Sep 22, 2026 · 3 min · 2 segments
During a live Clearly Reformed Q&A Event, Kevin DeYoung answered a range of questions presented to him by attendees. This video is focused on Kevin’s response to the question: “What's The Most…
Kevin DeYoungHost
What's the most difficult part of writing a book? The most difficult part is conceiving of what you are going to say and not going to say.
I think I've written enough things now that I get a lot of ideas in my head and I can type them out pretty quickly and process things and get things out.
So a lot of it is determining what are you trying So C.S. Lewis said, you know, being a good writer is as simple as knowing exactly what you want to say and then saying it very exactly, to paraphrase.
And anyone who has to grade papers like I do knows that is a very difficult thing to actually do, to know what you want to say and then to go ahead and say that very thing.
What is the thing I'm trying to say and what's the thing that I have to say that I can say in a unique way, or I have a unique authority to speak to it.
Early, before I'd ever had a book published, I talked to a friend of mine who was in the publishing industry.
And I share this with people, and they say, how can I get a book published? He said, getting a book published has got three components.
Is this an issue that people are talking about, thinking about, asking about? Some issues are always there.
The jockey is, what is the idea? What's the thing you want to say? And can you say it well and right? And then the jockey is, who's the author? And he said, you need to have at least two of those three things.
So when you start out, you're a jockey nobody cares about, nobody's heard about.
What's the most difficult part of writing a book? The most difficult part is conceiving of what you are going to say and not going to say.
I think I've written enough things now that I get a lot of ideas in my head and I can type them out pretty quickly and process things and get things out.
So a lot of it is determining what are you trying So C.S. Lewis said, you know, being a good writer is as simple as knowing exactly what you want to say and then saying it very exactly, to paraphrase.
And anyone who has to grade papers like I do knows that is a very difficult thing to actually do, to know what you want to say and then to go ahead and say that very thing.
What is the thing I'm trying to say and what's the thing that I have to say that I can say in a unique way, or I have a unique authority to speak to it.
Early, before I'd ever had a book published, I talked to a friend of mine who was in the publishing industry.
And I share this with people, and they say, how can I get a book published? He said, getting a book published has got three components.
Is this an issue that people are talking about, thinking about, asking about? Some issues are always there.
The jockey is, what is the idea? What's the thing you want to say? And can you say it well and right? And then the jockey is, who's the author? And he said, you need to have at least two of those three things.
So when you start out, you're a jockey nobody cares about, nobody's heard about.
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