The Myth of the Silver Tongue

“I feel like God just gave me this poem to write, and I wanted to send it to you right away. It only took me 10 minutes to write and I truly believe it is inspired by God.”

When I edited poetry for Relief, I would roll my eyes when I read this. It almost always meant I was about to read something trite and sappy.

As an intellectual Christian who cares about words and ideas, there are many things my fellow Christians say that drive me crazy, but perhaps nothing is more irksome to me than the expressivist fallacy, or what I call the myth of the silver tongue.

Religious folks tend to commit the expressivist fallacy when they believe that because some idea occurred to them spontaneously and it surprises or somehow pleases them, it must be from God. Nonreligious folks do the same thing, they just attribute it to inspiration, the universe, or their own genius.

The problem is that these ideas are almost without fail generic, bland, solipsistic, or corny.

Writing “Off the Top of Your Head”

Inspiration is exciting, but that doesn’t mean it produces great work.

Yes, you will hear poets, novelists, and songwriters talk about an idea hitting them and coming out fully formed. But I submit that this is pure myth making. 

Real creation requires putting in the time. 

Remember that most artists spent years honing their craft and developing their ear or eye for what they do. It took myriad wrong efforts to get to the point where they could, once in a while, produce something halfway decent “off the top of their head.”

And, yes, there are prodigies, but if you were one, you would probably know by now.

It’s just not true for most of us that we have a silver tongue.

Why Your Editor Doesn’t Like Silver Tongue Writing

“Inspired” authors don’t make for the best collaborators.

If you believe that some transcendent or mystical force gave you a set of words, you’re not going to be excited about the revision process. You’ll likely believe it cannot be revised lest you lose something of the original spark.

Speaking for myself, if you hire me for my expertise and then tell me that you actually don’t want to change anything because it’s all gold, you’re telling me you don’t actually understand how writing works.

It’s hubris to believe that your writing cannot be improved. Very few, if any, authors have found critical or popular success without an editor. And very few authors would insist their work cannot be improved.

A Better Way of Thinking

I prefer to tell people that writing is a way of thinking.

If you can get your head around that, then you will free yourself of the myth of the silver tongue. 

Just like everything you say isn’t perfect, not everything you write will be perfect. Just like you revise yourself constantly as you speak, you should expect to revise yourself — constantly — when you write.

I could almost say writing is revising.

Whether you take a second or third pass or constantly go back and edit as you write, it’s part of the process that you rethink what you’re saying as you continue to say more.

The Religious Situation

This can be more difficult for people with certain theologies of divine inspiration because they are taught that divine language is privileged and, in a sense, absolute, unchangeable. Inspired language of any kind must be similar, right?

Think of it this way: If you believe meaning can be communicated through translation, then you don’t need to fret about revision. Translation is necessary, and yet no translation is perfect. There is no perfect use of language, only more and less successful and impactful ones.

This is good news, though: It means we can always be better than our last best effort. It means the world keeps meaning beyond our own limitations. It means we can enjoy the felicities of one author’s language without idolizing it.

It means we can trust the process and dismiss perfectionism. 

If you feel you were “given” a certain text or inspired to write something, fantastic. Congratulations! It’s rare to experience something like that, and it’s fine to enjoy it. But don’t mistake the energy of inspiration for the quality of craft. Set it aside, give it room to breathe, then pick it up again and give it the attention of revision it deserves.

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