On writing

As some of you know, I wrote a short historic novel in highschool about female pirates. I have been really into writing off an on pretty much over my whole life. While I really enjoy writing and can get VERY into it, I never thought much of the end product. Little things like grammar errors and sentence structure always got me down, and I have been told by many people my whole life that writing is like an art; fun, but not a living. A few months ago I gave a copy of the pirate novel to Ben’s parents, Joel and Donna. There was some reason for it at the time, but it escapes me now. Yesterday I heard from Joel about it. As my Dad put it, I now have a fan. That’s putting it a little lightly, in fact. Joel has made it more than clear that he feels that it would be extremely bad stewardship if I do not focus my attention on my writing. He paid me several very high compliments on the manuscript and the talent that went into it, all of which is very contradictory to everything I’ve ever thought or heard about it. Both my parents have refused to read my book, Dad because he felt the violent situations I was writing about would turn his stomach, and Mom because she said she couldn’t stand to read a whole book where every sentence started with the subject. Most of the people who have read it have liked it, but they were mostly high school friends and I didn’t give much weight to their opinions. I had one English professor that I used to work for read it. She gave me some critique, but was much more concerned with my psycological state during the writing (which I didn’t consider to be a compliment to the manuscript). But now, somewhat out of the blue, I have a man whom I do respect greatly and who does actually know something about writing comparing this thing I wrote when I was 16 to Tolkien’s work. How did that happen? So I spent most of last night re-evaluating all of my plans for the near future and wondering if they are all completely off-base for what I should really be doing. The writing thing has been brought up by several people in the last few months, and I always disregarded it since it came mostly from people who have never read any of my writing. I also don’t give it out too freely anymore, since I don’t really write for the public anymore. But what if those people were really speaking from God and cautioning me that I am heading down the wrong road yet again? After praying about this for several hours and driving myself insane chasing my thoughts around in a circle, I finally fell asleep. As he sometimes does, God showed me a really cool answer through my Bible reading this morning. I happen to be in the beginning of 1 Kings, chapter 3 to be specific. I think God really used this passage to calm me down a little bit, and also as a promise. God did give me a great talent for writing, I’ll claim that. And I think the promise is that if I continue to pray for wisdom about how to use it and what steps to take, he will pour out his blessing on it. For those of you who are wondering, I’m kinda scared.;)

5 thoughts on “On writing”

  1. Cute Cat 🙂

    That hopeful cat is so cute!

    Sis, God doesn’t rush you to do anything. He may prompt by the Holy Spirit, but He doesn’t rush you. Even if you are in the midst of a raging storm.. when you get quietly before God there is that silent peaceful knowing peace. If you have that then go forward in your baby steps. God is and will always honor your heart and your steps towards Him.

    I love you and I am excited to see what the results are!

    Jae

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