To Do List

It is 10 a.m. I've been on the computer for over two hours. I've uploaded photos to send to friends. I've written a very long e-mail I decided not to send. I've researched communities in another state.

When I first got up, my plan was to start the next chapter of the non-fiction book I've committed to writing. Here it is two hours later. I've been busy on the computer, but haven't moved forward with the manuscript. As I got out my notes for today's work, several distractions came to mind. The letter I intended to mail to my granddaughter yesterday still needs to be put in an envelope. I really need to call my friend, Lin. I promised my husband I'd play Frisbee with our dog.

I could handle these "to do's" in one of two ways. I could get the letter ready to mail, call Lin and take the dog out. Then I could block off two hours to write. OR I could begin a list of "to do's" that come to mind as I'm writing and tackle the list when I need a break. A pad of paper by the computer is helpful to record those necessary important things that can wait. I'm taking the dog out now to relieve myself of guilt. My husband asked me to do that as he left for work, and I could hardly hear him over the clatter of keys on the keyboard. I'll walk the letter out to the mail box and call Lin after I get a few pages complete.

Come, Annie, good dog. Oh, dear. Who left those dishes in the sink?

I'm not really putting off writing. I'm just allowing myself to be distracted.

Who am I kidding?

An Encouraging Word

While talking to his secretary on the phone, my husband sat down at the computer. I heard him ask her, "Have you every heard of Guide Post?" Then he told her I'd just received notice that an article I'd submitted for "Mysterious Ways" had been picked up. I came into the room to see what he was talking about. I'd received an e-mail from an editor from Guide Post asking if I'd be willing for them to edit a short piece I'd submitted. Of course.

I first submitted the article November 9, 2009. This is October 15, 2010. So be encouraged.

The Same, But Different

Every week I meet four friends for breakfast. Last week we met at Cracker Barrel. We each ordered something different from the menu, but all five breakfasts got rave reviews. We decided to meet at Cracker Barrel again today.

"I'm going to order the same thing I did last week," I told my husband before I left. "Except I'm not going to order a side of gravy. And instead of turkey sausage I plan to order bacon. And if they can give me toast instead of biscuits, I'd like that. But I'm still going to have eggs, grits, and baked apples." He laughed.

Last year I attended the Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference, and one of our presenters told us movie producers are looking for the same thing, only different. They want the same romantic comedy, the same adventure story, the same drama, but they want it to be different than all the others.

Okay. For inspiration, you might try Cracker Barrel. There are several new breakfast combos on the menu. ;-)

Come Again?

In January I started on a piece with an August 1 deadline. The last time I worked on the manuscript, I thought it was probably ready to be submitted except for one thing. I've changed in the six months I've been working on the article. The anger I felt then is gone. The article, if accepted, will come out several months down the road. So what do I do with that?

I was struggling with six words -- to keep them or change them. Somehow "sorry rat a$$ of a man" didn't seem appropriate for me to be saying. After all, what if someone I know reads the article? I run with a straight group. You know, they don't chew, smoke, or cuss, or run with those who do. Then I saw an episode of World's Strictest Parents on TV. One of the teens participating kept saying he didn't give a rat's posterior. Oh. I don't want to sound like him. So I softened it, changing s-r-a-o-a-m to simply rat. But now, the issue is no longer an issue. I hold no hard feelings against the man I was having so much trouble forgiving six months ago. So do I toss the article? Change it?

This is a problem I have putting some things in print. People change. Circumstances change. Once it's in print, our words are chiseled in stone. I hope I can remember to hammer my words thoughtfully and not in a spirit of anger. I don't want to be more of an embarrassment than I sometimes am to my family.

Overcoming the Need to Please

But what if someone doesn't like what I write? What if I hurt someone's feelings? It's going to happen whether it's our intent or not, so we just have to get over ourselves.

Years ago my husband and I read Dr. Wayne Dyer's Your Erroneous Zones. Dyer said whatever we do, half the people won't like it. James Patterson, interviewed in the July 5, 2010 issue of Time Magazine, page 8, said this: "There are thousands of people who don't like what I do. Fortunately, there are millions who do."

So don't let the possibility of criticism stand in your way of seeking publication. Criticism will come. We can count on it.

Stay Away From the Freezer

I've been at the computer over an hour this morning making several false starts. It's one of those days I should probably be up steam cleaning my carpets for all the good I'm doing here. At least then I'd have something to show for my day.

When the ideas aren't flowing, we can do something creative and beneficial without guilt rather than eat our frustration away. Or at least that's what I'm telling my waistline. Besides, we're out of ice cream. I've checked. (A bit of fiction for humor).

How God Works, for Writers

Do you ever write something--a letter to a friend or an article for publication--and then debate with yourself, "Send? Or sit on it?" I think something's wrong with my "send" button. My "sit-on-it" option usually wins.

This morning I was engaged in such a debate about something I'd written for a magazine for teens. When I got up from the computer to duke it out with myself while I made a pot of coffee, I left a forwarded e-mail on the screen unread. When I came back to the computer, my eyes fell on the last line. "If you pass this on, you could very well save someone a lot of pain and suffering." The article was on boiling water in the microwave, not about writing, but I got the message. Someone needed to hear what I had to say.

It's just a short piece. If accepted for publication, the pay is only $25, but publishing isn't always, or even often, about the money. Saving someone pain and suffering is reason to write and send.

Change

Last spring I wrote a post about why I write in my pajamas. Who was that woman? Surely someone I used to know.

It is now 7:00 a.m. Dressed in jeans and a black long-sleeved polyester-blend blouse with white collar, no shoes, I've been at the computer for most of the past hour. I've proofed a manuscript I want to send off today and have searched Sally Stuart's Christian Writers' Market Guide for possible markets for a piece about the process of writing. I've had coffee with my husband, and we've talked about the day's plans and the morning headlines. Duke defeated Butler. Bummer.

I'm not sure when the change occurred, when I started dressing to write, but I made the change out of consideration for my husband. When he walks out the door for work, I'd like him to have a better image of me than sitting at the computer with pink plaid sleep pants topped with an ancient pink fuzzy shirt. Over the past few months, I got a new hair style. I bought a few new outfits. I've "spruced up." Maybe it's spring. Maybe I'm coming out of a depression. Maybe I no longer have reason or time to stay in my pajamas.

That, and I overheard a woman in the water color class I'm taking make a confession. Most days, she says, she stays in her pajamas until about an hour before her husband gets home, then she puts it in high gear, dresses, rips through the house picking up, starts supper, and probably meets him at the door with a drink in hand. She didn't mention the drink, but if she can get all that done in an hour, my hat is off to her. And she's not a writer.

The myth is shattered. Ordinary people can dress like writers? What is the world coming to? Are there no boundaries?

Reading Betty

Recently when my writer friend Betty and I got together for lunch, I asked her read two articles I wanted to submit. The first piece of 250 words took her a very long time to read. Maybe she was searching for the words to tell me the article was a little off, in her opinion.

The second piece I wasn't too sure about, but Betty liked it. "Submit this one," she said. I did, and just got notice that it was accepted for publication in October, 2011. And the other piece? Well, let's just say I get a chance to find another editor who might like it better than the first one I sent it to.

Writing What I Need

You've probably heard the encouragement to write what you like to read. What about write what you need to read?

Many of us have a calling. I know a man who preaches grace. Grace grace grace grace grace, the same message week after week after week. I've had one word that has motivated my life: love. Love love love love love in word and action.

The writing I've done has primarily been to encourage the church. I've written/published devotionals, inspirational stories/encouraging word tracts. By "church," I mean the body of Christ, not a particular group, denomination or building.

Encouragement must be my calling. I'm here on the side-lines cheering others on. You can do it! I know you can do it! I believe in you! Whoa, great pass! Go, team! Then, just a few weeks ago, I heard a pastor say, you know, what the church needs is more encouragers. More encouragers? That's something I can do. Here I am, ready for action, sir.

I do what I need, I think. I need a lot of encouragement. Sometimes I need someone to stand close to my right ear and scream, YOU CAN DO IT! I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT! YOU GET OUT THERE AND GO, GIRL! Encouraging others is a way to encourage myself.

You know the hell fire and brimstone preacher who rails against sexual impurity making the front pages because, well, you know. He hasn't been practicing what he preaches. I think his sermons are calls for help. Maybe my writing is a call for help. Help me! I need some encouragement here!

We all go through stuff. And in the muddle, we need something good to read, like a book on how-to-get-out-of-this-mess-I've-created, written by someone who's already been there. Who doesn't need a good laugh? Who doesn't really need to see themselves more realistically or see others more compassionately? I do. And who doesn't need to write a really bad book to inspire others to do it better? I saw a movie like that two nights ago. They call that a plot? I could do better. So . . . ?

If you are an encourager, a how-to-er, a make-'em-double-over-in-laughter-er, one who inspires, then somebody needs you. Don't just sit there. Write something brilliant.

The Big Why

Why do we write? Many write because it's their job, their source of income. They have deadlines to meet, time pressures. And we're envious. Some write out of their passion. But there are many of us who may be tempted to think our words on the page aren't significant because we're not disciplined enough to write that novel or persistent enough to see what we've written gets in print. So why do we write?

Here are a few reasons I've come up with:

• for our own pleasure
• for our own health
• for the enjoyment of others
• to entertain
• to tell a story
• to share an opinion
• to record history
• to right a wrong
• to make others laugh
• to give an update
• to be light in darkness
• to teach
• to leave a legacy
• for the children
• for our children
• for our families
• to comfort
• to lift up
• to encourage
• to edify

Some of those reasons may not give you a ready market, but if the impulse to write reverberates in your heart, yield to it. You can have a reading audience of one --or two, or two thousand, and still be significant. Your words might be just what others are waiting for -- evidence that they matter, that there is a God who knows their need and meets that need through someone else's words.

Bridge the gap. Fulfill your destiny. Write, even if at times it's just for your own edification. I've been surprised to find my own words written for another purpose come back home to encourage me.

~ ~ ~

From an e-mail received this morning in response to a note written to comfort: "You know how God does things. I just happened to be sitting in front of our computer when your e-mail popped up. What a glorious revelation. There is a smile on my face even now as I type this. Thank you so much for sharing it." The memorial service for this man's son was a week ago.

first published 11/07/08

An Excellent Gift

More than thirty years ago Marc and Gayle Bellomy gave my husband a little book for graduation that still has us turning pages. We've lost contact with the Bellomys, but we still have their gift. The spine of the book is broken, the red cloth is pulled away in places from the cardboard cover, and a few of the pages didn't survive the nine moves our family made since 1978. This 52nd printing of Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest, first published in 1935, with marginal notes in my handwriting, is one of the items I'd hope to be able to pull from a house fire if we ever had one. Though tattered, this bound copy is one of my treasures.

Consider this message appropriate for writers from the December 15th devotional, "Approved Unto God":

"If you cannot express yourself on any subject, struggle until you can. If you do not, someone will be the poorer all the days of his life. . . Always make a practice of provoking your own mind to think out what it accepts easily. . . . The author who benefits you most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance."

Can you imagine your words making others rich, living on to encourage some person eighty years down the road?