Winning Defined by Steph Beth Nickel

 

As writers, we want to “win,” but there are numerous definitions of exactly what that means. Each of us must determine what winning means to us and refuse to be tied to the definitions of others.

For some, winning (or success) means making a fulltime living with their writing. If you’re doing so, that’s incredible. Kudos!

This may be your ultimate goal, but even if you’re not there yet, know that it’s alright to define each “smaller,” more attainable goal as a win well worth celebrating.

If you’re not making your living with the written word (or in your preferred style / genre) and are not particularly interested in doing so, be encouraged, knowing that this isn’t the only definition of winning at writing.

Is your goal to write every day and most days you’re putting pen to paper? You’re winning.

If your goal is to hit a certain word count each day, week, or month, and most times you’re able to tick it off your Action Plan, you are winning.

If you are writing for a limited audience and even one person is entertained, encouraged, or empowered by what you’ve written, that is definitely a win.

Is your goal to process your thoughts and emotions in a journal for your eyes only, and you are often able to do so? This is one of the most important wins of all—and will have an impact on all areas of life, including your other writing.

You may be writing every day or once a week. You may be writing for a readership of thousands or a handful of people. You may be writing full-length books or social media posts.

No matter what you’re writing, know that there are different definitions of winning, and don’t neglect to celebrate the “smallest” of wins while pressing on to those “bigger” wins—or not. It’s your choice. You are free to define winning.

And while we’re learning to celebrate our writing wins, let’s encourage our fellow writers and remind them that winning doesn’t necessarily mean publishing a runaway bestseller or taking home first place in a prestigious contest. It doesn’t necessarily mean becoming a household name or being recognized when walking down the street. It doesn’t necessarily mean reporters are calling to set up interviews or social media influencers are highlighting our writing.

Sometimes winning means sitting down at your computer and adding 250 or 500 words to your WIP, taking a deep breath and hitting Publish, visiting the local coffee shop and jotting down inspiration for an idea that’s just starting to percolate in your mind (coffee shop + percolate = unintentional metaphor / pun).

So, what does winning at writing mean to you? Regardless of whether or not you’re achieving your ultimate definition of success, how are you winning today? And I assure you . . . you are!

Wise Words by Joylene M Bailey

 

In January 2023, at the very beginning of these alphabet prompts, I wrote a post entitled Advice from Admired Artists. It was a collection of writing quotes I'd gathered over the years. It seems fitting, as we near the end of the alphabet, that I gather a few more here today.

The only connecting thread in the following quotes is that each of them was spoken or written by a successful writer. At first glance, you may think that a few of them have nothing to do with writing. However, I suggest that all of these can be applied to our writing life. I hope that you will find some inspiration here and maybe even a smile or two.

*****

Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid.

- Frederick Buechner

***

You can change someone's life in three minutes with the right song ... You can bend the course of their development, what they think is important, how vital and alive they feel.

- Bruce Springsteen

***

I turn sentences around. That's my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it and turn it around again. Then I have lunch. Then I come back in and write another sentence. Then I have tea and turn the new sentence around. Then I read the two sentences together and turn them both around. Then I lie down on my sofa and think. Then I get up and throw them out and start from the beginning.

- Philip Roth

***

Do anything else rather than striving on a [work in progress]. You free your mind to make connections not otherwise made.

- Terry & Eric Fan

***

The book happens in you before you start saying the words ... Any writer would say, the thing has to be done if the messenger in you tells you to do it ... And every writer, including myself, is always waiting for that messenger.

- Edna O'Brien

***

No day is so bad it can't be fixed with a nap.

- Carrie Snow

***

Writing is useful because it is hard. It's the effort that goes into writing a clear sentence that leads to better thinking.

- James Clear

***

***

A writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, or because everything she does is golden. A writer is a writer because, even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.

- Junot Diaz

***

I want to see what happens if I don't give up.

- Terrie Todd

***

For after all, if attentiveness should be measured in minutes and discipline measured in hours, then indomitability must be measured in years.

- Amor Towles

***

I can't play bridge. I don't play tennis. all those things that people learn, and I admire, there hasn't seemed time for. But what there is time for is looking out the window.

- Alice Munro

***

The earth has music for those who listen.

- Shakespeare

***

People constantly make the mistake of thinking that their words on a page should be the equivalent of dress-up clothes. Completely different from everyday.

- Anna Quindlen

***

I want to say small things intensely.

- W.S. diPiero

***

***

The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

***

Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.

- Jane Yolen

***

God wanted you to be perpetually valuable so He made you permanently rare.

- Christine Caine

***

Always show up knocking, otherwise the door will not open.

- Kate diCamillo

***

Authors are not celebrities but they're kind of often magical, eccentric humans.

- Shawna LeMay

***

Perhaps that is the draw of books. To show us the way even when we think the path is too dark to see. 

- Madeline Martin

***

I can be a light in someone's darkness; I can be a patch of blue sky in someone's grey day; I can be the pink surprise of one hydrangea bloom on an October morning; I can be present to my world today.

- Brenda Leyland

***

*****

All photos from Pixabay

Joy writes and collects quotes from her home in lake country, Alberta, where she lives and writes and quilts and entertains five young grandkids once in awhile, while The Cowboy and his livestock (a dog and two cats) keep the place running. Find more of her joy-infused writing at Scraps of Joy.

Wrinkles And Wisecracks by Bob Jones

 

“If wisdom comes with age, then I don’t have wrinkles, they’re just wisecracks.”

 

Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.

 

 

Words are lyrical.

 

Listen to the sound of the word, wrinkle. The appearance of wrinkles may be irritating but at least the word has a cool sound.

 

I like how Ardis Mayo draws the best out of wrinkles by calling them, “maps of wisdom.” And Jennifer Chesak, a Nashville-based writing instructor, imagines wrinkles as fine lines that “represent life's worth-it moments like grins that have stretched across our faces.”

 

Mark Twain wrote, “Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.”

 

Are you starting to feel better about wrinkles? I hope so. You and I are collecting them as we age. Perhaps you can see those smile lines in a new way as "wisecracks".  Ha!

 

I can’t help but think of Madeline L’Engle when I think of wrinkles.

 

Have you read her book, A Wrinkle in Time?  In 1960, 26 publishers wrinkled up their noses at her first attempt at a novel. It was, in L'Engle's words, "too different," and "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and had a female protagonist in a children’s science fiction book".

 

However, the book was hugely successful, winning literary awards, and was turned into a movie, a TV series, an opera, and even a theatre production.

 

L’Engle set out to show that the fight against evil requires more than great knowledge and intelligence. Intelligence without morality can easily slip into an authoritarian and brutal reality. Rather, that fight requires embracing those things that pure mental intelligence can’t grasp—love, courage, self-sacrifice, and humility.

 

The world needs writers like you, who furrow your brow as you ponder how your words can make the difference you know is so needed. 

 

Salt your writing with love, having the courage to write the truth, and the self-sacrifice of vulnerability. Add in the humility of humour and you'll keep those wisecracks coming.

Bob furrows his brow as he writes at REVwords.com

W is for Waiting, by Susan Barclay

 

As I was contemplating this month’s post, I remembered reading about how much time the average person spends waiting. A quick Google search took me to reference.com and some American statistics. I doubt we’re much different in Canada or anywhere else in the west. 

We spend

• 20 minutes a day for the bus or train
• 32 minutes in a waiting room before seeing the doctor
• 28 minutes in security lines when travelling
• 21 minutes for a significant other to get ready to go out
• 13 hours on hold for customer service (annually)
• 38 hours in traffic (annually)
• 37 billion hours in line (collectively and annually) – given Canada’s much smaller population, this number would be much smaller north of the 49^th parallel

In short, we wait a LOT. The Bible also contains many illustrations of this reality. Here are just a few:

• Noah waited for the floodwaters to recede and the earth to dry before he and his family could leave the safety of the Ark (12.5 months, see Genesis 8:13-14)
• Jacob waited 7 years for his beloved Rachel and worked another 7 years to fulfill his part of the marriage agreement (Genesis 29)
• The Israelites wandered 40 years in the wilderness before gaining the right to enter the Promised Land
• The Jews were taken captive in Babylon 70 years before being allowed to return to their homeland
• There are 400 years between the Old Testament and the New. Waiting and waiting for Messiah, the fulfillment of centuries of prophecy!

Even Jesus had to wait:

• 9 months from conception to birth;
• 30 years before the beginning of his earthly ministry;
• 40 days in the wilderness after being baptized by John and while being tempted by satan;
• four days before raising his friend Lazarus;
• hours of intense prayer in the garden of Gethsemane before his betrayer’s kiss;
• hours on the cross before dying;
• three days in the grave before resurrecting

Waiting is hard. It doesn’t come naturally. We want what we want when we want it. God, on the other hand, wants to develop patience in us. He wants to develop trust. He wants us to believe and know that He is God. He is sovereign and good even when it doesn’t always appear so.

As believers we wait for

• Answers to prayer
• God to move in situations and circumstances over which we have little to no control
• Unsaved family members and friends to come to Christ
• Guidance and direction from Holy Spirit

As writers we wait for

• The right words to flow onto the page
• Wisdom to know where to send our work
• Publishers to respond to our submissions and inquiries
• The right agent to advocate on behalf of us and our writing
• Words of affirmation or connection from readers

What are you waiting for today? What has waiting taught you about yourself and about God? As you look at biblical examples of waiting, what stories encourage you most, and why?

As you wait, rest in these words:

But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint. ~Isaiah 40:31

Waiting gives us time to develop character and Christlikeness. May we wait in a way that proves our faith and pleases the LORD. May our waiting be an offering and a gift to Him, and the results testify that He does all things well. And may those who come behind us find us faithful.

___________________________

For more about Susan Barclay and her writing, please visit www.susan-barclay.blogspot.com. 

Walk Your Way to Writing by Sandi Somers

It’s time for my morning walk. I dress for the weather, tuck my cell phone and house keys in my pockets, and head out. I normally walk around the neighbourhood, choosing different routes, often starting in an easterly direction.               

Each morning brings its glory. The clouds, particularly in pre-dawn, blaze orange and pink. Fresh petrichor after rain fills the air with fragrance. My ear is quick to pick up the varied chirps, songs, and whistles of different birds, even when I’m concentrating on something else. 

I note how seasons bring changes. Deciduous trees change their colours, from springtime bursting with light green buds, to autumn when fallen yellow, purple, and orange leaves crunch under my feet. In December, Christmas lights in different homes still glow until sunrise. In spring and summer I sometimes stop to admire the artistry of flowerbeds and yards. 

Research has shown there are many benefits to walking. It not only connects us with nature -- the sights, sounds, and sensations. Walking boosts energy and concentration and improves thinking and imagination. 

My walks are often prayer walks, praying for others, sometimes asking God to clarify a situation that’s perplexed me. I pray the Lord will reveal fresh ideas, solutions, or Scripture. And often He does! 

Those prayer walks include writing articles and devotionals. My cell phone becomes my handy recorder. Often a thought has really impressed me through my private time with the Lord minutes earlier. I capture an outline, a few ideas to be expanded later, or an engaging introduction. I ask the Lord to guide my thoughts. 

On my walks this summer, I discovered a quiet place to gather my thoughts. Several areas in my community are newly developed, and one includes a new park with picnic tables. I began to sit in the warm sunshine, feeling cozy surrounded by newly planted trees and bushes, where I composed articles and devotions, complete with revising and editing. Ideas that had been bubbling up now became clearer... 

And I received the Lord’s wisdom. I’m reminded of the promise: “From his mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Proverbs 2:6 NLT). 

It's October now, and the warm days of autumn have given way to chill winds here in Calgary. I’m once again sitting at that picnic table, writing my first ideas for this November IWO post. But today, though it is sunny, I can’t stay long. The wind whistles through my jacket. It’s too cold for my fingers to edit and revise, and I can’t complete my whole post. I head for home, still thinking through and praying to receive more of the Lord’s insights.

Image by Pixabay

W is for Write ~ by Brenda J. Wood

 A writer is one who writes. If we write, then we are writers. What is holding us back? Where is our short story, our contest entry, our book?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but we are the problem. We are our own worst enemy.

A multitude of years ago, someone told me, “I see a book in there!” I knew what she meant but I didn’t want to write what was in my head. I was afraid to examine it myself and I sure wasn’t prepared to share it. I compromised by writing several cookbooks. Eventually, though, the first chapter of Meeting Myself, Snippets from a Binging and Bulging Mind, flew onto my paper.

By the time I became a widow, I had learned that pain on the page was better than pain in the heart. It was November, Nanowrite. I wrote the required 50,000 words in thirty days and published The Pregnant Pause of Grief.

My cookbooks were published out of fear. If only I had stepped into my truth earlier, who knows what I would be writing now?

(P.S. In case you are wondering: The Slightly Murderous Christian Detective and Cheering you up on the Weigh down!)

Friend, you are a writer. You know it, but if you haven’t taken it into yourself, start calling you what you really are.

Start saying these words both inside and outside.

I AM A WRITER!  I AM A WRITER!

And remember if you have only five minutes to write, you have no time to chew your pencil for four minutes (John Erskine).

Brenda J. Wood has authored more than fifty books. She is a seasoned motivational speaker, who declares the Word of God with wisdom, humour, and common sense.

W is for Witness ~ by Wendy L. Macdonald

  

God bears witness to all

with words

the Holy Spirit has breathed

through scribes He ordained

by the Blood of Christ 

to help the blind see

~

God’s writers bear witness 

with words

written for others to see

what Jesus has done

is wonderful 

in bringing us true peace.

“I have revealed and saved and proclaimed—

    I, and not some foreign god among you.

You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “that I am God.”

Isaiah 43:12 NIV

What Scripture verse motivates you to bear witness of God’s redeeming love through your writing? 

This is my final post as a blog administrator. I have been greatly blessed by all your posts. Reading them each weekday has motivated me to reach higher and wider with words. You are a gifted group of writers. Keep at it. Keep looking up. Your witness with words is wonderful.

I will be taking a break from contributing to this site. When my break is over, I hope to offer an occasional guest post.

    

Wendy L. Macdonald is an inspirational blogger and YouTuber who loves photographing nature on Vancouver Island. Her happy place is making junk journals to sell in her Etsy shop. Her byline is: “My faith is not shallow because I’ve been rescued from the deep.”