Writing Blessings - Shirley S. Tye

When I was active with my story ministry, stories popped into my head easily.  When a group of people (ladies’ groups, nursing/seniors’ homes, churches, etc.) would invite me to speak, they’d tell me about their topic for the meeting.  And after praying about the subject, a story would pop into my head.  I’d see the story unfold in my mind like a mini movie. Once the story was down on paper, then the real fun began; tweaking it.  It always amazed me how the story improved just by rearranging sentences, changing a word here and there, omitting some words, or adding new ones. A thesaurus certainly came in handy. 

But sometimes ideas don’t flow easily. I sit in front of the computer screen with no imagination at all.  The white screen stares at me, defying me to mar its perfect surface. But when I start typing something, anything, it’s like grabbing a lump of play dough, rolling it around mindlessly with eyes closed and pulling at it.  When I open my eyes there’s a vague shape that resembles something; a person, an animal; a plant.  I look at it closely and begin molding, tearing little bits off, and adding more play dough, maybe even adding a different colour.  Soon the vague shape becomes a definite recognizable figure.  And it looks pretty good to me. 

That’s how some of my writing goes; from a blank page sprinkled with a few words to a crafted story that pleases me.  If I force the words out, hammering them onto the page, the story sounds…well…stiff, unnatural, phoney.  And I’m not happy with the end result.  Other times, I’m pleasantly surprised what I’ve written.  Did I write that?  Oh, that couldn’t have been me!  Certainly not!  That must have been the Holy Spirit.  Awesome! There’s nothing more exciting than having the Holy Spirit speak!  What a blessing!