Joshua 1:9: Courageous

I’ve always loved this Bible verse, ever since a friend wrote “Joshua 1:9″ after her signature in one of my high school yearbooks.  Back then, I hadn’t read the Bible cover to cover ( still haven’t, if I’m to be totally honest), so I had no idea what the verse actually said for the longest time.  But when I finally looked it up, I was like, “Whoa.”  It is encouragement at its purest.  How many times in my life had I felt totally alone?  And suddenly, there was this verse, telling me that God was and is always with me.  Courage has always sounded amazing to me, but I kept it at arm’s length for the longest time.  It was so much easier to break down than it was to be brave, so much easier to shut the world away and sit in darkness than it was to open the door and live.  I had so much to figure out when I was younger – I had to put the shattered pieces of who I was back together so that they’d fit and tell me who I was going to be.  It was quite the journey, and guess what?  I’m still on it because the journey is called “life.”

Now, I don’t have any choice.  I have to stand up.  No other child should have to go through what I did, and maybe that is part of the reason why things were the way they were for me.  So I can fight to change things.  God gave me the gift of writing for a reason, I know.  I had to be able to communicate in some way, right?  If I couldn’t write, I’d still be locked up in my own little world, unable to express myself.  I may not be free in many ways, but I am in the only way that really counts.

Lots of times, people take the good things in their lives for granted, and so I am asking you to take a step or two back and look at your blessings.  Which one is the most important one to you, and tell me why!

 

 

I’ve got the pre-writing blues

It is no secret that writing is hard work, especially when you want to be published.  It is the pre-writing that is particularly hard for me, since I just want to write  the story that is in me.  I think God is a good example to use, since he never does anything without thinking it out thoroughly.  If he just winged it all the time, then we would be in so much trouble.  He always has plans.  He always has reasons.  Because of that, I know I need to have them for my characters as well.  I need to have the story figured out from start to finish before I start bringing it to life.  It’s easier said than done, but I am determined.  Resolve face.  I am gonna do this.

So, I am going to take a week…  It may not be this week, because I got some other stuff to work on, but the week after looks great.  Pre-writing is just organizing my ideas, right?  And I can do that, no problem.  I never really liked to make outlines in school, because back then, it seemed to me a waste of time.  I thought my energy would be better off directed at the actual writing part than planning.  I was wrong.  Planning is important.  It saves time and frustration, even though the planning itself may be frustrating.  In the end, though, it will be worth it, when I finally have a whole draft of a novel.

I am passionate about the story in me.  It won’t be my own story – not yet, anyway.  I don’t think I am ready to write about that in fiction anyway.  The fun part about being a fiction writer is that I get to ask “What if” questions.  What if this happens and what if that happens?  We get to play around with the story, fitting the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle.  Some pieces won’t fit and will have to be discarded, and that is okay.  As long as I’m writing, and trying, really trying, I know I will get to where I am going.