Writing for My Students

Sometimes I dream of writing a major book like "The Shack" or "Wild at Heart" or even a novel. But, the other day I realized that this is ridiculous compared to what I have right now, which is my students. I wrote a three part story for them about a couple of international-student-superheroes in an action-comedy-romance with target vocabulary words from our lessons. After reading the final part to them, they applauded.

They're pretty cool.

What my students don't know is why it's so amazing when they applaud my work. The reason it is so amazing is because in my mind I'm applauding at the same time. It is a moment of worship for me. We're all applauding the One who gave me the hands, the mind, the creativity, and the teachers* that were needed to write such fun stuff. I've applauded God along with others during church worship, but the applause I experienced that day was so much more meaningful. Much less abstract. We applauded God for what He has made me into.
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*My teachers: First, my dad is my original writing teacher. He writes. I grew up listening to him about techniques for writing. Second, I studied a book my dad recommended to me called "A Story is a Promise" by Bill Johnson. My understanding of the difference between story and plot comes from that book. Third, my readings of adolescent novels such as The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordian have helped me to 'see' what Bill Johnson is talking about in "A Story is a Promise". Finally, God is my ultimate writing instructor. Look at Genesis. If a story is a promise, then the fall is the ultimate promise being made by a writer. At the moment Adam and Eve eat the fruit and run away from God, our first thought is, "What is God going to do about this? How is this problem going to be resolved?" God has made us an implicit promise that he will bring a resolution to the conflict in the story. I'll write about the story telling element of the Bible in another blog entry.