“Writers must be smart enough to hatch a brilliant idea — but dull enough to research it, keyboard it, edit and re-edit it, revise it, revise it, re-revise it, review the copy edit, proofread the typeset galleys…”  Joy Williams

Clear and Simple Media is involved in many different things, but most of our energies are spent on words. We read words in our research. Spill words onto the page in our early drafts. Craft and reshape words in edits and revisions. Translate words, either from one language to another or from a more complex English to simpler forms. Our work with words is always part of our day, but there are times, when the volume of words is much heavier.

Because of the way our field-testing schedule has evolved due to changes in the world as a result of the pandemic, several of our projects have arrived for editing at the same time. We have crafted 1,500 questions to use for our online course based on the Travel Guide to the Bible. We are now more than halfway through writing another 1,500 questions for a course based on our newest book, Simple Answers to Not-so-Simple Questions, while we are doing the second set of edits and revisions for that new book. In all, we will be doing editorial work and revisions on approximately 225,000 words during the months of December and January. 

While December’s work will be somewhat ‘tedious’, the work will allow us to launch major projects in February and March. The new book will go into the design phase in early January and should be ready to come off the presses early in March. The first new, online course will be launched by mid-January. The second should be functional by late March. After these courses go online, we will be field-testing both courses in partnership with churches in North America who work with immigrants and refugees. When we have gathered that feedback and made the appropriate adjustments, we will market the courses as widely as possible to get as many students as we can from as many countries as possible.

We have a passion to help people read the Bible and help them understand what they read. This month, in pursuit of reaching the world with words, we will be spending our time on the wee details.