Writing Religiously by Wil Hough
Have you ever been told after sharing a writing idea, “Forget it. That subject has already been covered. There’s nothing new in it to write about?” I was once advised of that fact when I wanted to submit a travel article on New Orleans. I ignored the advice and was rewarded with my first ever published piece, “Morning, the Other Side of the Quarter.” This holds true of many other subjects as well. Take religion for one.
I was also once told, “We already have 64 books on the subject”—meaning the various books of the Bible—“and we don’t need you writing another.” I see, and there is no controversy involved with what is therein contained. No confusion. No problem with translation. Like everything else, we can trust the experts to get it right. How about something as simple as the number of animals Noah took with him on the Ark? Two of each kind, right? Well, according to the Bible account, God commanded Noah to take with him seven pairs of all “clean” animals and birds of the air. Only the “unclean,” such as pigs, were to be taken in one pair per kind. Check it out in Genesis 7:2-3.
If we can’t get a detail as simple as that right, what about the more complicated issues—not to mention the widely varied religious denominations based upon disagreements both minute and major? There is much fuel for the writer in all this. And fortunately, these days the hierarchical “they” do not stick that fuel under heretical tootsies, except maybe metaphorically. Free publicity, anyone?
A fairly recent example of how a simple concept, forgiveness, can be given new perspective was addressed in the movie Amish Grace. In this story, based upon true events, an Amish community comes to grips with a schoolhouse mass murder/suicide by their non-Amish local milkman.The very meaning of God’s grace comes into question as grieved parents deal with forgiving the one guilty of taking so many of their children from them. It’s a hard story to handle but effective in explaining what grace is all about. In the end, we come to realize that forgiveness has more to do with healing the forgiver than handing out cheap grace to the sinner.
Imagine how the world would be changed if we could all come to grips with that aspect of grace and apply it in our own relationships. Take the word apart—fore- giving: a gift given ahead of time, before the other performs any act of contrition or even asks to be forgiven. Of such is the true value of grace. From disaffected lovers to international terrorism, all issues eventually come back to that one issue—forgiving. When one considers the complex issues preventing us all from getting together and working things out, grace-fullness takes its place as possibly the most important issue any of us can write about.
The best way of getting a point across, as Science Fiction author Robert Heinlein discovered, is to tell a story. Nobody likes to be lectured at, but everyone loves a good yarn. That is why such wildly divergent plot lines as Amish Grace and Avatar (the plot complications of which should be well-known to you by this point) are so effective. As Jesus would say after his parables, “He that hath an ear let him hear.”
So figure out something you’ve stuck away on a shelf because it doesn’t make sense to you. It doesn’t have to be about religion. As author/educator David Pereda points out, “We are so concerned with inventing something new every time out that we don't realize that what we have isn't fully invented yet” (or fully understood or fully explained). Long before that King Solomon stated, “There is nothing new under the sun.” However, the sun doesn’t shine into the hidden cracks and crevices without excavation. So even what we presume to be new may be just another facet of the same old gem.
Flesh out compelling characters with which readers can identify. Then like a capricious deity, drop them into situations designed to knock them out of their comfort zones. Force them to ponder how they would react in a similar conundrum. Don’t bang readers over the head with arguments; seduce them with craft. Even with your issues woven into the fabric of a dynamic story, many readers may not “get it”, but they will still enjoy a good read.
Wil Hough is Poetry Editor and Graphics Editor for Rose & Thorn Journal.
This is an excellent post, thank you! I have a friend who seems to be struggling with his writing right now because of this issue. I think you make some great points here that it's not the subject we right about, but how we tell the story and what that story reveals. We can read 50 different stories about forgiveness, but I think each of them can touch us in different ways, even if it's the same thing essentially being said.
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Ignore my misspelled words. Sigh.
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Great post, very inspiring!
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Especially enjoyed the last paragraph. Nice post. Thank you.
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I love yourcomment about the number of animals on the ark. So many things we only "think" we know.
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