More than Writers

Our characters become a part of us Having shelved the novel for the past few months, I picked it up yesterday and started reading it. Before long, I began restructuring sentences and swapping words in and out, correcting grammar - you know the type of thing us writers spend forever doing. (I’m assuming there will come a time when I have to say – that’s enough! No more changes – send it to the publisher!) However, what struck me most was how much I’d missed my characters. They are extremely important to me and I care about each and every one of them no matter whether they have a main or a bit part in the overall story. I know so much about them, often far more than I divulge to the reader. I know their strengths, their weaknesses, their nasty habits, their dreams and aspirations, their purpose. All of them have a past and all of them are on a journey. This must be the closest I’ll ever get to playing God. Wow! What a parallel! Is this how God, our creator feels about each on...

Many of the beautiful NASA heritage pictures from deep space, such as this one of The Keyhole Nebula, could be used to illustrate this reimagining of Job 38. The glorious ‘ Creation’ passage of Job 38. v4ff was written with the Bible-times knowledge of the Cosmos. This reimagining tries to express how it might have been written with today’s insights into deep space and the cosmos. (I am indebted to Prof Tom McLeish of Durham University for bringing the Job passage to attention in a recent public lecture in Cambridge, UK and thereby sparking this idea. This passage is further explored in his book ‘Faith and Wisdom in Science') Re-imagining Job 38. 4ff Where were you when I gave birth to the universe; when my Wisdom called forth particles from the womb of the cosmic void and seeded them into the realm of existence? Who marked off its dimensions and form and let matter prevail over anti-matter? On what were its footings set or who provoked its mighty expan...

Numinous Loth Lorien - (Bracknell Forest, in the common speech) The power of the how This week, I was made aware of the importance of how we say things – tone and style, not  only words – by being involved in a discussion about a blog addressing would-be writers. Then, I heard this: We have lost the numinous… must people deride the spirituality of religion? I quote from memory, having scribbled down in haste after hearing Radio 3’s morning programme. The speaker, last week’s mid-morning interviewee with Rob Cowen, declared herself someone who had nothing to do with ‘religion’ and expressed the view that in our society, we have passed the point of being religious.  However, she added, we do need ‘the numinous’ and pointed to Buddhism, and the Quakers, where she thought this could still be found. A fairly widely held view. Her statements interested me. They demonstrate how the words we use and the attitudes as we speak combine to convey an attitude. Us...