“Songs require patience,” writes Andrew Peterson in Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making. “Books require endurance. Songs are 100-meter dashes. Books are marathons. You have a lot more opportunity to question your sanity when you’re battling your way through the jungle of a novel for a year.” Peterson writes both songs and books, and he knows the challenges of both.
I’ve read a multitude of books about writing, fiction writing, publishing, book marketing, writing style, writing challenges, writer’s block, and several other categories. Never have I read a book about writing that spoke directly into my soul. Until Adorning the Dark.
I almost didn’t buy it. Not another book on writing, I thought. But I’d heard Peterson perform a few months ago; he was in town for a concert and stayed overnight to sing at a fundraising dinner for my grandsons’ school. He displayed a humility rare in performers today; he was also funny, engaging, and told great stories. Then I saw a notice about the book and bought it.
The book is part memoir and part reflection on why we write both songs and books. It’s also part autobiography. He began as a singer-songwriter, caught a break when he was asked to open for a popular band and then go on tour with them, and was signed to a five-album deal with a record label. Then came the post-9/11 recession. His story-style music was suddenly out of fashion, and the label dropped him. He and his wife also had three young children and no other source of income.
A record industry executive suggested he turn to books, and he eventually wrote the Wingfeather Saga, including The Monster in the Hollows and The Warden and the Wolf King. His music picked up again. A fan of writer Wendell Berry, Andrew and his wife bought a farmhouse desperately in need of work but with acreage outside Nashville. He helped create The Rabbit Room, to encourage other artists and build a community that values music, art and story. That community’s creators have gone on to publish children’s books, fantasy novels, and more; to promote books and music by community artists; and to host an annual conference.
Adorning the Dark is built around six ideas on writing, creativity, and inspiration. Primary is what Peterson calls “serving the work.” The creative process, he says, is profoundly spiritual and profoundly mysterious, and it teaches us that creativity is not about serving an agenda but about serving the work that is before you. Peterson also addresses serving the audience, selectivity, discernment, discipline, and community. What he sings and what he writes come from a faith that is both deep and winsome.
Andrew Peterson
“Time is unfolding like a scroll,” he writes, “and we’re letters on the parchment, helping to make up the words that tell the story. Each of us is a character, in both senses of the word. At times, characters become aware that they’re part of the story, and that brings the realization that, first, there is an author, and second, they are not him. This realization is good and proper.”
After I finished Adorning the Dark, I understood my own four novels and one nonfiction book better. I understood my work in progress even more. This is the kind of book that changes you, even if you don’t fully understand how. It’s a mystery, and that’s what it should be.
Related:
Andrew Peterson sings “Dancing in the Minefields” and “The Rain Keeps Falling”
Photo by Ian Dick, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Glynn Young.
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How to Read a Poem uses images like the mouse, the hive, the switch (from the Billy Collins poem)—to guide readers into new ways of understanding poems. Anthology included.
“I require all our incoming poetry students—in the MFA I direct—to buy and read this book.”
—Jeanetta Calhoun Mish
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Laura Lynn Brown says
“He displayed a humility rare in performers today; he was also funny, engaging, and told great stories.” Yep. I’m just getting started in this book, and glad to see it reviewed here. The Rabbit Room is a great community.
Glynn, what’s one way you understand your own writing better now?
Glynn says
His idea of serving the work. What we do as writers isn’t about platform, number of copies sold, Amazon ranking, number of positive reviews, invitations to speak at writer’s conferences, or any of the usual benchmarks. It’s about reaching down into our souls and creating the very best work we know how to create. “Serving the work” is about our priorities as writers.
Maureen says
I’ve been in and out of The Rabbit Room for a long time now. I have found some wonderful books and music there. I put this one on my list after reading an excerpt made available via The Rabbit Room.
Glynn says
It’s really good, Maureen.
L.L. Barkat says
Love the cover. 🙂
For my own writing, I tend to think about serving a person on the other side of it. The quality of the work naturally flows from that, because I don’t ever want to give a lesser gift just because I didn’t take adequate time or put adequate heart (and skill) into the writing process.
Writers have so many different things that motivate them. It’s always fun for me to hear how others come into the process and find their meaning and their way through.
Sandra Heska King says
I snagged this book when I first heard you mention it. I haven’t started it yet, but it’s near the top of the stack.
“This is the kind of book that changes you, even if you don’t fully understand how. It’s a mystery, and that’s what it should be.” <— Reason enough to read it. 🙂
Diana Trautwein says
What a great review. I loved his music years ago and will order this book. Stat!
Laurie Klein says
“What he sings and what he writes come from a faith that is both deep and winsome.”
Glynn, you’re the second person in my life to recommend this title. I’m going to going to find a copy. Thank you!