Jenga is a game invented over 50 years ago, consisting of 54 small wooden blocks stacked in a tower. Players take turns removing blocks from the stack and placing them on top, making the tower increasingly unstable. When someone causes the tower to fall, they lose.
The trick is to place a block in a precarious position, so the next player has no option but to make the stack collapse. Personally, of all the “wood” games, I prefer Lincoln Logs.
I think of the Jenga game when I review a book proposal, and the premise of the book is built on words or themes that, if changed, would cause the book to “collapse.”
My guess is that most Christians are influenced to write with memorable word-gimmicks by pastors who use acronyms, alliterations, or other devices to make their Sunday messages stick with the congregation.
In the publishing world, overuse of word devices is not as much of a positive as you might think.
The same principle applies to the title you use. Often, it is better to use a boring explanatory title, rather than trying to get too “cute.” Most book titles are changed by the publisher anyway, so no need to obsess over that.
For traditional publishing, don’t hinge everything on an acronym, made-up words, or an overly cute concept. Leave that for blogs and social media. It might be a barrier to publication if you become too attached to it. There are exceptions where this works well, but not often.
This is where the Jenga metaphor comes in.
If your book is too intertwined with any of the devices mentioned above, deleting one or more, or all, could cause the entire book premise to collapse. This may make you less cooperative with an editor who is working to improve your book and make it more engaging for the reader.
Sometimes when I write a post for this space, I will think of a title first and then build a blog around that theme. But more often than not, in the process of writing, my thinking changes; and I’ll revise the title several times as the blog takes a different direction than originally planned. So, I get it. Creativity is fun and it’s better than not being creative; but you need to think about the implications of inserting elements in your work that, if edited out, cause the rest of the book to collapse message-wise.
Sometimes those elements are forced, which is an indicator that you likely should take a different direction.
Most of what I am discussing today is the collision of the author-paid publishing process versus the traditional publishing process. In the author-paid publishing world, any resistance to the desires of the author is ultimately defeated by the fact that the author is paying for it.
In traditional publishing, the publisher pays for almost everything, and the author earns the right to disagree and win.
You would be surprised. The more success you have in selling books, traditional publishers will pay closer attention to your ideas.
But until you get to that point, don’t play games with your words.
