Never say never, by Chris Lynch of Green Pastures Christian Writers

This is my first time writing a blog. On a recent creative writing retreat led by Jane Walters, I learnt about ACW, which filled me with excitement, and I joined. I’ve written stories since I was a child – obviously something in me needed to be expressed in written form. I have journalled for years, what I used to call a ‘daily diary’, though journalling sounds more mysterious.

My first story was about a foal called Chad, written as if I was Chad. I knew that as I got older, I would have to learn more about punctuation and the craft of writing to be able to update my story. However, I never finished it. I did start another one a couple of years later, still with a horse theme as I was horse crazy, but didn’t finish that one either! Fourteen years ago, I tried again and whilst on the writing retreat picked it up again from my memory and starting rewriting it and have continued since I came back home. I don’t think it will be able to grow big enough to be a novel but it is good practice for my imagination to grow some wings.

Now I seem to have really got the bug! I have written about eight short stories, which is really strange as I don’t actually like reading short stories! But I have found these springing from some characters and situations that I have read in the Bible, bringing some of the stories to life in a new way. I have been really encouraged as I have shared these short stories with friends, Christian and non-Christian, and have had positive feedback about how they impacted them. I feel this is maybe something that could be used to make those parables and other stories become more real and life-like to a bigger audience of people.

I find myself really desiring to write and get published, and equally thinking that I will never be able to get through the process without a good enough story. But if there is something I have learned in my life it is that challenges arrive to be overcome, and it is part of life’s lesson to learn how to move forward through difficulty and disappointment and try again. My motto in life is ‘Never say never!’, therefore I will continue on this writing journey and see where God leads me.