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Inscribe Christian Writer's Fellowship (ICWF) Winner

Greetings to you as you take a moment to rest those tired writing fingers and read the winning submission from our most recent ICWF Word Challenge. The criteria was as follows:

Develop a story that contains the following:

God says, "No." What is the question?

God says, "Yes." What is the question?

God says, "Maybe..." What is the question?

The word count was to be 300 maximum and there was a deadline to meet. Participants on the Inscribe listserve voted and the following selection written by Joyce Harback won the honour of first place. Second place was awarded to Addy Oberlin and Bruce Atchison came in a close third. Congratulations to all.

Here is Joyce's winning entry:

There’s No Place Like Home

by Joyce Harback

I drove away from the babysitter’s home, weeping again. For six months I had been working temporary jobs after being laid off during a company downsizing. Money from the severance package was running out and I was trying the third caregiver for my toddler after two unmitigated disasters. As I gave her my contact information, my son began to cry but she firmly shooed me out the door.

“Crying is healthy,“ she said, “He’ll calm down after you leave.” His volume increased as I ran to the car, blinded by tears. I cried out to God as I drove. He is a God of miracles.

“Please, Lord, is there is ANY way you can make it possible for me to stay home with my boy?” I begged.

“I should be his caregiver. I don’t know how, but I can’t bear to see him cry like that every morning.”

Having rolled my burden over onto God, I wiped my eyes and started my job. After lunch my husband called.

“How are you?” he asked. “Oh, fine,”

Things were pretty crazy at his workplace, no need to burden him with my sadness.

“Now, don’t freak out,” my husband warned, “but my boss says they’re having a hard time finding someone to take that position up north.”

Rainbow Lake was where the road ends. Literally. Only the name was attractive. I knew exactly what he was suggesting. He wanted to apply for the job. It would be a huge promotion. The financial benefits were great.

“Yes,” I said. “Excuse me?” my husband said, shocked.

“Yes. I’m willing to go.” I explained my heart-broken appeal to God from the morning.

“This is the answer to my prayer.” He got the job, I got to be a stay-at-home mom and God got the glory.

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Congratulations Joyce!

Part Two - Writing for the Stage - Less is Best!

Subtle type directions such as gestures, responses to dialogue, idiosyncrasies of character and the like, are left to the discretion of the director.

For a start, you as the writer are not usually aware of the type of stage where your play will be performed or some of the subtleties involved as a complete stranger interprets your play. Nor will you have control over the pace and delivery. Actors, if they have some experience, will be most aware of the acting is reacting truism. If you, as the writer, try to tell them how to respond or what to do, then you are actually stifling their creativity. You need to write using your God-given gift but you also need to learn to limit the fluff.

Give both the actor and the director credit for reading your story and interpreting it for the audience.

An area where the writer does have a reasonable measure of input is in the creation of the set. The first part of the script should offer a description of the setting: a living room; a hunting lodge; heaven’s gates; a church sanctuary; a homeless shelter. As tempting as it may be, however, resist the tendency to go into great detail about the luxurious velvet brocade on the Victorian couch and the shiny bronze spittoon beneath the solid mahogany, hand-carved hat rack. You’re not writing a novel. Keep that in mind and keep things simple. If it has no bearing on the play – scratch it.

It is okay to indicate the time period and condition of the furniture and where the pieces are situated on stage, but make sure that everything on stage is there for a purpose. If there is a teapot on the table with two cups, make sure someone has enjoyed a taste before the end of the play.

It’s okay to give minimal direction about lighting but only if it pertains to the mood of the play or is necessary for a particular moment, otherwise leave the lighting up to the lighting director or producer.

Stage directions for characters should also be kept to a minimum. A brief, general description of each character should suffice. Don’t worry about describing the specific outward appearance or personality traits unless it is essential to the role. Personality, attitude and behavior will emerge as the discourse progresses. Concentrate more on creating good dialogue than on instructing the actor how he should react or behave on stage.

When I write a play I often am the director, too, so it’s easy for me to work as I go. I often do bare bones stage directions in that case. But when I write to submit my work I have to read my work in a different light. Have I offered sufficient information for staging without going overboard, is a big question?

Because someone else is reading my play, I sometimes feel I need to explain more. However, if the dialogue is well done and the story line is believable then I remind myself that I need not worry.

Minimal stage directions are all the director needs. So, are you ready to get out that script and give it the once over? Here’s a good way to edit the stage directions in your script. Read each direction then ask yourself, each time – “Who needs to know this and why?”

Too much information is not always a good thing. Keep it simple, Shakespeare!

Bacon Sandwiches and Salvation

(Photo: Adrian Plass sharing wisdom and wisecracks!)

"Do you love what you are doing?" I asked Adrian Plass last Friday night after his presentation at the The Waterloo Mennonite Brethern Church. I was curious. This gentle giant of a man seemed a natural with his delightfully lovely (and oh, so familiar) British accent. I could tell he really did love his Anglican roots, although he did not mince words when it came to 'wound tight' Christians. Mr. Plass was very forthright and almost gushed at how much he loved his writing and speaking. He also told me a little bit about how he had been struggling with depression and how this ministry was the healing tonic that God poured into his vessel!

(Photo: Glen Soderholm - right and David White filling the night with a joyful sound!)

The music for the night provided by the sweet voiced Glen Soderholm and his multi-talented musical sidekick, David White, was delightfully uplifting, honouring and wonderfully entertaining. These gifted boys were a lovely complement to Adrian's cheeky one liners.

The intimate venue at the church on Lexington Road was perfect for creating an intimate setting for the World Vision Story and Song evening. I had a great time.

It's not often I venture out on my own to such an event. At one point, after those who were initially going to attend with me couldn't make it last minute, I thought I might not go. But since I had a ticket and my happy hubby was out of town, I hopped in my car and headed out. And I am not one bit sorry that I did.

Mr. Plass, with his unique humorous perspective on the Christian life, was responsible for many a stitch in the side. People were guffawing right, left and centre as Adrian Plass spoke about everything from bacon sandwiches and salvation to büstenhalters. (If you are even the slightest bit curious about the büstenhalter, then check out this video!)

I am extremely thankful to the Word Guild and Eric Spath for offering tickets to TWG members. I encourage anyone who still might have the opportunity to see this great presentation. It's a wonderful evening out. Now I am off to have a read of my signed copy of Bacon Sandwiches and Salvation.

ICWF September Word Challenge Results

Go Inscribers! Here are the results of the September Word Challenge. Actually there was a tie for first place so a hearty congratulations go out to both Violet Nesdoly for her cleverly 'boring' poem and also to Diane Stephenson for her creatively 'boring' story. Ya'll will know I am not being rude when you read the criteria for submission. Here it is:

'Describe in 200 words or less someone who looks bored. Do not use any form of the words 'yawned,' 'stared' or 'sighed.'

The artist takes calculus

by Violet Nesdoly

His feet were up, his eyes were down

he doodled through the lecture

and then slipped out his berry black

to go online and twitter.Of course he never raised his hand

when prof asked for the answer,

was sandwich-groping through his bag

when buzzer said to quit’er.

MONOTONY HAS GOT TO ME by Diane Stephenson

The young girl slouched in the overstuffed chair with her feet plopped on the hassock. A book sprawled open on her lap. Her eyes focussed somewhere–or nowhere–beyond the pages of the book. Elbow propped on the worn arm of the old chair, she absentmindedly leaned her chin in her open hand. Fingers drummed softly on her tanned cheek. A lazy fly buzzed aimlessly in the window. Without turning her head, her languid eyes glanced in that direction. She breathed in deeply and slowly let out a whisper of air through pursed lips. She closed the book and stretched her arms over her head. Slowly one foot dropped to the floor; the other followed. She stood. Leisurely, as if searching for something, she scanned the den. Not finding what she was looking for, she sauntered into the kitchen. One after another she opened the cupboard doors and shut them again with no obvious purpose. She shrugged her shoulders. Bare feet padded down the hall to the bedroom. Sue flopped on the bed. As her head sunk into the down pillow she threw an arm across her forehead. Consciousness faded as sleep prevailed over the monotony of the day.

Part One - Writing for the Stage

Stage fright does not only happen to actors. A writer, especially someone writing their first play, can be as equally terrified about what will, won’t or might happen on stage. Should the lead character shift upstage, downstage, left or right? And how will this movement affect the other characters? What is the job of the writer regarding stage directions and other interactive information? What constitutes too much information [TMI?] and how does the director, the actors, a potential publisher view TMI?

As you sit and contemplate [what you thought was] your completed script, let’s discuss how much is too much, regarding stage directions.

How Much Wood Would [Should] a Woodchuck Chuck…?

Probably the best piece of advice regarding writing stage directions into your script is to follow the KISS method – Keep It Simple Shakespeare!

First, if you want a character to move to a specific spot and you indicate this in your script, make sure there is a reason for him to move. Never have a character reach a spot and do nothing. Make it purposeful, otherwise it is distracting and the audience will be focusing on this actor [what is he going to do now?] rather than the one delivering the dialogue. Be careful that you do not offer realms of suggestions for movement. Be specific. For instance, Rosemarie crosses to pick up the telephone. That’s specific. Rosemarie crosses stage right, picks up telephone, dials and makes a surprised face when someone other than the person she was calling answers. TMI. This is too much information. The surprised face and body language is up to the director and the actor. The ensuing dialogue that you create should make this situation real to the audience – remember the old show, don’t tell, wisdom? You don’t need to offer particulars about location in your script. These details are evident in the set layout, which you have hopefully already established from the beginning.

Be aware of offering all kinds of upstage and downstage pointers. If it is essential for the director to know the actor must move stage left, then indicate so; otherwise leave movement and blocking alone. Let the director decide. Your concern as the writer is to show and tell the actor where he should be at a particular time only as it pertains to the relevancy and the flow of the story. A writer’s attempts at blocking are frequently viewed with annoyance by a director. As far as the director is concerned, the only time a writer need offer specific stage movement cues, is when they are necessary to advance the story. Too much information can be more than aggravating and may irritate the director or a potential publisher previewing a script sufficiently, to toss yours and pick up the next one in the pile.

Four Letter Words

There are so many four letter words in our English language. Here are some that can change the world: love, hope, care, heal, work, feel, duty, home, good, kind, pity, rest, seek, live, pray...

Can you think of any more?

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The most important attributes a writer must have are faith, hope and clarity!

(Will Conway)