Jan
06

Being Interesting

I came across a blog post while looking at my friends’ FB posts today.  According to Jessica Hagy’s post on the Forbes website entitled, How to Be More Interesting (in 10 Easy Steps), a person can be more interesting by:

1. Go exploring
2. Share what you discover
3. Do something. Anything
4. Embrace your innate weirdness
5. Have a cause
6. Minimize the swagger
7. Give it a shot
8. Hop off the bandwagon
9. Grow a pair
10. Ignore the scolds

(for more info on any of these topics, see the blog).

It’s interesting because when I read #3 (in which she encourages people to create, etc.), I realized that writers do this all the time.  Which made me think that many of these are things that writers do without thinking about it.

After all, as writers we explore our worlds and the worlds of others when we write, read, and critique . . . and don’t we often have to research or try something new so we can write about it well?  That’s  #1.  Writing, in itself, is sharing what we discover.  That’s #2.  And we readily create (#3). 

Let’s face it . . . we’re weird (#4).  (In fact, I read another blog about writers’ quirks today.  Check it out: http://www.rachellegardner.com/2012/01/writers-quirks/ ).

Some writers (though not all) are concerned about a given topic and choose to write about it (#5), and many writers strive to write an original story instead of following what’s already out there (#8).  Making a living in writing . . . even just putting your writing out there, takes guts (#9).  And, often, we have to face negative criticism (#10).

Do you see that?  Out of 10, many writers are already actively doing 8 of these.  Get this!  We are interesting people. Writers are interesting people.

I know a lot of times, I think I’m a pretty boring person.  I can’t do well on FB or twitter because I never think I have anything interesting to say.  So it’s nice to prove to myself that I actually have something to say that someone may want to hear. 

So what about you?

Do you think you’re boring sometimes? What makes you interesting?  What are your writer’s quirks?

This list is taken from “How to Be More Interesting (in 10 Easy Steps)” by Jessica Hagy, written 11/30/2011, and accessed 1/6/12 at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jessicahagy/2011/11/30/how-to-be-interesting/

Dec
24

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, all!

Dec
09

Faith in Fiction

Last Saturday, I was at the bookstore just itching to see what I could find. I went to the teen section and started to look.

First of all, have you noticed that all the books in that section have dark covers? Secondly, as I look at book after book, I noticed something. From what I could see 1. they were all pretty much the same thing (vampires, werewolves, end of the world, relationships, etc.) and 2. none of them really had a faith element to them. I found myself thinking as I read one back cover, “this is really shallow.”

Now, I’m not about to say that those books were horrible. How would I know; I didn’t read them. Nor will I say they don’t have a message. But I truly believe that people are made of three parts: mind, body, and spirit. To write about the first two and leave the last untouched is doing a disservice to the work and the reader. At least, that’s what I think.

So, I will move forward and continue my quest of writing really good, interesting fiction with a faith element in ii . . . not necessarily all Christian fiction, but I plan to make faith/God a part of every story I write. The result is, I hope, a deep and meaningful work that people can indulge in, enjoy, and learn from.

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