Learning from the Experts - Adrian Plass

Adrian Plass is my favourite Christian author. With his gentle, funny style he uniquely captures the foibles of Christians who are very human, and holds a mirror to ourselves. Then when you least expect it, you find he's shown you a great truth or deep insight.

I first discovered him around 20 years ago, reading his Sacred Diary. I read it in one sitting, and laughted until I ached. I've been a fan since.

Adrian has spoken openly about his struggles with depression, and as I also struggle with depression, I find I can identify. He actually started writing as a form of therapy, and not only did the books help him, but they have helped those who read them.

In an interview with Door magazine he describes his journey into writing: I wanted to be an actor more than anything in the world. So I went to theatre training school in Bristol, where I met my wife. We then decided that marriage and theatre probably wouldn't mix, so we decided to work with children, which we did. In order to be promoted in those days in childcare, you had to be a teacher. So I then trained to be a teacher, an English teacher, which I did. After that we worked with children in care in all sorts of environments, until I had a breakdown about 18 years ago, in '84. And I started writing as a sort of therapy, really, to put back together the pieces that had fallen apart. That's how the writing and speaking and stuff started. I think God was involved.

Unlike many of the other authors I've written about in this series,  he hasn't written about the formulae for his writing, or how to make a good writer. He writes simply from his experience, and what he sees, perhaps emulating the sage advice, to write what you know.

I do like what he says about being a Christian writer, and I will end this week's blog with that quote, also taken from the interview with Door magazine:

DOOR: Another attendee asked, "What is the difference between the Christian writer and the non-Christian writer?"

PLASS: I don't think there should be a difference, really. A writer is a writer. In the Christian writing world, we've got away with murder for years, because books are "worthy." I went to a writers' conference a while ago and there were a lot of Christian writers there. It turned out that those who sold very few books were absolutely certain that God was almost dictating to them; those who sold lots of books were not at all sure about this. On the contrary, they preferred to be craftsmen.So there's no difference between a Christian writer and a green grocer - you get the best product you can, you make it as attractive as you can, and you sell it for the right price. That's what a writer is. The fact that he happens to be a Christian or a non-Christian ... that's a little bit of a red herring.And I think that's why a lot of Christian writers tend to go wrong. Because they're nagged constantly by the feeling that there's got to be some particular kind of Christian input. We've all got this imp that lives on our shoulder, an evangelical imp that messes our lives up constantly.