Timothy's Thoughts

I once heard of four old men living in a retirement community. They were all former police detectives and they spent their days reminiscing about how things used to be and discussing how the detectives of today didn’t know what they were doing. One day, they were discussing such things and they began to discuss how that it would be nice if they could pit themselves against the younger generation of detectives and prove that they were better. They discussed this for a while and decided that they would be quite the sight if they were to show up at a crime scene, one of them needing a walker. They were sure the police wouldn’t let them in and it would be hard to investigate from outside. They let it rest for a while, but then one of them suggested that the thing to do would be to bring the crime scene to them. They discussed how they could do this and decided that they only way it would work would be if one of them committed the crime. It took them a good deal of time to discuss the risk...

I saw a Facebook post the other day that struck me funny and I don’t mean laugh out loud funny (though most people who claim to laugh out loud really don’t) but funny in an odd sort of way. It wasn’t particularly interesting, but an author mentioned something she was doing to prepare for a class she was teaching on blogging. The thing that struck me funny was that here we are and pretty much all of us are blogging. If we aren’t it is because we don’t want to. There have been many people who have taught classes on blogging and there is a ton of information on the Internet about blogging. Do we really need another class on blogging? As I thought about it, I thought about all of the stuff that is out there, not just classes about blogging. Look at the classes they teach at writer’s conferences and I get the same feeling that I’ve seen this all before. Visit agents’ blogs and so much of what they say is the same stuff over and over. One agent may say it slightly different than another, bu...

P op quiz: Who was named best actor last year? Which coach won the Super Bowl two years ago? Who wrote the best selling novel five years ago? What is the name of your favorite teacher from high school? What is the name of your favorite author? What is the name of the person who led you to the Lord? Don’t bother giving me your answers. I asked the questions to make a point. So many of the things that we think are so important are so easily forgotten, but there are other things that we never forget. Recently, Rachelle Gardner wrote about making writing a lifestyle . The argument seems to be that if we expect to be successful at writing then we’re going to have to take this thing seriously. We might have to make some sacrifices that take us away from our families and out other obligations. What no one has been able to show me is that doing that is worth it. The saying goes that the wish of a dying man is never I wish I had spent more time at the office. I think you will find that dying a...

H ere’s one of the things that bothers me about Christianity today. Many people are preaching a doctrine of tolerance. Maybe we don’t agree with what others believe, but we’re told that the Christian thing to do is to tolerate their beliefs in the interest of fellowship. The saying is hate the sin but love the sinner and I agree with that, but so often it seems like people expect us to love the sinner by ignoring the sin. I recently read that Christian artist Jennifer Knapp has revealed that she is a lesbian in a relationship. What do we call that? A practicing lesbian? I’m not sure that’s the word we’re looking for. A few years ago Ray Bolz announced that he is gay, though he said he was not sexually active, in which case I wouldn’t consider him gay. But these announcements change Christianity. We look at some of the great songs that Ray Boltz is known for and we don’t want to think badly of Ray Boltz, no matter what he might do. How can a person who sang I Pledge Allegiance to the ...

E ver so often in writing circles, the question of foul language comes up. The argument for its use is usually something along the lines of truth in dialog. A former military man who has planted a bomb in a building and finds out it didn’t go off is going to have a few choice words to say. I understand that point of view, but I would like to argue that foul language is not only unnecessary in fiction but the removal of that crud language creates better stories. I’ve been watching the old Alfred Hitchcock Presents show from the 1950s. One of the things I’ve noticed is the excellent quality of many of the villains. Many of these villains are not unrefined people who would throw cuss words our carelessly, but they are people who give much thought to their choice of words as well as how they commit their crime. Like the politicians who sometimes get caught with an open mike, we know that these characters may not always speak so well, but they must keep the tongue in check. As the Bible te...

S eason 3, episode 9 of Alfred Hitchcock Presents is about a man who is about to be executed for a crime he didn’t commit. As his last request he asks for a typewriter (this is 1957 remember) and he types a letter to the editor. He was with a woman at the time of the murder. It seems he wants to get back at the district attorney because and perhaps this woman. To show that the district attorney is an idiot, this convict tells of three murders that he did commit but for which other people were blamed. He seals the letter up and sends it off. Ten minutes before execution time, the warden comes in with the chaplain and tells him that the woman has come forward to admit that she lied in court. He will be a free man. But no, he has sent out his letter and it is in the hands of a prison worker who will read it before it is sent out. I talked the other day about change. The best stories show change in the protagonist, but they also cause us to change. As I considered this story, I knew it ha...

C hip MacGregor says that he is looking for a book that will change him. That’s good, because I believe most good writers write with the intent that their books will change people. Books can change people in many ways, from giving people joy for a few hours to encouraging people to look at something in a way that they haven’t looked at it before. We tend to focus our attention on the entertainment value of a novel, but the thing that makes a novel memorable is in the way it changes us. Take Bridge to Terabithia for example. If it were just a story about two children creating an imaginary kingdom, it would be forgettable. As hard as it is to read, the thing that makes it memorable is that one of the children dies and the other has to deal with that. Killing off a primary character isn’t the only way we can change people with a story and unless you are Nick Sparks, you probably don’t want to do it in every book. But what we do want to do is consider how people will see the world after t...