BACK TO SCHOOL

 "I am a Yarigai Logophile”  

As a school Chaplain I work with parents, students and teachers to ensure families that may be finding the back-to-school effort and outlays a little challenging are supported. Starting school or transitioning back to school after the summer holiday break can be stressful for some. Add to that the potential financial pressure on families of getting all the necessary items on the book list, school uniforms, computers, getting routines organized, and things can be a little difficult. For students this may be compounded by social and emotional stresses. Reading the social cues correctly. Saying the right words at the right time to the right people. Not saying anything at the right time. Timetabling. Behaviour expectations. Learning. Homework. Assessments.

At the beginning of my grade 4 school year, I was one of those students whose family were struggling to face the challenge of making the budget work to pay for our schooling necessities. Dad had been off work with an injury and things were tight. I remember needing a dictionary as a required part of our schoolbooks acquisition at the beginning of the school year. I remember going off to school with Dad’s old Webster's dictionary and being told quite obtusely by my teacher that it was the “wrong dictionary.” All the other kids had the correct one. I was the odd one out. I think there were tears. I remember a letter home. Embarrassing stares from my table group. I remember my honest wish to not just fit in, but also have access to the learning tools I needed. I loved words and wanted to get this part of my schooling right.

I love words.

I am sure I have said that before. Many times.

In Primary School I was the kid at school who spent hours of my lunch time sourcing fresh inspiring books in my school library. Particularly, I borrowed every book I could get my hands on about Dinosaurs. Yes. I loved the Palaeontology and the amazing forms these creatures  had. Yet, perhaps more telling I fell in love with their names, their meanings, and where their names came from. I started with the the word “dinosaur” which is from the Greek deinos (terrible) and sauros (lizard) ‘terrible lizards’. Then came words like Tyranosaurus rex  (which is derived from the Greek words tyrannos, meaning "tyrant" and "sauros" (lizard) and the Latin word rex (meaning "king"). I became a junior etymologist (at least about all things dinosaurs).

Getting my first personal dictionary boosted my logophilia.

I was so very excited when Mum bought me that book with the green cover: “ The Australian Pocket Oxford Dictionary”. Mum worked extra hours to buy me that new dictionary. What a precious gift. 

By the way, it didn’t fit in my pocket: it was so loaded with beautiful, prepossessing words.

My love of words grew.

A couple of years later, I started year 6 in an entirely different school. My new teacher placed a challenge in front of us to learn a list of hundreds of Latin and Greek roots and suffixes and prefixes. I was an average student academically, but she inspired a passion in me to learn more.

At the end of year 6 (before year 7 began in yet another school) I started to “read” the dictionary. This was at the prompting of my grandfather who was an inspiring word smith and cruciverbalist. I started in “A” and learnt and put into practice all the new words I encountered. I then dove into a 22-volume encyclopedia of animals and began to learn their names (including their Latin names). I was a rabid lexophile. I read every book in our year level reading list. Year 7 I was dux of my new school. I went on to being the first person in my family to go to university.

(I loved words even more. Words seemed to love me. I began to read the bible. I discovered that The WORD loves me and saved me and has a plan and purpose for me in sharing his love and words with others)  

My wife and I were inspired recently with the story in movie form (The Professor and the Madman) of Sir James Murray (lexicographer) who was invited by Oxford University Press to take on the job of capturing all the words then extant in the English-speaking world in all their various shades of meaning. He is known as the first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. This fueled my back to school/ New Years resolution which was to be more intentional about my reading list (actually finish that pile of books I have waiting to be read) and ignited the other goal which is reflected in my thoughts above: to embrace my love of words.

Sir James Murray in Scriptorium

At our staff personal development at the beginning of this school year our guest relayed some mind-set thoughts with us and challenged us with this question:

“What is high performance in your context? … Discuss with your partner.”

My discussion with my partner (our teacher of Japanese) went something like how I aim to do things that are worthwhile and supporting the efforts of others to discover their purpose and meaning. My teacher friend grew excited as she explained that there is a special word in Japanese that expressed my sentiment. “Yarigai” she said “You are talking about Yarigai: it means something worth doing especially when you are helping someone else, you are helping yourself too.”

やり甲斐 = Yarigai

 

So allow me to pose that question to you :

“What is high performance in your context as a writer?”

For me it is continuing to grow in my writing prowess and embrace my love of words to help others fall in love with narratives that empower, motivate, inspire, and mobilize them.  

What is Yarigai for you?  What is your back-to-school resolution?

Perhaps for you - like me - it is to fall in love with words again. I plan to go “back to school”, dust off my old dictionary and start reading it again. Noting the words I need to learn. Finding out what they mean. I will put these words into action by utilizing them creatively, and helping to inspire others in their worthwhile living.

Shane Brigg - "I love words"

Distracted by Divers Discourses

 (Seeking Simplicity)   (Tyndale’s Treatise)

I recently spent all day in our school library. Incredible. Surrounded in books. Inspirational. Perhaps a little daunting. So much to read. So many narratives to prioritize. So much learning. So many ideas, opinions, facts, truths, and stories. So many books and authors who have put into print what was in their imagination. Dreams. Hopes. Heroes. Works of love, life, and learning. All this work produced, published, printed. I sat there - as host of our network gathering of Chaplains and Youth Workers - I was distracted by all these thoughts and more. It is a very chaotic, deeply complex, wonderful, but often very challenging world. The complexity of navigating the enormity of understanding made me gasp. 

How can an average person today reckon with what is important, what is life giving, what is truth?

I sat surrounded with books. I was immersed in my cerebrations, a celebration of seminal significances.   I ruminated about all that script, imagined writing it all, imagined needing to hand write it all, remembered Gutenberg, and remembered the printing of the bible and its dissemination to the masses and the pioneering of mass printing for other major publications and future literature as well. The printing press played a key role in the advancement of the Protestant Reformation, the Renaissance, and the Age of Enlightenment. Making knowledge contained in books and literature readily available and affordable for the general population for the first time. This contemplation, in turn, lead me deeper in my thoughts.

Bible Translator in Israel

I had recently also been drawn to taking another look at William Tyndale because of his standing up to a system that was threatened by their loss of control. In 1535, after several years as a ‘wanted man’ Tyndale was arrested, and jailed. In 1536, he was convicted of heresy and executed by strangulation, after which his body was burnt at the stake. Tyndale’s crime was the translating of the bible into common English for the common people. Tyndale recognized the abuses that came from a corrupt system, and uneducated clergy who knew little about the Word of God, and even less about the Latin verses that they recited each week. His mission was to provide people access to the truths of the bible for themselves. His famous tenet resounded and framed his mission:

 “I will cause a boy who drives a plough to know more of the scriptures than the pope”. 

Tyndale was convinced that the Bible alone should determine the practices and doctrines of the church and that all believers should be able to read the Bible in their own language. Because of the influence of printing and a demand for Scriptures in the vernacular, William Tyndale worked on a bible translated directly from the Greek into everyday (accessible) English. Perhaps Tyndale’s greatest achievement was the ability to create a balance between the needs of scholarship, simplicity of expression, and literary gracefulness, all in a uniform dialect. The effect was the development of an English style of Bible translation, that was to serve as the model for future English versions for hundreds of years.

When Tyndale first translated his New Testament, the English language was thought of as weak and unfit for Holy Writ. Tyndale’s work proved that it was however rich, dramatic, and colourful; that it was fit to communicate God’s Word, and worthy of furtherance. It has been expressed that our English language and accompanying literature would not have become the powerful medium it is to this day without Tyndale’s legacy. Tyndale had a burning passion to see the common person read God’s unadulterated, de-barnacled Word and he did something about it. At the time of his death, 18,000 copies of his New Testament had been printed. The common English-speaking person had access to reading the scripture. Further to this, in fulfilling his mission, Tyndale opened for the translation of the bible into the divers and diverse languages of the world. To date The United Bible Societies and Wycliffe Bible Translators report that the Bible, has been translated (in whole or part) in more than 3,324 languages (including an increasing number of sign languages), including complete Old or New Testaments in 2,189 languages, and the complete text of the Bible (Protestant canon) in 804 languages. Wycliffe Bible Translators also estimate that there are currently around 2,584 languages which have active Bible translation projects (with or without some portion already published). As Tyndale’s mentor Erasmus projected: 

"Christ desires his mysteries to be published abroad as widely as possible. I would that [the Gospels and the epistles of Paul] were translated into all languages, of all Christian people, and that they might be read and known." 

This is simply happening.

Tyndale not only gave access for readership. He also gave access to revolutionary ideals through particular words and how he translated them. The choice of words can also be theologically loaded. There were 5 words of note that catalyzed his influence and the reaction that lead to his martyrdom. Tyndale’s translation was carefully phrased to state the perspective of what he could gain from the original Greek and Hebrew to bring meaning in the common English of his day. In several notable cases, Tyndale deliberately chose to render words that had a long legacy among the religious institutions with new terms that Catholics found offensive. For example, he used “congregation” instead of “church,” “elder” instead of “priest,” “repentance” instead of “do penance,” and “love” instead of “charity.” Tyndale’s English translations of these words were  more accurate translations of the Greek terms, but they differed from the familiar Vulgate upon which much Christian theology had been based. These terms are loaded: “do penance” had sacramental implications rejected by many protestant reformers—whereas “repentance” more closely reflected an act that could be done by an individual before God without the need of the church. These changes were offensive to the religious hierarchy and were heavily criticized by many.

 It was because his translation not only armed people with an opportunity to read scripture, but it also gave value to semantics of principles given through the use of these individual words that the population had access to truth. As I reviewed this article, I considered what word might encapsulate the themes I have been giving illumination to. “Access” was my working concept.

 

In the School Library

 The library that began all these musings gives access for our students to a whole range of topics. Gutenberg gave people access to a printed form of the scripture (in Latin). Tyndale gave access for everyday people to be able to read the scripture in their own language; and to understand deep theological and spiritual concepts by semantic relevance and with academic integrity. The power of effective translation and exegesis to give people access to stories and truths often gets overlooked. It’s either not given the prominence it demands, or worse it’s an afterthought. The truth is translation is far more important. In the Global Economy of today’s interconnected world, effective translation is an asset. It doesn’t matter which industry you’re in, whether it’s ministry, politics, e-commerce, iGaming, finance, science, sport, multimedia, or relationships talking the language of your customers or connections effectively is essential. Like Tyndale some of the crafting of translating ideals in words needs to be way simpler than what we often do. If you turn to read pieces translated or written by Tyndale, (either in his prose writings or his Bible translations) you enter a different (more easily accessed) world populated with short words and sentences that evoke images of real life. In this world you find light, not illumination; eat, not ingest; grow, not cultivate; burn, not incinerate.

I think all of this has relevance to me as a writer… for each of us as writers.

What I simply want to say is ………

That my main point is: If you want to say something so your audience can access it (understand it), keep it simple.

When you say something, say it simply.

My work as a school Chaplain has taught me that. 

In our world today, with all its complexities, absurdities, arguments, debates, disharmonious divisiveness, and discombobulations that distract us from some of the simple truth, we need to embrace again the simple pleasure and peace gained by some unostentatious communication and living.  

So sometimes (often) - in our writing- using a simpler phrase or word is even more effective to get your message across. This resonates for how we live our lives too (that’s a message for another article, but it is worth introducing here).

“Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.” (The Message translation Philippians 4:8-9).

When I am distracted by divers discourses, I am challenged to come back to the basics of life lived well.

As Corn Flakes expressed back in my childhood:

“The simple things in life are often the best”.

A Tree of Life

 by Anusha Atukorala

Have you seen my tongue tricks? 

When I was growing up, my family was often entertained by them—I could even touch my nose with my tongue! In fact, I still can! I stopped writing now to take a few pictures to prove its truth to you, but ... the photos didn't look decent enough to be aired before your little eyes, so I shall wait a bit longer to satisfy your curiosity.

 

Recently, a verse in Proverbs spoke to me.

"A soothing tongue is a tree of life." 

Proverbs 15:4

 

As I read these words, I pictured a sweet young Mum rocking her baby boy on her knee. He's fallen and grazed his knee and his loud wails fill the air. Gently, she wipes his tear-stained cheeks and washes the scrape on his knee.

“Shh… it’s all right. It’s going to be fine, Sweetie!” 

Soon … his sobs die down. One last gulp and then, the flash of an angelic little-boy smile! He has calmed down. Made whole  ... through a soothing tongue.

 

When I have been badly in need of them, gentle words uttered by family and friends have been like cool breezes fanning a sad heart, a soft shawl around my shoulders on a cold day or a gift that never stops giving. They’ve also been a tree of life. I am able to sit content under the shade of its leafy branches.

 

A soothing tongue blesses. And we writers have power—the power to wield our pen and our tongues for good, power to bring encouragement and hope to sorrow-filled hearts, power to entertain and bring smiles to faces (and even a tear or two), power to instil courage and joy into lives that are hurting, power to bequeath a renewed perspective of God and His world to enhance a reader’s life.

In Genesis and Revelation we see references to The Tree of Life. Now that is something worth waiting for, isn’t it? Meanwhile, as we wait, in Proverbs we find four comparisons to the tree of life, all life-giving commodities—

Wisdom, 

Fruit, 

A longing fulfilled & 

A soothing tongue. 

 

We Christian writers need wisdom. Lots of it. Wisdom about life, wisdom about how to best use the language, wisdom about our readers and how they will engage with us, wisdom about how to write well. 

Wisdom is everything. 

Or is it?

 

" The fruit of the righteous is a Tree of Life." 

Proverbs 11:30

This verse implies that in order to bear fruit in our writing, we need also to be righteous - holy - God breathed disciples. Jesus said that what is on the inside of us is what comes out of us. How can we share His words with the world if we are not walking in His ways and pleasing Him in our thoughts, words and deeds, seeking to become more and more like Jesus?

What then does a tree comprise of? Roots, a trunk, branches, leaves, flowers and fruit. Can we writers be trees of life? We can grow roots that go deep into God and His word, a trunk that stands tall against the enemy’s punches, branches that spread far and wide to share our good news with the world, flowers that bring pleasure to life-seeking hearts, leaves that bring healing to the nations and fruit that provides succour, strength, hope and nourishment to those who hunger for it.

 

The last reference to a tree of life in the Proverbs is about our dreams. Now, dreams are what we writers have plenty of—some obvious, like a lolly bulging in little girl’s cheek as she unsuccessfully tries to hide it from her Mum's watchful eye. Others nestling in our hearts as they are slowly birthed to life through our Master’s gentle touch.

"A longing fulfilled is a Tree of Life." Proverbs 13:12

What kind of longings are in your heart today, dear writerly friend? To publish a book? To sell your books? To be a good speaker? To write good stories? To create a blog? Or maybe you have many other dreams tucked in your beautiful heart that are waiting to be realised. 

May every longing in your heart see the light of day. 

May you be a tree of life, roots going deep into God, standing tall, providing rest and shelter to all who come under the branches of your life-giving words!

 

"A Soothing Tongue is a Tree of Life" 

Proverbs 15:4

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 second book 'Dancing in the Rain' brings you hope and comfort for life's soggy seasons. Her third book 'Sharing the Journey' is a sequal to Enjoying the Journey also containing little stories that warm the heart. 

Thank you for sharing her journey by reading this blog today!

Do stop by at her two websites to say G’day! 

She'd love to connect with you.

Dancing in the Rain

Light in the Darkness

 

Dancing in the Rain: To purchase Book

Sharing the Journey: To purchase Book

 

 

A Good Yarn

Mazzy Adams

The notes of the Westminster chimes echoed down the hallway, subtly weaving their way into my sleep-sodden psyche, insisting I relinquish my cherished nana-nap. Before dozing off, I'd been researching the etymology of the word yarn. Though I'd discovered a miscellany of interesting facts, the art of spinning the various threads of thought into the fabric of an etymology essay had proved frustratingly elusive. 

During my sleep, the various notions had entwined their fibres with the cords of my subconscious and I dreamed about my grandmother. I was only six when she passed away at the age of eighty-eight so my memories of this elegant, elderly white-haired lady are tender but fleeting. From what the family have told me, she could be quite a mimic and story teller when she had a mind to do so. Her life experiences growing up as the youngest daughter in a pioneering railway family provided rich pickings for a teller of tales and she could spin a good yarn. With sheer joy, she recalled ‘playing with the piccaninnies' as a child, her way of describing her indigenous playmates who lived in the bush surrounding the railway camps. As her body aged, her mind returned to the happy days of her childhood and stayed there. 

Some of my happiest memories of her revolve around the parcels she regularly sent to us by mail, each one a brown-paper package filled with a dozen or more crocheted woollen doilies. Each doily was about the size of a child’s palm and made from a variety of mismatched knitting yarns. As age progressively deconstructed the coherent threads of her life, Grandma painstakingly constructed these gifts of love for us. Most people would have smiled at the collected offerings, while thinking sadly to themselves, ‘These are quaint; pretty, but useless.’ My mother saw these gifts as an opportunity. She set me the task of deconstructing the doilies to recover the essential yarn. Then she patiently taught me how to knit and crochet with that same yarn.

Poets and creative writers are prone to explore the art of effective written expression by deconstructing the work of others. We observe the methods used by those who effectively weave threads of information into picturesque literary tapestries. We dissect a piece of literature into the strong warp yarns which provide continuity and cohesion, and the colourful variety of weft threads, the interwoven literary devices which convert themes into stories. The metaphoric imagery of spinners and weavers converting fibres and threads into fabric coalesces so well with the work of writers that it has become part of our language and our literary terminology. The poetic trochee comes from a Greek word which means ‘a running, spinning foot’.  If I say, ‘That’s a good yarn’, my listener is more likely to assume I’m talking about a good story than a thread for constructing quality fabric.  

Writers and story-tellers spin their yarns with an added twist; a funny story might leave you in stitches. Forum posts follow threads. Philosophers speculate that language forms the fabric of culture and society.  

Dictionaries expand the word yarn into 

1. a thread made of natural or synthetic fibres and used for knitting and weaving; 

2. a continuous strand made from glass, metal or plastic; 

3. a loosely twisted aggregate of fibres, as of hemp, of which rope is made; 

4. a tale, especially a long story of adventure or incredible happenings.

The word yarn comes from the Old English word, gearn and the German word garn. Both mean ‘a spun fibre’. It also reflects the Old Norse word gorn, meaning gut, Lithuania’s zarna, meaning entrails, and the Greek khorde which refers to the intestine or gut-string. Clichés and colloquialisms have stitched this spurious connection into our everyday language, spinning us along, pulling the wool, fleecing the innocent, weaving a tangled web of intrigue and deceit.  Bound by a guilty conscience? Got a knot in your stomach? The spin doctors say, ‘Talk it through. Tell your story. Spill your guts!’ 

To understand how the word yarn became synonymous with a good story, we must look to the days of tall-masted sailing ships and the strong ropes needed to rig and unfurl the sails. Rooms called yarn lofts were set up near boat harbours. There, groups of men would work together, day after day, twisting yarns of hemp into rope. The work was tedious and time-consuming. The men passed the time by telling tall tales; tales of the sea, tales of adventure, tales of life and of love lost and found. The yarn spinners became the story tellers.

My grandmother’s parents sailed from England to Australia in the 1860s on a ship called the Melmerby. Their first child, a daughter, was born at sea and, in an interesting twist, was christened Melbebe (pronounced mel-baby) after the ship. The family of three disembarked with all their worldly goods onto the banks of the Bremmer River in Ipswich, Queensland. While my great-grandfather sought out a wagon to transport his family and chattels inland to the Great Dividing Range, someone stole their belongings. Stripped of everything except the clothes they wore, their plans for a smooth transition to pioneering life rapidly unravelled. Undaunted, they rolled up their sleeves, established a pattern for survival from the patchwork of opportunity Australia presented, and raised a large family together. That is until, at the age of five, their youngest child—my grandmother—found her mother ‘asleep’ in front of the fireplace. Grandma remembered patting her mother's hand, saying, ‘Wake up, Mummy. Wake up.’ Her mummy never did wake up. Grandma’s sister, Melbebe, became mother to the motherless siblings, all ten of them. Their consolation came from knowing that, because of their shared Christian faith, death was merely a temporary break in the thread of life.

(Images of newspaper articles retrieved from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/1278723)

As a child and an adult, I listened to and reminisced over family stories like these—happy and humorous, poignant and sad, like dye to cloth or embroidery for embellishment, they coloured, enlightened, and enlivened my collective understanding of who I am. Their stories helped to connect me with the rest of humanity, past and present. I’m grateful for the storytellers. And for the scribes! While preparing this blog, I was delighted to find a Brisbane Courier Mail newspaper report on Trove about the Melmerby’s voyage from Liverpool to Moreton Bay in 1965. It revealed that, despite life-threatening events that occurred during the voyage, (including a whirlwind that destroyed masts and rigging), ‘a weekly newspaper, called the Melmerby Gazette, was published every Saturday night, which was a source of much amusement and interest’. Fancy that! The storytellers had been busy aboard ship.

I also learned, with sadness, that the Melmerby was shipwrecked some twenty-five years later on a journey from Canada to Scotland; having recently read the opening Nova Scotian shipwreck scene from Nola Lorraine’s debut novel, Scattered, I felt an eerie sense of connectedness to the terror described in both accounts. There is no doubt that written words can be invaluable and powerful. 

(Image retrieved from http://novastory.ca/novastories/greenhill/collection/melmerby.html)

2020 has certainly shaken our degree of comfort and security as the normal patterns of life and community have been torn and shredded by a global pandemic. Rising confusion and violence, political controversy, heartache and death are rife. While news and views about these abound, truth has been harder to discern. I’ve been tempted to plug my ears with my fingers and sing la-la-la. Loudly. In the midst of such momentous and catastrophic times, when Earth itself seems to be unravelling, is it still appropriate to pause and enjoy the finer pleasures of good conversation, story-telling, poetry, prose, literature? Can we justify our desire for … a good yarn?

I say, yes. A thousand times, yes. Perhaps more than at any time in history, the power of positive words and stories is exactly what we need to help us navigate the stormy seas and isolating hardships of these challenging days.

Perhaps, if our ancient forebears had been content with the sheer joy of conversing with their Divine Creator as he walked with them in the Garden of Eden, if they’d listened to his stories, clung to his every word, ignored the persuasive web of deceit spun by that crafty serpent, there would have been no blood shed, no need for a word to describe the entrails of animals, no need for the spinning and weaving of yarn into fabric … no death to rule over us with such a tragic end.

How grateful I am that the Apostle Paul recorded the following good report: 

“But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I’ll probably never fully understand. We’re not all going to die—but we are all going to be changed. You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes—it’s over. On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment and in the same way, we’ll all be changed. In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal. Then the saying will come true: Death swallowed by triumphant Life! Who got the last word, oh, Death? Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now? It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God!” (From 1 Corinthians 15:53-57, The Message)

That’s a future I anticipate with delight. When that time comes, I wonder if I’ll find Grandma still working with yarn? At least in that place of no more trouble and no more tears, I know it will be a good yarn.

What about you? What good yarns have you read, or heard, or told lately?  

  

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

Website: www.mazzyadams.com

Email: maz@mazzyadams.com

Orality Helps to Bring Literacy to Life

I was a story teller before I was a story writer. I would spend hours late at night spinning stories out of my imagination recounting them verbally for the joy and settling of my younger brother as we went off to sleep. I then became fluent on stage and capable to ‘tell stories’ via several amateur movie productions and video clips. I am a keen oral story teller. I still enjoy sitting around a campfire and telling an adventurous thriller.

 I also enjoy relating well-told testimonials of how good God is. My stories, but especially His story telling from His word or other people’s lives touched by His love are powerful when they are shared orally. I recognised the power of this verbal story telling when I began to utilise my own stories (written) in verbal form as a healing technique when working with troubled young people I have had the opportunity to work with in Indigenous communities. Laying in our swags after a full day of intervention and activity, telling out stories of the fictional characters I have written about helped these often angry and frustrated young men relate their own real stories and helped begin a deeper healing journey.

In his seminal work “Orality and Literacy” (1982) Professor Walter J. Ong explored some of the profound historical changes in our thought processes, personality and social structures which are the result,  of the development of speech, writing and print. He not only emphasized that oral and literate cultures use different types of learning and storing information, He considers the impact of orality-literacy development on our understanding of what it is to be a human being, conscious of ourselves and others. In other words our cultures have developed from oral traditions that are at first powerful, and made more powerful and authoritative via our use of literacy. In my own personal experience, the oral story telling gave foundations for my writing. In turn the telling or re-telling of a written form gained deeper meaning in the contexts and authentic reckoning of audiences I have had the joy of sharing with.

A valuable development for me as a story teller and writer was an instilling and development in my journey of a love for learning words. I came to know words before sentences developed into reasonable literature. I saw the power my Grandfather had with his hold on words. Not only to be a wiz at cross words, he could speak eloquently when called upon, could write script , prose, letters and reports with apparent ease.   He helped enthuse and inspired me to dig deeper. I had already had a formative grasp in word discovery and meaning via empowering English teachers at school, but I dug in deeper, going on my own literacy adventures. Reading. Learning the meaning of words I did not know as they came up in Mark Twain, H.G. Wells, Charles Dickens and others. Learning Latin roots as I studied the scientific nomenclature of the dinosaurs, animals and plants I loved. Putting words into sentences that built into stories as I wrote. My language changed. How I spoke developed. How I lived was influenced. A transformation began as I began to live out of this deeper world-well of words.

Ong notes that Literacy is a necessity for the development and understanding of science, history, philosophy, and art, and indeed for the explanation of language (including oral speech) itself.  There are a “vast complex of powers forever inaccessible without literacy”.  Which seems correct as writers. If our stories stay in our head, or only told around a good coffee with friends, they would not make it to print; and hence would not make it to a wider audience. However this is almost an agony in line with Ong’s recognition of frustrated peoples “rooted in primary orality, who want literacy passionately but who also know very well that moving into the exciting world of literacy means leaving behind much that is exciting and deeply loved in the earlier oral world”.

We are so literature based sometimes as writers that it is very difficult for us to conceive of an oral universe of communication or thought except as a variant of a literate universe. What I attempt to do regularly is to tell out my stories verbally. This simply helps me to overcome my biases in some degree and to open new ways to understanding my own stories, the characters, the settings. The value of this is that it makes my stories resonate with a greater depth and authenticity as it is tested by me and my hearing audience well before it is read at a book launch or recital. There is another beauty with this perspective. It helps others be engaged in our journey.

 Imagine if Tolkien and C.S. Lewis had not had the power of the Inklings to be a sounding board of deepening their stories, testing their script, challenging the logic and narrative depth. In other words “telling” our stories is not only at first a point of clarification. It is vital to our writing construction, but perhaps more importantly our story creativity.

God’s word was first spoken. Genesis (the written form) explains this. But even the scripture before it was recorded was first handed down via an oral culture. In fact the value of our textual scripture is in its power to be received through its preached form. Which in essence is orality. Oh that our communities of faith re-embrace the power of mutual story telling. Where each is submitted to the other to give their testimony. Surely we recognise that ”we overcome by the word of our testimony” and that “Faith comes by hearing”.  But perhaps that perspective is for another time.

Ong noted that for civilization to develop the oral cultures would need to give way to literacy. “We have to die to continue living” is how Ong had related this tension. My conviction is similar yet converse to his tenet. I believe we also have to die to our literacy to continue to live vitally as story tellers. It is interesting that Jesus too had this opinion of dying to live. Loosing ourselves to find ourselves. I will choose to live by dying to self. Within my writing journey I simply aim to die to the cleverness and ability I have to get the story down on paper and continue to revisit the resonating power of orally sharing my journey with trusted people who in turn will inspire my journey and take it to a depth that is honouring of the potential of a greater written telling.

Writers’ Boot-camp

By Linsey Painter

This past month, I’ve been doing a 30-Day Creative Writing Boot-camp.

The idea is that you get into the habit of writing whether you feel like it or not. Like an exercise boot-camp for your body, it’s only with consistency that you can achieve your fitness goals, build up those muscles, walk further, cycle faster and lift those weights.

Only writing when you feel inspired doesn’t produce much of an outcome. Writing consistently means that you build up your ability to type out more words everyday, get better at saying what you want to say and see the vision for your book down on the page.

A big motto for the boot-camp is, 

‘You can’t edit a blank page’.

I look forward to my daily email telling me how many words I’m supposed to write or where I’m supposed to write or what I’m supposed to brainstorm for the day. 

Even my kids have been getting excited about how many words I’m going to have to clock up. They like to play a guessing game, although the guesses usually range from 1 to 10,000 million words (Yikes! Don’t think my writing muscles will ever be that strong).

I’ve been surprised at the results of this daily word count. At the end of 30 days the goal is over 10,000 words. I’ve just crossed the halfway mark in my days and I have already surpassed the end word count goal.

Writing begets writing and it seems the more you get words down on the page the more the words flow.

One of the things that I’ve gotten out of this daily habit of writing is that my writing goal doesn’t always have to be a stunning word count. The word count each day is different. On some days the challenge is to get 250 words down and then just stop and walk away.

That was a good lesson for me to learn. 

Part of my problem is thinking that whenever I sit down to write, if I don’t get at least 500 words, then it’s been a waste of time.

There are also different challenges; writing late in the evening, writing in a different place to where you usually write, writing 500 words in 30 minutes or taking a day to plan out your story.

At the end of every email is thought for the day from different writers like Stephen King or Margaret Atwood, to give you an extra boost.

I think the variety has been key for me. Having easier days helps balance out those high-word count goals.

I’m hoping that after this boot-camp I’ll have built up my writing habit and writing muscles to continue with consistent writing and thwacking out words on the computer or in my notebook.

I have been doing my boot-camp through The Australian Writer’s Centre, but there is nothing stopping you from creating your own challenges for each day.

Well, that is my 500 words for the day.

Linsey Painter loves to write stories for children and young adults. Her stories focus on growing young hearts, challenging assumptions and exploring courage in the face of life’s difficulties. You can find her at linseypainter.com