June 16
June is Feedback Month, and the interaction between our editors and writers have been generating lots of interesting ideas.
In response to one story, Dr James Cooper advised the writer to tell her story in the most entertaining way possible. Realising that this may sound odd to Christians trying to share a story of testimony, we asked Dr Cooper to elaborate. This was his reply:
Dr James Cooper with Tamara Harpford, who won 3rd prize in the Short story category last year.
'Entertain' is a bit of a slippery word. It sounds kind of cheap - like it's not a serious reason for writing (especially writing that's meant to reflect something of the Living God). We usually think of game shows as entertaining, or Broadway musicals, or other trivial diversions like sport or video games. But I use the term in more general way to mean 'interesting' - i.e. something that attracts and holds our attention.
We also speak of 'entertaining' an idea - i.e. setting aside our settled beliefs and limited experience to enter imaginatively into the thoughts and lives of other people. We read a good story and we're prompted to consider: What would it be like to... How about instead of seeing life this way, we thought of it along these lines? How does that person's experience square with what I believe? If that happened to me, how would I respond? Etc.
In other words, a good story invites us to share in someone else's lived experience (real or imagined) - in that sense, it's entertaining. The value of this lies in the way it enables us to see with other eyes and think with other minds (i.e. to step into other people's shoes), to see life from a fresh perspective from which to evaluate our own thought and experience.
Of course, the best writing goes beyond mere entertainment, but if it doesn't at least succeed on that front, it's unlikely to go any further. Ultimately, in order to reward the reader's attention, you first need to attract it and then hold it over the course of a narrative - and that's entertainment, baby!
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