Returning to the Stage: The Battle of Franklin

Writing The Battle of Franklin and watching it come to life on stage was one of the highlights of 2016. Director Matt Logan, songwriter Patrick Thomas, and an amazing cast of Nashville’s best talent breathed life into the story in ways that took my breath away and made it even better than I imagined. Read More ›

Cruciform Imagination, Part 1: Simile & Metaphor

As you know, metaphor and simile are not at all the same thing. The distinction between the two makes all the difference in the world. Let’s compare them using the song: Read More ›

Every Moment Holy: A Liturgy for Writers of Fiction

Every Moment Holy is scheduled to print in just a few weeks. This past weekend at the Rabbit Room Writers Fellowship, we read through one of the liturgies to close our meeting. I thought I’d share it Read More ›

July 8th: Rabbit Room Writers’ Fellowship

If you’re a writer and would like a chance to get to know some of your fellow writers, you’re welcome to join us next Saturday afternoon. The Rabbit Room Writers’ Fellowship will meet at North Wind Manor on July 8th @ 2pm. Read More ›

To a Schoolgirl in America: Writing Advice from C. S. Lewis

I was browsing my copy of Letters of C. S. Lewis (a British first edition, of course!)  and happened upon this little gem. Those of us who write would do well to heed this advice—especially the part about Read More ›

Writing With Flannery O’Connor: An Online Creative Writing Course

Besides being a brilliant writer, Flannery O’Connor wrote quite a bit about the craft of writing. In this six-week online course, we will look at O’Connor’s essays about writing in Mystery and Manners, examine ways that she implemented her principles in her short stories, and Read More ›

The Adventures of Fenigus March

This year I started a project called The Adventures of Fenigus March. It will be a series of paintings with accompanying one-page short stories that will eventually be put into a book. Read More ›

Unsolicited Writing Advice: Be Less Introspective

Writers write because they have seen something in the world around them, and they want to show it to someone else. Why, then, do we writers spend so much of our writing time thinking about ourselves? Read More ›

Death of a Fictionsmith

When I was a kid, I was repeatedly told I could do anything I set my mind to accomplish. This led me to try things bigger than I would have attempted if I hadn’t believed it. In some things I succeeded, in others… Read More ›

Common Trepidations Encountered in Collaborations

When you write a book it becomes somehow precious to you. Precious in the way that a child is precious.

Kind of.

Okay, not quite that precious. Read More ›

A Writers’ Fellowship

I’m a writer, and that means I spent a lot of years feeling like a kid standing awkwardly at the edge of the playground with a third arm growing out of someplace an arm shouldn’t grow. I tried to hide it most of the time, that arm, but occasionally Read More ›

On Being “Original”

This post is adapted from a talk given at Hutchmoot 2016. 

T. S. Eliot is one of the most iconic poets of modern times. In fact some would probably label him one of the most original poets of the 20th century. And yet, when we study his own philosophy and poetry, Eliot does not seem all that interested in being “original” in the sense that we understand it. He is rather, as Thomas Rees puts it, a “master of eclectic synthesis.” Read More ›