Deductive Reasoning

It's been a year--exactly--since that fiction class that Karina and I took with Prof. Hougen and got the idea to start this blog. I haven't written much fiction since then--I guess getting eaten alive and spit out will do that to you. It's not so much that I can't write or don't have time to write as I don't have the time to write well.

I think that's an important distinction to make. I mean, I understand the other side of it, too. I have a writer friend who's always going on about forcing yourself to just write, write crap and worry about it later, but just get your words flowing. Only after you've written a bunch of junky words can you get down to business with the real ones.

That makes perfect sense to me. But I'm not a writer. I'm an ed major. I write for fun, and honestly, I really like doing things well. All the time last year in fiction class I had this gnawing urge to go sit in the student center and just watch people. Observe behaviors. Listen to conversations. I want to portray the world the way it really is, only in words.

I think that whether we, as writers, have time to sit and creep on people or not, whether we're writing our junky words or our beautiful ones, it is still very important to be observant. To see the world, to notice.

Confession: I've watched all six episodes of BBC's Sherlock in about three days. (Thank goodness for MLK day!)

Besides being transfixed by Benedict Cumberpatch's eyes (a different story entirely), I just love Sherlock Holmes. I read "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Conan Doyle a few years back and was hooked. I loved seeing how Sherlock would solve the crime by paying attention to detail. (The TV show was an added, updated, and visual bonus.)

What would happen to our writing if we studied life the way Sherlock Holmes studies crime scenes? What would we notice about our friends, our classmates, our community?

As writers, making observations is important. As Christian writers, we have to be careful not to let these deductions turn into assumptions that could be faulty. But I think being detail oriented with our subjects and with our words would make our writing so much better.

What do you think?

-Finch