That's More Than a Museum... It's an Idea Bank!

My wife and I are museum fanatics. We don’t simply amble through the halls, looking for interactive displays that seem like video games for jaded adults. We peer through display-case glass to read exhibit captions and cross-reference them with the artifacts, and we discuss what we see along the way. We especially like to connect the museum’s holdings with antiques we’ve seen in the attics and cellars of our friends. (“See that wringer with a handle? It’s a laundry mangle. Mrs. Bloom used to have one.”)

Occasionally, we’ll find a modest-looking item that’s extremely rare and we wonder what kind of value it would have in the eyes of an “Antiques Road Show” appraiser. It’s all the more interesting if we think we have one like it in our garage. Perhaps we could dust it off and let Sotheby’s auction it for a fortune.

Yet that’s not our main take-away from a museum. We’re looking for ideas that might grow into a magazine article or book manuscript. We find plenty of inspirations in any sizeable museum, and we often use the trip home to brainstorm what we might do with them.

We spent last month in Oklahoma City, which has an extraordinary number of niche museums. After seeing the most popular venues (the Museum of Art, the First Americans Museum, and the Cowboy Museum), we still had our choice of the Female Aviator Museum, the Pigeon Museum, the Skeleton Museum, the Snake and Venom Museum, and lots more.

We learned that the original state capital was in nearby Guthrie, whose spacious Carnegie Library has been converted into a Territorial Museum. It has the sort of exhibits you might expect—about land rushes, Indian treaties, territorial disputes, etc.--but it also has a large exhibit about the state’s various attempts to treat mental illness. There’s a whole room devoted to the state’s most notorious bank robberies, and an exhibit about how the state capital was moved. (Legend has it that the first governor stole the state seal late one night and smuggled it into a rented office in Oklahoma City.)

Don’t underestimate the potential of a good museum. It’s not a reliquary of the dead and dusty past, but an idea bank for creative writers like us. Plan to spend an afternoon at a museum that you have not visited before—and be sure to take a notebook!

Joe Allison writes both fiction and nonfiction, and has been a member of the Indiana chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers since 2010. He lives in Anderson, IN, with his wife Maribeth.         

Seasons of Writing

     This is the month when seasons change. Fall officially begins with the equinox on Saturday, September 23, when daytime and nighttime are of equal length. The Farmer’s Almanac says our first frost in central Indiana will occur soon afterward, on or about October 11. If you grow flowers or vegetables outdoors, it's time to trim your hibiscus and other perennials, then cover the stems with straw or mulch to keep the plant from freezing. Time to dig up marigolds and other annuals so your flowerbed will be ready for a fresh planting. If you have root crops that over-winter, such as turnips, make sure they are well covered with mulch so they don’t freeze. You can harvest and cook them all winter.

     Writing projects are like those plants. They require different kinds of care as the seasons change. If we keep them well-nourished and protected from harsh weather, they can provide beauty and food, even when the weather is harsh. Think with me about the various seasons of writing:

      Winter. From time to time, your best markets will be glutted with manuscripts and editors will ask you to stop submitting new material. What better time to pull out some manuscripts that didn’t hit the target when you first submitted them? Spend some time polishing and correcting them to submit when editors are soliciting new material again.

     Spring. This is a good season to submit manuscripts that you reworked when markets were inactive. Scan the Internet to see if any recent events may draw new attention to these pieces. The Christian Writers’ Market and other sources can alert you to new markets that are eager to launch with fresh, imaginative material like yours.

      Summer. You’ve been waiting for this season. There’s strong demand for new manuscripts, competitive pay for books and articles accepted for publication, and agents visiting writers’ conferences to scout out writers with promise. This isn’t the time to find your cupboard is bare. Be ready to query agents and editors with proposals that you’ve prepared to pique their interest. They are aggressively looking for material to publish in the next active season, so make it yours!

     Autumn. Here we are again, ready to turn the corner from the most active season to the most dormant. What you do now will determine whether your well-cultivated projects survive the harsh blasts of winter. Do you have a book proposal that several editors rejected with suggestions for improvement? This is a good time to act on their recommendations, so lay out a timeline to correct those manuscripts in coming weeks.

     As the sage of old wrote, “To everything there is a season.” Every season is a different opportunity to write for success. Will you make the most of it?      

 

Joe Allison writes both fiction and nonfiction, and has been a member of the Indiana chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers since 2010. He lives in Anderson, IN, with his wife Maribeth.         

Missing Details

I came to the last page of a crime novel, closed it and laid it aside. It had been a fast-paced, satisfying read. As my mind walked through the plot and visualized scenes where the robberies had taken place, I also tried to visualize the robber, but couldn’t. The author had not described him.

For one of the crimes, the protagonist had worn a disguise with brown contact lenses, but the author didn’t say what his natural eye color was. Another crime, another disguise—this time he was an elderly man with a gray-haired wig. Again, the author didn’t say what his real hair color was.

My wife read the novel at the same time. If the police interviewed both of us as witnesses to those crimes, I imagine each of us would give them different descriptions of the perpetrator because most of our details would come from our imaginations.

Readers don’t need highly detailed descriptions to enjoy a story because readers like to participate in the creative process with us. In fact, the more details they supply, the more likely they are to enter “the fictive dream”—the imaginary world that takes us away from our current surroundings.

Media expert Marshall McLuhan categorized some media as “hot” because they supply detailed, multisensory information that leaves nothing to the imagination. Movies are good examples. McLuhan called other media “cool” because they supply sketchy information and we must create the rest with our imaginations. Books are “cool” media. (But you knew that, didn’t you?)

There’s another advantage of providing scant details: It keeps the pace of our narrative moving. If we don’t belabor our description of characters and settings, we create stories that readers truly can’t put down because they’re eager to see what happens next.

Joe Allison writes both fiction and nonfiction, and has been a member of the Indiana chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers since 2010. He lives in Anderson, IN, with his wife Maribeth.

Your God-Given Vocation

I recently came across a book on Christian academic vocations written by A.G. Sertillanges, a French Catholic university professor. He says:

A vocation is not fulfilled by vague reading and a few scattered writings. It requires penetration and continuity and methodical effort, so as to attain a fulness of development which will correspond to the call of the Spirit, and to the resources that it has pleased Him to bestow upon us.[1]

He emphasizes that our vocations are God’s gifts to the church, so we cannot neglect them “without impoverishing the group and without depriving the eternal Christ of a part of His Kingdom.” He adds:

If you are designated as a light bearer, do not go and hide under a bushel the gleam or the flame expected from you in the house of the Father of all.[2]

Our Creator has entrusted us with the light of truth, which the world needs more urgently than any other. “Set your minds, then, on endorsing by your conduct the fact that God has called and chosen you” (2 Pet. 1:10a, Phillips).

Any God-given vocation deserves our steadfast commitment, in season and out. This is certainly true of Christian writing, Here's a suggestion: During your next meditation time, reflect on the  way you write. Think not only about the amount of time you give to the task, but the way you invest that time.  As Sertillanges reminds us, a vocation "requires penetration and continuity and methodical effort."

If you know God has called you to write, begin writing that way. Today.

Joe Allison writes both fiction and nonfiction, and has been a member of the Indiana chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers since 2010. He lives in Anderson, IN, with his wife Maribeth.

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[1] A.G. Sertillanges, The Intellectual Life, rev. ed. (Washington, DC: Catholic University Press, 1998), 3.

[2] Sertillanges, 5.

Your Library of Knowledge

Over the years, I have collected a large repository of books of all kinds. At the same time, I've learned a new skill: creative stacking.  Yes, I have books stashed in every corner of my office and adjacent rooms.  I have enough to open either a used bookstore or street corner library.

Yes, I'm all for digital, but nothing can replace the look, feel, and smell (yes smell) of a paper book.

To that end, I just keep adding to my library.  Do I need it? My answer: How do I know? I mean, you just never know what resource you will need until you need it.   Yes, I know these are things and they do add a lot to the clutter factor, but as writers, I feel like we get some leeway in collecting books.  Plus, I like walking into the other room and just referencing the book I need and move on. 

Yes, I buy books now that I know I will not read for years because I'm not sure if it will be in print by that time (not to mention I'm not a fan of musty odor books).

Ok, yes, rationally speaking I do run the question "do I need this book" through a series of filters to ensure it's something "I might" need at some point (if only to avoid having to build a new house or add a room, lol).

I know several writers who have started "the great book purge," but, as long as I have room, I will continue to build by writer's library.  Instead of a walk in closet, I have a walk in writer's libarary.

There is no right or wrong to this, and necessity is in the eye of the collector :)