Meet our Members . CWD Member Interview – Shane Brigg

Each Thursday in 2018 we will be interviewing one of the members of Christian Writers Downunder – to find out a little bit more about them and their writing/editing goals.

Today we interview Shane Brigg.

Shane Brigg enjoys good coffee, chats and a walk with friends and family

BOOKS MUSIC MOVIES PLACES and PEOPLE

Question 1: Tells us three things about who you are and where you come from.

In our bedhead we have a bookshelf. Beside my mind all night long I have the key influential books of my life. It is as if the ink comes to life each night in my resting and dreams and visions and scoping for the day ahead. A little book with a faded cover is here. My Side of the Mountain by Jean George. I first read it as a young boy who loved nature, wanting to find my way in the world and seeking to know the Creator. I grew up in South East Queensland. My Mum and Dad instilled in me a love of nature.  I remember hours exploring the creeks and forests near our home. Perhaps this is what lead me to study Environmental Science. I love bushwalking, gardening, walks along our coastline and noticing the wonders of the world. This has not only meant exploring and studying wild valleys, forests, swamps, caves, mountains, deserts, animals, plants and landscapes worldwide. It has meant stepping through the open doors, gateways, arches, and homes full of human life in towns and cities across our globe.   I have an intense passion for the things of creation but particularly for the humanity our Creator died for to reveal His love.  

Adventuring in Life and Nature. Shane on top of Mount Cooroora

I love people. All sorts of people. Those environmental studies lead me into discovering more about humanity as anthropology and sociology was offered to me. Assignment work amongst homeless young people living on the streets of Brisbane, ministry amongst Indigenous communities, leading teams cross culturally into South East Asia have punctuated my journey.  A song that has become a theme for my life is “Rose Coloured Stain Glass Windows” by Petra.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahcvBSbdces&t=14s

When I first heard it, it moved me so much I cried. For me it was the story of my passion for seeing what I had discovered of a saviour who had stepped out of His position to save me and the world around me, and He wanted his people to do the same. Go into the world. Reveal His love. That is what defines me. I am a Chaplain of one of the largest schools in Queensland. Loving families from all walks of life. We live in the University of the Sunshine Coast precinct. Here our missional community reflects the more than 40 Nations represented. Each week we connect personally with dozens of new friends from many different tribes, many of whom are only just realising that the Creator is real and loves them intensely. We are blessed to call them family.

Connecting with International Students inspires a global depth to Shane's Writing 

Question 2: Tell us about your writing (or editing/illustrating etc).  What do you write and why?

My writing reflects all this framework. I write about and for people. My writing expresses the needs these populations have. Most of my writing happens because it must. Communicating happenings, helps, honest musings and happy celebrations. Things like articles produced in magazines, school newsletters, newspapers, online platforms are a regular happening for me. Academic writing, helping students, training, resources for learning, coaching, empowering ministry tools are also prime to my writing.

More creative pursuits provide a personal outlet for me. I have several projects concurrently underway that many of the aforementioned writings take pre-eminence over due to real time constrictions. And yet a Trilogy that I started some 33 years ago continues to take shape. It started as random writings that seemed to come together miraculously and now has a reasoned synopsis, powerful authentic characters, and situations that are reflective of my own life journey expressed as a fictional pre-dystopian narrative. Other projects include a young adult Graphic Novel, a fun Aussie school-based reader for junior primary, and a fantasy novel that delves into the principles highlighted in the book of Ephesians. I have also written scripts and screenplays, with storyboarding and artwork to compliment.

Creating Narratives with a Challenge in mind for Young People

Question 3: Who has read your work? Who would you like to read it?

The primary audiences for what I have written have been those within the communities I have the honour of serving as Pastor, bible college lecturer, Chaplain, and friend. Students, families, readerships across entire regions in newspapers, our families of faith, deliberate, opportune and often nonintentional audiences. I look forward to watching how publishing my major creative works can impact lives as they are read by the young adults and children they are aimed at.

Question 4: Tell us something about your process. What challenges do you face? What helps you the most?

Much of my creative work is an expression of occurrences and real-life situations I have encountered. They are a sort of journaling on my behalf. But I write through the lenses of my key characters in a fictional world.  I am inspired by the works of Stephen Lawhead, Tolkien and various adventure and fantasy sci fi writers. Movies such as Blade Runner, Hacksaw Ridge, Lord of the Rings, Blood Diamond, and They Killed My Father motivate me to write to themes that move people to action. 

Creative Journaling is a foundation for Shane's Writing.
My Son Vietnam.

  

Question 5: What is your favourite Writing Craft Book and why?

I do not have a favourite writing craft book, but a major premise I gained from a book about

CS Lewis’s writing style has been very liberating. Truth does not have to be factual. What this means is that often Truth is discovered in unreal settings. For example, Aslan in CS Lewis’s writings is not a real entity but holds Truths about Christ. He is not a tame Lion.

Question 6: If you were to give a shout-out to a CWD author, writer, editor or illustrator – who would they be?

I have been blessed to reconnect recently with Nola Passmore. When I was ministering at the Uni she was lecturer at in the 1990’s, we prayed together with a group of academics, started a forum for students we called Catalyst, and now I am blessed to have her inspiring my journey as a writer. http://www.thewriteflourish.com.au/

Question 7: What are your writing goals for 2018? How will you achieve them?

The main goal I have is to create the structural framework around each of my works so that much of what is (at the moment) in handwritten form can be easily transferred into a digital format. I have about 3 archive boxes of handwritten material. sigh.

Question 8: How does your faith impact and shape your writing?

My faith journey is dynamically (if not overtly) reflected in everything I write. I aim to write from a point of authenticity and passion. I hope the love I have discovered in our Creator is revealed in humble expressions that bring my characters, plots, teachings and inspirations to life. Family is vitally important in my faith journey. Our own family is a huge inspiration. The family that we embrace within our faith journey brings light into a world that needs the brilliance of the Saviour’s love. This has a vital influence on my writing too.

Shane's Family. 

Not Seeing Clearly

Can you see anything else in this sunrise picture other than water and sunlight?

Did I when I took the photo? It was taken a while ago so I can’t remember. But a friend who had been looking at the photos pointed out to me the cross that is formed by the sunlight on the water. ‘It would be a good cover for a book,’ she said.

 I agreed and though it would have been a perfect cover for the devotional/ bible commentary manuscript I wrote tentatively titled A Day at a Time. Sadly the publisher I sent it to has elected to change direction and is no longer taking devotional manuscripts.

‘Okay,’ so you might say ‘send it elsewhere.’

Sounds good in theory but to date it hasn’t happened.  Why? Is it a case of too many other health issues happening with husband and family? Or am I just over the whole writing and trying to get published business? Only time will tell. But at the moment writing and submitting has come to a stop.

Meanwhile I am just thinking how easy it is to over look what is obvious to others.  When I look around us at the beauty of this place God has brought us to I am amazed that people can look at it and not see the hand of the Creator behind it.

 

 

To believe all this beauty just happened by accident takes more of a leap that it does to believe in a loving Creator who made it all.

 

I’ve also been thinking recently about the wonders of modern science and medicine. Since he seemed to feel his eyesight was getting worse, my husband went to the optometrist. Not only did he need a new glasses, the optometrist picked up that he had a hole in his macula. After being sent to a specialist and then an eye surgeon, they both agreed it was likely that it could be repaired successfully. Pretty amazing eh? This is an operation that has only been able to be done in the last twenty years. Again I thought how can people not see that  mighty Creator is behind the way people are able to come up with such creative ideas of mending what was years ago a major problem. 

The operation went ahead. My husband came home the next day and is now in the recovery period.  It appears the op has gone well, though he is not allowed to drive yet. His eye still feels as though he is ’looking through a bubble,’ he said. Sadly, that’s the way some people look at life, through a bubble, only a bubble of scepticism and unbelief. Though the evidence is right there in front of their eyes they refuse to believe in a God who created people in His own image and gave them the abilities to be able to think and reason and create. Is it any wonder people have been able to do the amazing things they do in medicine and science as well as other creative areas like art and literature and so forth?

Before I become too critical of others for what they don’t see, it made me wonder what I don’t see. Maybe God is trying to tell me something about writing at the moment? Maybe he wants me to give up? Or it could be he wants me to change direction? Or simply to persist? I don’t know the answer.  To date I am just not seeing it.  Or not seeing clearly. Only asking God to make His Will clear and then keeping alert for His answer is the way to whether I will get back into writing or not. And if I do, exactly what should I be writing? Maybe it’s a case of having to wait for His answer on that one too?

Have you ever had occasion where you were tempted to give up or have not seen clearly what to do and had to wait for God’s answer? We’d love to hear about it.

Dale writes fiction, poetry and children’s fiction, and has written bible studies and Sunday school lessons. More information about Dale can be found at www.daleharcombe.com or on her Write and Read with Dale blog http://www.livejournal.com/users/orangedale/

 

 

 

CREATIVITY IN THE IMAGE OF THE CREATOR

Where does a writer’s urge to create come from? While many answers are possible, I can’t help but wonder whether one factor is that we have been created in God’s image—and God is the ultimate creator.¹

Most of us in this group seem to be fiction writers, and we assume that fiction requires more creativity than non-fiction. Having tried my hand at both, I’d say this is true. However, writing non-fiction still requires creativity: as a minimum, it involves communicating information in a new way (if it didn’t, it would be plagiarism). Decisions must still be made about structure, grammar, etc. Ergo, all writing is creative: it involves bringing into being something that didn’t exist previously.

Obviously there’s more ways for people to create than through writing. However, with a bit of dodgy exposition, we can make a tongue-in-cheek case that writers are closest to God in this regard because of their chosen medium. Everything God created was created through the Word (John 1:1–3); everything we create is created through the word. Of course, the Biblical concept of logos (‘word’) is not to be taken too literally, so this parallel is little more than a play on words (so to speak).

While considering the parallel between God’s creativity and ours, we might bravely ponder whether God’s creation is fiction or non-fiction. For centuries, philosophers have been arguing about whether everything is actually real; ie, true and therefore non-fiction. I feel that the creation is real in the sense that (in my opinion) it exists—yet I also feel that it is artificial in the sense that God’s realm, to which we aspire in eternal life, will allow us to see things as they really are (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:12).

In addition to having the desire and ability to create, God derives satisfaction from the results of his creative efforts; eg, ‘And God saw that it was good.’ (Genesis 1:10). This, too, is reflected in the writers’ experience. I’m reminded of a quote from Gloria Steinem: ‘I do not like to write—I like to have written.’. On a bad day, I know what she means! (Presumably God didn’t have any bad days and enjoyed the process as much as the product.)

Obviously, Christians are not the only ones who desire to write, or to create in general. However, I don’t think this observation invalidates my hypothesis, since all people are created in God’s image. Hopefully, as Christians, we are more in tune with that image and more desirous of aspiring to it.

So, next time you put finger to keyboard to create, perhaps you could derive some satisfaction from the thought that you’re reflecting God’s image.

Footnote

1. I’m not meaning to imply anything about the processes that God may, or may not, have used to effect his acts of creation. I’m only assuming that, as Christians, we believe God to be the ultimate cause.

Peter McLennan
http://writer.catplace.net