Thoughts on writing fiction

A year and a half ago I got back into writing, specifically fantasy and science fiction, and I want to share some thoughts on why I believe in writing fiction and telling good stories.

Stories are a wonderful vehicle to discuss themes or ideas, and it is important to find topics worth examining. If I am to devote 5K, 10K, 100K+ words to an extended monologue with readers I should know what I want to talk about. There are many good themes in the world, and I doubt whatever time I have left on this earth, however long it may be, will allow me the opportunity to but scratch the surface of the topics to be contemplated.

When I have an idea in mind the next step is to decide about how to interact with it. My brother-in-law Caleb, who is a wise storyteller, once said stories should be about asking good questions and not about giving good answers. The more I ruminate upon this idea, the more I agree with this story philosophy. As writers, or storytellers of any medium, we should not be lecturing on what to do, but inspiring people to think for themselves. I can tell a reader my thoughts, but the reader will have little reason to give credence (especially in any lasting fashion) to my opinions unless the reader already shares similar views to my own (in which case I have not evoked anything new within the reader). But if I can make the reader ask questions, perhaps some change can occur. It is wrong to think storytelling gives anything remotely like direct control over others; at best all that can be attained in a meandering influence toward an idea.

 This indirect approach of “asking good questions” provides readers with opportunities for mental engagement rather than passively received entertainment. The fruit from even the mildest of mental wrestling is more appreciated by the reader than anything which is won without contest. I wish to communicate something with the reader, and if I am to devote so much time to this endeavor I want it to have effects lasting beyond mere hours after reading. In several arenas of life I have seen that inductive communication lingers in minds far longer than mere deductive styles; deductive reasoning enabled Holmes to solve the most masterful of crimes, but it did nothing to develop Watson's abilities. 

Is it possible to write a story which spurs another person to ponder or remember the beauty of the world around us? By telling a good story can I evokes a sense of wonder? I believe it is, and this is one of my chief reasons for writing fantasy stories. Even the most fantastical of worlds imagined is only a derivative of our own; I dream of other worlds because this world is so magnificent. When I look at the splendor of creation it cannot help but stir within me the longing to reflective-create; to re-imagine and remake things as I have been created to do. The world is beautiful, life is wonderful, and there is so much truth and splendor to behold.

These are my goals as a writer

Creativity and Agency

I have observed a trend for Christians to have an odd view of creativity, especially whenever it relates to creating something “good.” The phrase “God gave me a [insert creative endeavor here]” is thrown around lot. The heart behind this is good and genuine; God is the Author and Creator, the only Independent One. At the end of the day I am creature, and I am creative solely because I have been made to be creative. We have been created to create; it’s a part of being made in His (the Creator’s) image.  It is good for us to guard against pride and make sure to give God credit, but we can take this logic too far and inadvertently deny God some of the glory He is due.

If God gave me the “cool idea” I had, the poem I wrote, this blog post, did He give me the burrito I made for lunch? Technically the answer is ‘yes.’ Without getting into the details like: money, time, mind, food, we have the fundamental truth that I exist, the world exists, I have hands for folding burritos, and the very concept of burritos all because of God. No God, no burritos. It’s a perk of being Independent; everything else depends upon you.

The reason phrases like “God gave me a …” make me nervous is that it seems to deny any involvement on our part. “I did not write this worship song, God gave it to me” begins to sound

less like cooperative creativity and more like possession; I did not have anything to do with it, God just gave it to me. In truth God does not want worship songs, sermons, paintings, etc. apart from the people who have created them. If God wanted a song to exist He does not need anyone else; He imagined light, He can make a song manifest all by Himself. Rather than using us as some sort of printing press for His awesome ideas, God wants to create with us and through us. God did not need David to have psalms written; God delighted in His relationship with David. Please do not misunderstand this as some denial of the Divine authorship of Scripture, it’s not. God does not love and have a personal relationship with Psalm 119, but He does with David.

The term “agency” used in stories to describe characters who have the ability to effect the plot, and important characters usually have significantly more agency than random extra #8. God, being independent, is the source of all agency. He is also a good storyteller which means He has created us to be more than mere puppets He can manipulate as He sees fit. Relationship with God is not fatalistic or mechanistic; instead God in His goodness has granted me some agency on the world around me. I can create things. For His glory.

Furthermore any demeaning of human creativity denies God some of His glory. Our ability to be creative, to have agency, is one of God’s most glorious creations. We as humans have made a lot of things, we have created machines which would appear to be very fatalistic if one considers the point of view of a toaster; but we have not made something which can itself create. But God has. He alone has, which makes Him pretty awesome and worthy of a lot of glory.

So let us glorify our awesome and Independent Creator by reflecting His creativity with our own.

The Bible is not like Wikipedia

I love Wikipedia. It is among my most frequently visited websites. When I'm bored, have a random question, or want to refresh my knowledge on topics I learn in college, I turn to Wikipedia. It's a beautiful thing.

But the Bible is not like Wikipedia, no matter how often we try to make it so. Here are a few reasons why not:

1. It does not answer our every question. The Bible is a narrative. It has an author and an author's message/story to us telling us what He intends. Selfishly we want the Bible to provide us with an omniscient objective point of view over all of history, which we can evaluate and judge based upon our own understanding. Sorry we don't get to be omniscient, that's just part of finitude. Some questions are left unanswered.

2.  We don't get to edit it to say what we want/think it should say. It edits us.

3.  We have to study it and discover what God was saying and is saying, which means we need to do our homework and be careful. When reading the Bible is all too easy to interpret a passage through my own cultural understanding. The problem is importing my culture, my ideas, my paradigm is inadvertently editorial.

To properly understand scripture we have to understand culture; both our own and that of the original audience. People have always existed within a culture and cultural context. The difficulty for us arises when our own culture is separated from the original author and audience’s culture by, say language and a couple thousand years. To assume that I can read a text written to another audience in another culture at another time, without considering or trying to understand the original author's culture and the original audience's culture is arrogant. There is no book in the Bible written to Tim with his Western 21st Century Post-Enlightenment paradigm, so I guess I will have some studying to do.

But the good news is, the more I learn about the Bible, the context, and the cultures, the richer my understanding of the Bible becomes. I love Jesus, but the more I understand what His words and actions meant in First Century Palestine under Roman oppression, the more I am challenged and inspired. Future posts on some examples to come.

My New Year's Resolution is Learning to Grieve Better (part 2)

This post continues my new year’s resolution of learning to grieve. I began writing about grief with my own grief because it is important first grapple with this before I consider engaging with anyone else’s. If I cannot process my own grief I am likely to be a burden to those around me who are grieving, and there are people around me who are hurting. This world is a broken place, it is inevitable we and people we love will hurt and grieve.

My experience is most of us do not know how to healthily grieve, at least not well enough. I want to learn better how to process life when it is horrific, and I want to be able to help others when they are experiencing the same. In grief, in the midst of our raw emotions, we need each other, and we have the unique opportunity to meet this head on. 

I think it is important we own our grief when it comes; to be willing and comfortable to acknowledge when we are in the agony of grief. We need to also be able to help others acknowledge their grief. In general I find we are really uncomfortable with other’s pain. It makes us very uneasy.

When Emily and I were first married a lesson I had to learn (and am still learning) is that it is okay for Emily to be upset. I cannot always fix the problem. Acting or attempting to resolve the problem and working until I have does not solve the problem. All it accomplishes is make Emily feel unheard, stifled, and controlled by my inability to allow her to be upset. Sometimes we need to be honest and upset, and we need to allow others the freedom to be upset. If this is challenging over minor issues, we know it will be amplified several orders of magnitude with grief.

Well intended words like "everything happens for a reason" and "she's in a better place" are garbage. They help no one. They only speak to someone’s discomfort with another’s grief. Good intentions are nice, but if we are serious about helping others, being there for others, we need to not settle for good intentions. God's Kingdom is not built with good intentions. When we have loss, when we have grief, we need to be honest and process through it. Well intended words invalidate the suffering and grief of others. Doing so harms the person and does not build the Kingdom of God. Emotional suppression is not healthy, and Jesus came so we might be "whole/holy". I do not mean to condemn those who offer up such well meant words, but I do mean to call us to do better and seek to truly help people.

Instead of offering vague words I want to be there. To sit with others in the midst of the storm, when everything sucks, and cry with them. No one wants my empty words. I think honestly the best thing I can offer is my presence. To be there. To listen. If they want to talk we will talk; if they want to sit in silence we will sit in silence. Maybe I can try making food, perhaps I should learn a few casserole recipes to have in my repertoire for when the need arises.

My New Year's Resolution is Learning to Grieve Better (part 1)

This year I have a new year's resolution, and it sounds odd, but I want to learn to grieve better.  Weird right?  It all started at a Christmas Eve service in a cemetery and Christmas day away from family.

I want to learn to grieve well not because I am necessarily poor at it (thought I do have a lot to learn) but because I have found grief to be among life’s guarantees (like taxes and needing to eat food even when I don’t want to).  Grief is nebulous, both in experience and its source.  My greatest experience of grief has been the death of my grandmother, but I am currently experiencing grief for the loss of my native culture and time with family.  It feels odd to admit this and to use the same English word and emotional turmoil to describe these two subjects, but my feelings are probably more indicative of my own immature views of grief than the nature of grief itself.

Grief is not a sign of weakness or unhappiness.  I have been surprised how much I have grieved living in France, especially this holiday season.  I mean we’re living in France!  If this is not a dream life I don’t know what is (and it is an absolute dream), but grief is not mutually exclusive to other emotions.  We humans must give ourselves credit for being complicated enough to feel more than only happy or sad or bored at any one moment in time.  I am coming to terms with the fact a grieving process is part of cultural acclimation.

Beyond grieving for the comfortable and familiar back home, where I can do mundane tasks like buy toilet paper without culture-stress, this holiday season has the added grief of being away from family at a special time of year.  We were visited by all the emotions and memories of Christmas past. 

For Christmas Emily and I spent five days in Salzburg adventuring in castles, cathedrals, and the Christmas market; it was a magical time.  I will always look back fondly upon this unique opportunity.  But we also grieved being away from our families this Christmas.  To help each other Emily and I traded stories of holiday traditions and memories.  While skype (even with a poor internet connection) was a huge blessing, there is no replacement for being physically present with loved-ones and there’s no point in pretending there is.  Such pretending is exactly the thing I want to learn not to do.

So we took time to be sad and allow ourselves and each other to be sad.  There were good reasons to feel so.  All this has me thinking about grief and how I handle my own as well as the grief of others (which I will explore in future blog posts).  I want to ponder and learn about grief this year.