Weekly Links: writing, praying, and being

Just a few links for you this weekend, but they're good!



-First, for my fellow writers/publishing professionals out there:  "Can CBA Novelists Move to the General Market?"    Be sure to read the comments section on this one; there's some really interesting conversation going on there.


-Next, a good idea about how to pray in troubling times, when reading the news is upsetting: "Planned Parenthood, Pay Day Lenders, and How I'm Praying These Days".


-Finally, an article that provides some helpful information for self-knowledge: "What Each Myers-Briggs Type Does In a Rut (The Rise of the Inferior Function".  I.e., find out what coping mechanisms you're likely to resort to when you're under stress.



Have a lovely Sunday!
-Jessica Snell

Weekly Links: new blogs, saying "yes" to Lent, and more!

To start, this week I found two wonderful new blogs. The first, Liturgy of Life, is written by a fellow Anglican and lover of the church year. Check it out here.

The second, Pass the Salt Shaker, is a discussion of singleness and marriage in the church, written by a group of great folks, including at least one of the contributors to Mere Fidelity (one of my favorite podcasts). Check out the new blog here.


Now, on to our regular weekend collection of articles:

"Holy Week Meyers-Briggs": This is just hilarious and awesome.

"Giving Up 'Yes' for Lent":

I don’t want to second-guess my last few years nor frame these amazing opportunities in pessimistic terms. But I do want to consider whether it is always courageous to say "yes." 

"Where Demons Fear to Tread: Angels and the Atonement":

As it turns out, the theologians and artists of the church over the centuries have reflected on this question with surprising results, coming up with several ways that the work of Christ had a significant bearing on the unfallen angels.

"Learning From Bodies":

Ability is not what makes death significant. At birth this baby had capacities below that of a healthy fetus at ten weeks. Holding his body, living and then dead, proves to me that it doesn’t matter how early the human heart beats, how early it is possible to feel pain, or when the senses develop. No ability or strength confers human status—not being viable or sentient or undamaged or wanted. Being of human descent is enough; you cannot earn or forfeit your humanity. If this baby’s death does not matter, no death matters.

"Joseph: the faithful carpenter":

Mary is rightly credited as setting the ultimate example of how Christians should respond to God's calling. But likewise, I think that Joseph is exemplar in demonstrating how God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) loves us, his sinful people. As a husband, father, and erstwhile woodworker, I can find no greater earthly example to follow.

And finally, to listen to, The City's podcast this week on "Non-Christian Books" was full of good stuff.


Have a great weekend!

Weekly Links: Writing, the Drought, Word Nerdery, and more!

"Things I Can Say About MFA Writing Programs Now That I No Longer Teach in One":

After eight years of teaching at the graduate level, I grew increasingly intolerant of writing designed to make the writer look smart, clever, or edgy. I know this work when I see it; I've written a fair amount of it myself. But writing that's motivated by the desire to give the reader a pleasurable experience really is best.

"The Scorching of California": So, this is properly terrifying . . .

"9 Things You Should Really Know About Anglicanism":  Useful info here.

"10 Words We've Forgotten How to Pronounce":  fellow word nerds, click here!

"That Way We're All Writing Now": Oh, and here, too.

"A Brief Defense of Infant Baptism": as someone who is still coming to grips with the practice, I found this helpful.

"Not Angry: At Least Not for Long": on a hard virtue.

"Introverts and Extroverts Brains Really Are Different, According to Science": more personality fun!


Finally, on the very important practice of nosing and tasting whisky ("and this tells you . . . absolutely nothing").  Enjoy the accent!

Managing Your Email: a Primer for INFJs

If you're an INFJ, there's one thing about email you already know: it's so much better than a telephone call.

Emails give you a chance to think about your answers before you have to give them.

But the other truth is that a crowded email box can feel just as suffocating as a crowded party, and every little line in your inbox represents a person you have to interact with and . . . and you find yourself shying away from even clicking on the tab in your browser that holds your inbox, because just the idea of looking at all those people makes you feel overwhelmed and exhausted.

How to Manage
But if you don't answer your email, well, you're being rude. And we INFJs 1) actually like people and 2) have very clear ideas about right and wrong, and ignoring people with a legitimate claim on our attention is wrong. So how to manage?


1) Give yourself a day. You don't have to answer email the instant you receive it. Read it as soon as you get it, so your brain can start mulling over your response, but don't pressure yourself to respond instantly. You'll feel better about an answer you've had time to think about.

2) Answer the easy ones first. A corollary to the above rule: do answer the easy ones quickly. Some emails are easy, and you know what you want to say. If you know what you want to say: just say it. That'll keep the crowding in your inbox down, which will keep your stress down.

3) Clear your inbox regularly. Depending on your life and responsibilities, this could be a once-a-week chore or a once-a-day chore. But do clear your inbox on a regular basis. Just sit yourself down and make yourself answer every single email (that's a day old or older) before you let yourself get up again. Pretend someone will kill you if you don't do it, and you'll find that you actually can come up with the words when you're forced.

4) It doesn't have to be perfect. Yes, this is probably the hardest rule. You don't want to answer unless you're sure you have the right answer. I understand. I'm there with you. But it's unkind not to answer just because your pride demands perfection. Be kind, and be willing to use less-than-perfect verbage and unideal answers. Just answer. It's the right thing to do.

5) Clear your inbox completely. Your email system surely has a filing system: use it. After you've answered something, file it and get it out of your inbox. The goal is to have a completely clear inbox at least once a week. The empty space will make you feel so good.


I'd love to hear both from other INFJs, to know if any of these tricks are ones they use, and to hear from other personality types, to hear what works for them!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Help, I'm falling in love with Ravelry

Of course, I should have joined long ago. My friend Becca told me about this awesome website, a sort of Facebook/organizer for knitters and crocheters. But I, ever fearful of the virtual timesuck, stayed away for a long, long time. (And I'm still staying away from Facebook. I hear it's evil.)
But this Christmas, as I fell back into my annual love of fiber arts (brought on by the return of - can't say cold exactly, but - not hot weather), I decided to try Ravelry.
Wow. What a lovely, lovely place. Patterns, yarn, forums about patterns and yarn . . . and all the lovely, lovely pictures.
Is it a virtual timesuck? Yes. Yes, it is.
But it's also useful. I'm able to organize all my yarns, patterns, current projects and projected projects. They're all in one place. They're not floating around in my head anymore, driving me crazy like a little, imaginary cloud of gnats*.
I love organization. I may sometimes be a frustrated J, but I'm such a J. I love organization. I'm just bad at showing that loves sometime.
But today, I'm having fun getting my Ravelry notebook in order and dreaming about all the lovely things that might come from it. (Nevermind that I have about 5 WIPs going already - crochet projects are like books to me: if reading one at a time is fun, reading five at a time must be better.)
So, if you're on Ravelry, let me know. We could be friends. :)
Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell
*"Gnats" is a word that makes me laugh today, because today I taught my first-grader the "silent G before N" rule, and there's nothing to bring up the giggles like hearing your six-year-old read about the gnats that make the gnomes gnash their teeth. Especially when she still isn't quite remembering to leave off the "G" sound each time.

Type Tests and Writing

Well, I just took a Myers-Briggs test (again), in preparation for type-testing my characters. I found (again) that I’m an INFJ. I always forget what my middle two letters are, though I’m sure about that I and that J! but it’s been pretty consistently INFJ, and when I read the description, it fits. It’s almost a relief: oh, okay, that’s who I am. It’s okay that I prefer time alone, it’s normal that I think very, very hard about all the people I know, and try to make sense of why they do what they do. It’s okay that I have a few very close friends, and am not attracted to the social butterfly stuff people tell me I should be attracted to. It’s okay that I think that every. thing. matters. And matters gloriously.

(Also explains why I'm so very interested in the whole world, but so very reluctant to share myself with it.)

I was taking the type test today, though, not to find out so much about myself, but to find out more about the main characters in my work-in-progress.

And, after taking the type test myself, I realized that the best thing to do would be to take it again, twice, once answering the way my hero would answer, and once answering the way my heroine would answer.

I’d thought that I’d just scan through the 16 type descriptions, and see which ones looked most like my characters. But I think I might find it better by actually going through the test as Thomas, and then as Eve.

It does sound like a lot of work, to go through all those questions as somebody else. I want to say, McCoy-style, "I'm a writer, not an actor, Jim!" But I think it'll be worth it.


By the way, it’s interesting to see that people who are my type, INFJ, are often writers. The other things they often are? Psychologists, religious leaders, or librarians. Which I thought was kind of cool, because when I’ve contemplated grad school, the two things I often thought about doing were going for either my Psy.D. or a Masters of Library Science.

It used to be that whenever I attended a college graduation, I felt sad, because I wasn’t graduating. I love school. Love it. But at the last graduation I attended – my brother’s – I didn’t feel sad. I finally realized that I was going after my advanced degree. That pursuing a career as a novelist – all the work and research and networking I’ve been doing – is the equivalent of working on a grad degree in my chosen field. The only thing is that my degree isn’t going to come in the form of a hood and diploma; my degree is going to be my name on the spine of a book.

It’s scary, because there’s no guarantee I’ll get there. And I’ve always thought of myself as the type who goes for the sure thing. But the truth is, for me, if I’m going to spend the time on really going after advanced studies, it’s going to be in writing, and not in psychology or library studies. So the reason I'm doing it is because it’s the only way to get what I want. Despite the chance-y nature of the thing.

It’s weird to be surprised by the fact that you’re a risk-taker. I never thought I was.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

p.s. The other really weird thing about the Myers-Briggs test is that my husband is my exact opposite: an ESTP. Moreover, where my I and J are my strongest categories, his strongest are those middle two letters: the S and the T. Where I'm middling on my N and F, he's middling on his E and P. I think that's very funny.