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Anything we read for pleasure we read because it interests us. One would think, since this is so, that the first question any young writer would ask himself, when he’s trying to decide what to write, would be “What can I think of that’s interesting?” Oddly enough, that is not a very usual first question; in fact, when one points out to young writers that it might be, they often react with surprise.  – “The Art of Fiction” by John Gardner
Continue reading “How Do You Decide What to Write?”

Last week I did something I never thought I’d do: with some help from our Amish friend Rebecca, I butchered five of our chickens. The whole time I was thinking about ways that butchering chickens is like writing – sounds strange, I know. Here are a few of them: Continue reading “Five Writing Lessons I Learned From Butchering Chickens”

Jason,

As usual, just about every single one of your sentences could lead us on a long rabbit trail of enjoyable discussion. Here are a few things that jumped out at me:

You wrote that “All Christians assume the Bible is the Word of God because the Bible says so…” Two things regarding this: first of all, recent surveys show that a shockingly low number of Christians believe the Bible to be the inerrant word of God. Continue reading “Some Thoughts On Yesterday’s “Email From a Christian in Exile””

When I first met Jason, he had long curly hair and had already wallpapered his dorm room with Bob Marley posters. We couldn’t have been more different – he was a free spirit, a wild child, and I was pretty much a rule follower. But there was always something that drew me to him, some familiarity, like finding a long-lost brother (maybe it was simply the fact that we were born on the same day).

Our spiritual journeys have probably matched our exteriors: the free spirit and the rule follower. Yet the old familiarity remains, and our quests for truth, while often taking separate roads, criss cross with incredible regularity.

I once asked him, “Jay, are you a Buddhist or what?”

“No,” he said. “I’m a Christian in exile.”
Continue reading “Emails From a Christian in Exile: Today’s Christianity is Man Made”

Today’s guest post is brought to you by Brenda Boitson, a wonderful writer and lovely person. Today she writes about her main writing project, a story that began with her husbands diagnosis with cancer.

In July 2008 my husband told me I needed to tell our story, to write it down and share it. He told me this while laying in a hospital bed. I began writing our story soon after he died. I would spend hours at the local cafe crying over my chai and netbook. The words poured out of me.
Continue reading “When Your Dream Emerges From a Nightmare”

One of the most important things you can remember when it comes to writing is this:
Continue reading “When Someone Tells You It’s Not Good Enough”