In September of 2007, I started this blog
with a bit of writing advice. A little over a year later, I discovered how
little I knew about writing after hearing children’s writer, Lin Oliver speak
at a convention hosted by the Minnesota Society of Children’s Book Writers and
Illustrators. Since then, I have shared (with their permission) and applied the
writing wisdom of Lin Oliver, Jack McDevitt, Nathan Bransford, Mike Duran,
Kristine Kathryn Rusch, SL Veihl, Bruce Bethke, and Julie Czerneda. Together
they write in genres broad and deep, and have acted as agents, editors,
publishers, columnists, and teachers. Since then, I figured I’ve got enough
publications now that I can share some of the things I did “right”.
While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make
enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do all of the
professional writers above...someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what
I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a
point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see! Hemingway’s quote
above will now remain unchanged as I work to increase my writing output and
sales! As always, your comments are welcome!
[I am reposting this today because it's still important and it made me think...again. It's less advice to those who read this; more advice to myself as I continue to figure out what I write about and why.]
[I am reposting this today because it's still important and it made me think...again. It's less advice to those who read this; more advice to myself as I continue to figure out what I write about and why.]
A number of years ago, a church my wife and I were going
to encouraged the entire congregation to read and apply the principles
elucidated in a fairly thin, profoundly important book.
Unlike the What Would Jesus Do? movement, which was
inspired by the novel IN HIS STEPS (as well as the concept of Christian Socialism)
and the Prayer of Jabez “fad” which was entirely based on a single verse from I
Chronicles, chapter 4, verse 10 (both of which the church we were in did…),
this was less direction than observation. Doubtless the author, Reggie McNeal
made money from the concept, but his program hasn’t seen near the sweeping
faddishness of the other two. Mostly because it takes critical aim at the Christian
Church as a whole.
Published in 2003 as part of the John Wiley & Sons
Jossey-Bass Leadership Network Series; and after reading it in 2005 and 2009, I
picked up THE PRESENT FUTURE again recently. Sadly, I haven’t noticed any kind
of profound changes in the Christian Church or witness since that time, but I
did stumble across something that might help my writing.
As I’ve said before, I’m striving to create both greater
consistency and more relevance in my stories. I’ve talked about how to create
an ensemble cast, making my stories skinnier, and maybe even agree with myself about
what the theme to my writing will be. Seems every writer I like has some sort
of theme:
Lois McMaster Bujold: “…bias against the disabled,
economic exploitation, and the role of women in society…old-school ideas such
as faith in humanity and the desire to probe and do good in the universe…sheer
humanity of her characters…” (Project MUSE)
Julie Czerneda: “…first contact, xenobiology…” (The
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction)
David Brin: “…the impact on human society of technology
humankind…repairing the world, i.e. people have a duty to make the world a
better place…working to improve the human condition, to increase knowledge, and
to prevent long-term evils…humans as caretakers…importance of laws and legality…do
what common sense dictates as good for all…” (Wikipedia)
Jack McDevitt: “…archaeology or xenoarchaeology…making
first contact…a universe that was once teeming with intelligent life, but
contains only their abandoned artifacts…novels frequently raise questions which
he does not attempt to answer…to puzzle and intrigue his readers…” (Wikipedia)
Anne McCaffery: “strong women protagonists…the problems
of living and gaining career success…” (Wikipedia); “gender, power and politics,
duty and responsibility, tradition and innovation, self and society…family”
(Anne McCaffery Discussion forum)
Michael F. Flynn: education, plans that go awry, how we
interact with dying cultures and react to the new, extraordinary first contact…(deduced
by reading), sometimes Libertarian (Prometheus Award, nominated and won)
Gene Wolfe: “to make [us]…feel cosmic, epic, large…why
human progress may (or seems to be) failing.” (Ultan’s Library)
So what are the things that are important to me? What are
my themes?
Guy Stewart: Education. First contact. Faith in God. How
we interact with very alien thinking and meeting, domestication (see Jared Diamond’s
GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL), technological solution to problems today (wholly
unsuccessful right now); self-sacrifice as a missing component of today’s
society;
So how does this all tie back to reading McNeal’s book?
A few days ago, I read this: “The central act of the Old
Testament is the Exodus, a divine intervention into human history to liberate his
people from oppression and slavery. The decisive act of the New Testament is
the divine intervention of God into human history to liberate his people from
oppression and slavery…In both Old and New Testaments all other mini-dramas and
subplots relate back to this central theme.” (Chapter 1, THE PRESENT FUTURE)
As a Christian (that’s what it says in my banner above!),
how do my themes tie back to the central theme of God?
I don’t know if they do. My published work is
more-or-less silent on God, though in some, I hint that He’s important (“A Pig Tale”,
“Teaching Women to Fly”, “Looking Down on Athena”, “Christmas Tree”, SIMPLE
SCIENCE SERMONS FOR BIG AND LITTLE KIDS, “Test”…) Though Michael F. Flynn’s
work (though I wasn’t reading critically) doesn’t seem to be overtly Christian.
Gene Wolfe’s work is founded on his faith, though, again, it’s not overt.
Others who are agnostic, atheist, humanist (Isaac Asimov springs to mind),
Libertarian (Brin is, by his own definition, “a libertarian’s libertarian”,
oddly enough, he’s only been nominated for the Prometheus award once…),
Buddhist, Muslim, or any other varieties of faith or spiritual belief allow
their beliefs to come out in their writing; so I suppose mine do as well.
What I need to do then, is lay down a clear foundation of
Christianity on which to build my stories of Human/Alien interaction,
education, and self-sacrifice then work to spin the foundation and theme into
saleable works.
“That’s all?” ^raised eyebrow^
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