The Word for Writers

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Note: This Commentary is based on a five-part story called The New Covenant, which can be found under the Challenge Articles on my profile (and now can be found in its entirety under my articles as A New Covenant).

Why the Commentary

I had so much fun and at the same time had such a struggle with The New Covenant serial that I thought I would share some of the thoughts I had (even though my wife thinks it’s strange that I would write such a commentary) as I went through the process of writing it.

First off – I must say a special thanks to dub Wright, having stumbled across his creative and outstanding A Crepe Heart. While I knew I could never match his writing talents, it inspired me to try my hand at a continuing storyline for the Writing Challenge.

Timmy, Friends of Mine, and Stephen King

My brother had been trying forever to get me to read The Dark Tower by Stephen King. In the second book of the series, Mr. King introduces a drug addict. As I read his story my mind went back to the old days (see The Now and Then by yours truly), and I remembered some friends of mine who were addicted to the needle.
Where I lived there was an old (but not abandoned) apartment building behind our house. My friends used to go back there and “shoot up” under an old staircase.

Sidebar:
Here comes the honesty part. If nothing else FaithWriters has really challenged me to look at my life and face some truths about my past that I sometimes think would be better left in the recesses of my mind. But praise be to the Father, I have found forgiveness through Jesus Christ, and I can face the past knowing that I am free, and that the price has been paid. He makes all things new!

Anyway, I found myself a time or two joining my friends, and the Timmy character came from those encounters with the needle. While I never became hooked on drugs (with me it was alcohol), they still played a very big part of my life for many years, and I saw first hand what they could do to a person. As I wrote about Timmy my heart cried out for all who are addicted to…fill in the blank.

Love Lost

Timmy’s father Joe is a combination of two people. My dad lost my mom when she died from Lou Gehrig’s Disease and my brother lost his wife two months after she gave birth to their third child. I was still drinking when my mother died, but I can remember how strong my Father was as he leaned on Jesus during that difficult time.

Watching my brother during the final days of my sister-in-law’s life almost tore me apart. When she got sick I was three years sober and was able to be with my brother at least some of the time in the hospital. If I ever get the strength to put that story in words I will, but for now…

My brother went through some hard times and asked some hard questions (as I guess we all do) once his wife was gone and he was left with three children, including the newborn. I believe in his grief he semi-turned away from his Heavenly Father and is even now on the long road back to finding the peace that can only come through Jesus.
I pray for him everyday.

Max, You, & Me

I love writing about Max. He is first introduced in an 80,000-plus-word manuscript called Whispers that I am in the process of rewriting.
I wanted Max to be mysterious – tall, somewhat dark, and maybe the reader gets the idea that he could have a six-gun strapped to his hip (I used to love John Wayne), but at the same time he is a kind and compassionate man that seems to have supernatural powers.
In short – an angel in blue jeans.

And yet, I believe that there’s a little Max in all of us. We all have the power of the Holy Spirit within us. We are here to help others, and the best way to help anyone is to point them to the cross. I read somewhere that only 10% of Christian’s polled had shared Jesus with someone in the last year. And of that 10%, the majority of those who shared the gospel had been Christian’s for two years or less.
Have we become complacent in our willingness to go and tell?
Lord, help me to shine your light everywhere I go. Help me to be a Max.

The Process Itself

How do you know if your article is a success or not?
I’m not sure if I know the answer to that. First of all, I think one has to define success. I know one of the most difficult things for me, as far as the Writing Challenge goes, is hitting the submit button. Once you do, there’s no turning back. I already have in mind ways that I would change The New Covenant if I could. There’s much of it that I’m not happy with. I feel like I could have done better.

I must admit though, that I was amazed at how many hits the first one had, and although there was not a lot of feedback, it encouraged me to go on. And the feedback I did receive (and it seems this is always the case, so thank all of you who take the time to read and critique the Challenge articles), was very helpful for me as a writer in progress.

Bottom Line

I learned some things about the writing process and I believe I learned some things about myself. And I guess that if you can say that at the end of the day, your doing okay.

So we keep writing, we keep on submitting, and we point the way…to Jesus.

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The Character Max is featured in my book, Whispers, now available in paperback:

To purchase your copy, click here:
'Whispers'

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