Through the Maze

By Mazzy Adams

As a child, I loved working my way through fun activity books, ones with colour-by-numbers or dot-to-dots. 

If I followed the instructions, a completed picture would emerge. Seeing my efforts come to fruition was such a thrill.

My all-time favourites were the MAZES! Helping Fido find his bone, or helping the lost bunny find his way home was more than fun; it was satisfying. I confess I rigorously planned the route in my head before my pencil touched the page, so I wouldn’t end up drawing messy detours.

Those fun activities reinforced important life lessons, like the wisdom of following directions, the blessing of assisting others, and the value of planning. All of these principles have helped me negotiate life with satisfaction and some success. They inform my efforts and habits as a writer, as, no doubt, they do yours.  

Writing, like many of life’s activities, can be fun, but it is not always child’s play. At times, connecting the dots is complicated and messy. Putting the ‘right’ colours in the ‘right’ places doesn’t always work out, especially when numbers are missing, or your green felt-pen runs dry halfway through the leaves. Fido bites your finger on the way to his bone. Or, like Alice in Wonderland, you chase the bunny and fall down a rabbit hole into a whole world of confusing encounters and unexpected challenges.

When it comes to life’s mazes, some walls are so high, planning the route is impossible. Dead ends leave you backtracking, or stuck in a corner, puzzled, stunned, confused and exhausted. Where’s the fun in that?

Over the last year, I’ve had plenty to hinder my writing progress. Just two weeks after I had major surgery, I broke my wrist and spent the following four or five months stuck in a corner, healing slowly. I struggled to link the simplest of thoughts together and the big picture eluded me completely. 

I found myself thinking thoughts like … I don’t have to write. No-one’s making me. I could just … stop.

Then again, where’s the fun in that?

Writing may not be child’s play, but it does bring joy and satisfaction. Writing creates images with words. It orders our thinking and colours our world. It helps us connect the dots when it comes to important issues of life, faith, purpose and destiny. Writing helps us make sense of the journey, keeps us on track and moves us forward. When we write right, we help our readers enjoy these things too.   

  

I’m grateful that my body is healing and ideas are flowing again. I've been able to review my novel with fresh eyes and a fresh perspective. I've actually enjoyed giving it an overhaul. Although the messiness of life hindered my progress and satisfaction for a time, it also gave me breathing space, and permission to go easy on myself for a while. Most importantly, it reminded me that writing truly is worthwhile. And ... it’s fun!

Mazzy Adams is a published author of poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction. She has a passion for words, pictures and the positive potential in people. 

Website: www.mazzyadams.com 

Email: maz@mazzyadams.com

Keep on Writing

I was getting ready to leave for the Omega Writer’s Conference in October when I saw it - a call for submmissions for a Children’s Picture Book Writing Competition. They were looking for “creative, winsome charming picture books that help parents instill an open-hearted, transformational, lifelong Christian faith in their children”. I did like the sound of that. Better still, the first prize was $5000.00. Whew! Not an amount to be sneezed at. There were no entrance fees either. I knew I must give it a go when I returned from conference.

Would it herald my big writing moment?

A week later, I came back refreshed and revitalised after a fabulous time in Sydney, having caught up up with those of like minds, learning an abundance of writerly wisdom, being inspired by people and places and best of all, filled with God’s joy. Unfortunately, as it often occurs, a week of intense fibro pain and weariness followed my energetic week away, so it was only a few days before that all important deadline that I had sufficient energy to sit down to create my story.

My dear friend Melissa popped in on the Friday before and spotted our family's pet giraffe (yes, he’s alive …or so we like to think). She suggested I write a story about Raffy - what a brilliant idea! The day before the story had to be submitted, I sat at my computer, concentrating hard. It took hours to craft and refine my award winning picture book. The next day was a busy one. My body felt weak and weary but I persevered, working also on my author bio and the story’s synopsis. Finally, close to midnight and exhausted, I was ready to send in my three documents. Just before I pressed the submit button, the competition’s terms and conditions popped up.

It was then my dream was shattered - a crystal vase smashed into a million shards.

The very first clause had my mouth open, while my jaw dropped a few kilometres downwards. Apparently, the competition was open only to US residents. I could have cried. I’d read the competition details many times over—but for some reason this vital fact had not been publicised. I could hardly believe it. How foolish I'd been!

I wonder what your writing year has been like. Was it filled with instant success, millions of books sold, a plethora of fan mail, TV appearances, a bulging bank balance and a celebrity lifestyle? If you are like many of us Christian writers, you are presently plodding away on your current story, a few drops of hope glistening in your heart, but perhaps also a wee bit discouraged about those writing dreams yet to be fulfilled.

In a few weeks, the curtain will fall on 2016 and we will be left with our memories of the past year. Whatever it brought you in your writing sphere and whatever the future holds for you, let me ask you three questions:

1. Has God called you to write for Him?
2. Have you strived to walk with Him?
3. Have you sought to be obedient to His call?

If you answered ‘yes’ to all three questions, let me shake your hand. Let me celebrate with you. Success for us comes not from the world’s yardstick of accomplishment. It’s simply getting up each morning and doing all that God calls us to do. Persevering. Learning from failure. Not giving up. Perhaps like me you've made a few blunders? No matter - God can redeem them all. He's good at that! So permit any discouragement to fly out of your window like a captive pigeon set free. Congratulate yourself for all the writing you’ve done these past 12 months. Celebrate your conquests with a smile. And let your heart be quick to hear the sound of God’s ‘Well done’.

And now ... put on your writer’s shimmering cloak of joy.
And Keep On Writing.

“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:13-14


Anusha Atukorala is a writer and speaker with music in her heart and a message to proclaim. The abundant love of a faithful God is her theme song. God’s call to writing in 2007 led Anusha on a Grand Adventure which continues to surprise and thrill her. Anusha loves to build the body of Christ and to encourage others through the written and spoken word. Her first book ‘Enjoying the Journey’ is comprised of 75 little God stories. She has twelve short stories published in Anthologies and plenty more books in the pipeline. Do drop in to say G’day at her website Dancing in the Rain. She’d love to meet you.

Exploring the Tangible Terrible & the Magical, Mystical Mystery

By Charis Joy Jackson  

 

"If we discover a desire within us that nothing in this world can satisfy, also we should begin to wonder if perhaps we were created for another world."

-C.S. Lewis

The first time I found this quote, by one of my favorite authors, I longed for some portal that would transport me to this other world I knew I was really created for.

Could I be like Lucy Pevensie and step into some magical wardrobe where all the Daughters of Eve were revealed in their true form to be Princesses and Queens? Where could I find the ship that would carry me to the shores of Middle Earth or Faerie?

My desire for this other world was so strong I decided to start breaking it down. What was it about those places that seemed more real than this place called Earth?

Here's some of the things I learned...

The Terrible Tangible

We have so carefully wrapped ourselves up in dreams and bubbles. We've shut the world out and live safely behind hidden screens of computers, TV and video games.

None of these things are wrong in proportion, but when most of our lives consist of us hiding behind these things we forget how to interact with the world outside our door.

We fear like Bilbo or Frodo Baggins that once we step onto the Road there's no knowing where we will be swept away.

Strangely enough, this is exactly what excites us about Narnia, Middle Earth and Faerie.

There's nothing to hide behind in those worlds. In those worlds the protagonist is forced to deal with the terrible tangible they find themselves in. Their fingernails are caked with dirt, the laugh lines on their faces are smudged with grime that won't come away.

To me this sounds beautiful and terrible. Terrible in the "totally awesome" sense. However, stick me in the middle of the forest and I'll start freaking out about all the little bugs that happen to cross my path. This is mostly because I like many others, spend a lot of my time, hiding behind the computer or TV.

I want this to change. I want to embrace life around me.

I want to get dirty.

Cultural Wells

Another vast difference I've seen about these other worlds is their traditions and the deep wells of culture that permeate every part of life.

Living in this modern time things like Common Sense are not common anymore. We live in an age where we can do what we want, when we want and we don't have to worry about how it will affect anyone else.

We get tattoos for the sake of getting a tattoo, we pierce our ears because everyone else is getting their ears pierced. We have trends that last for a moment and then we're forced to keep up with the newest and latest thing.

Unfortunately, these things sometimes mean the depth of our culture is lost. Why else does this current generation go looking for typewriters or old books, or suitcases from the 1920's?

We are searching for the depth of our culture, because what we have today only lasts for a moment. We're the microwave generation and demand everything now.

But, in these other worlds things take time- sometimes years.

People in these worlds still get tattoos, but they're given with a purpose. They're used to identify who they are or the call they have on their lives. People in these worlds still get piercings, but it's done for the sake of the life they lead.

Common Sense not only exists, but there's also the unspoken Rules of Conduct. Like the Welcome Cup, which whether you like the person or not, you will offer to them, because of common courtesy.

Men in these stories care more about honor than their own lives.

Have we fallen short of something key to our society in this?

Journey = Story, not Blip

When I look at people traveling in these other worlds it takes time to get anywhere.

With modern conveniences of cars and planes, our stories have started to lose some of their depth because we count those times in the car or on planes as the blip in the timeline, instead of counting them as big parts of the story.

If we counted the journey of Frodo and Sam as the blip to when they get to Mount Doom so much of their story would be gone and Sam's love and sacrifice would lose almost all of it's poignancy and depth.

So maybe our story is really in the journey and not the destination.

Magical, Mystical Mystery

I think one of the things I love more than anything is the Great Mystery permeating these stories.

Only in fantasy is it possible for many people to experience that magical mystery of a Creator, or Someone higher than them.

It's through these stories that we see more of what Love looks like in the flesh.

Aslan is a perfect example of this. Aslan is full of Majesty. He screams of mystery and magic. With one breath he turns stone into living flesh, with one growl he can scare the most evil witch. Even the massive water god waits for a small nod of approval from him before the god can wreck havoc on the bridge that's stopped its flow.

And the more you get to know him, the bigger he becomes because we can comprehend more about him.

Perhaps there is something about the idea of Magic that helps us come a little closer to the One who created us all. It's almost like magic opens a hidden door for us to experience more of His character.

My words fail me for the perfect description of the awesome, raw, amazingness of His Mystical Mysterious Self.

There's so much I could say about Fantasy awakening in us something unique, but I will leave you with this quote and let you mull if over for yourself. For if I gave you all the answers, then there would be no adventure and thrill of discovery for yourself. Not that I have it all figured out myself...

"...Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it..."

-Jeremiah 6:16 

Charis Joy Jackson is working as a missionary with Youth With a Mission (YWAM) a non-profit organization & is part of The Initiative Production Company, an independent film company. Where she gets to make movies for a living.

She loves creating stories & is currently writing a novel in her spare time, which she hopes to publish in the next year.

Here's to a life lived in awe & wonder.  Welcome to the adventure.
 

www.charisjoyjackson.com

WHAT I’VE LEARNED ABOUT WRITING…..SO FAR…….

I have tried to distill what I have learnt into five areas. I’ll be interested to see if it is the same for you?

1. PASSIONATE IDEA; Whatever you write about it must grip you. In writing “Broken Pottery – the life of an African girl” it was something I felt compelled by the Holy Spirit to do as I watched these beautiful girls and women suffer physically and emotionally. How could one not be moved to hope with them as they sought a cure for their fistulas created by a difficult childbirth and then enter into their joy when they found healing. My hope and prayer is that through reading my fictional account it may bring some help to these women. See my website for more information. www.JenniferAnn.info

2. START; Even though you can be convinced you should write it can be difficult to start. It may take months or even years to think about a storyline but at some point one has to brush aside interruptions and determinedly put pen to paper. My litmus test for this stage was to ask myself,

“At the age of 90 will I look back at my life and totally regret the fact that I did not “have a go” and see what God may have wanted to do with not just the book but with my being obedient to Him?” The answer was always a resounding “yes”.

3. TRUST; The problem with writing a book, even one you know God wants you to write, you can still feel unsure if it is any good. Most authors are perfectionists when it comes to their writing and could alter a sentence over a dozen times and still not feel that it is exactly right. My rule of thumb is to ask the question, “Does my writing evoke an image, emotion or response from the reader?” In writing a fictional book set on a real continent involving real issues my concern was that many people have not visited Africa but I wanted to write in a way that the reader felt, they had not only visited but they had lived there. Could they visualize the blood orange sunsets, appreciate the nuances of culture, feel their senses reel in the exuberant chaos of life which is an African market and most importantly walk in the bare feet of Aisha (the central character)?

Having done our best, we then need to TRUST that God would do all that He intends to do with our work. (I’m sure you will agree, simple to say, hard to live out)!

4. REALLY GOOD EDITOR; It’s a bit heart breaking if you then turn your work over to someone who “doesn’t get it.” A good editor knows about spelling and grammar. A REALLY good editor reads your work carefully and is respectful of the creative process and realises that your writing is an extension of yourself. They recognize your unique style and storylines and set about polishing your work till the beauty of the story glimmers from each page.

5. JOY; I am wondering if you think I will say that being published brings joy and yes that is a wonderful moment and of course if the book sells that is also great. But I think for writers the real joy comes as we create because we are using the gifts that God has given us for His purposes, (no matter how outwardly successful our books may or may not be).

SO TO MY FELLOW WRITERS, MAY JOYFUL WRITING BE YOURS.

Jennifer Ann