My notebook got very wet and I spent a million years blow drying the pages. Now they are like the crumpled wings of a hit-by-a-car-bird. I think this is called Character.
Ok. I am telling you the truth now - God and Writing are almost the same thing. This is honest. Although I have always thought I was a self confident action action person, apparently I am not. This is the story:
I loved writing. I wanted to be an author. I didn’t think you were allowed to just sit down at the computer and write a book. I enrolled in a BA - Creative Writing, so smart people could teach me how to write. The smart people where dumb people in disguse. They did not want to teach me how to write creativly, they wanted to teach me how to tick the boxes on a criteria sheet. Rhys dropped out of uni and wrote a book! It was amazing!
I loved God. I wanted to be a christian (a real one). I didn’t think you were allowed to just walk outside and be Jesus. I tried to enroll in bible college, so smart people could teach me how to love God/people. (guess what?) The smart people are just dumb people in disguse. They dont want to teach me how to love God/people, they want to teach me how to follow doctrines. THANKFULLY - God stopped me from Going to bible college! Fool me twice, shame on me.
I am writing my next book(s) now. I know I just need to write. It is easy. But instead, if I procrastinate, I look up blogs on ‘how to write’ or read books for writers. The thing is, I KNOW how to write. It is inside of me. It has always been there. It is burning and bright and true and lovely. Just have FAITH. KNOW that you know how to write and WRITE.
The same is true with God. I know how to pray. It is easy. But instead, if I want to procrastinate, I might listen to a sermon, or read one of those christian self help books. How stupid! Just go for a walk and TALK to God. He talks back! It works! It happens. It is exciting. Go.
Writing and Faith are intertwined (for me). I think if I give up on one I will end up giving up on the other. If I get lazy with one I will struggle with the other. They are like two wheels on a bike. If one of the wheels gets flat I am going nowhere. yes.
They are big scary things. This is good. I am glad of it. I am going to get started.
I am glad to have just realised all this.
Sphere: Related Content
I think this is true for all of us- we are each able to do specific things (our ‘gifts’ or whatever), and we just need to DO them. It is perhaps laziness if we don’t?
I’m not convinced that the whole ‘I give up one, I will enventually give up on the other’ thing is true for all, but I guess is true if we make it true? I like to think that my ‘christianity’ read: relationship with God is my foundation- it’s not able to be broken by anything around it. It keeps me safe.
love you.
This is another fricken test post cause for some reason your blog HATES comments…
Third time lucky…
Huh. You should be a philosopher.
But then, you don’t need a degree to do that either, so you probably already ARE!
Hi Rhys,
I appreciate your thoughts and hope that you are posting them as discussion topics and that they are not fragile qualle eggs that can be shattered with the slightest touch.
I can see how you might think this way - that there is a purity that sometimes can be stiffled by rules. Actually perhaps I can’t, that is all I can come up with.
How do you write? You use words? And how do you know words? You learned them. How did you tell your first story? You heard someone else tell it and copied, or were taught. It seems odd to embrace learning and being taught things up until a certain point and then shunning it completely. And then calling the people ’stupid’ just because you don’t understand them. Is this because Rhys knows better than everyone? The only way to excel in any domain is to be fully submersed in it. Otherwise you might create something that you think is great, but really sucks. Or you might create something that is great, but doesn’t conform to anything that people can understand - then what’s the point? Even if you don’t believe what you are being taught, you can learn from it and choose whether to use it or not.
Are writing and Religion intertwined or just similar in some ways? I like what Talia wrote about Religion always being there.
I’ll just let my book do the talking.
the end!
Rhys, to follow is one thing and to understand it is another. I doubt that your new book would not be positively influenced by your bad experiences with structured writing. I think it’s wonderful. It’s late and I’m not entirely sure what I’m getting at. Voltaire is effecting me a lot at the moment, he said: ‘To hold a pen is to be at war’. What a wise man he was. Be brutal in your resistance to propaganda. It is trivial -i know- to read advice from a bewildered teenager like me, but I felt I should contribute.
Tom