A is for Author

 

I’m an author, a published author. It’s a label describing part of who I am, but it still feels like it doesn’t fit well. At times, it seems like one of those clothing labels that makes your skin itch or the ribbon kind that pop out at the most inopportune times, those labels you want to cut out and discard.

What should I do with this author label? For years I hid my one-time enjoyment of writing. Then, as I began to put words to paper or more often keystrokes on the computer to form a story of some description, I told people, “I’m a reluctant writer.”

Have you ever been there? Reluctantly writing or quaking in your boots at the thought someone might ask you to speak in public, lead a workshop, or do anything out of your comfort zone? My words of being a reluctant writer or the thought of the label author puts me into a place far from any comfort zone. It’s never something that had been on my bucket list.

A number of years ago my one grandson challenged those words of mine when I repeated them yet again in his hearing. “Grandma, when you say you are a reluctant writer, it’s a very negative attitude.”

Wow. I must admit I had never really thought of my words in that way. I needed to pause and reflect on his comments. A is also for attitude and adjustment. Mine needed that. It has taken years to adapt my thinking and attitude to go from reluctant writer to published author when people ask me what I do.

Stories have been part of my life for as long as I can remember and likely longer. Hearing stories, reading them, and telling them too. They captivate my attention. They weave their way into answers I give to questions, speaking engagements, and now my writing. I knew storyteller fit as a way to describe myself and what I love to do. Then stories began to be published in anthologies or as a book and published author needed to be a descriptor as well.

The biggest attitude adjustment came when I realized that God gave me the ability to tell the stories. He gave me a gift but never meant me to hide it away or ignore it. The gift needed to be used to encourage and teach others. My attitude and actions of using the ability to tell stories and be a published author needs to praise God, my Creator so I can be a good steward.

An attitude adjustment happened. But some days, I feel myself slipping into the past way of thinking and desire to hide by not telling people about what I do or use the words published author. Then I take time to look back at the journey, the adventure God has taken me on to this point. I read down the list of what I’ve written and published from articles and poems in magazines and anthologies to devotional books, memoir, and even fiction. Affirmation from readers or fellow writers encourage me and remind me that God’s plan far exceeds my limited vision of the way ahead. Everything to this point is God’s doing. I often turn to the benediction in Ephesians 3: 20, 21 (NIV) which encourages, inspires, and fills me with awe at the power of God in Christ Jesus.
“ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

Yes, a is for author. I simply need to be willing to do what God asks and enjoy the adventure we are on together. 

 

As a speaker and published author, Carol Harrison is passionate about mentoring people of all ages and abilities to help them find their voice and reach their fullest potential. She shares from her heart, with stories from real life experiences and God’s Word to encourage people and help them find a glimmer of hope no matter what the circumstances.

 

A Writer is Born by Steph Beth Nickel

The Compulsion to Write

I’ve often heard writers say, “I just have to write.”

To be honest, I’ve wondered if that meant I wasn’t a real writer because I didn’t feel that compulsion.

Could I feel complete without writing? While I thought the answer was likely yes, I took a good hard look at my life and realized that’s probably not true—at least not without an outpouring of God’s grace.

For those of you who haven’t known me for at least five minutes, you may not know that I am a relationship-driven extrovert who loves to talk. (I remember a game we used to play while walking to the school bus at the end of the day. Someone would suggest a topic and the one who could talk about it longest was the winner. Guess who often could talk the longest about even things she knew nothing about?)

Another Way to Communicate

As I thought back over my life, I realized that writing is just one more way I communicate—with others, with the Lord, with myself.  (And I definitely can’t imagine losing the ability to communicate.) I’ve come to view the journaling I do for my eyes only as “rambling until I stumble across truth.” I pray most effectively when I write in my prayer journal. Otherwise, I’m too easily distracted. (I have what I call Butterfly Syndrome, my mind flits from one thing to the next to the next.)

And what about communicating with others via the written word?

My answer to that was what made me wonder if I was really a writer.

Does someone have to read what I write?

Do I need to produce a best seller to consider myself a success?

Because the answer to those things is no, my definition of writer—at least successful writer—differs from that of many others.

But can I see myself not putting words on paper—or the computer screen? Facebook updates? Blog posts? Poems? Prose? Random thoughts?

Nope. Nope. Nope. 

 

The Written Word in Many Forms

Over the years, my writing has taken many forms: poems no one would ever read; encouraging notes and cards that arrived in the recipient’s hand at just the right time, evidence of God’s work in my life—and theirs; journal entries; advertorials for our local newspaper; hundreds of blog posts over the last five years; devotionals; co-authoring Paralympian Deborah L. Willows’ memoir; etc.

So, just when did I become a writer? Probably the first time I put pencil to paper to record my thoughts—approximately five decades ago, long before anything I ever wrote would be published.

Do I have to write? The more I think about it, the more I would say yes. It is what God intended me to do.

What does that look like? It changes from year to year, but it still involves some form of communication through the written word.

If you’re not what you think other means by the terms writer and author, it doesn’t mean you don't qualify. If you can’t imagine not putting your words out there for one reason or another—or just recording them in a private journal, you are a writer—as I am.