Christian Writers' Reading Challenge Day 28

Welcome to Day 28 of the Christian Writers' Reading Challenge! For the next twelve days, we'll be look at two books on the writing craft, both by Christian authors: Wordsmithy by Douglas Wilson and Beate Not the Poore Desk by Walter Wangerin, Jr.

Here are links to the previous parts of the Challenge, in case you missed it; however, each part can be done as a standalone, as well!

Day 1: Short Works by JRR Tolkien

Days 2-8: Walking on Water by Madeleine L'Engle

Days 9-16: Adorning the Dark by Andrew Peterson

Days 17-25: If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland

Day 26: "On Stories" by CS Lewis

Day 27: "On Fairy Stories" by JRR Tolkien

Days 28-39

Because we are covering two books instead of a single work, the structure of this part of the challenge will be slightly different. There will be fewer Notes for Christians and only one Study Question per chapter.

Quick Guide

Required Material: Wordsmithy by Douglas Wilson (his son, ND Wilson, has written many children's books, including 100 Cupboards) and Beate Not the Poore Desk by Walter Wangerin, Jr.

Reading Guide: You have been given 4 days for Wordsmithy, which is slim and readable and shouldn't take you very long to finish. You have eight for Beate Not the Poore Desk, which is thicker and not quite as straight-forward.

Notes: Now that we've explored the connection between Christ and Art, and delved into the importance of Story itself, it's time to take a look at the nitty-gritty of Craft.

Wordsmithy is very practical and blunt but still fun to read. I suggest you pick up some of the habits within, such as keeping a commonplace book (if you do not already).

Beate Not the Poore Desk will ask some trying questions of you, your work, and your motives, and exposes the power of the written word in a way that helps a Christian understand logos. Like most pieces,we have studied, there are tie-ins to previous readings. Pay attention to Chapter 6, "Naming," and think of Tolkien. In Chapters 7 and 8, reflect on the ethical obligations of the writer. And finally, in Chapter 13, pay attention to the section titled "Risk" and the anecdote about The Book of the Dun Cow. Compare to Niggle's painting in Leaf by Niggle and the mysterious mountains that appeared in the background.

Deep Dive:

As both authors are still alive, there is no burning need for an About the Author.

Hard Words: Both authors use a mature vocabulary, and Wilson in particular has some tips for building a better word-pool of your own. But today, instead of focusing on definitions, I want to look at a singular word you'll encounter in Wangerin's book: Scop.

A scop (pronounced "shop") was an Old English oral poet: He created and recited poetry. Scop finds its origins as a word from the Old High German scapan, 'to create or form,' and ultimately Proto-Germanic skapiz, 'form, order.' Scop is a lingual relative of our modern-day word 'shape.' This etymology alone should you tell you a lot about poets, and Wangerin will elucidate this in Beate Not the Poore Desk. (Etymology is a fascinating field, and anyone interested in language, especially poets and writers, should take at least a brief look into etymology and the history of language.)

Notes for Christians: 

A takeaway point from Wilson's takeaway points: Organize your writing in a way that can be clearly understood. This applies to fiction as well as nonfiction: If you switch POVs in your novel, follow a pattern or at least make the headings clear. If a scop, a poet, one of the earliest raconteurs, is a former and an orderer, then writers should also be concerned with form and order.

Wilson says, "Interesting people are interested people." This is good life advice as well as writing advice. When you genuinely listen to someone else, they like you better and will actually care what you have to say when you say it.

Homework: I'm sure you have a to-be-read list a mile long, and perhaps assigned school readings on top of that, but in your spare moments, peruse the never-ending hoard of books you haven't read and select three to finish over the next three months: One classic, one piece of slightly-more-modern fiction, and one nonfiction.

In Chapter 5 of Wordsmithy, we run into the idea of the sub-creator again, when Wilson admonishes us not to be stingy with our ideas. Fiction writers in particular are worldbuilders, the "gods" of tiny universes--be a responsible creator, and not a stingy one.

Most of us in America (I have heard that other nations are better about this) don't have the fluency required to translate our work into another language. So, in lieu of true translation, here is an amusing activity involving Google Translate (or a similar device). Paste one of your pieces into the translator and switch it to another language. Now take that language-version and translate it to another language. Repeat this process several times, then return to your native language. My brother, who is not a writer, stumbled upon this process as a source of entertainment, and has since created hopelessly garbled translations of comedic stories by friends and I have written. Much is lost in translation, yes, but brilliance is found, including some of the most creative and vivid descriptions I've ever heard: "Dust rose from his face, his black lips fell into a horrible hole, and his dirty yellow teeth were bare." "Her eyes were as green as a fried egg." "Then he starts laughing so hard that tears flow as the sadness changes."

Wilson's first two points are to live a real life and to read widely. His last point is to keep a commonplace book, and write down what you come across in these modes of living and reading. This is an excellent example of structure in nonfiction: The ending ties back to the beginning in a way that pleases the reader's mind, even if the reader can't identify why he is pleased. There are others ways to end a book, but if you're stuck, then the tie-back is as good a fallback position as any.

Wangerin says, "Everything, everything, works together to weave a tapestry clean and whole." This is the second day in a row we've seen a tapestry used as an image of integrity, or, to put in more plainly, consistency. Yesterday Tolkien mentioned a tapestry in the context of God's plan: that we see the messy underside of the tapestry, and not the beauty that God is creating. Here Wangerin talks about how a piece of writing should be: An application of the sub-creator theme.

"The piece, while it is being read, becomes the reader's universe," says Wangerin. As authors, we are creating worlds not just for characters, but for the readers as well, which we must take into consideration as we shape our worlds.

We find cinote similar to scop, in that both are order-makers.

Humility is the highest thing we can strive towards, because we are arrogant by nature--our first sin, as you may recall, stemmed from a longing to be like God (Genesis 3:5-6). Our culture treats "humility" as a state akin to "humiliation," but the two are different: Humiliation is what happens to us if we do not make the conscious choice to be humble. We may be sub-creators, but the prefix, sub, 'under,' matters. We are under God, as powerful as our words' effects may make us feel.

Wangerin compares bad writing to sin, and revision to forgiveness. For those who despise editing (I, for one, love it), this is a good way to frame the revision process: Forgiving your past self for her mistakes.

Wangerin says that in order to write without prejudice (not in the "racist" sense, but in the "pre-judging" of the world around us sense), "we must become strangers in a strange land." Where have we heard this before? The Bible. We are in the world, but not of the world: We have been chosen out of it (John 15:18-19). The Earth is not our home; it's just where we live, though we have become comfortable here over the centuries. In order to write well, we must see the world anew, as if we are not comfortable here and have not seen it before: We must remember that we are strangers.

Study Questions: 

Wordsmithy

    Introduction: Do some etymological digging. What is the difference between wordriht and mot juste?

    1. What is authenticity? How is it achieved? Why should true authenticity be important to Christian writers?

    2. Why are schoolchildren taught to write essays, but not stories?

    3. Why should writers care about the development of words and grammar rules?

    4. What danger does the echo-chamber effect of flattery pose to a writer's craft? Is there a "flattery industry" centered around the genre you prefer to write?

    5. In what ways are self-conceitedness and "safety-net" humility alike?

    6. Why has the past been assumed to be better than the present? In other words, why is the natural assumption that the world is in decline?

    7. Are there any sources from which you have previously thought we should not learn? I don't mean in the sense of bad influences, but in the sense of worn-out, trivial, or lowly sources. Why did you distrust these sources of ideas?

    Conclusion: Why can stability not be achieved in language? How can ideas remain stable when language changes?

Beate Not the Poore Desk

    1. Writers sometimes don't realize when our writing gains a life of its own. How can this be? In other words, how can effect be so far separated from intent?

    2. What role does the reader play in the "creation" or a work of writing?

    3. What could be the unintended effects of the worlds we make? What are we telling readers about our passions? What experiences do we pour into our writing?

    4. Where is the beginning of your story? Where is the end? Could there be better places?

    5. How can we create order in chaos? (This hearkens back to L'Engle's concept of Cosmos from Chaos.) How can we emulate the scop in the Grendel example? How can we use our art to bring comfort to others? (And, is there an inherent tie between comfort and order?)

    6. By what process do you name your characters, if any? Have you named any with the intent of a particular meaning? What is the relationship between Name and Language? Name and Story itself? Name and Order?

    7. In the Wendell Berry quote, what did Berry mean by "straining upward toward the humble"?

    8. In what ways can a story be used properly? In what ways can it be misused? Does misuse always require ill intent? Does Story itself, as whole, follow these patterns?

    9. What is writer's block? Do you agree with Wangerin's assessment of its origins?

    10. What do you tend to read? What sort of writing do you want to do, keeping in mind that value and art are not confined to "literary" writing?

    11. How do your non-writing pursuits shape your literary work?

    12. Look at your current WIP. What are your thesis and antithesis? Have you found the synthesis yet? If so, what is it, and what train of thought brought it about?

    13. What's happening? What is the "voice" of your characters? Do they sound like you? How do different characters in the same story see the same situation differently?

    14. What is the purpose of editing and revision?

    15. How can Christian writers build the network of people necessary to support our writing careers without behaving selfishly or egotistically? How can we point away from ourselves and towards Christ, giving all the glory to God, while still getting agents to believe in our ability and readers to buy our books? (The Young Writer's Workshop is currently doing a course on this topic.)

    16. What was your first attempt at writing on your own time (i.e., not for school)? Do you still have that piece?

That should be enough to you busy for the next twelve days. Come back later, when we'll dive into Bird by Bird, the funny and relatable writing book by Anne Lamott.