Writing Can Be Dangerous by Susan Barclay

We've been challenged this month to describe our faith and/or writing in terms of a metaphor. 

Ugh. 

I know many of you will prove that not all the good metaphors are taken (like painting a fence and walking a tightrope, for example), but I was drawing a blank. Maybe metaphors aren't my phorté, I thought, misspelling intended. 

For lack of a better solution, I decided to google "writing is like" to see what treasures I could unearth. And then it hit me! Writing is like going on a treasure hunt!

Here's the scoop:

As a writer/treasure-hunter I start off looking for something. I may or may not have a X-marked map or even GPS coordinates of my destination (I am, after all, a pantser), but the germ of something, a gold (or fool's gold) nugget, an idea, has popped into my mind and must be explored.

There are tools at my disposal. Just as Indiana Jones has his bag of tricks, including whip, gun, knife and torch, I have mine - a creative mind, years of life experience, a way with words, methods learned in workshops, research skills, something on which to capture my work (paper, notebook, laptop, computer), to name a few. 

The path is almost never easy or straight. Oh, sure, there are days when the words flow from brain to keyboard in rapid succession, but just as often there are obstacles to circumnavigate - a family member needs my attention, I'm tired or sick (or sick and tired), I have to go to work, the words won't come. On days like these, I'm adrift, meandering and heavy-hearted, like a pirate marooned by his mates. At times I cast down my tools, throw up my hands in pleading or despair, or turn to other, more yielding subjects. 

Just like treasure-hunting (think violent rivals, poisonous snakes, dark places rigged with booby-traps), writing can be dangerous. Cribbing from author Jeff Goins, writing goals can be sidetracked by social media and Internet wanderings, writing can cause you to question your deepest-held beliefs and values, and ideas themselves have the ability to "launch revolutions and upset the status quo."

But when the seeker locates the desired object, what a thrill! The same experience awaits the persistent writer. When you follow a thought, when you let the story tell itself or lead you to its conclusion, why, there's nothing like that feeling of satisfaction and glee.

For all the work, the sweat, the tears, the battle scars, the sleepless nights and distracted days - it's worth it! You hold your treasure up to the light and admire it from every angle. You share it with your writing community and hope they see it the way you do or can offer advice that allow you to polish it until it shines. And then, instead of putting it in a museum or private collection, or stuffing it in a drawer for your own occasional perusal, you try to find a way to send it into the world so everyone can see.

A quote from Walt Disney beautifully sums up my metaphor:

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island.

Treasure-hunting can describe my faith life too. But that's for another post!
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Susan maintains a website and currently blogs infrequently at www.susan-barclay.blogspot.com