Is Writing Too Hard?

I’ve bemoaned our lack of reading in the past, but lately my musings have morphed into why we don’t have more active Apostolic writers.

Classroom Chat
Today’s discussion in our World Literature class took an unexpected turn. My students are of the opinion that contemporary literature in the canon has minimized the emphasis on plot. Today we all expressed appreciation for the many plot events that take place in a single book of Homer's Odyssey and how a text that old can be such a page-turner. Compare that or anything in the epic tradition to contemporary fiction, and it seems that we’ve shifted away from plot-driven fiction to character-driven fiction.

While talking about why characters and their dynamics are such key factors, we discussed the qualities of a protagonist. I noted that historically the criteria for protagonists required that the character undergo a change throughout the course of the work. We reviewed the literature that we’ve read in class and came up with several characters who changed for the worse, but it was hard to identify characters who experienced positive change. The Faulkner we read, for instance, chronicles the demise of a family; our Latin American piece dealt with corruption. I postulated that much of our canonical literature was written as a form of social protest or critique, and so it naturally requires highlighting a problem and showing the bad qualities of a person or group of people. And isn’t it easy to identify negative or bad qualities around us and detail those?

And Then I Asked the Converse
Me: “So why is it so hard to write about the good qualities of people?”
Class: [quiet, introspective looks]
Me: [Drawing upon Kent Curry’s recent session at Pentecostal Writer’s Institute] “Why don’t we have more Christians writing about faith and hope and joy and peace? Why don’t we have an Apostolic winning the Pulitzer? Forget the Pulitzer, why don’t we have Apostolics getting published?”
Student on front row: “Because we’re lazy.”

And There You Have It
I have to admit it gave me pause. I admitted in class that it was a factor, but it’s not something I like to think about. Are we really lazy, or is writing that hard? Or both?

An Experiment
Recently I offered all three of my English classes bonus points for writing a 750 word short story about a character experiencing God at church. Of my 57 students, only 2 turned in a story. Now, I have to remind myself that we’ve had music conference and preview weekend back to back. It’s now time for finals and students are running on three and four hours of sleep, if that. But I was still a little surprised. Perhaps I should chalk it up to students being too busy, maybe I didn’t offer enough bonus for the amount of work, or maybe the idea of writing a story just sounds too hard period.

Hitting Too Close to Home
While wondering at my students’ lack of participation, I had to remind myself that my creative writing habits are about as disciplined as the path of a bottle rocket. When it comes down to it, is that the missing link that keeps us from making Apostolic writing an agent of change?

We have to recognize that writing is truly a calling, and not everyone is called to do it. But for those who are, it requires a level of work, discipline, and constant learning that is almost inhuman. And we simply must do it.

Recognition from Our Fellowship
I believe as our movement grows and we begin pioneering new creative ministries, our own church climate is more open to the possibility of writing. Recently a guest minister in our church was encouraging us to get active in the Kingdom. He started a sentence about God wanting to use people and went through the standard list of traditional church roles (singing, teaching Sunday school, etc.) but ended with "If some of you would start writing, you would be amazed at what would come out." Wow! First time I've ever heard a preacher acknowledge the ministry of writing in a church service. Cool. It’s time.

Most Recent Book I've Started: The Quiet American by Graham Greene