More than Writers

Credited to E Langford  Writing for the first of each month, I guess it was highly likely at some stage I’d reference the classic puzzle, ‘What comes first, the chicken or the egg?’  The phrase could be translated for writers as what comes first, the fully formed entity or the embryonic idea. It follows on from my recent posts that have asked what comes first in driving your writing, such as the desire to write or the desire for success. In these posts I mentioned that I wrote myself a ‘commission’ when I was exploring freelance writing in 2002, and this has driven me to revisit it. The original document dedicated my writing to God in response to the exciting opportunities that opened up before me. The commission offered these gifts back to God while also acting as a check and balance as I considered what to say in the public domain. Although the principles are still true, when I read the document, I felt it wasn’t right for where I am now. As I did so, the puzzle above...

Are you sitting uncomfortably? – some Halloween reflections It’s Hallowe’en – have you noticed?! – and this blog month’s has been ongoing almost as long as the marketing lead-up. I know that some of my struggle with this time of year lies in having lived so long in Africa. In the UK we are amused by Hallowe’en paraphernalia: eating cupcakes iced with spooks and gore; trick or treating; scrolling for ‘scary films to cuddle up to’. In stark contrast, in Africa a pumpkin would feed a family for a week and they have a healthy fear of spiders — so why would you decorate with them? Witch-doctors cast spells and people drop dead. The fear around magic is real.  I have always been wary of writing about the supernatural outside of God. Acts 19:19, for example, describes people burning their books on magic, though these would likely have been books of spells, rather than the 1 st century equivalent of Harry Potter. As someone tried to reassure me recently, his powers came out of the love of...

Attrib MIKI Yoshihito (Creative Commons)  As you cannot avoid noticing, today is 31 October, Halloween.  Are you getting spooked up?  If you are hoping to read something about tacky ghosts, black plastic spiders and pumpkins, I suggest you close More Than Writers immediately and move on. You may be enjoying a quick cup of tea/coffee with your phone after spending the weekend making a Halloween costume for your child or grandchild to wear in school today.   It amazes me how educational establishments which pride themselves on being… oh so terribly… secular and too cool to include God in their harvest festival, celebrate Halloween.   What is there to celebrate, exactly? Halloween (or Hallowe’en) is a contraction of ‘All Hallows evening’, the day before All Saints Day (1 November) - not to be confused with All Souls Day on 2 November, when we remember the departed.   The tradition originates from the pre-Christian Celtic festival of Samhai...