Looking for a place to feel inspired and challenged? Like to share a smile or a laugh? Interested in becoming more familiar with Canadian writers who have a Christian worldview? We are writers who live in different parts of Canada, see life from a variety of perspectives, and write in a number of genres. We share the goal of wanting to entertain and inspire you to be all you can be with God's help.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Ora et Labora and leave the house
As a writer I've held to two credos. Writing begets writing which means keep yourself glued to your computer and apply yourself - and Ora et Labora, work and pray - and as a Calvinist, a little heavy on the work, thank you very much. Writing is hard. It is solitary. It requires sacrifices both socially and physically. Then, six months ago, I sat at my computer to brainstorm some new book ideas . . . and froze.
This is a novel concept for me because until I switched to my Mac computer, the situation was usually reversed. But I couldn't re-boot out of this freeze. I scribbled, I read, I watched movies but nothing. No inspiration. No new ideas. For the past ten years I had spilled out stories and now the well was empty. My career was over. Time to fill out that IGA application form.This is a lousy situation for a writer to find herself.
I knew I should be praying about this - I am, after all, a writer who professes faith in God and salvation through Christ. I trust that if not a hair can fall from my head without his will, surely an idea can fall into that same head? Yet in spite of my fears of the end of a career, I struggled with the concept that God should be intrested in my lack of ideas when Somalia, Iraq and persecution in China are, I am sure, taking up a lot of His attention. At the same time I felt that writing was still my place in the Kingdom, so I caved and in my daily devotions, asked God for some ideas. And I applied myself even harder to my craft. I stayed home and concentrated on the writing. I pushed away all distractions. I kept myself isolated so I could focus. I finished up my current contract trying not to panic because I had no new ideas hence, no new work. And I prayed.
In an inferior novel my prayers would have borne fruit and I would have been inspired and come up with some whopper novel treatments. But the brain freeze continued. So I surrendered. I put aside the hunt for new ideas. I turned my focus outward.I stepped out of my construction zone and out of my house. I got involved in a few other people's lives. Really listened (and not with the intention of 'borrowing' what I heard).
And my world opened up. My mind expanded. My prayers became ones of obedience and moving away from my concern for myself. And, to my pleased surprise, a germ of an idea formed as I sat in a meeting. The another one while listening to a sermon. (Sorry Pastor Randy) and as the ideas gently grew, I realized that in order to write about life, life must be lived. Writing may beget writing, but truly living life begets better writing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts
-
Write Canada is more than a professional networking conference. It’s a safe place where beginning and intermediate writers can learn ...
-
Inspiration hardly strikes on an empty stomach. For this, and other reasons, writers must eat. And if you like minced beef (and you...
-
On Thanksgiving Sunday, our daughter and son-in-law blessed us with our first grandchild. My heart sings as I gaze in ...
-
Prediction, retrodiction, and malediction ... It's not even six a.m. here in EST, and already 230 people have visited the Post-Darwinist...
-
Recently, as an experienced writer, I was asked to participate in the evaluation of poetry. I felt ill equipped for the job but p...
-
by Rev Ed Hird One of the best loved Christmas Carols is the 146-year-old carol: Good King Wenceslas. In 1853, John Mason Neale chose Wences...
-
Have you ever been neck deep in trouble? I've been there and it's not an entirely pleasant experience. I recall hanging upside down ...
-
I’ve been trying, across this Advent/Christmas season, to get a hook into a plot for a Christmas play that everybody can enjoy. Christian f...
-
Hi from Denyse O’Leary on behalf of the Ottawa Christian Writers’ Fellowship, suggesting you join us April 2 if you are in the area, for al...
-
I'm writing this blog minutes before the clock strikes midnight. When you read it I will be collecting the final few memorie...
2 comments:
Beautifully said!
N. J.
Wonderful post.
Thanks!
Post a Comment