Call of the Creator: Fantasy Writing from a Christian Worldview

In general, seeking more experienced counsel, especially when you are a newcomer to any arena, is a productive thing to do. When you've become the most knowledgeable person within your circle of influence, then that means its time to widen your circle, right? While I have not yet exhausted the wisdom of my peers (I have a great critique group among whom I consider myself the least skilled) I do have an opportunity coming up to get a big batch of advice on The Sword of the Patron , and I'll admit, I'm biting my nails on this one. In April, I'll be headed to David Farland's Novel Rewriting workshop. For those who don't know David Farland , the man is the real deal when it comes to writers who know how to take a passion and make a tidy living (at least I assume so from the information he sends out in his newsletter  David Farland's Daily Kick in the Pants . If you're a writer and you don't subscribe to this newsletter, I highly recommend you get on ...

I have always been ridiculously bound by rules. I'm that person who would rather die than take the department store shopping cart out of the store and into the hallways of the rest of the mall. After all, the cart says right on it: Do not remove from store. So you don't. It's that simple. Instead, you slog through the mall with thirty-five pounds of shopping bags while trying to keep a hold of the hand of a preschooler and bellowing like a drill sergeant at the two older boys who are chasing each other in circles, threatening to barrel into every senior citizen within a hundred yards. That wouldn't break any printed rules. So what does this have to do with writing? The more I write, and the more I seek feedback on my writing, the more I come into contact with the current "rules" that govern fiction. They usually start with some kind of stomach-punching qualifier like, "If you want this thing to have a chance at publication, you need to..." I admi...