More than Writers

  I might receive some criticism for this blog. Once again, I am thinking about Biblical fiction and how far we should add to scripture (if at all). I understand that ‘Midrash’ is the Hebrew word meaning, ‘putting flesh on the bones.’ So, how much flesh is acceptable? An author may focus on a Bible short story and write a series of books using rampant imagination. They may look at themes of forgiveness and redemption, sin and guilt, etc. I’m not saying it’s wrong. I’m asking, is there a limit? I have read some of the most well-known and perhaps most controversial BF books. One of my favourites was the ‘Left Behind’ series by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye. This 16-book series (I read 13) is a dramatized interpretation of end-times prophecy, depicting a post-rapture world. I now know that it is h eavily based on dispensationalist theology, which isn’t universally accepted. Many assume its portrayal of the Rapture and Tribulation is exactly how the Bible describes it. When I read...

I attended a weekly prayer meeting from 1986, when I invited Jesus into my life, to 2014. It took place every Wednesday at 7.00am. At first, it was in the home of a Christian businessman and was for any Christians in business. I was a self-employed builder and made welcome, especially as I had only been a Christian for a few months. It truly is amazing what happens when we pray, especially corporately. 28 years later that meeting continued but not in the same location. The meeting moved to ‘The Door Youth Project’, a venture that I co-founded in 1991. In 1996, I became the first paid youth worker for the organisation. It was exciting and scary all at the same time and I rapidly set to praying every day. I would start each day in prayer and commit my impossible workload to the Lord. Remarkably, even though I had seemingly wasted time praying, every task and more was achieved, as I learnt to pray into every situation and do things in His strength. Now, I chat away to God in my dail...

  Last month I reflected on motivations that drive our writing . Sometime these goals can seem a bit vague or too far off. As with any destination planning, knowing your route can be helpful. Not least because you can make decisions on how to get there and identify key obstacles to navigate. Writers often need to plan. Novelists may plot the storyline and accommodate any genre guidelines. Short/flash fiction writers may need less preparation but adhere to strict word limits. Poets may experiment with set forms or let the muse loose with free verse, but competitions will have topics or line counts to consider. Sometimes planning means looking a bit further ahead. When a freelance writer, I mostly reported on recent or due local events, writing about what was happening around me. When I speculatively contacted a Christian newspaper to ask if I could submit some articles, the editor offered a commission for a thirteen-week column. However, they also asked for an outline of the art...

  I haven’t done any proper writing over the last two months, too busy doing other things: composing the 31 December More Than Writers post and this post gathering content for a volunteer newsletter for my local Foodbank, and editing it posting on my own blog for the Insecure Writers Support Group trying to integrate Stripe on the ACW website cooking entertaining family uploading images and text on to my church website jotting down my pizza recipe for the church magazine gathering together articles for our own village’s ‘notes’ section, for inclusion in the local community newsletter. No.   Not writing at all.   By my chair I have a folder in which I’m attempting to write planning notes for my next novel.   Have I picked it up even once?   No!   I also have short stories and flash sitting unvisited on my computer, waiting for editing, which are going nowhere, certainly not to any editor.   This is what I call ‘proper writing’ and, assuredly, I am n...

  Stop writing?  Unthinkable.  You couldn't, could you? I blog (on my own blog, Write On ) on the first Wednesday of every month for the Insecure Writers’ Support Group , an American writers’ ‘bloghop’.  In July our optional topic was what – if anything – might persuade us to quit writing. As my computer-related headaches, neck and shoulder pain were giving me particular trouble at that time, I’m afraid my response, ‘Well, now, at this moment, not a lot!  For me, writing hurts.’  However, I received many helpful and supportive replies from the IWSG lot, so here I am, still at it.   Yet, composing that blog post earlier this month got me thinking about what would make – not just me, but any writer – give up writing.   …Apart from computer-related headaches, neck and shoulder pain, commonly known as RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury).   We’ll call that number one.   It affects almost all of us. Lack of success.   Maybe we had set our ...