Of Mysteries, Sacred Things, and Finishing

“Flannery O’Connor is one of my favorite storytellers… In Mystery and Manners, she wrote of the challenges to write about religious insight in an age of modern doubt and skepticism. But times have changed since 1959 when she wrote this. Since that time, Modernism has given fully to Postmodernism, and now our culture seeks transformation instead of doubt or play. Skepticism about the spiritual is coming to its breaking point. People yearn for transformative experience. We see all around us a desire for the mystical… People seek transformation where it can be found, most notably in the gothic or shadows…”*

As I zero in on the final chapters of what I believe to be the last major revision of my novel-in-progress, I’m beginning to experience the mystery of creating a world and characters that live and breathe and, over which, I have only so much control. Certainly, I am the author. I could bend it all to my will—but then it would no longer ring true.

This point in novel-writing is rich and excruciating, equal parts exciting and confounding, but I love it, for several reasons.

One, it feels wonderful to have created something so authentic, I’ve lost control of it. That’s my best hope of having created a world that rings real to my readers as well, that will cause them to, in turn, lose control of themselves and climb inside my characters for the ride. Please, Lord, let it be so.

In addition, as a believer, this point in a novel presents to me as a sacred moment. Writing a world and people into being draws me closer to my Creator in a unique and mysterious way… “His spirit, working with my spirit…” This, also, fills me with hope, that the transformative nature of this process, which I have experienced, might also be experienced by my readers. Please, Lord, let it be so.

And finally, perhaps most importantly, it means, against all odds and the intrusions and interruptions of the rest of my life, I might actually finish this thing and give other people the opportunity to benefit from it…or not…as God sees fit.

And this is the Writerly Wednesday part of this post, because, as Philip Roth once said, “The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.” While my personality is more inclined toward a Nancy Thayer sentiment, that “it’s never too late—in fiction or in life—to revise,” my perfectionist tendencies can turn my revision good intentions into an endeavor with less-than-heavenly outcomes. (Tip: When you start putting back in the commas you’ve taken out on the last revision, it’s time to write: The End.)

So, as someone has said, “revise, revise, revise.” Revise until you feel the mystery. Revise until you’ve come to the end of yourself and released control. Then, as Neil Gaiman and so many other great authors would exhort, “Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish.”

Because the world needs your story. So many are seeking meaning and transformation in the worst ways. Readers have come to the end of themselves, and open to something bigger than themselves, in a way we haven’t seen in generations. And this is usually the point in humanity’s story where God breaks through. I want to be a part of that, don’t you?

“The words are fire in my belly, a burning in my bones. I’m worn out trying to hold it in. I can’t do it any longer!” (Jer. 20:9)

Please, Lord, let it be so.

The End

Not all views expressed are those of every member of ICW. *Michael Olin-Hitt