Battle Speeches

Ouch. Its getting to that time. 100,000 words later, in the second last scene of my book, and its time to rewrite THAT battle speech.

I hate them. They're so over done, but oh-so-necessary. Here's my fourth attempt at a second re-write (if that makes sense).

[Joshua at the 2nd Battle of Ai]

‘Every man must face his darkest fears. But fear cannot be seen or touched. It has no sword or spear, no face or name. Its within us. How do we conquer ourselves? Courage. Have the courage to believe, or go back to slavery.’

‘We’ll never be slaves again,’ shouted Amminadab from amongst the ranks, ‘we’re sons of Abraham.’

‘Are we?’ Joshua replied, ‘Who is a child of Abraham?’

By the stunned expressions on every Hebrew, clearly no one had ever asked that question.

‘Is it a birthright? Then your fathers would be here today. Achan would be here today. But who is here?’ Joshua pointed towards Rahab, who seemed embarrassed to be singled out.

‘Who is here, I ask you? You who have believed. Believe again. In victory or defeat, through heartache and loss, believe. In life or death, believe. And if like Joseph, you die in faith and send your bones into the promised land, then you may call yourselves sons of Abraham.’