January 23, 2021

AH FREEDOM MOMENTS by Joylene M Bailey



Image by Shad0wfall from Pixabay 


My first introduction to Inscribe Christian Writers’ Fellowship was at a Fall Conference many years ago. 

I don’t know exactly what I was expecting about these people. Frazzle-haired intellectuals wandering around muttering to themselves as they scribbled in notebooks? Impeccably dressed socialites gathered in small groups, name-dropping and talking about their latest book awards?


“Dahling, I spoke to Joanne yesterday – you know, Rowling? She’s coming to my fete on Friday next. Everyone will be there. Stephen King said he’d pop in for a minute or two, and Robert Munsch, of course. You should come.”


Imagine, if you will, me walking into that first assembly hall and finding, to my surprise, that ICWF people were … regular people. In fact, I couldn’t distinguish them from any other people I knew. They dressed like regular people, combed their hair like respectable persons would, and conversed in regular language that one didn’t need a dictionary to decipher. They even talked to me.


Huh, well whaddaya know? These writers are regular people.


It was a wonderfully enlightening moment. But there are two other moments in my interactions with InScribe that far outweigh all the rest, because they shifted my atmosphere. 


First moment: Don’t remember the Who, the When, or the Where. But the What was the Who who said, If you write, then you’re a writer. 


Seven words. That’s all it took. It was the confirmation I’d been looking for, for many many years. Permission to call myself a writer! Even though I'd never been published.


Second moment: In my mind's eye, I can see the Who but don’t remember his name. The Where was a WorDshop in Calgary. The When is fuzzy. 


The What was a workshop where the Who was telling us about the experience of writing his __th novel; how he never knew where his story was going, being an intuitive writer, but this time an important character just got up and left the story three-quarters of the way through, and never came back.


I sat there stunned at three of his words: an intuitive writer. 

That’s how I write! It must be okay. 


Until that point, I’d been ashamed to admit that I seldom work from an outline. I sometimes have a rough idea of where I’m heading but basically the story unfolds as it unfolds. At last, affirmation that the way I wrote was a legitimate way of writing.


These two moments, Confirmation and Affirmation, were AH moments for me. 


Not the OH! of surprise, or the AHA! of Eureka, but a relieving sigh. The release of pent-up anxiety I’d been carrying, over something I loved and couldn’t seem to quit doing – writing! 

Ahhh.


Since then, I’ve had a freedom in my writing that I’d never experienced before those moments. 


Yes, InScribe is to me all the things mentioned in previous posts: Community, Encouragement, Training, Networking, Friendships, Fun... But more than anything, I’m grateful for the two moments that forever shifted my atmosphere.


~~~~~





Joy is a regular person who manages to keep her hair combed most of the time. Except when she's close to a deadline. She doesn't know J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, or Robert Munsch personally but enjoys their work very much. She writes from a tiny cluttered study in the home she shares with The Cowboy and Babe, Jubal the Snowman, Reggie his pet reindeer, and his friend Beverly Mouse, who is afraid of almost everything. 

Find more of her writing at Scraps of Joy.


14 comments:

  1. So true, a person never forgets those moments when freedom comes. Your posts are always a delight to read.

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    1. Very true, Brenda, and thank you!

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  2. Love the way you worded your remembrances! I had to smile because I did go to another writers' conference once where people were trying to act like the one's you mentioned, from the clothes they wore (jaunty little artists' tams at a 'just so' angle) to the way they talked. It was so obvious many were trying too hard to present themselves as the stereotype 'ECCENTRIC WRITER'. (And in the end, failing because it wasn't genuine.) It was so refreshing to go to our own Fall Conference a month later with people who weren't putting on airs or trying to impress.

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    1. My goodness, there really are conferences like that? Well then, I fell in with the right people for sure. InScribe is the most welcoming and helpful place. I love it.

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  3. I enjoyed your stories very much. For me, it was my first pay cheque as a writer that was my "ah-ha" moment.It was only for $15.00 but it validated my hope of becoming a professional freelancer. People liked my stories and I did get published in amateur electronic music fan publications during the late eighties. I also wrote for the work newsletter. That small cheque I received in April of 1997 was tangible proof that some one valued my 300-word filler piece.

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  4. A pay cheque is confirmation for sure, Bruce. Those moments are wonderful and memorable.

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  5. Hi Joy! I love you received "confirmation" and "affirmation" for your intuitive writing style. This must have been freeing for you. I'm happy you know yourself in this way. I chuckled at the beginning of your post about the "expectations" you imagined. I'm happy you found InScribe. By the way, what's an "outline?" :)

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    1. Haha. Could it be that you and I are both intuitive writers? Thanks, Alan.

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    2. Yup, I believe so, Joy. :) I like it a lot!

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  6. Thanks for what you shared, Joy. I'm glad you connected with "real" People at the conferences you attended. I went to my first Fall Conference in 1999 and have been attending ever since then. I've learned so much about writing from InScribe.

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    1. InScribe truly is a remarkable place in the world. 🙂

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  7. Ahhhh, I loved this! I too felt such a relief when I first attended conference and found people who were so kind.
    Pam M

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    1. Yes, kind, welcoming, and accepting us right where we are. It’s like finding treasure!

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  8. This is a story in itself - the "AH" moments that release us into the things we're supposed to PURSUE with our whole-heart - e.g. a heart set free to pursue... this is lovely to read - and I like the bio about the "mouse who is afraid of almost everything" - assuming this is the title of a book to come!? Hugs, Joy.

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