Finding the Upper Hand

In my sermon Sunday I noted one of my recent pieces of advice to aspiring writers:  If you want to be certain to gain the attention of an editor, write a handwritten note.

That's why I keep plenty of stationery on hand (I have my own professionally produced so it looks like I know what I'm doing). 

No doubt the art of the handwritten letter has suffered in these past decades.  Now everything is email, text and twitter . . . or worse.  But what could be worse?   Misspelling half of the words in a tweet, I suppose.

At any rate, that's my advice to anyone who wants to get a reading:  write a letter.  Letters are rare these days . . . as rare as a baseball player not taking steroids, as rare as Paula Dean getting a new endorsement, as a rare as a politician who makes sense.

If you are like me, your handwriting has suffered from so much texting, but you can recover the dexterity with a bit of Ben-Gay and a few push ups. 

So, if you want to write, you might try writing.  Actual writing.  Editors don't see writing very often.  But they'll know it when they see it.