Last Fall I posted three sticky notes above my desk:
- 1,000 words per day.
- 5 days per week.
- Draft due: July.
Ladies and gentlemen, this attempt to complete the next draft of my WIP by summer has thus far been an utter failure. I could blame lack of sleep from having a baby, getting a major case of the flu, or long work hours as prime suspects. Let’s face it though, our baby has been sleeping through the night since before I wrote the stickys, having the flu is a perfect time to write, and my 9-5 is more or less the same as it was at this time last year.
Apparently, I hadn’t considered this yet.
I don’t dare claim to be any wiser, but the reality that my novel isn’t going to write itself besieged my mind, and is (thankfully) starting to break through. Which got me thinking…
I adore reading on writing. I’d estimate a solid 61% of my reading time (give or take) is captured by an “on writing” works. However, most of the authors I’m reading have, for lack of a better term “made it” (“made it” here loosely defined as “am-writing-for-a-living”). Writers like Robert McKee, James Scott Bell, and K.M. Weiland are incredible inspirations for how one can use the gifts and skills the Lord has blessed them with to influence so many people, whether by book, podcast, blogpost, or other mode of encouragement.
Most writers (including myself!) hope to join the ranks of writers who plant words and harvest stories for a living, but that’s not where the Lord has me right now. And that’s ok! His ways are higher than mine, and the key – while definitely not always easy – is to remain faithful in the tasks He gives and the areas He places us. Which got me thinking again…
I wish there was a blog series by writers who hadn’t yet “made it”. I don’t just want to read about the struggles and joys of writing; I want read about the joys and struggles of living the life of a writer who also:
- Works a 9-5.
- Loves on a family.
- Is often sidetracked by what the world would call “real life”.
- Struggles to find time to read and write.
- Deals with headaches and wrist pain which make writing difficult.
Perhaps there is such a blog. Since I’ve yet to find it, the Lord has laid it on my heart to start writing about these same joys and struggles.
Introducing: The Story Seekers Blog!
Don’t worry! The meat of Seeking Stories will always consist of story studies, thoughts on writing by writers, and the how-to’s of good writing and storytelling. Interspersed throughout these will be the slightest glimpse behind the curtain of a writer – someone like you – who writes because he must. Who deeply breathes stories and exhales the same. Who gets up early and stays up late (or tries to anyway) and writes on lunch breaks and in vehicles and in the midst of gatherings where the expectation is to socialize. Whom the Lord has filled with a spirit of storytelling that cannot be quenched, even when it’s excruciating and there seems to be no time left to shake out of the clock.
If this sounds like you, I understand the feeling. My hope is to encourage you with the bad and good, the struggles and joys, the mundane hours and exhilarating events, the dreary defeats and monumental moments. All the things that writers like me and you experience as we seek to do the only thing we can: tell stories.
Leave a Reply