Writing a Novel and the Shepherds

November has been and gone and with it, the deadline for the “Write a Novel in November”.

I thought (correctly) that writing a novel without a couple of intermediate steps was a seriously bad idea. As a first step, a short story seemed to be the logical step, and I had my first crack at this. Being a modest person, some critical feedback was sought and received. The best that could be said was that it scored well “For Effort.” Don’t give up the day job. One member of my family said that the short story was good (with a face that looked as if she was chewing a lemon), but that my Blogs were really good (said with the enthusiasm of a diner at a gourmet meal). Point taken.

I was trying to bring the story of the birth of Jesus, the shepherds and the wise men into the 21st century. By this I mean, if Jesus were to be born today, to whom would the angels appear and who would be the wise men?

The other question that had strolled through my mind was why were these events recorded in the bible? They certainly make for some great nativity plays, and where would School Christmas Plays be without these celebrated characters? (Kevin asks where the essential donkey came from in the original).

Leaving such theological niceties aside, I thought that some teenage boys, finishing their shifts at McDonalds, would meet an angel, in the form of a glowing business man, on their way home. The three wise men would clearly have money to give away, so in this day and age, they must be bankers (I have thought about extending the story to cover how they came to look for the star in the first place, but that would be even more speculative and take too long).

As to the point of the story, I imagined that Mary, having travelled so far in the cold for a reunion of some kind, and ending up in a hospital without any staff or beds (nearer to real life in England than you might imagine), was feeling very cheesed off. What of all the promises that had been made months before about the baby. Joseph too might have been puzzled, not to say disbelieving. And into this come our Likely Lads, in the form of the shepherds or McDonalds staff, who had just been given the same message as she had received all that time ago.

Maybe (and only maybe, because I am really stretching a point here) Joseph was still not completely convinced by the whole affair, and worried about the money, when in walk three wise men / bankers bearing gifts to value of a decent win on the National Lottery.

Just because the Bible does not record these emotions does not mean that I am wrong. I might not be correct either, but the story is there for a reason and it makes you think, doesn’t it.

As to the second rate story of my lads from McDonalds, glowing businessmen, and three bankers, I may just put it on my Novel blog, and be done with it. Or I may not.