"Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn't try to write fiction." Flannery O'Connor, "The Nature and Aim of Fiction"
yesterday i may have been somewhat delusional. but did think more on the writing thoughts. mentioned trust and truth, but then more came along.
yesterday:
TRUST - believe in the story and go along for the journey. like any trust issues, the more you write and understand story, the more you can trust the darkened pathways. you'll have more faith to go down them even when you feel fairly blind.
TRUTH -- the strength to tell the story in all it's complexities.
and the new thought:
DISCERNMENT -- when faced with truth, you must go back over it with a discerning eye. we all withhold truths at times. we should, we must.
would you tell the elderly neighbor who brings you cookies that her cookies taste like dog snacks (and yes, i might know what dog snacks taste like)?
we can all think of a dozen examples where discernment calmed a truth.
in writing, too much truth can drown a reader without discernment. i've read stories like this, and i felt demolished by the end. the story disappeared beneath the terrible events or the character's nature. story should never disappear! i've also read novels where the writer chickened out and didn't stay true to the characters or the story itself. story should never be diluted!
trying to learn discernment is basically impossible. it's all fairly abstract. maybe i need to also add INSTINCT to the mix. instinct helps with each of these and a stronger instinct is attained by reading and reading and more reading, not trash, by reading great fiction.
GRAHAM GREENE is an author who comes to mind with a great balance of truth and discernment in his writing. THE END OF THE AFFAIR and THE POWER AND THE GLORY are two of his fabulous classics that i've read. THE COMEDIANS is waiting.
would love thoughts on this.
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4 comments:
wow! never thought of it in this way. very true!
Cindy,
I've loved your thoughts on this. I have often thought about the juxtaposition of truth and grace because my husband and I are like mascots for each, and balance each other out as such!:)
I believe that zeal without knowledge is destructive, truth without grace is too.
One of the passagess in the Bible that's caught my attention in this regard is John 1:14-17. It talks about Jesus Christ being grace and truth who dwelled among us. And it talks about how the law came as truth, but Jesus came as GRACE and truth. And therin lies the difference! We can pellet people with truth, whether verbally or through our stories, but it is when grace is shimmering over and above that truth that it will be something more than destructive.
Just as the law made people feel helpless and hopeless, so often does truth today, unless it's tempered with grace.
Akk. Do I sound preachy here? I don't mean to. I guess what you said just really resonates with me. We need to use discernment, and understand that truth can be a sledgehammer that destroys when it's held in unloving, undiscerning, ungrace-filled hands!
I love this blog and the comments so far, Cindy. I have to agree that grace is the key ingredient. I've come to believe that grace is the under girding for everything in life. To be given any truth without grace is to not really be given truth.
Here's what I mean. You can tell a person that need to be like Christ and they can spend the rest of their life living in guilt, beating themselves up because they are not good enough. Or, you can say, God will give you the grace to become like Christ as you focus on Him and get to know Him and a person can learn that sanctification is a process that is possible because the job is God's and the response is theirs, not the other way around.
As a writer there are many times I feel totally inadequate for the task. I fear I can't find the truth, don't have the discernment, and struggle to trust that my story will become all it can be. I think I would have given up if God hadn't given me this thought early on--a quote from Dwight Edwards, author of Revolution Within. "My inadequacies aren't all there is to me, within me there resides God's very nature of love, compassion, boldness, and wisdom and this is actually more central to who I am than any of my shortcomings."
I don't think I can make myself trust enough to be a writer. But, I believe God, in His patient and determined way, is proving His trustworthiness to me and promising me that the Holy Spirit is my teacher and He WILL teach me what I need to know.
A while back I had to submit my first character synopsis for a book proposal. It really stretched me and I was very intimidated. As I asked God about it He showed me through a scripture I read that He knew all the inner workings of my characters and would reveal them to me.
Sorry. Didn't mean to run on and on . . . just feeling this journey with you. Trying to trust when I panic, and learning to lean hard on the Lord when I know I'm way over my head.
What amazing comments gals! It reminds me too of the quote I use at the opening of THE SALT GARDEN, "I write as a pilgrim, qualified only by my craving for grace." Philip Yancey in WHAT'S SO AMAZING ABOUT GRACE (one of my nonfiction favorite books).
I just love hearing from each of you, you should see my smile!
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