The Reasons Why Writing Isn't an All or Nothing Deal
By Naomi Musch
Scott Hamilton wrote a book a couple of years ago called The Great Eight which
inspired me in several ways. Hamilton discussed his desire to make a return to skating after hitting age fifty. In the telling, he described how he learned to accept the fact that everything doesn't always turn out precisely as we want it to, even if we're doing everything right, and even if we feel God nudging us to continue on. Our picture of success might not exactly be what God pictures.
On that line, the book is mainly about how we make or break our own happiness or, better said, contentment. But it wasn't the "great eight" that inspired me so much as one individual story.
Scott told about a friend, a successful song writer, who was writing a book and felt a bit insecure about it. So the friend gave the manuscript into which he'd poured his heart and soul to a well respected friend in the literary world for feedback. But he didn't get the feedback he'd expected. He was basically told that it could be edited back from 250 pages to about 50. At first, his heart was broken.
But then he thought more about it and realized that his joy had come in the process of writing! He decided why should I let anyone take that away, just because they might be looking at it from a different point of view? Hamilton's friend planned to keep writing because he enjoyed it. If someone else wanted to read it or publish it, fine. But if not, that was going to be okay with him, too.
What a great reminder. We don't have to always live up to other people's expectations of what we should be writing about, or how we should be going about it. And, IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT PUBLISHING!
Writing is simply not an all or nothing deal.
It's about following through on our God-given promptings, enjoying the process, baring our souls.
So press on, my friends. Don't fear for their faces! Don't cringe at critique! Love the words. Express your hearts, your stories, your dreams, your rantings. Continue to commit to the process. And let all your hard work and effort leave you happy and fulfilled in what it is, and not discontent in what it is not.
Naomi is the author of The Green Veil, the first in the 3-book historical series Empire in Pine under contract with Desert Breeze Publishing, and Heart Not Taken, a novella from Black Lyon Publishing. She also serves a staff writer for the Midwestern paper Living Stones News and as a freelance writer encouraging the home school community. She and her husband Jeff live in the big woods of northern Wisconsin where they enjoy epic adventures along with their five young adults. Drop by to say hello and peek at her projects and passions at http://www.naomimusch.com and look her up on Facebook and Twitter (NMusch).
