to work, reorganizing, cutting down, shaping and polishing the raw text into a piece that will communicate well to readers.
A fun way I’ve found to explore my topic and tap into the inspiration I want to share is to interview myself. If I’m writing a testimony, for instance, I ask myself the questions a reader would ask, and type my answers spontaneously, as if I were speaking to a friend. The facts are important—the who, what, where, when, and why of the healing—but the reader also needs to know how I prayed and what metaphysical truths were helpful in spiritualizing my thought.
