Write About Now

Face the Music

What kind of music do you listen to as you write? I'm always fascinated by the answers people give, usually because I couldn't write to most of them. Heavy metal? No way. Country? Try again. One night a couple of years back, a novelist buddy let me read his latest manuscript right on the laptop screen, and as accompaniment he fired up the playlist he'd been writing to. That was wild, because the music and the words really fit. (He has much cooler taste than me, too.)

My go-to soundscape is the Michael Nyman catalog. I can write to any of it, though the soundtracks to Carrington and Ravenous are particular favorites. The past couple of days, for the first time in my life, I've been grooving to Philip Glass. The music in question is his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. It's running on a loop in the background right now. Fertile sounds.

What about you? Any favorites?

JMB on the Radio: Prime Time America @ 4:30 PM (Central)

This is short notice, but if you happen to be a Prime Time America listener, I'm booked to appear on the show today to talk about Rethinking Worldview. It's a live interview, and it should be on the air somewhere around the 4:30 PM mark, give or take. If you're not in the listening area, you can follow the link to the Prime Time America site and listen online.

Writing It Out By Hand

It's a safe bet that most of us these days write with computers. A few hold-outs still brag about their love affair with the typewriter -- but then, that's the sort of thing you have to brag about, just to drown out that clacking noise. The people I really admire, though, are the ones who write everything out by hand.

It's not as quixotic as it might seem. Pen and paper are handy and conveniently carried. They don't run out of batteries, either. No one is likely to steal them from you on the bus because they're terribly inexpensive.

The objection to writing things out in Old School manner is that you only have to re-type them when it's time to submit. But is that really a bad thing?

The Last of Mark Bertrand

Becky Miller has optimistically titled the final installment of our dialogue at A Christian Worldview of Fiction:

"The Last of J. Mark Bertrand"

She attributes the fact that no one has flipped out over the sentiments I express in the interview to her belief that I haven't said anything "controversial." The real reason, of course, is that everything I say makes sense, which is not quite the same. Then again, my Worldview Academy colleagues have pointed out that no one every comes up to argue with me after my lectures, not because they agree but because they aren't sure exactly what I said.

Worldview Thinking with Mark Bertrand: Part 2

The second part of my conversation with Becky Miller is up at A Christian Worldview of Fiction:

Worldview Thinking with Mark Bertrand, Continued

Today, I answer questions about how worldview thinking influences writers -- and how it doesn't. A little slice:

"...I think artists tend to see either though a wide angle or a zoom lens. Some are trying to capture the big picture in their work, and others focus on a single thread. C. S. Lewis fits in the first category. His best novel, if you ask me, was Til We Have Faces, which is an elegant re-working of the Psyche myth that ends up saying something profound about the nature of holiness and our self-deceiving rebellion against it. But can you imagine Flannery O’Connor writing that book, or Graham Greene? They were also influenced by Christian theology, but it came out in different ways."

Reflections on a Year of Relief

The fourth issue of Relief Journal just arrived on my doorstep, which means I've been at this thing for a year now. Actually, it's been a bit longer than that, but we've put out a year's worth of journals. Starting with Issue 5, Alan Ackmann is joining the staff as my co-editor, which is -- if you'll pardon the pun -- a relief, since he's an excellent writer with great connections and taste. You can read an example of his work in Relief #4, a superb little story called "Swimmers into Cleanness Leaping."

So, what have I learned so far as a fiction editor? I'll try to distill the experience into a few simple observations. Here goes:

A Feat of Words

Medieval knights, to prove their virtuosity with blade and lance, used to organize a feat of arms, an aggressive, exuberant -- and sometimes deadly -- display of just how good there were. This blend of prowess and pageant, in addition to testing skill, provided stirring entertainment for the onlookers. I've often wondered if something similar could be done today, substituting writers for warriors, a feat not of arms but of words.

Inspired by class I took years ago called Fiction Forms, here's how I'd go about it. Each author who entered the lists would write three short stories, each in a different genre. Let's say suspense, romance, and fantasy, though we could choose alternates easily enough. The idea is to take a recognized form, where readers have definite expectations, and give it a unique bravura spin. By working in three categories, the author displays flexibility, the way a knight would by trading sword for axe or mace.

The entries would be written to deadline, and only the authors who submitted all three stories would make the grade. The results would be indexed centrally for reading, and we'd determine three winners: (1) the author whose three entries, averaged, receive the highest number of reader votes, (2) the author with the individual story receiving the highest number of reader votes, and (3) the author who receives the highest number of votes from the other entrants.

Of course, there are many details to be worked out -- minimum and maximum word counts, which three genres would be represented, deadlines, voting mechanisms. But I wonder if a modern-day feat of words, undertaken for no other purpose than to delight readers, is an idea that would find any traction. What do you think?

The Shoe's on the Other Foot: Becky Miller Interviews Me

If you enjoyed last week's dialogue between me and Becky Miller, you're in for a treat. Not content to have me asking and her answering, Becky decided to jab the microphone in my face and ask some questions of her own. The result, I think, is an excellent exchange. The first part, which talks about the nature of worldviews, is online today, and there is more to come as the week progresses.

A Conversation with J. Mark Bertrand | Part 1

I think this one will be of particular interest to authors hoping to "write from a Christian worldview," a concept we'll explore throughout the conversation.

Summary Execution

So you hate writing outlines, but you're tired of not knowing where your novel is going until you get there? I might just have a solution for you. Be prepared, though, because it involves the dreaded s-word: summary. Most authors I know hate summaries. We write them last of all, once the real work is done, and only because editors require them in the proposal. That little requirement bugs us, too, because of all it implies. Why do you need a summary of my manuscript when I'm sending you the manuscript itself? Can't you people just, you know, read it? Editors can, but not everyone is the decision-making chain is going to, so a good summary is important. But that's not what we're here to talk about.

What if you wrote your summary before you wrote the book? And what if, instead of a summary, it was really a treatment -- a fleshed-out, highlight-oriented narrative that suggests both the character development and plot arc of the finished novel.

On Advice

A good writer medicates himself. No, I don't mean he writes with a bottle of pills at his elbow. What I'm saying is, he's constantly diagnosing his shortcomings and prescribing solutions. Think of it that way and you understand why not all good advice is good for you. There's plenty of medicine behind the pharmacy counter that you simply don't need, because you're not sick in that way. Taking the wrong advice can actually make you sick when you were fine before. To guard against this, like I said, you have to be your own diagnostician. Look at the symptoms and make your own evaluation.