Not the Droids We're Looking For

 by Rebekah Robinson

Tick the box: I’M NOT A ROBOT. Identify the pictures with traffic lights or what-have-you. Grimace, or grin, according to the day. Think fondly of C-3PO and rather less fondly of Hal 9000.

Image: Rawpixel|iStock

These days, it’s getting harder and harder to tell fact from fiction. Bots sound like us now. I had two almost identical-sounding conversations with ‘Sharon’ on my phone before it occurred to me to ask, ‘Wait, wait, Sharon … are you a bot?’ The reply I got was extremely huffy: ‘I am a Digital Assistant!’ (Clippy at least never rang us up repeatedly to talk about solar!)

Not only that, but world events are the stuff of fantasy, and grimdark, at that. On the author front, people are now feeding bits of very old manuscripts to the Beast to see if it cries ‘Plagiarised!’ And — you guessed it — it sometimes does! Who knew Mary Shelley was secretly using ChatGPT in 1818?

For a very interesting, slightly heartbreaking, but ultimately helpful article on proving your from-scratch authorship, you might find this relevant.

(Yes, yes, Beck, we’re all very outraged about AI, stealing our fun, our voices, our work. Where are you going with this?) ←Hat-tip to the mighty Ruth Bonetti for this technique!

Do you remember the grunge/deconstruction phase of the 90s? All the glamorous excesses of the 80s were eschewed in favour of dressing down, gritty music, drilling fiercely to find the authentic. My prediction is that the current surfeit of airbrushed unrealism will soon wane in popularity against an upsurge in appreciation for the artisanal and the genuine.

This is especially relevant to writers because we are artisans. We take language and make it dance. We are not auto-tuned. We are the coalface of art, bespoke and irreplaceable. The Bible tells us our very hairs are numbered.* Science tells us our fingerprints — even those of twins — are unique.

Further, the presence of God is always supposed to be carried on the shoulders of humans. From the time He manifested His presence between the cherubim of the Ark to the incredible privilege of having Him live inside each redeemed heart, He has always wanted to include us in what He is doing. A cart won’t cut it. An answering machine won’t cut it. And so no matter how correct-sounding a sermon written by an LLM might be, it cannot by itself impart life. That is something God Himself does, and He seems to enjoy doing it through us. The Gospel is and always has been incarnational. He became one of us to invite us to become one with Him.

Within the scope of what God does on the earth, He calls us into community. Across our millions, we can do even greater works that He did rolling 12 deep.* Even in shopping, there's something about great customer service which far outstrips ‘Add to Cart.’ This goes double for writing stories that amaze and inspire, and interacting with people who are searching for connection to the Lord.

Your testimony matters, and so does your fictional narrative idea, and so does your gift of insight. Now and then, perhaps, we reinvent the wheel; but the wheel must be reinvented every generation. You might have noticed this in church songs: yesterday’s I See the Lord becomes today’s You Are Holy. Jesus, Just the Mention goes through What a Beautiful Name and comes out at Jesus, Be the Name. Each iteration of each great truth carries the flame of the Lord and the flavour of today's firebrand. All the glory is the Lord’s, but He stoops to share the joy with us.

AI will never replace or command the presence of God, and it will never be a substitute for the fellowship of believers. Trust Him — He knows what He’s doing. Remain at your post and stay the course, ‘for God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.’*

Rebekah Robinson loves God and people, and writes about Christian living. A missionaries’ daughter, she was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, and lives in Brisbane, Australia. She and her husband have two adult children. Freelancing as a graphic designer specialising in books, she enjoys singing, songwriting and worship leading, and may have a slight digital scrapbooking addiction.

Beck's Website . Facebook

Tell Me More!

 by Anusha Atukorala

One day, not long ago, I turned to a friend for prayer. What I needed was someone who listened, asked a question or two to know more and then prayed for me. My friend, let’s call her Simone – did do what I asked for and I was grateful. But … she talked. Too much! The instant I shared my prayer request and before I could finish, she began sharing similar situations in her life – which in truth, had little bearing in my own. She meant well and I did appreciate her praying for me. However … she didn’t understand my need - she made invalid assumptions without first listening.

Simone didn’t understand what caring for a friend means in the fullest sense. Which is … talking less and listening more. Talking less and praying more. She in fact taught me what I needed to do, if a friend approached me for prayer. Not to talk more or make assumptions. But simply to listen. And then to say ‘Tell me more!’ Isn’t that what friendship and caring are about? Seeking to learn more about another in order to support them well! Psychologists talk of curiosity being important in a relationship. I prefer the word 'interest’ rather than curiosity. When someone is interested in another’s feelings or life or experiences, it helps. Tell me more! Three words that can make a difference.

 

A good listener, draws out another by an attitude of ‘Tell me more’ even if she doesn’t mouth the words. And of course … a good writer answers the question ‘Tell me more’ that’s asked by an interested reader. There are books and books. Some books I can leave aside. Others I can’t put down. Tell me more, I cry in my reader’s heart as I turn the pages swiftly and read more. I’m eager to get to the end of the story but also don’t want to reach the finale, because I am enjoying it too much! Have you been there? It’s a great feeling is it not, (despite it being a conundrum)!

 

Writing a best seller that draws readers wanting more, is a writer’s dream come true. These days, sadly I can’t get to the library as often as I used to (it used to be once a week – now, it’s more like once in a few months due to my ill health), so I check the writers whose books I’ve greatly enjoyed and put more of theirs on hold – then ask my beloved to pick them up for me on his weekly trip to the library. My unspoken question then towards each of these gifted writers is ‘Tell me more’! If one of their novels was an exceptional read, their other books too are sure to be enjoyable.

You know, it blesses me deeply when a friend says ‘So tell me more. What is it like to live with chronic fatigue?’ Or ‘It must be so difficult for you, not having the energy to do basic tasks. Tell me about it?’ But few people realise that it’s a way of helping me and others with chronic illness. I know that it’s not that they don’t care, it’s just that they have not experienced the challenges and don’t realise the power of being heard. People are often fixers – they want to fix broken things. But when broken things cannot be fixed ... listening is a way of fixing what cannot be fixed.

Tell me more! Three little words that can bless another. My beloved blesses me often by letting me vent and complain when I have unbearable pain or debilitating fatigue. After I share – even just one sentence, I feel so much better. And then I can move ahead to be more positive.

 

In our experiences with others as believers, we can bless them through our attitude ‘Tell me more.’ Do we instead formulate responses in our head about what we’d say in response, even before our friend stops speaking? I’m sure we are all guilty of it. And what of our walk as believers? ‘Dear Jesus, do tell me more’,  should be our heart’s spiritual posture every day. Last year, when my church Bible study group studied ‘Learning to discern God’s Voice’ – a powerful study by Priscilla Shirer, we were asked to list a few questions of what we hoped to hear from God.

 

A question I asked God that He answered most fully was: Who are you God? He responded to it in amazing ways, not once, not twice but many many times over. I learnt so much about Him that I hadn’t known before. It made me realise that God wants us to seek Him and know Him better and better. So here’s a challenge for all us. Let’s learn to write so well, that readers will say ‘I want more. Tell me more’. Let’s learn to listen to others with a stance of ‘Tell me more about your joys and sorrows. I am listening’. And in our spiritual lives, let’s have an attitude of seeking and finding God in full measure.

 

And now dear listener, dear reader, dear writer, dear friend. 

Here is my question today: 

“Tell me more about yourself. What are your own hopes and dreams? Tell me more! I am listening.”

Anusha’s been on many interesting detours in life, as a lab technician, a computer programmer, a full time Mum, a full time volunteer, a charity director, a full time job chaser, until one golden day (or was it a dark moonless night?) God tapped her on her shoulder and called her to write for Him. She has never recovered from the joy it brought her. She loves to see others enjoying life with Jesus and does her mite to hurry the process in her world through her writing and through her life. The goodness of God is her theme song through each season, as she dances in the rain with Jesus.

 

Her first book Enjoying the Journey contains 75 little God stories that will bring you closer to your Creator. Her 2^nd book ‘Dancing in the Rain’ brings you hope and comfort for life’s soggy seasons. Her 3rd book, ‘Sharing the Journey’ is a sequel to 'Enjoying the Journey'.

 

Do drop in on her two websites to say G’day! She’d love to connect with you.

Dancing in the Rain 

Light in the Darkness

Lessons from Ghostwriting a Book

 by Charis Joy Jackson 

 

Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash          

The past few years, I’ve dedicated my skills to ghostwriting a book for some friends. Their life is amazing and it’s been a privilege to be a part of seeing their story told. 

From the get-go, I was clear with them that I’d never ghostwritten a thing before, but shared a few samples of my work: articles, blogs, a sci-fi short story or two. On paper, it didn’t make sense for me to take on the project, but I’m so glad they were willing to take the risk with me. 

Just this last week, I passed the project back to them. We have a complete book and we’re close to the next phase — publishing. 

All of us were learning as we went, so hopefully you can learn from my mistakes.

THE LINGO

Learn how they talk. If you’re about to start a ghostwriting project or just want your WIP characters to sound like unique individuals it’s important to differentiate between how you would say something and how they would say it. 

Early on, I’d ask investigative questions like, “How did that make you feel?” or “Were you scared?” I was often bemused by the answer because it wasn’t what I was looking for to make them relatable to the reader. 

It wasn’t until Easter of that first year, when I was sitting at the table with their whole family, that I realised why we were missing each other. One of their family members made a joke about being the only “feeler” in the family, and something clicked. 

I am by nature, very emotive, I am a “feeler.” Much of my language is around feeling words, my friends are not. They are genuinely loving and caring people, but their language and thought process doesn’t come from a baseline of feeling. I started paying more attention to how they spoke about difficult situations. My language would’ve been, “It was really painful”, their’s was, “It was tough” or “it was hard”. 

The more I paid attention to these small changes the more I was able to write from their genuine perspective.

REGULAR COMMUNICATION

In those early months, when I was recording their stories, regular communication and meetings were a natural part of the process, and some of my favourite moments. There I sat, gleaning from their incredible adventures, and I had the privilege of interrupting at any point to ask more details. What did it look like? What were you thinking then? And now that I knew better, was that tough?

As the slow trudge of transcription and puzzling the book together took over, the meetings slowed. I don’t think any of us knew what we’d discus if we met. It’d have just been a lot of, “Yup, so I’m transcribing this section and writing out this story.” Looking back, I wish this had been more of a steady rhythm for two reasons.

Reason One: To pray for the book and the process
Reason Two: Just to keep us all focused

As the months turned into a year, the book slipped from our main focus a few times. There were health issues among other things that slowed the process down. If we’d met on a monthly basis to pray, I’m convinced we’d have kept the book more front and centre.

LOGISTICS PART ONE

Oh the logistics! I’ve put this into two parts because there’s much to consider when working on a project of this scale. As, I’ve mentioned, there was a lot of transcription. I recorded those early meetings on my phone’s Voice Notes. 

When recording those meetings, it took me a while to figure out how best to label them, and how to transcribe them. There are many online platforms that will transcribe meetings for you, but I wanted to do it the long way. It helped me really sit in their story.

At first, I would sit with my phone and let it play a few seconds, pause it and then type what I’d just heard. This was VERY tedious. Then, a wonderful friend told me about this cool program that you used with a peddle. Some of you may be familiar with the type. The one I used was called Express Scribe Transcription Software. It did cost some money, but it was well worth it. 

Once your recording was uploaded into the program with a push of the peddle at your feet, you can play, reverse or fast forward. I don’t know why, but it made me feel (there goes my emotive language) very official and cool. 

Yes, I am a nerd. 

It cut the transcription time in half if not more and allowed me to soak in the stories more than just passing the process off to an online AI transcription platform, which if I’m honest, I’m not comfortable using anyway. 

LOGISTICS PART TWO

Once I began to have scenes and chapters for my friends to look over, it became a bit of a juggle to find the best way forward. At first, I was sending word documents but then we were getting lost in too many files of the same chapters. Or emails were lost.

Our workplace used Outlook, so then we changed to online sharable files. I’m sure Outlook is a blessing for many, but I loathe it. In my few years of using it, emails went missing, files didn’t actually show up right … I’m just not a fan. Neither were my friends, so I suggested we move everything over to Google Docs and try the process there. 

This worked much better for all of us, but in the processes we were losing some of their edits because we hadn’t fully established turning on “Suggesting” aka Track Changes. A few chapters were such a slow process for me to incorporate back into the original Scrivener project that if it had been a race with a snail, well, let’s just say, I wouldn’t have won! 

Still, once we started really working with it, things got better and communication around edits became clearer. In the end, we got the project there. 

 

ONE LAST THING ...

If I ever tackle another ghostwriting project, these tools will definitely help me for the future. Who knows, maybe some of them can be helpful for you too, even if you’re not doing a ghostwriting project. Using what I learned for “The Lingo” can definitely help build a strong voice for characters, and when looking for an editor, maybe some of my mistakes with logistics can be something you avoid, at least that’s my hope. 

I’ll end with this, whether you’re writing non-fiction or the next epic fantasy, who do you have praying for your work? 

I’ll never forget being up in Toowoomba, for the Omega Writers Conference, sitting with lovely writerly friends, when one of them said, “Tell me what you’re writing, and I’ll tell you what you’re struggling with internally.” 

This prophetic woman was so right.

At the time, I’d been writing a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and my MC, Averie was struggling with forgiveness. The theme of my take on the fairytale was, can you forgive even the worst offenders? And, lo and behold, I was struggling to forgive some people in my life. 

What an eye-opener and, for me, all the more reason why it’s good to cover our projects with prayer. This ghostwriting project has come with hurdles and I was able to find the energy to get over them with the help of a wee group of friends who’ve prayed at every step of the process. 

Why not reach out to a few friends and see if they’d pray for your WIP? And then, get typing!

Happy writing all!

______________________________________

 

Charis Joy Jackson
 

Substack, Instagram, Facebook, Website

 

Home is one island or another. Sometimes on a collection of Isles (Hawaii), once on a GIANT one (Australia), & now on the quaint Island of the Mighty, aka Britain. 

 

 

I potter, I film things, & I write. 

At the heart of it all, I am a Storyteller.