Janet here. I write for God so naturally I talk to Him about my career. WhenI’ve been most discouraged, He’s given me a contest final or win, a reader’sencouraging review, a Bible verse to claim. Countless times in countless waysHe’s helped me do what He’s called me to do. Often in amazing, practical ways like the times God’s provided specific help writing His stories. Snippetsof dialogue, new aspects of my characters I hadn’t seen, plot elements thatraise the stakes, twists and turns have sprung into my head and takenme by surprise.
To give you an example: One morning out of the blue the following poppedinto my mind: When you’ve been married to a polecat, it takes a while to get rid ofthe stench.
I was startled by that sentence and what it meant but Iimmediately wrote it down verbatim, figuring God had sent it so I needed to payattention.
As I looked at that sentence several things became evident. I believed thisstatement came from a woman. A woman who had been marriedto a polecat. For those of you who don’t know what a polecat is, in my areapolecat refers to a skunk. But this skunk wasn’t the four-legged, white stripedown the back variety. No, this skunk was a two-legged brute. Definitely not heromaterial. With divorce unacceptable at Love Inspired Historical that meant thiswoman was widowed. I didn’t know how her husband had died, but I sure knew she wasn’t grieving.:-) I also knew this wounded woman would not fall for another man any time soon. I wondered why she’d married this creep and suspected confidence in her judgmenthad been shaken.
That one sentence became my next story. I’m not one of thosewriters with stories fighting to get out of their heads and onto the page. Ioften struggle to find my next idea. Yet God just handedthis one over. How cool is that?
I asked the Seekers if they’d had similar experiences where Godgave them guidance with their careers, or support when they needed it most, or aseed of a story, even a full blown manuscript.Ruthy Logan Herne shared her experience with a God-given story:My dear, young friend Lisa had just found outshe had breast cancer. A few of us decided to do a "Pink Garden" forher and she agreed...so we dug up and prepared a pretty plot in their yard. AsI turned into the Garden Center for flowers, I was totally surrounded by"Pink". It was their Breast Cancer Awareness Day and as Ilooked around, the story for "The Lawman's Second Chance" flooded me.I saw a young woman whose husband didn't stand by her, and I could see Lisarunning the family farm garden center and fighting a public battle to raisebreast cancer awareness. The whole story was there, in my mind, the widower withkids whose wife was taken home to God vs. the woman whose husband left her tofight cancer alone. I called Lisa and Jeff, got their permission, went home andwrote the proposal for May's release "The Lawman's Second Chance". Great to see how God gets His stories told. Thanks Ruthy! Julie Lessman relayed this experience:
One of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had as an author waswhen I was writing my fifth book, A HeartRevealed. You see, this is a love story about a friendship that slowlyripens into romantic love between the hero and a heroine who was abused andbattered by her husband. Only problem is—the rat husband is still alive back inIreland. As an author who thrives on surprise endings, I didn’t want to do theobvious, so one autumn day I’m sitting on my lower deck brainstorming when Ilooked up into the sky and said, “God—you are the God of creativity and youhave an ending for me that I just know will blow everybody way. Would you mindsharing it with me, please?” As God is my witness, within ten seconds, an ideafluttered into my brain like those scarlet and gold leaves that were flutteringall around me. The idea was SO masterful and SO genius, that I literally joltedstraight up in the chair and started laughing, knowing that I could have nevercome up with anything like that on my own. And do you know that to this day, noone has guessed the ending so far? Now that’s the kind of brainstorming partneryou want!
Thanks, Julie, for the wonderful example of our Creator providing exactly thecreativity you needed.
Mary Connealy shared this:
I belonged to RWA for a few years before I even heard ofChristian Fiction. You have to remember that this was before wide spreademailing and Google and internet in every home.
I lived a long way from a bookstore even and if there wereChristian bookstores they were few and far between. I just didn’t knowChristian fiction existed. And I’d read Janette Oke, too, it just neveroccurred to me to look at the spine for a publisher. So, I was reading mymonthly RWR magazine and there was this little story about ACFW. It was in itsinfancy then, but I hunted it up and joined and it opened this whole world forme. All my books I’d written weren’t Christian fiction but they were all sweetromances with heroes and heroines who conducted themselves with Christianprinciples that were just unspoken. To have them say aloud what they wereliving was so simple. And I found all these Christian publishers to pitch to.It changed everything. I feel like God had me writing for a line of publishinglong before it existed.
Thanks, Mary, for sharing how God gets us where we need to be towrite for Him.
Myra Johnson shared this experience:
Two years after winning the Golden Heart and still no bookcontract! I was so close to giving up that the next disappointment could easilyhave pushed me over the edge. I wasn't in the best frame of mind to attend the2007 ACFW conference but I went anyway, determined to put on a brave front andtry to enjoy spending time with the many writer friends I'd connected with overthe years. But God had other ideas. More than once during that conference, Heseemed to know exactly what I needed when I needed it. One huge surprise washaving random people tell me God had nudged them to pray for me. Then, a coupleof nights into the conference, I had the most vivid dream of my life. I sawmyself as a body without a skeleton--the whole framework that held me togetherwas gone. I sensed God telling me that's exactly what I would be like if I gaveup His gift of writing. The message of that dream was strong enough to see methrough, and before the next ACFW conference I had received my very first bookcontract, with another one coming only a couple of months later! Now, anytimethe ongoing ups and downs of this business start to get me down, I recall thedream and trust all over again in God's plan for my life.
Thanks, Myra, for sharing how God enabled you to keep on keepingon during a particularly difficult time.
In June of 2011 I finally realized that my writing career wasn'tmy writing career. I think up to that point everything about my 'career' waslike throwing darts at a target and hoping something would stick. The moment Iput Tina's writing on the altar and it became His writing was when I receivedclarity, direction and peace. I noted the date and the time in my Jesus Callingdevotional. But-I also noted three additional dates afterward where I hadto again put my career on the altar. We writers are very controlling. I kepttaking it back.
Thanks, Tina. Most of us can relate to that struggle.I know I can. We writers are often discouraged when we don’t make the progress wewant and forget God’s timing is perfect. Isn’t it great and humbling to see God at work in His plan for our lives?
Fora chance to win a copy of The Bride Wore Spurs, April 2, 2013 (on pre-order now) share a timewhen God provided exactly what you needed, perhaps in such a way that He caught you by surprise or blessed you beyond your wildest dreams. I brought a bountiful buffet of breakfast items: sausage, bacon,ham, scrambled eggs, blueberries, yogurt, tomato juice, raisin toast andpastries. Here's the back cover blurb for The Bride Wore Spurs:
The CowgirlTakes a Husband
“Will you marry me?” It’s a question widowed Matt neverintended to ask again. Now spirited Hannah is asking him for a marriage ofconvenience! Yet whether she’s birthing a calf or caring for a young orphan,the tomboy next door is becoming the partner Matt always hoped for. Now he mustconvince her the greatest strength comes in trusting your heart to another—andyour future to God.…
Grab a plate and let’s chat.
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder