This Side of the Pulpit » Entries tagged with "writing"
Signs from God?
I had a bad time writing the other day. It was late afternoon, I had a few moments of quiet and tried to write a little on a project I am working on and immediately got stymied. Stuck. Like mud. No, more like quicksand with a bunch of fifth-graders laughing at me. It was really bad. No more than an hour later a friend confided that he was meeting someone in the industry to talk about … Read entire article »
Filed under: Personal, Theology, Writing&Books
Communication Tip #1
When you speak, make sure you are saying what you mean to say. If not, say it. The same goes for writing: know what you want to say, then say it. Subtlety and nuance are for literary criticism classes at self-important Universities. Furthermore, if you mean to say something nice and the other person gets mad, chances are you didn’t say what you meant. Go back while you have a chance and say it. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Uncategorized
Saturday Night Oops
Sometimes on Saturday night about this time your pastor will take a look at his sermon and think, “This is really not very good.” It happened to me about fifteen minutes ago, and I am stewing a bit. I really wanted this one to be good, and I’m afraid I tried too hard. Tried to be subtle instead of saying what a I want to say. But it’s late, and I have family in town, staying at our home, and Sunday morning is is already beating its way around the Earth. So I will look at the sermon a few more times and try not to gag, and go tomorrow and preach it. Just preach it. The difference ten years makes is I will not re-write it, at least much. I will not let … Read entire article »
Filed under: Theology, Writing&Books
Outlining and Sermons
Yesterday I discussed my WIP (work-in-progress) and what I discovered about writing fiction. But since many of you come here from a theological or religion direction, how does this relate to sermon writing? For me, I’ve discovered that outlining fiction and outlining a sermon is essentially the same approach. I write sermons doing my textual analysis and research, my liturgical study, the sitz-im-leben of the congregation and community and our life together (basic sermon study) on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Sometimes these days it is low-key, rather informal, with a lot of it happening from memory or in worship planning, or while driving around town. As that comes together, I plan out “phases” in the sermon, or scenes, if you will. What will it look, feel, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Theology
Outlining and Writing
Well, my Great Idea of updated daily hasn’t quite worked out. Silly me. I’m 2000 words behind in my National Novel Writing Month project, but I’m now consistently 2000 words behind and writing everyday (again), so I’m not worried. I’ve learned something about writing fiction: I planned out the first 18000 words in scenes/phases, roughly approximating to 2-3 pages each. But that is all I had planned before November 1 shocked us all at his early arrival. Now I am past that point and sitting to write is very, very hard. I’m trying to develop the first major plot point (which should have been written about 6000 words ago) and fighting through all that, making it up as I go along is not very easy. Some writers write like that. Some just “go … Read entire article »
Filed under: Writing&Books
Tools and Toolishness
So, Scrivener for Windows was just released. Scrivener is a writing program for Macs which is immensely popular and used by hundreds of published authors. Since I use Windows machines, I’ve been out of luck to even look see what it looks like until last night. But I’m impressed. The Windows version is “early Beta” which means I discovered several bugs already, and the final release is not planned until January or February, but even at that, it is a nice piece of software. I’ve also tried using Liquid Story Binder, which is very cool…in an everything-including-the-kitchen-sink-kind-of-way, but which is not as well loved or used (Sorry, Jesse, it’s true). Mostly I’ve used, though, is a combination of Word and Microsoft Onenote to keep track of characters and events and outlines. Onenote … Read entire article »
Filed under: Theology, Writing&Books
Noah’s Frog
The day that Noah accidentally stepped on a frog and had nearly been crucified by the enraged eighth graders had turned sour by lunch. It was 1:15, and while eighth graders didn’t get recess-it was a kid thing-they did have blacktop time” after lunch, when they would mill about in small groups, talking with each other, flirting with each other, and otherwise acting awkward and out of place, trying to be cool. And failing. It … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Fiction & Art
Getting to Know the Protagonist
I had my editor (Marjorie) read my short story I was all ready to post here. It’s not quite ready for prime time, sadly. So instead of a story, I thought I’d post about writing stories. I’m working on a supernatural YA novel right now. It’s about a boy who finds himself caught up in a conspiracy of aliens (or what might be aliens) trying to gain a foothold in our world. He’s got a McGuffin* that they need and is on the run with a neighbor girl. But I found myself having a problem with the main character. I really didn’t know him well enough, and feared that he was a cloudy mish-mash of myself and a childhood friend at best and a cloudy ball of cliches at worse. To make … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Writing&Books
Right-Brained Insomnia and Convalescence
It was one of the those nights you long for the sun to rise. I was hopped up on 10 mg of Lortab after my nasal septoplasty, and being jarred awake at every lash of rain against the french doors and crack of thunder. The storms drifted in and out and around Enid all night. Around 1:30 I was awake and on a creative binge. I thought of this blog re-design, that all ten of you have no doubt already discovered. Don’t worry, I cheated and used a template again–don’t give me too much credit. I also began mentally exploring my main character for next month’s National Novel Writing Month. It will be told in the first-person I decided–the first time I’m attempting that. I’m not going to give too much away yet, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Writing&Books
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