Back with more Writing Journal

Last time I posted an aim to complete two flash fiction and two short stories by the end of April. It did not all happen. There were a number of reasons, but let us not dwell on the past.

I did, however, get the two flash stories done. 

I am submitting them both. One, 'Leprechaun in the Backyard', to AntipodeanSF. The other, 'Mouse' to 100 Words or Fewer Writing contest. I'll report here how I went in both, when I know, in a future blog.

Meanwhile, even though I intended otherwise when starting it, this blog will just be about writing from now on. My quest to become a successful writer, my thoughts on writing (if I have any) and, hopefully some reviews of writing by others.

Only time will tell.

Rick's Writing Journal (dropping the numbers) Learning To Write.

It was around six months ago that I really decided to give writing a real go. One thing I really had no idea about was how much there is to learn.

First, I heard of something called, 'voice'. I was reading comments about a piece of writing having a strong or weak voice, I had no idea what this meant. I think I'm now beginning to get it; just the act of trying to write has helped me to understand.

Next came 'flow', people talking about how some writers have a great flow in their writing. Again I had no idea, but I have begun to understand after recantly reading a book by Margo Lanagan. The book, 'White Time' has ten stories in it. I did not like all the stories, but I found myself wanting to read them just because of the way they were written. Because of the way the words 'flowed' off the page.

Most recently, I want to a one day workshop on grammar for writers. I knew that I didn't know a lot about grammar, that good grammar helps, but how much I need to know really surprised me. It was a classic case of, 'The more you learn, the more you realize you need to learn.', but I learnt enough to want to learn more.

Learn about all of it, I want to learn and to write.

PS. I'm making good progress on my story goals for the end of the month.

Hallelujah

Hi discovered this really incredible version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah the other day, the link to it is below.

http://www.godvine.com/Girl-Sings-an-Absolutely-Beautiful-Version-of-Hallelujah-1337.html

I was so amazed by this girls singing that it lead me to look closely at the words of the song and was quite struck by by the things I found. Here are just two:

1. The song seems to be about King David!

2. There are some amazing words.

The most amazing, to me, are:
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

What this line said to me is that real love is not about when it's easy, when you feel your a winner. Real love is when it hurts.True love is there in the deepest darkest hours, when all hope seems lost, when it cannot hurt any more that it does right now. Love finds it's greatest expression in our greatest pain, when you love that which hurts you the most.

I'm writing this on Good Friday, the day that God still loved us when it hurt the most, more than we can ever know.

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Jesus on the cross, God's cold and broken Hallelujah.

Baptism No. 1

I had the privilege of baptizing two men on Sunday the 1st of April, yes a perfect date for it.

Leading up to the baptisms, I was struck by the number of times I had to explain that I wasn't sprinkling water on the heads of babies, but actually baptizing two grown men by immersion. This lead me to thinking about the different views of baptism found in christian churches. Two different views to mine that I have encountered often and recently are:

1. You must be baptized by full immersion to be saved.

2. A child of christian parents who is baptized, by having some water sprinkled on their head, is part of the covenant relationship between God and the Church, and assured a place in heaven until old enough to be accountable to God for themselves.

These represent to totally opposed views of baptism and, as I have already said, are both wrong in my judgment. However, the only real judgment that counts in God's word, the Bible. So over the coming few weeks I'm going to attempt to show how these two views do not reflect what is taught in God's word, and how my view does, or at least comes closer.

Rick's writing Journal No. 7

It's time to put off procrastinating to another time and get on with some writing.

Here is the plan:

1. Enter the latest 100 words of fewer contest with a little story I'm working on about a mouse.
2. Submit a very short Leprechaun story to the AntipodeanSF web site for publication. (This will be the first time I've sent any of my writing to something that is not a contest.)
3. Do a major rewrite of my Leprechaun short story and submit it to a YA short story contest.
4. Finish the short story on vanity I'm working on and submit it to the Stringybark Short Story, 'Seven Deadly Sins', Award.

I intend to complete the above list by the start of June.

I'm doing it all wrong!

Since my latest effort to do a blog I've read many other blogs with advice on how to grow your audience. So, I no what to do, I just don't do it.

First and foremost, you must be regular in your posts. Fail!

Second, you must promote your blog at every opportunity. Fail!

Third, you must post interesting and informative content. I find it interesting, and it may have some information? Fail!

There is usually a fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, etc, but I can never remember them. Fail!

I feel really good about myself. :)

Some Thoughts on Prayer

Why do we pray?

This thought came to me as I reflected on some of the unusual outcomes I've had lately from my prayers, here are just one.

I was returning a bus to it's grassy parking spot in the evening, and I knew it was needed by another group the next morning. I had been warned not to go on the grass if it had been raining. Well, the sun had been shining most of the day, the only real rain had come just haft an hour before I returned the bus. Praying, I decided to risk the grass, it was a bad idea. Yes, I got a 5 ton 22 seat bus bogged!

As the man who own the field and I tried many different things to get the bus unstuck I prayed that they would work, I really prayed that the bus would be available for the group the next morning. nothing we tried worked. After some frantic phone calls, I was able to find that the bus has NRMA road side assistance cover. The NRMA was able to call a toe truck company who come out and try to move the bus, but it was going to cost a lot of money. I was willing to pay the money, my prayer was just that the bus would be ready for the next morning. The toe truck driver took one look, said it was to hard and left. At least it didn't cost me any money. By this time it was well into the evening and completely dark. I promised to come back first thing the next day to try and get the bus out. I want home praying that it would not rain over night, it did, but I slept well.

The next morning the ground was much worst than the night before and, despite bringing everything I could get my hands on to give the bus wheels a solid foundation to move on, nothing worked. We moved the bus about three feet. Then one of the men associated with the group who owned the bus showed up with a man in a four wheel drive. In fact, the man was a four wheel drive touring guide and he was fully set up to pull bogged stuff out of just about anything. Fifteen minutes later the bus was free, and well in time for the next user.

So, what was the point of praying through all this? There are a number of points here are just a few.
1. Prayer kept me at peace. I had a confidence that it would work out, I just didn't how.
2. Prayer kept the real goal in front of me. Because I was praying for a specific outcome I was focus on that outcome and not distracted by the complications of the situation.
3. God provided what I needed and, because I was praying, I could God's hand at work.
4. Prayer is how we depend on God.

Just one verse to finish this

 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7