Alone in a Cabin
Page 28
14: “I will put my Spirit in you and you will live.” Ezekiel 37:14, NIV
If God could bring a valley of dry bones to life in the book of Ezekiel, I thought He could resurrect one frozen mercy killer for a couple of days in Maggie’s cabin…fictitiously speaking.
15: If a story comes to you and takes root, you are the keeper of the tale. You may never know how it truly sprang to life, but now your job is to feed it. See what kind of fruit it bears.
Elizabeth Gilbert talks about the origins of stories in her book, Big Magic. She suggests that ideas may not wait on you if you ignore them for too long. They’ll go looking for another writer who has the time and inclination to pay attention to them. Thankfully, my stories have been longsuffering. They haven’t given up on me, and I’m not giving up on them.
16: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 1 Corinthians 15:55, NIV
One gift of story is that death is not the end of anyone’s. All lives live on if someone tells their story.
17: “The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.” Sir Francis Bacon
Mystery is part of the cord you pull. Tighten the narrative. Take out the dull parts. Give the reader a reason to turn the page.
18: “I died on a Monday—same Monday I broke out of prison. My name was Ezekiel Thompson. Everybody called me Zeke. I killed three people, but only one from hatred.”
For years I had a book title in my head; I Died on a Thursday. I had no story for that title, but I kept it tucked away all the same, thinking it might come in handy one day. I couldn’t make the date work out for Zeke to actually die on a Thursday, but Monday did work, so…now you know.
19: A writer pries open a lot of lids seeking truth for a story. Sometimes she closes them fast, knowing these are the contents that need to be brought to light, but sorry to be the one given the job.
I have a deep desire to capture truth when I write—to pen honest depictions—and still not offend anyone. But I’m not sure that’s possible. We each have our own comfort level with imperfection. Mine isn’t going to match every reader’s, but I still grieve if I offend.
20: “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4, NIV
I didn’t know Zeke murdered his wife when I started this story. I didn’t know Tandy was going to be a wounded woman who hurt her husband. Tom got his receptionist pregnant. These are all dark things I have no first knowledge of, and I’m grateful for that. But I also know this: we all wound one another. At best, all any of us offers is imperfect love. And that is what we are offered in return by others. I’m not saying that is okay…it’s not, which is why we need a Savior…but I am saying we all reside in the same boat of imperfection. “God with us,” as He is in this psalm, paints the picture of our only hope.
21: Thoreau said the regularity of the news, in his case a daily stroll to the village to hear the gossip, was “as refreshing in its way as the rustling of leaves and peeping of frogs.”
Isn’t that rich? Artistry like that fills me up and makes me want to be a better writer.
22: In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron recommends morning pages. Three, free-flowing, unedited pages. Get the toxins out of you and onto the paper—fear, worry—all that stands in the way of the story.
Thank you, Julia Cameron. My friend and fellow writer, Dana Chamblee Carpenter, was the first to introduce me to your books. And I have lost count of the artists I have now shared you with in my effort to pay it forward.
23: When your heart lies in shards around your feet you think you’ll never breathe normally again. Then one day, you feel the vital organ pumping. Like the soar of a hawk's wings lifting in the air.
Time, God, and love. The best three healers I know.
24: If a story idea comes floating down the aisle and jumps inside your empty head (like J.K. Rowling says a boy wizard did for her), be the fertile mind most willing to water it.
Nancy Duarte says in in her book, Resonance, that an idea is the most powerful thing in the world. And ideas float down the aisles around us all the time. But you have to be willing to do the hard, steady work of cultivation for any ideas you hope will flourish.
25: One day you find yourself dancing in the kitchen and you know you’re going to be alright. Every day won’t be for dancing, but those few that are? Those few are all you need.
I have never been through a divorce, but I have grieved a few losses I felt deeply. When my body returns to dancing, I know the balance scales have tipped back into safe ranges again.
26: Anne Lamott said first drafts are excrement. (She used a different word.) The trick is editing—trying to shape the smelly pile into something more pleasing.
Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts” chapter in Bird by Bird has given us all permission to write subpar on the first go-round.
Thank. The. Lord.
27: "Prison is where I finally became free." Former student in the LIFE Program at Tennessee Prison for Women
It’s been my privilege since 2012 to teach periodically at the Tennessee Prison for Women in Lipscomb University’s LIFE Program. Jennifer, a friend and fellow writer whom I first met when she was incarcerated, said this to me—that prison was where she finally became free. This is why I felt I could give this sentiment to Zeke.
If you have a heart to support the incarcerated (or formerly incarcerated) who now seek to change the trajectory of their futures, may I offer two organizations to consider?
Lipscomb University's LIFE Program provides an opportunity for high-performing students to take college courses for credit. Education is an effective, proven avenue to reform. If you agree, consider supporting LIFE or another educational reform initiative in your home state.
Tennessee Prison Outreach Ministry is a faith-based organization that provides transition housing following incarceration for both men and women, along with job search and life skills programs.
28: We fall, we get up. We lose, but we gain something in return. We love, in spite of the risk. So much of life is conquering fear to reach the gifts that lie on the other side.
This may be my favorite personal quote from Cabin.
29: “Telling people you are writing a book, then letting people read it, is like standing naked on the high dive.” English professor to a budding author
My friend Matt Hearn was chair of the English department at Lipscomb University where I teach when he said this to me, and I’ve never forgotten it. Because it was so on point.
30: We spend a lot of time with our oars in the water. Every now and then—exquisite and brief—we find our rhythm. And for that moment we are perfectly in tune with all that’s shining in the universe.
This is a subtle shout-out to Daniel James Brown who wrote Boys in the Boat, one of my favorite historical fiction novels of the past decade. It is so well written. I highly recommend it.
31: Frederick Buechner said “…humanity is like an enormous spider web, so that if you touch it anywhere, you set the whole thing trembling…
As we move around this world… we too are setting the great spider web a-tremble. The life that I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place and time my touch will be felt.” Frederick Buechner, The Hungering Dark
Frederick Buechner, I am a fan. I’ve been quoting Buechner in the college courses I teach for years. Along with C.S. Lewis (with whom I share a birthdate—and Madeleine L'Engle and Louisa May Alcott), Buechner is one of the gentleman writers I most admire.
32: “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” Jonah 2:8, some NIV translations
This is another of my favorite Scriptures. I once stenciled these words at the ceiling line of our living room, as a reminder to turn loose of idols and take hold of grace.
33: A woman goes to the woods to gain clarity and l
isten for a story. She’s alone but for a ghost. Then a second man shows up with several ghosts of his own, looking for someone to mend his heart.
In the denouement, a writer ties up all the loose ends. It also felt like this was a good place to state the logline of Cabin, as Maggie was finalizing all the pieces for her own book.
34: And that’s how story comes. Like a ghost. A wisp. An apparition. Like a snippet on a website. Love seeped into the walls of a cabin.
Romanticized. Imagined. A feeling you get when you walk into a lonely man’s farmhouse. Gossip in a library. Memories etched into the wood of a doorframe. A memory…a smell…red hair…a promise. A dream that comes in the night and rekindles your hope.
Story is everywhere, and writers will never lack for inspiration.