Future World

Today I got the opportunity to speak with the writer Jeffrey Overstreet in my Writing About Film class. If you don't know anything about him, here's quick snippit: he's written a fantasy book series called Auralia's Colors and is well known within the film world as a Christian film critic. His book Through a Screen Darkly is essentially my textbook for class. It's been really intriguing to see him comment on movies from a Christian viewpoint, but not to the extreme conservative that most Christians tend to 'review' movies.

As he spoke about his film reviews or answered my questions about book writing, I felt within me the same feeling of 'home' as I did when I was at the Writer's Conference last summer. Talking with other authors, agents and editors and sharing experiences and discussing books is something I've missed. I didn't realize it until this morning, but I have missed that world. That future world I hope and pray I will one day belong to.

One of the questions I had asked Mr. Overstreet (it sounds so formal, but I don't feel right calling him "Jeff"), was how hard it was for him to construct his fantasy book series. It's something I've been struggling with personally - trying to create the world I'm writing about, yet feeling as though I'm missing something vital that most authors seem to understand. I've found that I feel inadequate at times to write the book series I'm writing. As though I'm under-qualified for such a task.

However Mr. Overstreet's response helped to put me at ease. He stated that the first draft of his novel was written in 1996, but it wasn't published until 2006. 10 years. Is that normal? 10 years seems to the be the magic time limit. He continued to say that he had started out with a 70 page short story, and it progressed into a 4 book long series. That change had occurred through he and his friends asking questions about the characters, the plot, the setting, etc.

So I'm not on the wrong path?

It always seems as though I am. From my limited perspective, it looks as though I'm wandering around, waiting for something to occur. Some magic bolt of lightning to strike my brain to change everything. But what if there is no bolt of lightning required? What if I merely need to keep plodding along until something within the story changes?

I see a major difference between my experience and Mr. Overstreet's. He had friends asking questions. Inversely, I stand alone. My brother occasionally will approach me with a question or a comment, but those times are few and far between. And now that he's down in Tennessee for the summer, well...that means that the island I stand on is drifting farther away from other people.

Perhaps it's my own doing. Perhaps it's not. Maybe I just need to be patient. For some reason, I always think that I've got patience down to an art. Silly me. Patience is something that I can do well in some instances. But when it comes to my books, I find that I am so impatient I may as well be throwing a tempter tantrum at God. Yet He stills waits for me to calm down and then tells me that everything's going to be okay.

I'm going to be okay.

Oh, and if anyone out there happens to know of a job I can have over the summer, I would greatly appreciate it. Apparently I'm inept at having one. I know God provides and all, but with my dad breathing down my neck about a job, it seems as though I might get killed if I don't find something.

Patience and trust. Oh how often I stumble.

For now, here's a pretty picture I found here: http://allthekngshorses.deviantart.com/favourites/43269878#/d27sjjj

EDIT*

Jeffrey Overstreet is one of my favorite people now. Why? Because he finds problems in Harry Potter that really SHOULD NOT be ignored. Children should not do things counter to what they're told (aka, break rules), and then be praised for it. I was so happy when he said that this morning.