So yesterday…I’m sitting in the office of one of the pastors at the new church I’ve been attending. (Well, new to me, that is. This church was actually established way back in the late 1800s in Des Moines…one of the facts I learned during the class I’m taking for new attenders interested in learning more about the church. See, despite what you are about to read, I was paying attention in class!) Anyway, so, I’m sitting in the classroom learning about the history of the church while toying with a pen when I accidentally flipped the lid off my pen. It did a nice little 360 in the air…then fell down my shirt.
Just so you know, it’s tricky business trying to inconspicuously retrieve a pen cap from inside one’s shirt while sitting in a circle in a small office. But somehow I did it. Apparently everyone else was paying even more attention to the pastor than I!
Later on in church, during the sermon, I almost spilled a cup of coffee. Almost. (I spill a lot, but let me tell you, I’m getting better and better at saves.) And I’m glad I didn’t actually spill the coffee because as you can imagine, that likely would’ve proven somewhat distracting. And yesterday’s sermon was too good to be interrupted…
The pastor has been doing a sermon series on behavioral covenants within the church. It might sound strange, behavioral covenants for a church – does a group of adults really need a set of covenants, or basic guidelines, for how to behave? Really?
I give that a resounding yes! Yes. Christians, just like anybody else, don’t always get along .We have disagreements. We are tempted to give into our natural tendencies rather than acting in the Christ-like manner we’re called to. But we save ourselves a lot of trouble when we choose together to let certain behavioral principles guide our “community.”
And the covenants this church’s leaders have established are, to me, quite beautiful. They’re written well on paper, sure, but the beauty comes in with the practice. And from the few months I’ve been attending this church, I really feel the people are committed to putting into practice covenants such as selfless humility, gracious respect and active listening.
The covenant we reviewed yesterday was the covenant of reconciliation and grace. Basically, this covenant talks about how the church will handle conflict. It says the church accepts disagreement and conflict as normal and natural, and that members will covenant to deal with difficult issues in a gentle and loving way. It goes on to say: “Whenever any of us has a disagreement with or criticism of another, we will always go first to that person and communicate directly with them before involving others…”
What a great guideline to live by, not only within a church, but also within a family, a workplace, a group of friends. It erases the possibility of gossip and drastically lessens the chance of broken relationships.
Well, as many things do, this sermon got me thinking about writing. (I think about writing a lot, huh.) We’re talking lightbulb moment during the sermon!
One of the things we talked a lot about at the writing conference I attended back in May was making sure there some form of conflict or tension within every single scene in a book. It doesn’t necessarily need to be two people having it out, but there must be tension! It could be comedic tension (such as a person dropping a pen cap down her shirt and trying to figure out how to get it out without attracting awkward attention!) or romantic tension or verbal tension or physical tension…but if there’s nothing, if it’s just two people sitting at the kitchen table chatting amicably over tea, well, the author’s not doing much to get us to turn the page (unless, of course, we’re really bored, so we turn the page in order to skip the conflict-less scene!)…
I remember when we talked about that at the conference, thinking to myself, “But won’t the readers get worn out? Won’t they get tired of tension? And besides, not every moment in real life is full of tension.” (Example, I’m sitting on my balcony on a beautiful summer evening, pleasantly typing away and sipping Diet Coke with Lime. No tension.) But hey, we’re kidding ourselves if we think fiction spot-on mirrors real life. If it did, very few people would slap down $24.99 for a hardcover copy of the latest bestseller. And, really, the tension doesn’t need to constantly be that of the mind-blowing, exhausting sort. Take the two people sitting at the table chatting amicably over tea. Tension of the non-mind-blowing, but still attention-holding kind is easily added – maybe Character A is having trouble focusing on the topic at hand because of the larger, looming problem facing her (i.e. the main story) and Character B notices. Maybe Character A’s lack of attention annoys Character B…or makes Character B insatiably curious. Or maybe it makes Character A spill her tea!
Anyhow, I’ve been doing lots of rewriting lately and have been sort of stumped in a few places in my story. Something has felt wrong, but I’ve not been able to pinpoint it. Yesterday’s sermon finally hit the nail on the head for me. I need to think and re-think each scene. Where’s the conflict? Even if it’s just a minor hint of tension, it’s gotta be there. Otherwise, it becomes a yawner of a scene, no matter how nicely done the writing, no matter how attached to the moment I am!
So all this to say that while on the one-hand, listening to a sermon on our church’s covenant of reconciliation and grace was a great lesson in preventing conflict within relationships, it convinced me I need to bump up the tension in the fictional relationships and circumstances in my novel! I’m sure the pastor had no idea he was contributing to my book-editing yesterday! 🙂
Oh, by the way, that photo above is from one of my favorite movies, “Bringing Up Baby.” In case you’re wondering how in the world it fits into this post, well, it’s an example of conflict, of what happens when a strange girl named Susan (Katherine Hepburn) convinces a wonderfully likeable archeologist named David (Cary Grant) to help her deliver a leopard named Baby to her aunt’s country home in Connecticut, then sends all his clothes to the cleaner while he’s in the shower. This movie is full of one comedic-tension-filled moment after another…soooo great. The thing is, in the movie, David totally puts into practice the covenant of reconciliation and grace. When he gets fed up with Susan, he doesn’t complain to anyone else…he goes straight to her. Of course, he does some yelling and almost hits her with an old boot, so I suppose he doesn’t quite get the whole gracious thing right…
*****
P.S. Sorry, but I just can’t help quoting one of my favorite lines in “Bringing Up Baby”…
David Huxley: Now, it isn’t that I don’t like you, Susan, because, after all, in moments of quiet, I’m strangely drawn to you, but – well, there haven’t been any quiet moments.”
P.P.S. Ooh, ooh, one more. This exchange comes when David and Susan are in jail…
Susan Vance: Anyway, David, when they find out who we are, they’ll let us out.
David Huxley: When they find out who you are, they’ll pad the cell.
P.P.P.S. Last one, I promise!
David Huxley: But Susan, you can’t climb in a man’s bedroom window!
Susan Vance: I know, it’s on the second floor!
