March 24, 2015

Writing Snuck Up On Me by Tandy Balson






Writing snuck up on me.  It wasn’t something I had consciously pursued.   There also was no Eureka moment when I discovered this was my calling.

Looking back on my life, I see the signs that God kept placing before me.  My hindsight is 20/20 but my vision over the years was too clouded with self doubts to even consider the possibility of being a writer.

In his book, The Art of Work, Jeff Goins said, “A calling is what you have when you look back at your life and make sense of what it’s been trying to teach you all along.”  My life had been trying to teach me that I should be a writer for many years but I wasn’t paying attention.

When I finally acknowledged that this was something I wanted to pursue I knew I would need help and advice. I spoke to a friend who was a writer and she gave me the encouragement to get started.  I appreciated her insight but as I wanted to focus on Christian content and this was foreign to her, I knew I needed more.

Though research I found The Word Guild and became a member.  Through this I was introduced to InScribe and quickly joined this group as well.

The people I have met through these groups, both in person at conferences and online have been a source of information and encouragement.  They are always willing to freely share their knowledge.  I have found opportunities through them that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise.  The more I learn, the more my confidence has grown.

In my mind I am a writer.  This still isn’t easy to vocalize when people ask me what I do.  I did it for the first time at a meeting I attended recently.  The guest speaker was the publisher of a local magazine.  When I introduced myself to her, she asked what kind of business I was in.  Without hesitation, I smiled and said, “I’m a writer.”    I must have said it with confidence because after a brief conversation, she mentioned something about the possibility of doing a feature story on me.  Maybe I had the Eureka after all!

blog: https://www.timewithtandy.com
website: https://www.tandyb.com 
 

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:46 am GMT-7

    It is great that God is so patient with us! I am glad He nudged you to look and you saw His thread of what He had been grooming for you all along.

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  2. Love your story, Tandy. I took that "I'm a writer" leap too, recently, when I registered for a conference. It asked my occupation and I put 'writer'. I had a little flutter. Was it true? I realized it was! I look forward to the day I feel confident in saying that.

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  3. So glad you finally had that 'Eureka' moment!!

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  4. Enjoyed reading about your process as that is so often what it is. I once heard that once we have been paid even once for our work we can technically refer to ourselves as a writer although I do think you can be a writer who has never been 'paid' monetarily...there are other forms of payment such as a compliment, a thank you etc. I am happy though that you have come to identify with being a writer as once that happens for us, it does seem to open doors.

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  5. I appreciate your quote from Jeff Goins, “A calling is what you have when you look back at your life and make sense of what it’s been trying to teach you all along.” This is somewhat how I learned to acknowledge myself as a writer too. I hope that "feature story" goes ahead, Tandy.

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  6. I also appreciated the Jeff Goins definition of a calling, and your explanation of how the writing snuck up on you. Thanks.

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  7. Love your opening sentence, "Writing snuck up on me." It made me want to keep reading.

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  8. That's great that you took that, "I'm a writer" leap. May God continue to guide your writing steps.

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