Write On!

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.

– 1 Timothy 4: 12 & 13

I spent the weekend slaving over my novel, writing and rewriting, polishing and fixing, changing, seeking after perfection. If I wanted to enter this work in a contest everything had to be perfect. Therein lays the problem. I’m about the farthest thing from perfection as it comes. My own impulsive and spontaneous personality has its pitfalls and my striving toward perfection – well, that’s not a strong suit. Once I hit the send button and the novel was sent, I asked myself why writing means so much to me?

Everyone would love to have a book in Barnes and Nobel. Even the most boring person has a story to tell, so who are we to judge? For me, being an author is a passion, not just a fleeting thought.

Every serious writer knows the odds of publication –it’s a cold hard fact of the business that many are written but few are chosen. I realize that though my book may not be in print yet, I am still a published author.

We’re all writers. Each one of us has written a book that is picked apart by the stiffest critics, loved by the romantics, and quoted from frequently. Our life is read daily by those around us. Cliché’, I know, but I think it’s important that we realize the impact we have on others. When we look at ourselves as published authors, then the lives we present to the world become best-selling novels. People pick up our lives and thumb through pages, reading the gory details. That’s when we have to ask, “What have I written?” What are people reading in me? When they skim through my pages do they see my Father’s eyes? Am I being what God wants me to be?

I’ll probably never write the perfect piece, but I’ll continue to try by studying, learning and practicing the skills God has given me. Oh, I want that book in Barnes and Nobel and I’ll keep plugging away with the help of a few good friends. But the work that is read most often, the one that tells the greatest story, is the novel I pen daily in my Christian life. I’ll continue to practice my writing daily, learn to critique my work, take constructive criticism –improve. Then, when others read my life’s novel perhaps they will say, “What a good story.”

Is the Father pleased with your book?