Storytelling - an interview with Naomi Reed.

Naomi Reed is one of Australia's favourite writers and storytellers. With several award winning books and even more speaking appearances, it's sometimes hard to pin Naomi down for a chat. But I had the opportunity recently to ask her a few questions and, generous as always, she was eager to talk about her love of story! 

Penny Reeve: You’ve been writing for 8 years now, and one of the things I’ve often heard people say about you is that you are a ‘natural storyteller’. Do you believe storytelling came naturally for you? 

Naomi Reed: Well, that’s a difficult question to answer. For me, storytelling came out of desperation. We were living in Nepal, working with INF, and I was homeschooling our three boys – through our seventh monsoon and a civil war… so I started to write stories in an attempt not to go mad. And then I really enjoyed the process and I kept going. At the same time, people began to read my writing and they gave me a variety of feedback, some of it was good, some of it wasn’t. The tricky thing was that we were living on a rainy Himalayan ridge, with little internet access, or workshops to go to, so instead of googling the answers to my problems, I went hunting for second-hand books on writing, in book stores in Kathmandu. And then I kept practicing and noticing what worked and what didn’t work.

PR: So you sort of fell into it, and then realised you love it. Beautiful! I wonder if storytelling is something we all have the potential for, that it's an innate part of who we are in God's image? What do you think, can we all grow in our ability to communicate using story?

NR: Maybe the question is, do we really love telling stories? Do we delight in presenting God’s love and faithfulness in fresh and surprising ways? If we do, then we keep writing and we keep telling stories and we keep practicing because we can’t not do it. And then one day we wake up and remember that this natural thing that we do, is a gift from God himself, to be used for his glory, to be used wisely and well, in the place he’s allowed us to be. And then we want to improve even more!

PR: I've notice on your webpage that you're running several workshops titled: The Art of Storytelling. Is it your belief about storytelling that inspired you to present these workshops?

NR: Yes, I think storytelling is a wonderful means to present the gospel – to show people what it means to be known and forgiven and made right by a holy God – to show those truths with skin on. We all know that stories have the power to transport us, and delight us, and challenge us, and motivate us but they also connect us as human beings to each other and get beneath our defenses. Here we all are, in post-modern 2013, where it’s all about being real and vulnerable and connected, so we need to share our stories! And we need to do that as well as we possibly can – both the stories of God’s saving love for us and the stories of our ongoing human responses. Thirty years after reading The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, I can still ‘see’ her meeting the SS guard, years after the war. I can imagine her standing there, unable to hold out her hand, bitter and angry, yet praying. I can feel her hand by her side, but I can also feel God’s answer, his forgiveness, the love that comes from him. And thirty years later, after hearing hundreds of sermons on forgiveness, it’s Corrie’s story that moves me the most. It makes me realize that the world’s healing doesn't depend on my ability to dredge up nice-ness, but on God’s forgiveness through Jesus. My dream is that we all continue to tell stories like that, in ways that stay with people, that move them, that lead them into a deeper walk with God.   

PR: What do you believe writers can get from attending workshops on storytelling?

NR: Practice! There’s always more to learn about storytelling, and to put into practice. I think that the more we put pen to paper, or words in our mouths, and hear the way they come out, the more we improve. We may naturally have a sense of timing and pace and conflict and resolution, but it always helps to polish it or notice how these factors are at play in our work. It also helps to get feedback and listen to each other’s stories. In these day sessions, we’ll have time to do this. In the mornings, we’ll be learning how to craft and tell Bible stories, both in third-person and first-person, and then in the afternoons we’ll work on our own stories of faith. The exciting thing is that we now have bookings for six Storytelling days this year – Rooty Hill, Sylvania, Launceston, Central Coast, Melbourne and Tamworth. Wonderful!

PR: I agree. Thank you for your time, Naomi, and the inspiration you give us to keep writing and telling the stories of faith God has given us! But now, the big question... can you give us a hint at what you’re writing now?

NR: Yes, I can give you a very small hint. It’s got something to do with olives.  

PR: Hmm... sounds, tasty!  I'm looking forward to it. Will you hang around our blog for a few days in case people would like to ask you a question about storytelling and your workshops?

NR: I'd love to!

Penny Reeve is a children's author currently living in western Sydney. She became friends with Naomi Reed during the years they shared in Nepal (read Naomi's No Ordinary View and you might meet Penny's husband Richard desperately escaping a swarm of bees!).  

More information about Naomi Reed, her books and The Art of Storytelling workshops is available from her website. 

Shedding those extra kilos!

A few weeks ago, I had the special joy of whizzing off to Sri Lanka to spend ten wonderful days with my precious (86 year old) Mum. As I excitedly packed for my trip, one of the difficulties I faced was that the combined weight of clothes, gifts and other necessities being packed into my bag, came to a hefty 35 kilos. Why do I call it “hefty”? Because my bag allowance was only 20 kilos! Oh oh…! 15 kilos too many!

Something had to go!

After much unpacking and repacking, taking out, throwing out, putting in, pulling out and whatever else I did… I finally was only 5 kilos overweight! Whew! Much better! I hastily typed an email to my Mum and my sisters telling them of a specialist doctor’s appointment I’d attended that day. I added a post script.

PS. I’m still trying to get rid of a few kilos. Alas, I’m 5 kilos overweight!

Mum replied immediately. “Don’t worry about shedding those 5 kilos while you’re on holiday. You can think about it when you return home’!

My sister responded, ‘Mum – I think Anu means her bags and not her own weight’! If you heard a loud peal of laughter going off in 3 different countries in 3 different continents, that was us! My Mum, my sisters and I having a good laugh over her mistake!

I replied “As for my own weight – that’s more like a good 10 kilos over! “

Mum wrote back promptly! ‘Don’t worry, Anu. You and your 10 extra kilos are all welcome. Waiting for you’! When I finally reached Sri Lanka, we all had a further laugh about my Mum’s (natural) mistake about those extra kilos.

Extra baggage! We all have it in some form, don’t we? I would love to shed 10 kilos from my person but find it hard to muster up sufficient self control to stick to a diet. Perhaps one day soon, I will do it! What about us Writers? A diarrhoea of words is usually a sign of bad writing isn't it? We Writers need to constantly chop off sentences or words to make our writing tight, succinct and more readable. I don’t know how it is with you – but I struggle with this. With having too many words in my writing. I have to keep going over and over my work in order to make it much much better than the initial draft. Thankfully I love editing my own work and enjoy having a 2nd and 3rd and 4th look into it. Chopping off a sentence there! Adding a more suitable word there. Revising our work can be a lot of fun!

Of course the problem of too much baggage applies not just in Writing – it applies to us as Christians too, doesn’t it? What kind of baggage need I shed today? Of recent months, God has been challenging me more and more about my character. Have I allowed His Holy Spirit to work on me? Recently Asta reminded us that we Christian Writers have a ‘Holy Calling”. Thanks Asta! You are so right. I’d like to add to that. We also have a “Calling to Holiness” don’t we? A calling to become the people of God that He has created us to be. God calls me to be not just a Christian Writer, but also a Woman after His own heart. How else can I communicate His truth to others? I need to be ‘walking the walk’ so I can ‘talk the talk’! Don’t you agree?

And so….. I can think of many kinds of baggage that has needed to come off my own life at different points in my journey! Selfishness, pride, unforgiveness? Laziness, greed, indifference? Do those words ring any bells? How about anxiety, self centeredness and slander? Disobedience, fear, rebellion? Oh dear… the list does go on and on and on!

What kind of baggage is God asking me to offload today? Editing my stories is painstaking and needs to be done and re-done many times over. Editing myself is another matter. A life time exercise! Something that only the Master Editor could cope with doing. It must grieve Him often, that despite all his editing, He continues to find fresh flaws creeping into the person I am! Hebrews 12:14 reminds me that holiness is not an option. It is in fact, an essential part of my walk with God.

1 Peter 1:15 tells us that God calls us to be holy. 1 Peter 2:9 adds to it. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

It would be wonderful when The Amazing One and Only Designer-Creator-Editor who writes our stories puts down His heavenly pen with a flourish, looks at us with a satisfied smile, the love-light dancing in His eyes and says ‘’Well done thou good and faithful Image-bearers. You are exactly as I planned you to become. Enter into the joy of my Kingdom’!

Wouldn’t that be something worth striving for?

Keeping God in the writing journey

Many years ago now I went to my first writers’ weekend conducted by a secular writers’ organisation. I was new to it all and totally overawed by those around me who seemed to know exactly what they were doing. I listened to talks, asked some tentative questions and chatted to a few authors. At least, I tried to chat to them. They were pleasant enough and reasonably helpful – but I came away feeling slightly sorry for them and fervently hoping I would never end up like them. You see, when we talked, I had the distinct feeling they were very wrapped up in themselves and what they had written – perhaps even jealous of others there who had been more ‘successful’ or who had sold more books or won more awards.

Since thave been to quite a few more writers’ events and realised that perhaps many of those attending – even the ‘successful’ authors – may not be as sure of themselves as they appear to be. And I know a little more now, so am not as overawed as I was. Yes, I have definitely changed over the course of my nine year writing journey and of seeing five of my novels published and out there in the market. But how do I myself now come across to other authors or potential authors? Have I become a little proud and self-centred, perhaps even just a teensy bit envious of those whose novels or other works have sold better than mine?

When I began my writing journey, I knew clearly God had called me to do so. I decided my writing would always be God-honouring in every way. I would write as best as I could for God, working hard at it and taking advice on board. I would seek to reach out to others through my novels, particularly those outside church circles. I would write ‘from the heart’ and be very vulnerable in what I wrote, in the hope that others perhaps going through similar situations as my characters would relate strongly to them and be helped or encouraged in some way. And when and if my books were ‘successful’, I would seek to give God the honour and glory and not become puffed up myself. For that reason, I chose to put Psalm 115:1 at the top of the first page of my website:

Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.

But what about now? Was I giving God as much honour and glory as I should? Was I truly remembering that my novels had come into existence because of God’s call and because God had given me any writing gift I had? Was I as conscious of God’s presence around me, encouraging me and cheering me on each day, as I had been at the beginning? Was God still in fact at the very centre of my writing journey?

I have pondered these questions a lot during the past year in particular – so much so that I will be taking a workshop on this whole topic of ‘Keeping God in the writing journey’ as part of the Word Writers’ Fair in Brisbane on Saturday 12^th November (see www.thewordwriters.com).  I don’t want to be running a race that adds up to nothing in the end. So I am looking forward to sharing the challenges and hopefully helpful insights God has given me in this area and to hearing how others endeavour to keep God first as well.

So ... how are you doing at keeping God in your writing journey?  

Jo-Anne Berthelsen grew up in Brisbane and holds degrees in Arts and Theology and a diploma in Education. She has worked as a high school teacher, editor and secretary, as well as in local church ministry. Jo-Anne is passionate about touching hearts and lives through both the written and spoken word. She is the author of five published novels – ‘Heléna’, ‘All the Days of My Life’, ‘Laura’, ‘Jenna’ and ‘Heléna’s Legacy’. She is married to a retired minister and lives in Sydney. For more information about Jo-Anne and her novels, please visit her website, www.jo-anneberthelsen.com.