{"id":3856,"date":"2025-10-30T06:43:31","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T11:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/doxaweb.blog\/?p=3856"},"modified":"2025-10-30T13:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T18:42:07","slug":"requesting-prayers-for-writing-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doxaweb.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/30\/requesting-prayers-for-writing-project\/","title":{"rendered":"requesting prayers for a writing project"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This coming year, I hope at long last to draft a story that I have been brooding over for twenty-two years, since I completed the 2002 Act One writing program in Chicago<\/strong><\/a>. It’s a narrative about a young man and an aging nun<\/strong><\/a> navigating the tempest of American Catholic seminary life in the 1990s \u2013 it’s part Dead Man Walking<\/em>, part Doubt<\/em>, part Peanut Butter Falcon<\/em>. Rather than going directly to script, I’m drafting it as a novel, then deciding if it merits going to screenplay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story is set in an arena I know intimately \u2013 namely, an American Catholic seminary in the 1990s<\/strong>.<\/a> Given recent developments with the scandals in the Church, the story seems timely. This is not a documentary, or a scandal script, per se, but really intended as a theological thriller in the vein of Charles Williams\u2019 novel Descent Into Hell<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, and a tribute to victims of sexual abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you might imagine, this is rather highly charged material, that has to stare squarely into the face of some very uncomfortable realities. As Flannery O\u2019Connor once wrote in an essay entitled The Church and the Fiction Writer<\/strong><\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

A belief in fixed dogma cannot fix what goes on in life or blind the believer to it\u2026. If the Catholic writer hopes to reveal mysteries, he will have to do it by describing truthfully what he sees from where he is. An affirmative vision cannot be demanded of him without limiting his freedom to observe what man has done with the things of God\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is when the individual’s faith is weak, not when it is strong, that he will be afraid of an honest fictional representation of life; and when there is a tendency to compartmentalize the spiritual and make it resident in a certain type of life only, the supernatural is apt gradually to be lost. Fiction, made according to its own laws, is an antidote to such a tendency, for it renews our knowledge that we live in the mystery from which we draw our abstractions. The Catholic fiction writer, as fiction writer, will look for the will of God first in the laws and limitations of his art and will hope that if he obeys these, other blessings will be added to his work. The happiest of these, and the one he may at present least expect, will be the satisfied Catholic reader.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I’ve hesitated for a long time to move forward with the project. Only recently have I felt ready (personally) to address this subject in a way that I hope will be redemptive for the audience<\/strong><\/a>. At least I know that the story, as it is unfolding, has been redemptive for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I plan to first draft the project as a novel, and then work on its adaptation for the screen. (I understand that Graham Greene took this approach with The Third Man<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will be working on the story beats over at Substack<\/a><\/strong> during the month of November 2025. (Oh, yeah, that’s my way of letting you know I’ve now entered the world of Substack.) Look for me there<\/strong><\/a> – follow if you like, subscribe if you can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than anything, I’d be grateful if you’d consider keeping this in your prayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The operative title for the project is Saint Judas<\/strong><\/em>. Pre-work reading includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Third Man<\/em><\/strong><\/a> – Graham Greene
Goodbye, Good Men<\/em><\/strong><\/a> – Michael Rose
Ungodly Rage<\/em><\/strong><\/a> – Donna Steichen
Trojan Horse in the City of God<\/em><\/strong><\/a> – Dietrich von Hildebrand
Descent into Hell<\/em><\/strong><\/a> – Charles Williams
The Chocolate War<\/em><\/strong><\/a> – Robert Cormier
The Power and the Glory<\/em><\/strong><\/a> – Graham Greene
Story<\/em><\/strong><\/a> – Robert McKee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This coming year, I hope at long last to draft a story that I have been brooding over for twenty-two years: Saint Judas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,11,19,33,48,54,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-catholic-media","category-communication","category-entertainment","category-moral-life","category-priesthood","category-screenwriting","category-seminary"],"yoast_head":"\nrequesting prayers for a writing project – doxaweb<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/doxaweb.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/30\/requesting-prayers-for-writing-project\/\" 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