Fat Gators, Mules & Bertrand

Bible verse for thought...

My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I can't hold my peace; because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
-Jeremiah 4:19

Dave Long at Faith in Fiction posed a discussion this week that was inspired by J. Mark Bertrand's The Master Artist' Blog entry, Fire in the Belly.

An excerpt from Fire in the Belly....

"What it needs," he said, "is fire."

"Fire?"

"You're not pissed off when you write. You're not grabbing it by the throat."

Dave's take on the entry...

Here’s the rub:

To what extent does being a “Christian” file down those rough edges that prick and bleed in other writers. And while I know we’re all in agreement that following Christ is no roadmap to a life without suffering or pain, how much does our call to peace, hope, joy, patience, kindness, etc. dull or extinguish our instinct to write from the fire in the belly.

So where do we find the fuel to fire our art?

The easy end answer, I suppose, is that we write out of devotion and love and passion for God. And I do agree that in a number of novels, that is certainly the fuel that burns brightest. But then our vocabulary becomes haltingly limited. And while the fire is there, the art fails.

I agree, to an extent, but I for me fire comes from more than just a passion for God. For me it comes from a passion to live our lives as God wanted us to, and to get ticked off when we see our brothers and sisters not do the same. Sometimes, I can let iniquity and injustice go. Shake the dust off my feet and press to the mark. But times such as these, when not only am I defending God's righteousness, but my race, Hold my mule. I got to get my get on. (You don't know what that means. Excuse my geechee. Translation from the Rev. Shirley Caesar Dictionary. Hold my mules = I can't hold my peace. Translation from the Geechee/Gullah dialect handbook. I got to get my get on = I have to tell it like it T-I-is.

This week I haven't met my novel writing goals, because I've spent most of my days linking Hurricane Katrina Relief sites and news to my Katrina Relief Blog, searching for my godsister, and trying to help where I could. And after listening to Mayor Nagin, Governor Purdue(Georgia) and President Bush today, fire boils all over my belly. In swampwater speak(can't credit Shirley Caesar for this-:)--I'm hotter than a fat 'gator trudging through a hot blackberry bush. I'm boiling over.

So I'm going to write about this thing. Got me a goal, conflict, disaster and a reaction(gator hot), a delimma and with God's mercy I'll have me a decision that only Christ can provide. And if I knock the stink off this thing, maybe I'll use this as my conversion scene story for the contest. Who knows greater things have happened. :)

Writing to see what the end's gon' be,
Dee