PNEUMA

A Ne ws lett er f or Ch rist ia ns wh o Writ e

Welcome to the first issue of PNEUMA

Moses tells us that the first born “So, why did it get sent to
male is “holy unto the Lord.” me?”
While I’m unsure of the gender of Volume 1, Issue 1
this newsletter, as my first born, I Because I know you person- April 2008
hope it too will be “holy unto the ally. Or because someone told
Lord.” me about you. Because you
claim the name of Christ. Be-
With that in mind, I’m sure you cause you are interested in Inside this issue:
have some questions. writing.

“What is PNEUMA?” “What will it cost me?” Finding Your Story’s 2

Heart, Part 1
PNEUMA is an irregularly issued Nada. Nothing. It’s my min-
newsletter focusing on the spiritual istry. I will pay for it. Just Three Important 3
side of writing. Yep, it’s me. enjoy freely. Things to Know

Over the years I’ve seen a number
of newsletters and magazines aimed
at writers. I even wrote for several
of them. Most of these publica-
tions – secular or sacred – focus on
techniques. Why not? After all,
the techniques of writing are the
same whether you are a Christian or
not.
The down side to secular magazines
is their understandable inability to
deal with spiritual issues. Their
advice in those areas while always
unusable can sometimes be danger-
ous. New Age answers never con-
stitute a Christian response.
Likewise, the sacred side fails at
times. Confusing human wisdom
for God’s direction is one such fail-
ure. Supposedly sacred articles that
offer purely secular advice are of no
use. The same is true of articles
that address the spiritual aspects of
the craft but seemed to have been
written by people who have turned
off their brains, pumped up their
emotional volume, and filled their
vocabulary to overflowing with
adjectives like “glorious,”
“wonderful,” and “awesome.”
As a Christian who writes, I want
more. I want steak and pota-
toes. I want a practical think-
ing man’s meal dealing with
how writing relates to the
“upward call of Jesus Christ.”
That is the goal of PNEUMA:
to steer between secular in-
struction and emotional cotton
candy, to examine in a practi-
cal and up front way the spiri-
tual side of writing.
“Who is responsible for
PNEUMA?”
It’s my dream; so I am. I will
do all – or at least most – of
the writing. That means the
tone here will be very per-
sonal, a dialogue between you
and me.
“What makes you think you’re
qualified to give anyone ad-
vice on writing?”
A fair question. All I can say
is look at my publishing cred-
its on page 4. If you think that
qualifies me, read on. If not,
toss this aside.
“What if I don’t want it?”
Let me know, and I’ll take you
off the list. No hard feelings.
I won’t love you any the less.
“What if I want to share it
with a friend?”
PNEUMA is copyrighted by
me. That means if someone
wants to reproduce any part of
it he or she will need my per-
mission.
If you want to give copies to
others, go ahead. However, if
you plan to use it in some
piece of writing, or to some-
how make money off
PNEUMA’S material, talk to
me first.
“What if I have suggestions to
make?”
Send them. I’m open to ques-
tions and suggestions. I will
even look at submissions. I
can’t promise I will use them;
but I will consider them. The
one certainty is that I can not
pay you for them. I’m bank-
rolling this myself, remember.
Arlo 3
My Publishing Cred- 4
its
Quick Tips on Story 4
Structure
What will be in fu-
ture issues?
• Articles for both fiction
and fact writers
• A look at some of the
important differences
between secular and
Christian writing
• A look at writer’s
block—Yes, Virginia, it
does exist
• Answers to questions
posed by my daughter
Tara, an as yet unpub-
lished fictioneer

PNEUMA is copyrighted 2008 by Larry E. Neagle

 Page 2 PNEUMA
F i n d i n g Yo u r S t o r y ’s H e a r t , P a r t 1
Twelve Principles for Writing
I don’t know if anyone has
Everybody has their favorite made a study of what goes on
inside a writer’s head during
set. Here’s mine. those first adrenalin filled mo-
ments of a story’s birth. In no
1. Do all for the glory of particular order, a character
God. comes alive and begins to do
things on his own, or an inter-
2. Write who you are. esting bit of what-if action ex-
plodes inside, or both simulta-
Write from your neously.
passions.
As soon as the blush is off,
3. Write only the truth. however, we discover our won-
derful idea is just like a dream:
4. Write on a regular basis,
full of inconsistent characters,
whether you want to or unnecessary characters, vanish-
ing characters and full of plot
not. holes, unrelated actions, and
events with no resolution.
5. Risk audacity. Be bold,
but not foolish. Depending on the severity of
these issues, I’ve been known to
6. Write the first draft as sour on an idea altogether.
fast as possible. Edit Face it; some ideas deserve to
be given up on. But some
later. There are no good don’t. So how do you find your
way through to a good story?
writers, only good
rewriters. In those post-blush moments, I
look for the story’s heart. I
7. Welcome obstacles. They look for what makes it live. I’m
talking about what the story
are possibilities for really is, and from that an un-
creativity, places where derstanding of its underlying
unifying issue. Without that the
God can work. story will unravel. With it, I
can get a sense of what will
8. Never let the non-fliers make it work.
keep you grounded.
Sometimes that vision I ours
9. Expect rejection. And from the beginning. Praise the
Lord! Sometimes we have to
overcome it. work for it by writing and re-
10. Listen to the pros. writing and rewriting. When
that happens I take comfort in
11. Master words. And, the fact that none of the words I
write are wasted. They guided
when called for, don’t me to the story’s truth.
hesitate to invent a new
So how do you find your story’s
one. heart? What is it really all
about?
12. Always check your facts.
Before I suggest some possibili-
ties, let me first give some
things it isn’t. Your story’s
heart is not the plot. It isn’t the
character. It isn’t your style. It
isn’t good story strategy. And
it isn’t knowledge of your genre
and how it works.
You can do all that well and the
story will still lie there dead and
inert. What makes your story
live comes from something that
transcends those.
I have 10 possibilities to sug-
gest here as to what that tran-
scendent item might be.
Don’t be put off by the fact that
these will look like plot ele-
ments. Indeed they can be used
as minor elements in almost any
larger story you care to tell.
However, I’m talking about
when one of these possibilities
is the central reason for the ex-
istence of the story. Think of
them not as plot elements, but
as plot starters, understandings
to guide to appropriate plots.
Don’t be put off by the number
10 either. There’s nothing
magical there. It could be 8 or
12. And you could easily come
up with some I’ve left out.
The first of my 10 is redemp-
tion. Many years ago I decided
that I wanted to writer stories of
lonely and broken people find-
ing companionship and whole-
ness. I’ve written a number of
these over the years and still
enjoy them the most. Character
and plot work together in these.
Much of the action will be de-
termined by the character’s na-
ture. Where specifically is he
broken? Myriad possibilities
suggest themselves here: frail
health, angry relatives, any kind
of sin – one’s own or that of
another upon us – job loss, or
income reversals. Well, you
see what I mean. When it
comes to man’s inhumanity to
man, the sky is the limit. Not to
mention the fact that theologi-
cally it is a universal need. It
exists in all time periods, in all
cultures, and in both genders.
Once you know the character
and the source of his broken-
ness, you work your way to the
redemption part. Let the Hound
of Heaven loose in a series of
tension increasing disasters.
Your story ends at the critical
moment when the only way to
win is to release self and reach
out in faith to the unknown.
The reverse of redemption is
damnation. To tell a redemp-
tion story correctly, damnation
must be equally as possible. So
make your story such that the
focal character could as easily
choose wrongly as rightly. If
he chooses to abandon self, to
launch out into the invisible in
self-sacrifice, he wins. If he
rejects that, choosing to hold
onto self, to cling to the visible,
he looses and sinks into trag-
edy.
Of my own stories in this area,
my favorite is “The Holy Man”
which was reprinted in the first
of Steve Stanton’s Sky Songs
anthologies. The main charac-
ter showed up with story possi-
bilities sticky taped all over
him. I’m still playing around
with some of them.
The second of my 10 is deliver-
ance. I mentioned self-sacrifice
a moment ago. If possible, self-
sacrifice is even more a part of
deliverance stories. Think of it
this way: if your focal charac-
ter is on the receiving end, what
he gets is deliverance; if he is
on the offering end self-
sacrifice is how he offers it. As
I said, the focal character in
“The Holy Man” came with
multiple plot possibilities. It
started a series, not all written,
not all published. Somewhen,
though, the time will come for
the final story. It will be a de-
liverance story. Because my
character became a prophet, he
must eventually go the way all
Volume 1, Issue 1 Page 3

prophets go. He must give up
all – and thus win all – to save
his people.
As with all 10 of my possibili-
ties, the in-between plot just
ratchets up the tension in steady
strokes. The ending, however,
while looking to the world as a
tragedy, must be shown in its
true light as the greatest thing
that could possibly happen. In
other words, it must be an abso-
lute wowser.
The third of my 10, and the last
for this article, is quest. Some-
times I call these journey sto-
ries, or on-the-road-again sto-
ries. In a sense every story is a
quest for the focal character,
usually an inner quest. This
type of story just exteriorizes
the journey.
Again you start with character.
What moves him? Like real
people, focal characters are
amazingly slothful. They don’t
move unless they have to.
Think changing lanes on the
freeway in rush hour traffic.
Once forced into moving, they
don’t want to change speeds or
directions. Think of the little
blue-haired turtle – “It’s my
lane. I’m going as fast as I in-
tend. You slow down.” Or, in
my case, I won’t tell you how
often I have shot past my exit.
Something significant must
start your character on his
quest. Something must move
Frodo from his comfortable
Hobbit home all the way to
Mordor. The fact that the ring
will eat his soul if he doesn’t
move isn’t enough. That will
happen tomorrow. Or the day
after. Today the sun is shining,
the temperature is invigorating,
and a snooze, or a good book,
or the garden is calling. So
along come the Ring-Wraiths.
Find what will scald your focal
character’s behind and get him
hopping. Then keep him hop-
ping. Prelude each forced hop
with an opportunity to slide Why Readers Read:
back into stagnation. Tempt
him. Tempt him mightily. But • Excitement
never let him succumb. When
his will proves shaky, pull out a • Escape
cattle prod.
• To live someone else’s life
Plot-wise, it works like this:
terror or something similarly
• To experience tension
significant forces him on his
journey. He starts to slide.
You come in with a prod – in- Why Readers Don’t Read:
ternal or external, but definitely
related to his goal – that forces • To be confused
him to pick up speed again. He
starts to slide and you prod • To be insulted or belittled
again. And again. And again.
And again. Until you have him • To be bludgeoned with
where he needs to be, filled – your greatness or
because of your relentless prod-
ding – with a determination to technique
do what must be done, even if it
means his own death. • To be reminded they are
That’s enough for this issue. reading
I’ll pick
up here
next
time.

Three Important Things

Yo u N e e d t o K n o w
I am not infallible. I don’t
know all the answers. I make
mistakes. And sometimes I just
get it wrong. Then again, there
are things I know to be mistakes
that a publisher may let you get
away with. The odds are
against such, but they do hap-
pen.
The things I will tell you are
things that work in today’s writ-
ing. Today’s writing means
that it is the kind of thing that
publishers and readers are look-
ing for today, not what they
looked for ten – fifty – a hun-
dred – years ago. Many books
that were published that long
ago would not get published
today. What readers look for
has changed. Things that used
to excite them have become
trite. Things they used to put
up with now just irritate. The
popularity of film, of cable/
satellite television, and the
Internet have changed every-
thing.
I can help you come up with
something a publisher might be
interested it. I cannot guarantee
it. Publishers are in business to
make money. That means that
you have no God given right to
get published. If you want to
get published you have to write
the kind of thing they think they
can make money on. They are
not infallible either. Many
good books have a hard time
finding a publisher. However,
they do have a pretty good feel
about what the folks who buy
their books want. Your job –
should you decide to accept it –
is to provide what their readers
want – not what you want, but
what they want.
 My Publishing Credits
PNEUMA
During a violent storm, a woodpecker de-
cided to hammer away at the tree he was
Published by:
in. A few pecks later, lightning flashed
Larry E. Neagle
down and split the tree in two. Shaken the
703 Windridge Lane
bird stared at the tree for a moment then
Burleson, TX 76028
flew off. A few minutes later he was back
with seven other birds. Puffing out his
Email: neagle@charter.net
chest he said, “Look at what I did.”
Publishing is as much a gift of God to me
as lightning was to that bird. I didn’t do it,
God did.
How to Market For those that keep records, however, I’ve
been writing for publication since 1974.
Your Writing the (That is, that’s the first year someone
Easy Way bought and printed something I wrote. I’m
not counting the joke that was published
under my name in a comic book when I
Every editor for a Christian publisher was 12.)
wants these four things:
1. To fulfill his publication’s mis- Since then I’ve written somewhere be-
sion. tween 350 and 400 articles, short stories,
2. To please his readers. and so on published in newspapers and
3. To increase sales. magazines. Most of the magazines were
4. To fill a spiritual need.
Christian. At one time or another I’ve
Help him do those things and you written for Christianity Today, Charisma,
will be published. Home Life, Pentecostal Evangel, and too
many more for me to even try to remem-
ber. My most recent publishing credit was
in the January issue of Cross and Quill.
At one point I was writing for every issue of
six different magazines. Along the way I
began to illustrate some of my articles with
my own cartoons. So, over 1000 of my car-
toon illustrations have published as well.
My first venture into the book world, actu-
ally, was as an illustrator. I created the illus-
trations for a book entitled How to Disci-
pline the Hard to Handle Child. Along that
line I later created a cartoon feature, “Arlo,”
for the long since defunct Living Streams.
I wrote two books of my own: Bungle,
Botch, and Fizzle: A Compendium of Prac-
tical Advice on How to Fail in the Ministry
published by CSS Publishers in 1982 and An
Underground Manual for Spiritual Sur-
vival published in 1986 by Moody Press.
I wrote “Branching Out” articles for the sec-
ond and fourth editions of Religious
Writer’s Marketplace, a precursor to Sally
Stuart’s annual market book.
Oh yes, I also wrote a dozen or so 15 minute
video scripts for the Sunday School Board of
the Southern Baptist Convention. These
were all done in connection to the standing
commitment I had at the time with their The
Deacon magazine.

The first novels were told – that is
the action was related not as it hap-
pened but from some vantage point
down the line a bit. There are
many problems with that. The
main one is that it keeps the reader
removed from the action. When
the action isn’t immediate the
reader loses interest. The second is
that it screws up the story line with
author intrusions – asides and ex-
planations to the “dear reader.”
The structure of a story should be
such that you put the reader smack
into the story “now” – just like
what happens when you watch a
movie, experiencing the story as it
happens, and not merely being told
about it later.
One of the main elements in story
structure – one that has been found
to work time and time again – is to
Q u i c k Ti p s o n S t o r y S t r u c t u r e
present the story from one person
and only one person’s head. This
is called viewpoint. It is one of
the easiest elements to mess up
and one of the surest ways to keep
your work from selling. The first
question a reader asks when read-
ing is “Whose head am I in?” The
focal character – the head they are
in – needs to be set from the first
sentence of each scene. You can
change your focal character when
you change scenes, but NEVER
within a scene.
For now just keep in mind that the
scene is the basic unit of writing a
story. Each scene is a unit of ac-
tion – it may be just a few para-
graphs long or an entire chapter
long. Its length is determined by
the importance of that action to
the story. Action is always cause,
internalization, and effect. All
three are important. In rapid-fire
conversation you may leave out
the internalization for a short
time; but only a short time. Inter-
nalization is how you do view-
point. It is getting into your char-
acter’s head. By the way, the or-
der here is important. The se-
quence is always cause, then in-
ternalization, and then the effect.
It is always “Hearing the shot, Joe
turned” never “Joe turned after
hearing the shot.” You may think
it is cute or powerful to hide the
cause of a character’s reaction;
but it only frustrates and confuses
your reader.
Keep in mind as well that the right
starting point for a story or a
scene isn’t where most beginning
writers think. They want to start
at the beginning and tell the roots
of the event, how it built up and
so on. 99.9% of that is totally
unnecessary and totally uninter-
esting to anyone other than the
writer. Start the story/scene not at
its beginning but when the action
gets hot. The reader is after the
juicy stuff. So start with the juicy
stuff.
Contrary to popular belief the sole
reason for reading fiction is enter-
tainment. That means that at any
moment a reader could get bored
with your writing and put it down
to watch Jerry Springer. This is
important. You may have all sorts
of things you want to teach them.
They are uninterested in that.
They will only put their money
down to buy your book if it offers
and delivers an entertaining story.