Reality – Almost An Author

Messy

Let’s face it, sometimes life just stinks. Friends betray us, family walks away and sometimes the boy doesn’t get the girl like Danny Zuko did in the movie Grease.

It’s why some Christian movies feel so unrealistic, life is too perfect—what’s the need for redemption or hope?

Last year I had the opportunity to attend my first Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference. While there I was able to learn the craft from 30 year Hollywood veteran Brian Bird.

I’ll never forget his honest observations,

Keep your story messy, because life is messy and there is not always a happy ending.
Characters grow through messy situations.
Write your characters into a corner

Trials and plot twists cause our characters to grow, just like hardships in our lives can make us or break us. Fairytale endings are rare in real-life. Even Christian marriages rarely end up a happily ever after story; even when it does there are still struggles.

The audience can relate to stories that are messy, because their lives are messy too.

Even in my childhood favorite Star Wars was filled with messy real life struggles. The whole father-son angle hits home for a lot of men, me included. Sometimes fiction can be as real as reality.

Reality?

People can relate more to other messed up people. And when they do, they are pulled into the story. The rise of reality TV over the last decade and a half is proof of this.

According to Statistica.com. viewers like reality TV because.

They like the drama.
It’s a mindless.
It helps them forget the real issues in their lives/the world.

It’s obvious difficult and tough situations on the small screen resonate with audiences. Shouldn’t we keep the narrative in theaters more realistic and possibly more life-changing?

Legendary novelist Ernest Hemingway once noted, “When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people are not characters. A character is a caricature.”

Have you ever found yourself in an unpredictable situation? Welcome to being human, sometimes reality is stranger than fiction. Am I right?

Fight for it!

Audiences are drawn to stories that defy the odds. Okay, I admit I’m a hopeless romantic and often daydream about love stories that don’t make sense, love that endures the hardships to survive. The best romances are messy. Let’s go back to a movie I mentioned earlier, what man didn’t root for Han Solo getting the girl?

A rough-around-the-collar and rugged rebel who becomes smitten with the gorgeous young princess, not exactly a match made in heaven. But it works, because it’s messy.

I’m sure many of you reading this can think of dozens of movies with unlikely love stories that captured your heart.

In college my favorite was the movie Jerry McGuire. Who can forget when Renée Zellweger’s character says, “You had me at hello.”? Jerry didn’t realize how much he loved his wife until he lost her, now that’s messy.

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Truamatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at Spiritual Perspectives of Da Single Guy and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Blog Tour-David Rawlings

Please tell us about your most Recent Book

As I’m pre-published, the book I’m currently shopping around is The god of reality TV. It was a finalist in the ACFW Genesis competition in 2016 and is currently under consideration by a publishing house.

The god of reality TV is a story where church meets reality TV. Two pastors take part in Pastor Swap, a new reality TV show for the Christian market. Brad Shepherd needs to save his dying church in a forgotten suburb of a large city and Jack Alexander wants to emerge from the shadow of his megachurch pastor father.

Swapping congregations, they take part in the show in order to achieve their own aims. Brad is trying to save his dying church, while Jack has been promised the chance to take over from his soon-to-retire father – a chance that doesn’t seem to be getting any closer. But Randy Stone, the show’s producer and reality TV guru, has plans for how he will portray church on TV, because there is no god bigger than him.

In terms of selling books, I wrote Swimming Upstream years back, which was written for couples having trouble conceiving. It talked about the everyday experience in real language with common sense advice from an IVF counselor and was one of the few books around – in fact, it still is – to provide input about the male perspective on having trouble having kids.

To buy: https://www.amazon.com/Swimming-Upstream-Struggle-David-Rawlings/dp/1921008253

Why do you write what you do?

I want to explore the world I live in from the perspective I’ve picked up over my life. At their heart, my stories are about how people interact with their modern world, their faith and their God. It’s my calling – I believe I’m led to take my twenty-five years of writing experience and turn it into something that challenges people.

And I also want to write books that I’d want to read. My stories are modern tales, with nary a cowboy or Amish love interest in sight. They explore work, church, advertising, the media, social media and life. Some authors want to present escapism on the page. I want to also provide a mirror in which the reader may see themselves and their world.

What are you currently working on?

My current WIP is a story also in a competition (so not too many details!). It’s a book that talks about how some elements of society – particularly celebrity and science – view the concept of God. It’s a novel (my third), and it’s neither a book about apologetics nor is it my response to the Da Vinci Code. All I’ve done is take my experience of debating people about God and turned it into a story.

I’m at the edit stage and I’ve had great fun with it and enjoyed meeting a new set of characters.

How does your work differ from other work in its genre?

In terms of story, I guess I’m writing about modern-day topics that carry an underlying message. They’re not preachy – far from it – so you won’t read a novel I’ve written and say ‘oh, this is the bit where he goes off on a pseudo-sermon’. But my hope is you will say ‘that’s so like my workplace/friend/mother-in-law.’

In terms of style, I’m an Australian and our culture is soaked in irreverent humor. That’s how I write; I can’t help but give convention a subtle prod. It’s not funny as such – humor is so subjective – and satire can be difficult for some cultures to understand, but I have found one of my strengths is to make a point which is cloaked in a tinge of irreverence. It can be a fine line, especially in an age of perpetual and imminent offence, but I enjoy the challenge of coming up with a way to make people think and chuckle at the same time.

How does your writing process work?

I’m a freelance copywriter, so I have a bit more flexibility in terms of writing. I have dedicated times in which I write, but I’ve also developed a number of writing hacks that help me wring the most out of my schedule. I’ve blogged about a couple of them – writing on the train or using the dead time in traffic to help me keep churning things out.

In terms of story development, I’m a pantser trapped within the body of a plotter. I plot a novel so I can see where the characters are going and because the overall story is important to me. (I have twelve fully-plotted novels on the runway, ready to be fleshed out). I then let the pantser loose to fill in the colors within that framework.

I write on my trusty laptop, sheathed in its BookBook cover, which is my pride and joy. My other tools of the trade are my iPhone, into which I have now dictated parts of two-and-a-half manuscripts, and a team of readers who give me feedback that is both constructive and honest – especially honest.

Bio

Based in South Australia, David is a writer who reads everything within an arm’s reach. He has made writing his career and paid the bills with words for twenty-five years – from journalism to corporate copywriting and advertising campaigns.

He has published in the non-fiction arena and is now focused on writing contemporary Christian stories that explore God, people, 21^st century church and our modern society. David is sports-mad (which is compulsory for Australians) and is married with three kids (which isn’t).