Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Nearly a year later...

It has been almost a year since I decided that I had some "wisdom" worthy to be what I will roughly deem as "published" on the internet. In that time, life has gotten busier, I have gotten old, and I have officially become a "writer" - yes, it is true, I sold my very first completed article to INSIGHT magazine. It will be published in July.
While it seems this amazing news would encourage me, or just plain make me want to jump out of my skin for joy, the truth is, I am about as discouraged as I could possibly get right now. My last year has been wasted in almost everyway except one - I have met some amazing new friends and have been matured as a person through their investments in my life.
But my writing has been almost non-exsistant since August, when I sucessfully finished the Apprenticeship level of the Christian Writers Guild Journeyman course. It was an amazing experience, teaching me far more than I had ever expected to learn, but now here I sit. 2008, twenty-two years old, bombarded with fifty-million doubts about if I was ever really meant to be a writer.

BUT this week has changed a little of that. And for all of you would-be writers out there, who are getting discouraged that maybe, just maybe, this isn't their "thing", perhaps that desire to write was just a one-time fluke, here are a few things to get you back to that notebook/computer/journal/etc.

Watch 'You've Got Mail' - Yep, you heard me. Now be happy! I just gave you a tremendously easy task to go watch a movie! So rent it or pull it out of your DVD cabinet (because like 82% of the population owns You've Got Mail, right?) and sit in front of that TV screen you've been trying to get away from with a mug of hot coffee or cocoa for TWO WHOLE VALUBLE HOURS. If you really ARE a writer, your time will have been well spent: no writer could sit through that movie without the almost overwhelming urge to write "nothings" for the whole world to read. And if you AREN'T a writer, well, at least you enjoyed yourself.

Read 'Do Hard Things' - Written by teenagers Brett & Alex Harris, this book is sure to get to even the twenty-somethings. I have been reading it all day and it is killing me that I have wasted so much of my life. Trust me, this book will get to you, no matter what age you are. It is time to REBEL against low expectations that say just keep "living" in your rut and get off your butt and do HARD things! (And we all know that writing is anything but easy!)

OK, so I've got you writing and reading, but of course we all know the most important thing:

WRITE! - Write! Write! Write! Until your hand falls asleep and you are sick of words and your computer is as hot as a 400' preheated oven - WRITE! If you are like me and haven't written in a while, it will be tough going: my writers brain and writers hands are rusty. I hate almost everything that comes out of my slow-dripping faucet of connected words. But is won't be long, and you will start to recognize a little polish, a little flair, a little glimpse of your former writing self that you used to be proud of.
God promises that with dilligence comes results, and His results are worth having. He will not be able to speak to or through the lazy, rusty, undiciplined writer.

So that's it. I have nothing more to say. It is time for me to get back to work. You too! Get going!






What are you still doing here??? Its over! Go home! :)