What difference does being a Christian make to the task and craft of writing? I was left pondering this after Mark Tredinnick’s keynote address at Saturday’s Faithful Writer conference.
Mark is an author, poet and writing teacher, and his book for aspiring writers (The Little Red Writing Book) is the best I’ve read (and I’ve read quite a few). Mark doesn’t describe himself as a ‘man of faith’, and we knew that when we invited him to speak. We wanted him to teach us about writing, not about Christianity. And so he did. His talk and workshop were full of illuminating and useful ideas about the craft of writing, obviously gleaned from many hard hours at his desk. It was eye-opening, instructive and inspiring.
All the same, I couldn’t help being struck by the different worldview we bring to the task of writing as Christians. For Mark, the writing itself is the thing. The telling, as he told us, is more important than the tale, the journey more important than the destination. It’s the writing itself that draws up meaning and significance and value, like fish from deep water.
The idea that there might be an answer or truth from outside—something that is given to us, which we receive and proclaim—hardly fits with the modern (or postmodern) worldview. In a world without an absolute, writing is not a vehicle for the explication and application of truth, but a constant searching. The writing becomes both end and means.
Mark was quite brilliant in pointing out how a degree of ‘faith’ is required to write anything at all, and in showing how us ‘faithfulness’ to the craft of writing is also necessary. But for us as Christians, there is an additional and determinative ‘faithfulness’—to the Creator who wrote our world, who is the author of our history, and whose final chapter is Jesus Christ.
Thanks for the update Tony. Did you know Mark from back in the UNSW days?
I found it really interesting in the the “Little Red Book
” that he not only said ‘writing is the thing’ but also ‘the style of writing is the thing’. He really followed in Orwell’s footsteps in arguing that a clear use of language is itself a very significant social and political act.
What do you think?
Amen.
Hi Mikey
No I hadn’t met Mark before Saturday (although we had chatted on the phone about the conference).
Like Mark, I appreciate what Orwell says in his famous essay about politics and the English language (you can read Orwell’s essay here incidentally). Words are powerful, and they can be used to cloak and deceive as much as to reveal. The challenge Orwell brings to us (and which Mark also emphasized strongly on Saturday) was the struggle to be CLEAR, to say what you mean to say, nothing more or less, in the way that only you can say it. Stock language, familiar phrases, convoluted constructions, cliche—these are like a fall of snow on our prose, says Orwell, leaving only the barest outline, and concealing what really lies beneath. The politician does this deliberately to avoid having to state the truth; we sometimes do it inadvertently through haste or ignorance, to the detriment of our communication of the truth.
I think our goal is like Paul’s in 1 Cor 4—the open, clear statement of the truth.
TP
While I did not attend the Faithful Writer’s conference this year and I have not read the book spoken of I agree with Tony’s view that the story is much more important than the journey. I’m a published Christian author. My new book “The Flame of Heaven” will be published soon. What I discovered while writing Christian ‘fiction’ is that it can only ever be ‘fictionalized’ reality. While scenes and characters may be fantastical there is an element of timlessness, changelessness and eternity in what Christians write into their stories. Having said that, there is also a sense in which the logic or momentum of a story is its very own. Just because our world view is timeless at heart it doesn’t mean our stories become static or banal. On the contrary because of the gospels relevance to every person in every age, it remains relevant, though the ‘voice’ and narrative that drives the story might change and the new social arrangments that Chrisitans face might be different from before,the essential message does not change and neither does our faithfulness to that message and this is what makes Christian fiction exciting. it is not just a rehashing of the psiirt of the age, but a working in of the truth into sometimes very perverted realities.
I find it a common thing these days in this postmodern world for people to say things like a journey (e.g. the writing process) is more important that the destination (the finished writing product). That seems enough for the non-Christian but it seems to beg the quesiton about why anyone would embark on a journey in the first place if the destination doesn’t matter. Would someone sit on a train simply because they want to enjoy being on one? Ten times out of ten, in my own experience, people want to get on a train and invest emotional energy in a journey if they actually reach a destination. That’s what makes the whole thing worthwhile!
If I were to embark on a trek through the Tasmanian wilderness for 8 days, almost breaking the limits of my body and patience I’d really want to get somewhere at the end of it! Why wouldn’t anyone want the same thing from writing? And what better a destination to reach than to use one’s gifts to glorify and honour the one who gave us those gifts in the first place?
It seems that the Christian writer is going in a more purposeful, meaningful direction than the non-Christians of our age, who seem lost meandering in a sojourn.
Hi everyone,
I find myself not really wanting to write this; partially wondering whether I should but actually more afraid of what might happen if I don’t.
I went to the Faithful Writer’s Conference on Saturday. I enjoyed much of it and got a lot out of it in some ways.
But I must admit to being deeply troubled at the format of the conference. The Keynote speaker was not a Christian (recall, it was called ‘The Faithful Writer’). His worldview was profoundly unChristian and was not critiqued at the conference, nor in any material given before it as far as I’m aware.
I suspect many at the conference have heard a great deal about writing from the world’s perspective, and if they hadn’t, they would know where to go to get it. But its much harder to find a Christian perspective on writing creatively. I personally would have found it more helpful to have had a keynote speaker who was a Christian who had been to one of Mark’s masterclasses and passed on the gold and critiqued the approach.
I think the biggest concern I had was with what was assumed – a Christian worldview. Although I can’t recall the exact quote, it reminds me of the maxim that says the gospel is preached in the first generation, assumed in the second and denied in the third.
For that reason I couldn’t help but be troubled by the approach taken at ‘The Faithful Writer’s conference.
Sincrely
Peter
PS – I think having a Christian master writer would have been more helpful too in the ‘pratical’ section in the afternoon where Mark was eager to challenge any cliche, but not being part of the Christian scene, did not challenge the Christian cliches that he read because he wasn’t used to them. The end result was to make all the other bits of writing sound terrific, and the theological parts sound tired and boring.
I would like to add a comment to Peter Collier’s concerns about having the keynote speaker at the ‘The Faithful Writer’ not having a Christian perspective on writing. I found Mark Tredinnick’s talk on writing interesting and inspiring but it was the session on ‘Children’s Writing’, led by Trevor Cairney, that was challenging and spoke to the heart and soul of my writing. We discussed how the story of Jesus can be revealed in children’s fantasy books – whether it be explicit or implicit – but how the narrative of the gospel should be the theme of our writing. Trevor left us with the poignant question – what would you like the children (your readers) to come away with? A view of hopefulness in a world under God’s control or lead them into hopelessness with no mention of God or salvation? This is the message about writing that I walked away with from the conference. Respect still to Mark because of his knowledge of writing styles and skills but as it was a Christian writing conference I hope that other attendees found some discourse on Christian writing and not just writing… Rachel Reitsma.
Hi Pete
Thanks for the thoughtful comments, and don’t even feel slightly bad about making them.
A few comments:
1. One of the main bits of feedback we received from last year’s FW conference was that the Christian reflections on writing were really useful, but that more practical help on the craft of writing would have been beneficial. This year, we decided to tilt the balance more towards the practical. (When I say ‘we’, I should clarify that I’m on the FW organizing committee.)
2. Theologically, I think this was a good thing to do. In terms of how writing itself works—the mechanics of the craft—I don’t think there is ‘Christian’ writing any more than there is Christian woodwork or Christian mathematics. In God’s creation, things work a certain way, and you don’t always have to be a Christian to get very good at working them. So getting some input from someone who is not a Christian, but is a very good teacher of the craft of writing, was (I think) not only a right thing to do, but a smart thing to do. We really wanted to stretch the FW delegates to work hard at the craft, at the nuts and bolts of written communication. Mark was an excellent person to lead us in this.
3. Of course, Christians will bring certain purposes and moral norms to their writing (hence my post on the difference a Christian worldview makes). There may not be ‘Christian writing’ but there will ‘Christians writing’. Most of the 2007 conference was taken up with thinking about what it means for Christians to be writing. This year, we focused more on the writing.
4. Given the time constraints of the day, our hope was that the practical elements of the day (led by Mark) would be framed by Trevor’s brief opening address on Christians and writing, and the afternoon seminars (which focused more on the different genres or uses of writing that Christians engage in). Looking back over the day, I think we could have had something more substantial upfront about the theology of Christians and writing, including an explanation of why we had asked a non-Christian writing teacher to lead much of the day. A closing reflection/summation that brought us back to the Bible, and reflected on the content of the day, would also have been useful I think.
Hope that helps to explain where we were coming, and what we were trying to achieve.
TP