Artist Feature | Writer, Chad Bird

When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

I knew I wanted to be a reader before I knew I wanted to be a writer. I suspect most authors would echo that. First comes love (and envy) of other people’s written words. We slip into their stories and find ourselves mesmerized by the magic of language. In my boyhood Texas home, we had all the westerns of Louis L’Amour, so, in my imagination, I saddled up with the Sacketts and made my blanket the stars. Later, of course, other authors came along, wooing me, shaping me, and sometimes deforming me, but never leaving me the same.

I began to write in high school. I wrote a few short stories and poetry, all of it bad, some worse. But like any craft, writing must be practiced. Verbs sharpened. Nouns shined. While at university, I expanded my vocabulary by keeping long, written lists of new words I’d learned—words which I then smuggled into academic papers, probably committing unforgivable linguistic abuse most of the time. My first article was accepted for publication by The Lutheran Witness my senior year in college, 1992. I was beaming so brightly, you’d have thought I had just been awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

You write hymn texts, poetry, devotions, and books. Do you find that writing different types of pieces complement each other and make you a better writer with the other forms of writing, or do you find you need to focus on each form individually? 

Years ago, I was a guest professor at a seminary in Siberia. I worked at different times with three or four translators, all of whom approached their task differently. Some translated while I was speaking, some wanted a whole sentence then a pause, and still others wanted a phrase at a time. Being forced to work with different partners helped me to learn focus and to adapt in this ever-changing dance of English to Russian.

I believe the experience of writing in different genres is much like this. Poetry is the slow translator. A phrase here, a phrase there, steady as she goes. Go too fast and things fall apart. Devotions are the “one sentence at a time” variety. They are poetry, but poetry that won’t drive 55. They like a little speed. Devotions, like poetry, also force you to write big with little letters. To pack in as much sweat, sweetness, dirt, and Jesus as you can onto a single page. Books are a whole different literary animal. They are the fast translator, to be sure, but with books, the lecture drags on 6-12 months. And by the end, boy oh boy, no one is more tired of reading you than you. It takes a good year for me to like my book again once it is done. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, as they say. That’s the dirty little secret of book-writing.

What does your writing routine look like? 

I am an early riser (5 AM), so after coffee, Psalms, reading, and a tri-weekly run, I’m usually at my keyboard by 7ish. Besides a thirty-minute break for lunch, I don’t usually halt until around 4 PM. So that’s around 8 hours a day, right? Math, like cauliflower, has always been distasteful to me. I’ve had people tell me, quite assumingly, that I must write quickly because I produce quite a bit. I do not. I easily delete four times as many words as I write. I try to edit myself mercilessly, “murdering my darlings,” as we so gruesomely say. If, by day’s end, I have written two single-spaced pages (around 1000 words), then I have done well. I’ll celebrate with a cold, dark Guinness. On the rare occasion that I write 1500 or more words, well, chances are I have more darlings to murder in the morning.

I know you're now writing full-time, but for much of your writing career you were working another job and writing. What advice would you give to someone who is trying to fit a writing career around the rest of life? 

By all means, go for it! And also: be ready to sacrifice sleep. For a while, I was driving a truck full-time and producing about a book at year. How? By getting up at 4 AM and writing by 4:30. That would give me about 2.5 to 3 hours every morning. “A long obedience in the same direction.” That is key. Write a sentence. Write a paragraph. Write a page. Whatever you have time for. Keep notes on your phone during the day if thoughts or words come to you. It’s the old answer to: How do you eat an elephant? A bite at a time.

What five books had the most influence on you as a writer?

Les Misérables by V. Hugo (best novel of redemption)
Sacred Meditations by Johann Gerhard (taught me the muscle of metaphor)
The Psalms (this is how we talk to and about God)
Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis (intelligence without snootiness)
Dr. Seuss (have fun with words!)

What are you reading right now?

I am usually in the middle of three or four books. Currently, I am reading or rereading:

Miracles by C. S. Lewis
A Son to Me by Peter Leithart
Revelation by G. K. Beale
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

What is your latest writing project? 

About three weeks ago, I completed Unveiling Mercy: 365 Daily Devotions Based on Insights from Old Testament Hebrew. This is a daily leap in the wild and colorful world of Hebrew. Each day will focus on a different Hebrew word or phrase, cite a biblical verse where it’s used, provide a short devotion based on it, and conclude with a prayer. 1517 Publishing will release this volume in the fall. It should be ready for preorder soon. Christmas presents, everyone!

About a week after I finished Unveiling Mercy, I began my next book—still untitled—which will be about Christ in the Old Testament. It’s a kind of companion textbook for my 1517 Academy class on the same subject. If God is willing and humanity survives the rest of this unhinged, apocalyptic year, it will be completed by the time we sneak a peek into 2021.