A Riff on Writing

It is certainly no longer the anniversary of D-Day, and I got some inspiration for a subject on which to post. This blog is styled the Author's Corner, and I figure that I ought to write about writing some time. And why not now? :-)

Writing is a uniquely scrutinized field (along with acting and political speechmaking) because, unlike a shipwright or a software designer, an author's work is not only widely distributed--if he's blessed with popularity, anyway--but also a large window into his own worldview. This is not to demean any other profession, and not to say that any product of work is not an expression of one's worldview. If Dan Brown had been a software engineer, though, his programs might cause consumers headaches, but they would not have the potential to lead anyone astray. Communication of any kind can be a powerful tool, and an author is someone who, for one reason or another, wants to make a job out of communicating his opinions and his imagination through the written word. A respected author can consequently have a lot of influence for good or ill.

This is a wonderful opportunity for the Christian author, but also a great responsibility. As humble readers of the Word of God, we can be confident that we are imitators of the best possible example. But even comic book superheroes know that "with great power comes great responsibility." Winsome writing and good craft is not enough, just as eloquence is not sufficient for a pastor. A good writer will strive to write well, but he will also, and much more importantly, have something good to write about. He will recognize that style is useless without good content; unless the foundation for a compelling novel or a persuasive essay is as near the solid truth as he can get, then the finished product is a well-painted and well-packaged piece of junk (a bit like the Xbox). Not only must there be content; there must be good content as well. The core worldview in an author's work must be as close as to Biblical truth, and therefore to the truth of the real world, as he can by God's grace make it. This requires a commitment to theological humility, studying the Scriptures, and living out one's beliefs, for a good writer is not a hypocritical one.

One need not have a college degree or an encyclopedic knowledge of Shakespeare to write well. The Apostle Peter probably had no knowledge of The Iliad or The Epic of Gilgamesh, but he certainly managed to turn out some pretty fine letters. There is a difference, however, between amassing intellectual knowledge and being a good thinker. No one should let his mind stay lazy, and this is certainly true for a writer. If you want to speak truth to the world, to address many complex issues in your writing, to challenge or even astonish your readers with the philosophy you hold up in opposition to the vain philosophies of the world, that takes work. Language is a metaphor for thought, so it should make sense that it is useless to try to write well before having thought well. One only need listen to a few political speeches to hear what it sounds like to speak interestingly, authoritatively, sometimes even persuasively about nothing much.

I suspect it's common for people to wonder exactly what one wants to accomplish as an author. That's not a bad question, really, if you are considering an author as only a craftsman of words. But an author is also a bit of a lay theologian, a philosopher, an historian, a grammarian, a linguist, a psychologist, a sociologist, a political analyst, a scientist, and a mathematician--at least some of these--if he wishes to write widely and well. Writing draws on a host of fields, so a good author is an eager learner and a thorough researcher. And above all he must be a humble recipient of the Truth that will inform how we weave stories and change minds in the world. It is my hope that all who write, whether vocationally or as part of some other job, will be able to look back on their work decades from now and be able to say, I am not ashamed of what I have written. If men's minds have been changed by it, they have been changed for the better.