{"id":2187,"date":"2013-09-25T09:50:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-25T13:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayspirituality\/?p=2187"},"modified":"2016-10-19T08:58:56","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T12:58:56","slug":"writing-tricks-indirectly-help-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2013\/09\/writing-tricks-indirectly-help-prayer.html","title":{"rendered":"Writing Tricks Indirectly Help Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Elmore Leonard (1925-2013), author with bestselling books, gives 10 tricks for good writing. One of the tricks is to \u201cuse regional dialect, patois, sparingly.\u201d In other words, keep the writing free of religious, medical, psychological jargon.<\/p>\n<p>I look at the Bible and wonder if its writers applied the same trick. Minus the flowery patter in the King James Version, most Bibles use language suitable to a broad range of speakers and readers. Distinctive idioms are used sparingly.<\/p>\n<p>This says two things: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.elmoreleonard.com\/\">Elmore Leonard<\/a> wasn\u2019t the first person to learn the trick to use jargon sparingly. And, I can use the jargon I am familiar with when I am praying a prayer based on a spiritual truth read in the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>The Gospels were written decades after Jesus ascended, therefore, personal quotes were never taken from Christ Jesus. So, Jesus very well could have spoken words not written in the Bible. Experimenting with this, I began praying with a language familiar to me.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t just repeat the words from the Bible. I focus on a spiritual truth and put it in my own words.<\/p>\n<p>I found my prayers are more effective when I use my <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayspirituality\/2012\/03\/jargon-disease.html\">jargon<\/a>. And sometimes, my lingo can get brazen.<\/p>\n<p>When I\u2019m talking with other people, I refer back to the trick, and speak in idioms they are familiar with. Communication is much stronger and more productive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elmore Leonard (1925-2013), author with bestselling books, gives 10 tricks for good writing. One of the tricks is to \u201cuse regional dialect, patois, sparingly.\u201d In other words, keep the writing free of religious, medical, psychological jargon. I look at the Bible and wonder if its writers applied the same trick. Minus the flowery patter in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[561,24,921,1127],"class_list":["post-2187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-work","category-smorgasbord","tag-better-communication","tag-christian-science-2","tag-favorite-books","tag-writing-a-best-seller"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Writing Tricks Indirectly Help Prayer - Everyday Spirituality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2013\/09\/writing-tricks-indirectly-help-prayer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Writing Tricks Indirectly Help Prayer - Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Elmore Leonard (1925-2013), author with bestselling books, gives 10 tricks for good writing. One of the tricks is to \u201cuse regional dialect, patois, sparingly.\u201d In other words, keep the writing free of religious, medical, psychological jargon. I look at the Bible and wonder if its writers applied the same trick. Minus the flowery patter in&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2013\/09\/writing-tricks-indirectly-help-prayer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-09-25T13:50:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-10-19T12:58:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cheryl Petersen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cherylpetersen\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Writing Tricks Indirectly Help Prayer - Everyday Spirituality","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2013\/09\/writing-tricks-indirectly-help-prayer.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Writing Tricks Indirectly Help Prayer - Everyday Spirituality","og_description":"Elmore Leonard (1925-2013), author with bestselling books, gives 10 tricks for good writing. 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