From the bestselling author of The Wingfeather Saga and award-winning musician and storyteller, Andrew Peterson. Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, WORLD Magazine each named Adorning the Dark as one of their books of the year. Making something beautiful in a broken world can be harrowing work, and it can’t be done alone. Over the last twenty years, Andrew Peterson has performed … Over the last twenty years, Andrew Peterson has performed thousands of concerts, published four novels, released ten albums, taught college and seminary classes on writing, founded a nonprofit ministry for Christians in the arts, and executive-produced a film–all in a belief that God calls us to proclaim the gospel and the coming kingdom using whatever gifts are at our disposal. He’s stumbled along the way, made mistake after mistake, and yet has continually encountered the grace of God through an encouraging family, a Christ-centered community of artists in the church, and the power of truth, beauty, and goodness in Scripture and the arts.
While there are many books about writing, none deal first-hand with the intersection of songwriting, storytelling, and vocation, along with nuts-and-bolts exploration of the great mystery of creativity. In Adorning the Dark, Andrew describes six principles for the writing life:
- serving the work
- serving the audience
- selectivity
- discernment
- discipline
- and community
Through stories from his own journey, Andrew shows how these principles are not merely helpful for writers and artists, but for anyone interested in imitating the way the Creator interacts with his creation.
This book is both a memoir of Andrew’s journey and a handbook for artists, written in the hope that his story will provide encouragement to others stumbling along in pursuit of a calling to adorn the dark with the light of Christ.
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Uplifting, humorous reading for anyone who creates. Christian artists, in particular, will find inspiration in these pages.
Andrew Peterson writes an honest biography about the creative process of producing music and writing books. There are so many nuggets of truths that speak kindly to the struggle of finding inspiration. “That’s what really led to writing, if I’m honest. In the beginning it wasn’t about glorifying my Maker – it was about declaring my own existence, for my own sake. It took a long time to realize that that was a dead end. Literally. This book is about a better way, and even now I have to fight to follow it.” There are no solid answers or bulleted lists in this book. Just a conversation between author and reader, about how God is working good things into our self-doubt filled messy expressions. So, if you need a book that says “me too” in a compassionate way, pick up this book!
Somehow, Andrew Peterson manages to capture the essence of what it means to be a creator and the otherworldly aspect of creating true and beautiful art, all in beautiful strokes of prose and delightfully winsome metaphors that stick with you long after you’ve put the book down.
Summary:
Adorning the Dark is a mixture of essays and journal entries, part biography and part craft book. Andrew covers a wide range of aspects concerning creating, yet still manages to stay organized and on topic in each chapter, while sprinkling in an array of colorful descriptions and captivating, whimsical stories in a style only Andrew can tell.
The first few chapters cover the role Christ and the gospel should play in our creative process, such as how to include God in our process and how our art should reflect Him. Then Andrew dives into the art of creating itself, covering what it means to serve the work and your audience and how to balance the two. He answers the question what makes a quality piece of art and briefly discusses the importance of selectivity in what we consume.
Then he covers the necessity of discipline and discernment and how important they are to finishing art and creating it well. Finally, he highlights the importance of community for your writing and for you as a person. Community is vital to your growth.
Overall, this book is unique in its style and genre, but that’s what makes it so delightful. It certainly won’t leave you bored!
My Thoughts:
Can I just say that I loved every single chapter? Some hit me more deeply than others, but every chapter had some kind of wisdom I needed to hear.
Andrew is a brilliant writer. His word pictures were vivid and beautiful. I could really see them in my mind’s eye, and there were a few times I would read a metaphor and go “Exactly! That’s precisely how I’ve always pictured it.” His prose is like flowing water. It’s so smooth, connected, and easy to read. This book is a must read, if just for the writing style!
Not only that, but Andrew has so much wisdom and humility to share. I loved how vulnerable and honest he was in giving us a glimpse into his life, family, successes, and even his mistakes and failures.
I could especially relate to chapter 2, where Andrew talked about the process of birthing an idea. He perfectly describes the pain, the frustration, and yet the satisfaction of coming up with an idea and executing it. I loved how he described the in-tangibleness of ideas, how they always seem to be just beyond our grasp–or as he put it, just beyond the veil. Sadly, we can never perfectly capture those ideas in our broken world, but even in our weak, imperfect efforts, we can get close to it. We can at least give our readers a glimpse behind that veil.
I could relate to Andrew’s fear and self-doubt, of not feeling worthy enough to be a creator. But I was so blessed by his encouragement to write even when it’s messy and imperfect. We can’t wait until everything is perfect for us because it never will be. Just create. This is how we bring beauty out of our broken world. This part of the book reminded me a lot of The Story of With by Allen Arnold.
I loved his thoughts on good books, especially on how fairytales lift our eyes to something bigger than us, allowing us to peek past the veil and glimpse eternity on the other side. They allow us to sneak past watchful dragons, as Lewis put it. It was such a beautiful reminder of why I write fantasy!
I also appreciated his thoughts on the balance between striving to create good art but also allowing yourself the freedom to fail and to grow. You don’t have to get it right the first time. It’s ok to make mistakes. But always be willing to learn. Be humble and teachable.
Most of all, I loved his thoughts on God and art. God doesn’t need us to create. But he wants us to create beautiful things. He chose us to do this wonderful work. What an amazing mission we have as believers!
And finally, his thoughts on community and how it relates to writing was exactly what I needed. Too often, I tend to think creating is all about working on my own and forget to involve others in the process too. And his advice to go out there and create a community instead of bemoaning the fact that you don’t have one was really convicting. I loved the idea of finding a resonator, someone who gets my vision and encourages me to keep going when I get discouraged.
If you are a creator of any kind, this is a book is a must read. You’ll come away refreshed, inspired, and emboldened to better live out your calling as a creator for Christ’s sake, and you’ll be left with a deeper appreciation for the power of art and the impact we can have on this world.
Singer, songwriter, and author Andrew Peterson shares his insight on creating in this book. He uses personal experience as well as wisdom from other songwriters and authors to discuss the process of writing songs, the ups and downs of the business, and using one’s creative abilities to tell a story.
I’ll start my review by saying that I was not the main target audience for this book. While Peterson does do his best to expand beyond songwriting into fiction-writing and other kinds of art, the heavy focus is on the musical realm (and poetry to a lesser degree). I’m a fiction writer, but have no experience with or even much of an understanding of writing songs. Plus, he referred to songs and books by various songwriters and authors a lot and talked about them as if the reader should know them as well as he did. I’m not nearly as well read as him, and I am definitely not as immersed in music culture, nor do I listed to as wide a range of music as he. As such, I do think that quite a bit of the book was lost on me.As such, I do think that quite a bit of the book was lost on me.
Another way this book did not resonate with me is that I came to realize by maybe halfway through the book that my personality, and the way I see the world around me, is vastly different from his. He sees beauty in everything, but I’ve never been all that sentimental. So that was another chunk of the book that fell flat for me.
However, that does not mean that I did not find plenty of gems in the book, things that work for any kind of creating. For example: “If you wait until the conditions are perfect, you’ll never write a thing.” Or: “The songs won’t write themselves, and neither will the books, the recipes, the blueprints, or the gardens.” Even with the difference that Peterson describes between songwriting (which can also apply to poetry to a degree) and writing fiction, the clear point is that you have to get through the bad to find the good.
He also addresses the different between “Christian art” and art from a Christian perspective, which I really appreciated. As an author, I’ve struggled in the past with thinking that I should only be using the gift God gave me to write specifically Christian fiction. However, I no longer think that’s true. Instead, I can write stories with a Christian worldview, which will most likely be acceptable to most Christians, and will even be acceptable to many non-Christians who just want something good to read. And in approaching the art that way, perhaps it would allow the artist to actually reach more for Christ.
There were a few things about which I disagreed with the author, but even in those I think it mostly comes down to a difference in mindset or preference. I did agree with the idea that calling some people “creatives” excludes many people who really are more creative than they think. Just because “art” isn’t the end result, pretty much everyone creates in their own way–that can come out as critical thinking or problem solving, or so many other things that don’t seem as creative. In the end, I’m very glad I read this book, as it gave me some interesting insight into a singer whose music goes back as far as my marriage, and plenty of solid advice on writing, some of which I needed to hear even today. I recommend this book for Christians who are interesting in creating, no matter the form it takes.
Thank you to Netgalley and B&H Publishing Group for providing me a copy of this book to review.
If you are someone who loves to create, this book is a must-read. Peterson, a successful songwriter and author, shares his own journey, fears, and insecurities, making him completely relatable and inspirational. I loved this book.
One of my top 5 favorite books
In his trademark story-filled style, Andrew Peterson takes the reader on a rambling walk through his thoughts on community, calling, and creating (hence the subtitle). If you’re looking for a concise and bulleted how-to book on the writing craft, this isn’t it. Instead, it’s exactly what it claims to be: a look inside Andrew’s head on the mystery of making. Along the way, I found some treasures of wisdom that were so beautiful they brought me to tears. Other times, I found myself skimming lengthy illustrations (and felt justified when reading about his fondness for pre-choruses, and then even more so when he wrote “I’m not sure why I’m telling you all this–except to say…”). The insights I gleaned were definitely worth not just reading once, but re-reading, printing out, dwelling upon. I do recommend this book for writers, especially songwriters, since there is more on that angle than on any other kind of writing. But it usually translates well.
Peterson shares his creative process. Helped me understand where he and others I know are coming from.
What a delicious book! It’s written by a songwriter, but so much of what he shares is apropos for writers, poets, artists of any kind. Andrew Peterson talks about “sehnsucht,” which C. S. Lewis described as “inconsolable longing.” The ache for the coming Kingdom. I hadn’t been able to put my finger on what in something poetic gives me such a lump in my throat, yes, a longing. Peterson says he was “born homesick,” that we experience a spiritual homesickness or a persistent longing.
I’d read something about Nashville’s “Rabbit Room,” which led me to this book. And “Adorning the Dark,” in turn, includes a wonderful reading list, plus an Afterword (Nuts and Bolts) about music and lyrics, which also is useful across genres. The subtitle is also compelling: “Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making.”