Video Killed the Blockages

One of the best bits of advice for writing sermons I was ever given came from Dave Thurston: write your entire sermon--beginning to end--in one sitting.

There's just one problem.

• I usually have only enough creative energy to get me through about two-thirds. Then progress slows to a crawl, quality takes a dive, and I'm basically creating work for myself.

Last week I made a breakthrough: Video.

That's it. Fire up Photobooth, hit 'video', and record yourself explaining the idea you're trying to get across. No, not reading your notes, just ad lib. What I find, is that something I say to the video 'works', something comes out 'right'. And then I just play it back, and take notes from what I said.

Clunky? Perhaps. But it's moving creative blockages. And that I like.