The Basics

Man: hand crafted by the God of the universe, made in His own image, and given dominion over every living thing, perfect at his origin.

Man was given a special mind, a mind that had the ability to think about literally nothing for stints of 30 minutes or more. This special gift, the ability to become lost to the world for lengths of time, has had noticeable and drastic effects on literature written by men. The literary works that men produce tend to be reflective, direct, meticulous, and strongly composed. Attention to seemingly minute details, the painting of motif and metaphor are visible characteristics of most male writers. Men mostly write in historical or fiction-fantastical realms. There are few talented male romance novelists or period writers. 

The lapse of thought attributes to the renewing and refocusing of the mind, thus, the pacing of a story is generally up tempo if written by a male. Often, when inertia sets in while in the thick of a story it is combatted by a re-energizing many times during the duration of the work.

Those are some of the attributes and characteristics of male writers. Here are a few of female writers.

Female writers, or just females in general, are dynamically minded. This means that they look at the task of writing and see a finished work and how many steps it takes to get there. Whereas the opposite would be a male writer, who looks at the task of writing and sees the single first step where he currently is, and after its completion looks at the next. For this reason, female writers often will have very intricate, spacey, and emotional works. 

The stories of female writers seem to be longer, that is they expand over a longer amount of time, while still fitting into the same number of pages as the stories of male writers. The genres of romance, horror, and sci-fi seem to be the favorite, and the specialty of female writers. They are very apt at playing out long, paranormal sequences because of the level of emotion with which they write.

The differences between a male and a female is ultimately what defines them as a writer. However, many characteristic of writing bridge gender differences and apply to genre in and of itself, such as, romance. Regardless of what genre you write or have written before, regardless of your particular style, the flow and essence of a romance novel will always be the same. You simply cannot write a romance novel that doesn’t feel or read like a romance novel. It’s one of the many limits to a writer’s creativity. 

Now, every writer abhors any mention of limit or boundary. If writing, at its basest form, is a simple expression of emotion, why does there have to be limitations? As in all things, writing, has elements to it that make it what it is. Uniqueness is found in the specific limitations of a particular action. 

If I typed out random characters, I would not be writing, I would be typing out random characters. So, in genre, if I am writing a romance but want to make it look like an action novel, it is an action novel not a romance. If I were to write a romance that never had two people falling in love, it wouldn’t be a romance, it would just be meaningless words. For the record, I deeply dislike romance novels. 

In the next few posts, I’m going to break down a few genres of writing and list some characteristics and limitations that make them what they are. As always, thanks for reading. 

 
–the anonymous novelist 

Ouch! That Hurts.

The truth; it can hurt at times because it convicts us. Chastisement is the belt of God. Spiritual chastisement can be paralleled to what the previous generation would call “spankings”. 

We have sought to disavow and discredit the physical forms of correction and warranted penance for wrongs, and that action has brought about the rebellious, gangster/criminal generation we see today. 

Pain is a natural punishment for stupidity and the most effective discipline for disobedience. 

A young child will only crawl down the steps head first once. Then, discovering it hurts, he/she will try a different way, never intentionally taking the steps head first again. The pain that comes from the action of crawling down the steps head first, or rather, falling as a result of crawling down steps head first, will burn into that young child’s mind an association between both crawling down steps head first and pain. The child will, in the future, take the smarter route of going down legs first and be better for it.

Just as our actions early on in life bring pain, and by pain, wisdom to avoid the same mistakes in the future, so should we train our children and also live our lives as adults. If something we do is stupid, we should feel some sort of pain as a result of either the action itself or a punishment after the fact. The pain triggers our memory and we will avoid pitfalls of the same type in the future and live better, more productive lives.

If the young criminals we have today had been raised with the knowledge that disobedience will hurt, (either physically or emotionally), they would not have done the things they did, or they would at least have had the chance to contemplate the results of their actions beforehand.

This post was aptly named, not only for its theme, but also its message. The message that the government is not responsible for raising your children, the Church is not responsible for raising your children, God is not responsible for raising your children, you are. And if parents are afraid to physically punish their children because someone else said that it will, “squelch their personality”, or, “scar them for life”, who are they believing?

Proverbs 22:15
Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

That’s what God said. Now, I’m not saying beat your kids, but I am saying discipline them. I’m 19, so in a very real sense, I am still a child, I am still under the authority of my father while I am living in his house. So, coming from me, one who is still able to be disciplined in such ways, (under God’s law), this message should mean a little bit more.

For all of you readers who don’t have kids, people like myself, take note of the ways your parents taught you when you were a child. You learned, as it were, “the hard way”, that life is pain, and pain teaches us valuable lessons. Also, I would tell you to continue to live by the principal of natural discipline and realize that if it is stupid, it should, can, and most likely will hurt. 

I hope this was helpful, or at the very least, amusing. As always, thanks for reading.

–the anonymous novelist

Story of My Life

This post is a bit of a breakaway for me. I don’t normally post autobiographical content, but I feel I owe it to you to explain a little about my life.

Recently, my sister was joined in marriage to a man named Robin Chartier. You may ask, “How did she find someone to marry when she lived on a bus?” I actually don’t have a good answer to that, other than God worked it out. 

They met at his brother’s wedding. Let’s stop right there for a second. First of all, I would hardly consider a wedding the best place to meet a young woman, though I do suppose they are all looking their best. Perhaps that is why Robin was so attracted to her; he saw her at her prettiest outwardly, but spent some time with her and saw her at her prettiest inwardly. It was more than just appearance that drew him to her, and eventually her to him. But, I suppose the fact that they were both uncommonly short did help; and after discovering their mutual hatred for cats, they knew they were perfect together. I’m ending this paragraph before it gets too sappy.

Up until she got married, my sister was traveling with the family full time. This, her being absent from the home and the ministry for a while has been both a difficult concept to process and a difficult process to acclimate to. 

When you live on a bus full-time, you are either very close to your siblings, (both emotionally and physically), or you kill each other. This type of relationship is one that takes years to develop, and a very great distance indeed to break. Though, this transitional phase of moving on will take some getting used to, it won’t last forever.

In addition to my sister’s marriage, another exciting thing is soon to happen for me and my family. This June, at the end of the month and into the beginning of the next, a team of 24 people will be going on a mission trip to Uganda, Africa. Nine of the twenty four will be myself and my family, as we host these annual trips. 

The work God has begun in Uganda is incredible, from bringing in water filtration systems, to street preaching, to teaching pastors to teach their churches, to school and prison ministries, to constructing an orphanage, God has used our ministry in mighty ways to bring a powerful change in that country of Africa. Be in prayer for us as we continue to raise money for the efforts there so we can make an even greater difference in the lives of people in Uganda.

I hope you enjoyed this slight divergent from my normal blogging style. If so, please leave a comment and let me know. If you’d like to see more content of this kind, or perhaps a bit of travel journaling, comment on this post. As always, thanks for reading.

–the anonymous novelist

Of Monsters And Men

Hello again. I love that particular greeting. It is as refreshing and pleasant a welcome as they come. There’s an altogether warming essence about it that settles the spirit. Now, I’m not going to talk about the band, “Of Monsters And Men”, and I realize that the name of this post was somewhat misleading, but it was used to prove a point. 

A allusion to someone or something is a useful tool to cause an idea or memory to spring into the mind of your readers.

Though in this case, monsters and men are the topic of this post. 

Men- Obviously not men specifically; the race of men: These are your story. Not only are your men more important than your monsters, they are the track that your stories ride on. Characters drive stories. Readers read for the characters’ sake. 

A reader will often read a particular author’s work specifically for the way he/she writes their characters.

Monsters- To avoid setting your mind on the stereotype in which we have placed these creatures, I’ll define the word briefly.

Monsters: An imaginary creature that is typically large, ugly, and frightening.

That is how Oxford defines it; however, a more correct definition of the word would be: 

An imaginary creature of fantastical size and shape that is typically powerful, ugly, or frightening.

Monsters. These are fun. Monsters are the playground of any fantasy writer, Christian or secular. Monsters are a large part of what makes your story fantastical, adding flare and personalization with the limitless possibilities available (being that by definition monsters don’t and can’t exist). Both men and monsters alike are essential to any fantasy works, and at the same time, they are the most unique and exciting toys of the novelist. 

It goes without saying that you will be partial to any character you create and truly pour yourself into. But that principle applies even more so to monsters, on a broad scale. If you create an entire creature type and “species”, you become not only attached to that one specific monster as a character, but to the entire “species”, as a character type and pool from which to spawn new ones. I’ll talk more about both monsters and men in later posts. But, remember this, if you are going to have mythic beings in Christian writing, they must serve a purpose, or have an allegorical meaning. 

As always, thanks for reading and be watching for exciting posts in the future.

 –the anonymous novelist

RPG

Any of you readers who have consistently read my blog are likely wondering why I call it, “the anonymous novelist”. There is a simple answer to that. If you know me, (or perhaps have read my “About” page), you know that I live on a bus, traveling and singing with my family. Everyone who knows me, knows me as a singer, not a writer. So, if I were to publish a book, people in my realm of popularity would purchase it because they liked me as a singer and young man, and not on its own merit. In this way, I will ever be known as a singer who writes, but never a writer who sings. It is almost as if I am writing anonymously. I’m playing two roles at once, one of a writer and one of a singer, but which one will win out.

Life is one big RPG, (Role Play Game), the choices we make are real, but who we are changes. God built humans as intelligent creatures and gave them a choice: good or evil. Since creation, humans have built choices into everything; everyone must be free to choose in everything. The crazy thing about this world is, people invented such horrors as divorce, abortion and homosexuality and billed them as choices…alternatives. They said that everyone was free to choose for themselves, that it’s your life and no one should be able to tell you how to live it. These are fine arguements, but they didn’t stop there. These people then tried to tell us that in the case of people who get a divorce, they had no choice, they were incompatible, there was nothing to be done because they were engineered differently.

The arguements that, “You couldn’t help it”, or “Were born that way”, are not valid. To use them is to admit that you do not have a free choice, or a free-will, and there is always a choice. Not even Jesus could say that he had no choice. He could call 10,000 angels to carry Him to heaven, or He could suffer and die for the sins of the world. He is our perfect example, and He had to make many choices in His life. 

Where there is choice, there is no excuse.

I think that this is the biggest reason we are hearing arguments today that people had no choice, or were born a certain way, or couldn’t help it. Those are excuses, ways to try and sidestep responsibility for actions and waive guilt. No one wants to admit that they are sinning, or have sinned. Pride and guilt keep us from being honest, so we make excuses. I’m talking about everyone, not just the most high profile cop-outs and excuse-makers. We are all guilty of trying to get out of the trouble we know that we’re in, but just avoiding the “blame spotlight” won’t save us from the consequences of our choices.

Life is like a giant RPG. The choices you make, are what make you. Who will you be?

–the anonymous novelist