Weekend Links: Quick Writing, Anxiety, the Passive Voice, and more!

"The Value of 10 Minutes: Writing Advice for the Time-Less Academic":

Let’s start with the obvious point that writing in short bursts will declaw the activity of writing precisely by demystifying and normalizing it. If writing is something you can do in 10 minutes, like running to the mailroom or shoving a sandwich down your throat, then it seems hardly worth the paralyzing stress it tends to cause so many of us. 

"No Wonder We Hate To Buy Cars":

I hold to the philosophy of buying new and driving until the serious problems begin—maybe seven or eight years with the right brand, all the scheduled maintenance, and a little bit of luck. I hold to this position largely because I consider cars magic. They exist far beyond the boundaries of science and reason and firmly within the realm of wizardry. I have no idea how they work and live with the fear that if I touch anything beyond the gas cap, I will disrupt the sorcery and cause a total breakdown. 

"Anxiety and Depression, My Strange Friends":

So if anxiety and/or depression is your affliction, I am sharing this part of my story to remind you that there’s no shame in suffering from this or any other affliction. In fact, our afflictions may be the key to our fruitfulness as ministers. “Damaged” does not mean “ineffective.” It does not mean “done.”

-Elena's ode to the passive voice is both funny and touching. I love the sentence, "Still, my rebel soul's been captivated/by peace."  Go read the rest here.

-And finally, for aspiring writers out there, this week on her "Simple Mom" podcast, Tsh Oxenreider and her agent, Jenni Burke, give a really good overview of how acquiring an agent and getting published works these days.  If you're looking for an introduction to the subject, this one is nice and comprehensive.

Book 7 of 15: Open Heart - Open Home by Karen Burton Mains

I'm going to do a bad job blogging this one, which is a pity, because it was much better than I thought it would be.

But the book I'm reading today is putting me in a bad mood (read all about it tomorrow!) and that's making it hard to due justice to Mains' gracious prose.

Though at times it reads like a manifesto for kind and generous extroverts, there's a lot here for any Christian*. Though it is a book about hospitality, instead of listing a bunch of rules (or worse, menus!), Mains invites the reader to prayer and self-examination, encouraging her readers to take seriously Christ's own concern for the lonely and the disenfranchised, suggesting that the best cure for many of the world's problems is hospitality - feeding, clothing, sheltering and loving the people in the world around us by taking them into our homes. It's a very basic, "if you have two cloaks, share with him who has none" mentality.

Again, though her temperament is at times so opposite to mine that I started laughing (her horror at a family spending hours in "chilly silence" almost matches my delight at the thought of a quiet evening at home), I was, in the end, both challenged and put at my ease by this book. Though Mains' own example of radical hospitality could be intimidating, she does such a good job of urging you to consider your own calling rather than urging you to imitate hers that I felt attracted to the idea of being more hospitable rather than discouraged that I would never match up to some floral-curtains-and-freshly-baked-bread ideal. I didn't agree with every little thing (I think her account of her own breakdown from overwork in ministry probably hints that she was, you know, overworking), but overall the tone of this book is much, well, holier than I expected, and not really Stepford-wife-ish, as the title and cover seemed to imply.

More on the 15 books/15 day challenge can be found at GirlDetective.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

p.s. I had no idea I had so many old evangelical books on my TBR pile. It's been sort of an interesting peek into my own family history.

*I'm not saying a non-Christian couldn't read this and get something out of it, just that Christians are her intended audience, and her entire premise is based on an assumption that her readers wish to follow Jesus' example and instructions.