Ask a REAL question!

When I was removing the word 'NOT' from the 2000 some places I'd used it in Angel On Board, I found hundreds of places where it was just an extra word. Whether you used it or left it out was irrelevant to the meaning of the sentence, but it did change how the sentence was received.

Case in Point: The question:

1. "Isn't that going to cause you a problem?"

vs.

2. "Is that going to cause you a problem?"

Question 1 is a leading question. The asker of that question knows the answer they expect the questionee to give. It is a manipulation and it felt harsh to read - or frankly, to write.

Question 2 is a genuine question. The asker of that question allows the person being questioned to actually answer it the way they need to. When writing and when explaining this point to people, it feels good to actually ask a question to which a sincere answer can be given.

I was able to eliminate literally hundreds of "not's" out of the book this way. It was easy. The book felt better to read after I did. The conversations felt more open and the characters responded more freely than before. The storyline actually improved with this change alone.

This epiphany really led me to believe that the word "not" is unnecessary in the English language.

I hope you enjoy reading the new, better feeling version of Angel On Board.

Thanks,
EJ

Getting the "NOT" out

Colorado author rewrites her novel to create the most positive book ever written. EJ Thornton took every occurrence of the words ‘no’ and ‘not’ out of her classic story – Angel on Board. By rephrasing common sentences such as ‘Don’t worry’ into ‘Relax,’ and ‘Don’t forget,’ into ‘Remember,’ she completely transformed her original work into an affirmative new creation.

She’s always been keenly aware of the different ‘feel’ words have even when their meanings are essentially the same. Knowing the delivery of the message is as important as the message itself, inspired her to experiment with the novel. The book contains some difficult topics, but it is intended to be a comfort to its readers, so she decided to reduce the stress level of the book by taking out the ‘nots’ and see if she could tell the same, or maybe even a better story.

What started out as an experiment in affirmative language turned into the discovery of astonishing insights such as ‘The word NOT is completely expendable.’ The rephrasing got easier as the work progressed. The 288 page novel had nearly 2000 occurrences of the negative words, but they have all been totally removed.

Worried early on, that the rephrasing might seem contrived, Thornton gave review chapters to people who had read Angel On Board before. They reported back that it was astoundingly better and it even ‘felt’ better to read. Further assured by one reader’s comment, “People rarely miss what’s been omitted,” EJ continued her quest. EJ asked the readers if they could tell where the changes happened, and the readers told her that the changes were seamless.

“The insights were many and quite enlightening about the way we choose words,” EJ says every time she signs one of her books. Because the insights are so rich, she is also making herself available to the speaking circuit to share the positive messages with the public. To find out more about Angel On Board, go to www.AngelOnBoard.com.

A few weeks ago, I had an idea...

I wondered how hard it would be to take all the negative words (or negative languaging) out of my novel Angel On Board.


I’ve been studying the spiritual masters and most disciplines agree that The Universe (God/Spirit/Christ/Higher Power) or whatever label you choose to put on your expression of the supreme being only works for good and the absence of that good is what creates the negative situations in our lives.


So, to say, “I do not want this result.” Translates in the mind of God to “I do want this result.” And as you ask, it is given, so the result is yours.


What I think is really happening is that God communicates with us all and we communicate back most effectively with images, pictures, visions. This is truly the universal language. We use words to conjure up the pictures that actually communicate with supreme being.


I will do separate blogs on some of the reasons I think this – such base words as rejection and safety have so many differing meanings to differing people and even to ourselves, that using words alone to communicate is tough. When we use negative communication, we have to draw the picture, then negate it. But if the picture is what communicates, then the communication will be of the situation, we haven’t replaced it with what we really want.


My problem with negative words stems back to my career as a computer programmer. Computer code was really easy to write using negative logic. So, for the most part, as a strategy for what I wanted, I had to filter out all the negative conditions by naming them specifically. It was the quickest way to do my job, but in retrospect, it was not the best.


I also am dyslexic – which means I think in pictures and before the advent of the international “no” symbol, when ‘no’ finally became a picture, I never saw it in my reading. So I’d always create the image of what was being written about in my head, then skip the word ‘not’ and totally mis-read the book.


Dyslexia, simply put, is visual thinking – most people think verbally – until recently. (The Gift of Dyslexia - by Dr. Ronald Davis) There’s a whole new generation of people who have more visual stimulation early in life, and their brains are developing visually before verbally – and people are labeling them ‘dyslexic’ like that is some kind of problem. It is very literally a huge advantage, because a visual mind can think much faster than a verbal mind.


So, using this definition, I claim that God is dyslexic. That’s a good thing, because no matter what language we speak, we can communicate effectively using visualizations, images and pictures.


Back to my book, what I wanted to do was to write every sentence in the affirmative. I changed all the ‘Don’t worry’ sentences to ‘Relax’ – which actually is a stronger statement. I took out all the no, not, didn’t, wasn’t, couldn’t, shouldn’t, etc. words by rephrasing the sentences they were in.


I learned many amazing things about English language as I did. That’s why I created this blog. First to create awareness of the use of negative languaging, Second to share these epiphanies when I experienced them, Thirdly to challenge everyone to start speaking in the affirmative more often – especially when praying – so that what was communicated to your higher power was more effective.


I hope you enjoy...


And as with all of things I say, you’ll agree with some, disagree with others, so I hope that you can ‘take what you like – and leave the rest.’


EJ – author of Angel On Board, the most positive book on the planet




GreatAngelBooks.com - the best angel book ever written