Notes from HM-MMX

A friend asked me to pass along my notes from Hutchmoot. So here they are. Not a real post; just some notes (and very scattered & random too). A while back I said I was done with HM specific posts. Well, I was wrong.

Perfected in Weakness - Sam (SD) Smith, Travis Prinzi, Pete (Arthur Sherman) Peterson
Better to have little faith in a big God, than big faith in a little one.

John Ruskin - (author to be looked up)

Weakness defines our struggle & not our person.


The Immersed Imagination - Andrew Peterson, Ron Block
Mark Helprin - The Winter's Tale
Madelyn L'engle - Walking on Water


Walt Wangerin Jr.
compose experience:
-(a creator's task) put things in order & experienced
-Art seeks the reader (received as experience)
-Artists are shapers

5 Covenants (of a shaper):
1. Percieved reality - found in life, makes it believable
2. craft & compatriots - we stand on the shoulders of giants (the ppl & their works)
3. Relationships - community - use, not misuse
4. Must not lie - fiction is true, lies are false
5. Assumed truths - Axioms - Christ - some truths pour through the work without being mentioned.

Comment time (so much for just notes & not being a post, I was wrong again):
Walt made a point of being a writer who is a Christian, not a Christian who is a writer. This hung in my ears for a little bit and caused me much pondering.

I think his primary point is that if you see Jesus in everyone, and in every story; it will pour out from your creative work. "The Book of the Dun Cow" never mentions "God" or "Jesus", and still is a story of good vs. evil and providence. Your work will automatically reflect your worldview (like it or not).

I think my initial hang-up was from forcing a sense of priority determining into it. Too much drumming of "Jesus needs to be your top priority". In reality, when Jesus becomes heart knowledge it is bigger than top priority, it colours all priorities. It's the paper you write your priorities on (something like that).