N is for Ninja by Bob Jones

 

February is the month of N.

 

Ninja is a cool word that starts with N. That’s Ninja Bob in the image in his imagination.

 

One click of a search engine surfaced the notion that some people like to call themselves ninjas for doing anything well. Did you know that there is such a thing as a Ninja Writer?

 

A Ninja Writer is a writer who writes well.

 

I want to be a Ninja Writer. I am a Ninja Writer.

 

A Ninja Writer is a writer who gets better with every draft.

 

A Ninja Writer is a writer who reads.

A Ninja Writer is a writer who writes poems, posts, and publications all the way through to the end.

 

A Ninja Writer understands how to tighten loose sentences.

 

A Ninja Writer sharpens blurred sentences.

 

A Ninja Writer brings rhythm to sentences that don't flow well.

 

A Ninja Writer is a writer who acts now, does not make excuses and forgives themselves and starts again when they fail to act or makes excuses.

 

A Ninja Writer is a writer who stays focused and committed to realizing a vision.

 

What kind of Ninja are you?

Thank you for reading!

Ninja Bob writes at REVwords where he fearlessly pursues improvement every day.

My Reasons for Writing by Nina Faye Morey

So, why do I write?

To gain a greater understanding of God’s Word

One of the main reasons I enjoy writing is that it helps me develop a better understanding of God’s Word. Through my Christian writing, I’m able to grasp more meaning from Bible verses and gain greater insights into the Scriptures than by any other means. When I open my heart and mind to Jesus’s words, I feel like His apostles must have felt listening to His teachings. It’s as though His Holy Spirit is inspiring and guiding me, prompting me to write the words that flow through my pen and onto the paper. So many times I’ve been searching for just the right words or the right Bible verse, and suddenly the words magically form in my mind or I open my Bible by chance to the perfect Scripture. But my experience isn’t unique. I’ve heard other Christian writers express these same feelings and experiences.

And let us consider how we may spur

one another on toward love and good deeds.”

~ Hebrews 10:24

To use God’s gift for the good of others

I can’t imagine not using this great gift that God has given me (Ephesians 2:10). I know that many Christian writers feel this way regardless of whether they write for the Christian market, the mainstream market, or both. Whatever and wherever we write, we feel impelled to uphold Christian principles because we wish to serve our Lord and use our gift for God’s glory. We want to reach out to our readers and have a positive impact on their lives, comforting, encouraging, and inspiring them. We want to help and uplift them in times of tribulation. We want to bless and heal their hearts and souls with God’s Word. It’s true that the pen is mightier than the sword, so we must choose our words wisely so we never lead our readers astray or cause them to stumble (Matthew 12:36). We must always remember that our words are capable of inciting love or hate, good or evil, violence or peace.

“I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.”

~ Flannery O’Connor

To gain a better understanding of myself

I write to find out what I’m thinking. It’s as though I don’t know what I really think about something until I’ve written down the words and read them on paper. It helps me express my ideas, insights, and emotions. Writing helps me answer questions and work through problems. It helps me process my thoughts, feelings, ambitions, and motivations. It helps me embrace my hopes and fears. It provides a cathartic release whenever the floodgates open. Writing helps me unravel the mysteries of life and discover what is truly important.

To indulge my love affair with words

Ever since I first learned to read, I’ve desired to participate in and find my niche in the writing world. I never tire of the thrill of capturing an idea that’s in my mind or an emotion that’s in my heart with just the right words. Writing is never easy. But that’s also part of the attraction for me. It can be very difficult to craft a well-written article, story, or poem that reaches readers’ hearts and minds and stirs their emotions. If you write for publication, there is not only the need to write well but the additional pressure of meeting the editor’s expectations and deadlines. But even if no one ever read a single word I wrote, my love affair with words would impel me to keep writing them down on paper.

So, why do you write?

Photos: Pixabay Free Images

Scent-Free Writing - Pam Mytroen

What I want my readers to feel

I have been known to get so caught up in a movie that I will yell out loud in the theatre. I have squeezed my popcorn bucket and hollered at Liam Neeson, "Get out! Get out of the car!” and fervently screamed "Please, please grab the gun!" 

Both times I noticed my teens had left the theatre before the lights came back up. So, naturally, when I first began writing I felt my mission was to evoke a dramatic response from my readers. They would pull kleenex after kleenex from the box and stuff their fist in their mouth to stop the sobbing.  They would sit back in their chair and shake their heads in awe at my finely crafted pieces.  

After a few published articles I waited for my inbox to fill with notes of thanks, or for the phone to ring. Thankfully I had four children to take care of so I got yanked back to reality pretty fast. Granted, three people did say a very quick thank you for my writing when I spotted them at the local drugstore, after I trapped them with my shopping cart in the "Depends" section. One lady even said that without my writing in the paper, it was not worth reading. (I have a feeling that she yells in theatres and spills her popcorn too). But most people didn’t even know I was writing. In fact, they are still surprised when they discover that I have articles and stories published. Hmmm . . . not exactly the soulful applause I had hoped for. 

Then one day something happened that changed my approach to writing. I still have the scar. I had opened the file of an interview I had written, wanting to remind myself of my outstanding talent, and pat myself on the back again. I hadn’t finished reading the first 3 lines before I was so moved I nearly bit my lip in half to stop the tears. Between sobs I mumbled, "I can’t believe I wrote this garbage!” In my attempt to impress, to draw a tear, I had layered heavily perfumed phrases, one on top of the other. In today’s world, my writing would not have been allowed in most public buildings due to allergies and sensitivities. People would have had to bring their nasal spray along every time they read my stuff to clear the sinus headaches and stuffy noses. Purple prose, I believe it’s called, had so clouded my writing that even if my readers had cried from the sheer beauty, the most they would have benefitted was an olfactory catharsis.

These days what I want my reader to feel is connection. Just to understand what I’m trying to say. I go for the simple wording when possible, and leave the lotions and perfumes in the desk drawer.

I’m happy with a much more sedated response now. A nod of the head is sufficient, a moment of enlightenment, or a resolve to make a small change in their lives. Oh I suppose I wouldn’t protest if they did a spin in their computer chair or even enjoyed a chuckle or two. A scene I like to imagine from my readers, instead of sneezing off the perfumed-prose, is to see them lifting their hands in praise to a majestic Creator or bowing their knee to an amazing Savior.  I don't corner people anymore with my shopping cart, but I wouldn't object either if they yelled out loud and spilled their popcorn while reading my writing. It sure would be nice, though,  if they sent an email to let me know, because after all, my children are grown now and I have time to sit all day waiting for the "ding" in my inbox. 

Pam Mytroen

  

What I Want to Happen Within My Readers by Eleanor Bertin

We are delighted to welcome InScribe member Eleanor Bertin as our Guest Blogger today.

 

Lisa looked at me from intense dark eyes and said, "One thing about you is, you always make me think."

Now, I'm fully aware my friend simply may have been diplomatically saying, "You get under my skin!" But knowing her, I think she would have come right out and said as much. So twenty-eight-year-old me took that as a compliment. She'd revealed that I was strongly motivated to make people think, to reconsider, to examine and even change their beliefs.

Her comment helped me make sense of something I'd done years earlier. On reading advice columnist Ann Landers' announcement that she and her husband of many years would be divorcing, thirteen-year-old me wrote to her, roundly scolding her for her inconsistency, hypocrisy and general bad example. Fortunately for Ms. Landers, initiative and a ready supply of postage stamps to actually mail the letter were not my strong suit.

In the years since then, while I still long to influence people towards God's truth in my writing, He has ground at least a few rough edges off me. I'm far more inclined to heed my mother's frequent advice, "You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar."

In scripture, I see how the prophet Nathan used a gut-wrenching story in the ticklish and fearful business of confronting the king about his sin. (see I Samuel 12:1-7) The power of Nathan's story was in the love and empathy he evoked in his listener. That initial bait prepared the way for the "hook" – the truth that David was "the man". I would love to find that something I wrote could be used by God to do that within my reader. As in David's case, it would be my prayer that readers might recognize themselves through my characters and that similar transformation could happen within them.

Which is what I hope for in scenes like this (from my as-yet unpublished novel):

"Recalling the conversations Amy and her dad had had during the holidays about relationships, she now considered another perspective on her own marriage. It pained her to think of Dad throughout the years, doing his wife's bidding, held hostage by her moods, holding his peace. Yet again she pondered her father's statement that she was nothing like her mother. Amy thought of the years of her marriage and in a flash of lucidity, she saw her husband going along with her plans for the house or for their schedule, held hostage by her moods of grief or depression, holding his peace. Had she, like her mother, been guilty of revisionist history? Of thinking all of the past could be funneled into a single paradigm – or in her case, a single panicked action? This way of looking at it was so unfamiliar and so very unpleasant that she tried to slam the door on the images. But like the contents of her overfull suitcase, the truth kept popping out at her. To be forgiven, she would have to forgive her husband. Yet to reconcile with him seemed an act of betrayal of the child she carried under her heart. The child he had wanted to get rid of!"

I want my writing to be so saturated with a biblical worldview that the reader would not merely think, "Oh So-and-So should read this. This would be good for her!" No, what I hope to make happen inside my readers is the mirror effect.

"For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;…But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does." James 1:23, 25

After a long career raising and educating seven children, Eleanor Bertin is dusting off her interest in writing at last. Currently, she is polishing her query in the hope of finding an agent who would take on a literary novel she's recently finished. Eleanor hopes that her writing would engagingly reflect her love for theology, philosophy and observing human nature. Eleanor can be contacted further through her website and blog.

Christian Fiction's Not For Everyone - Lynn Dove

When I published my first book someone asked me why I would want to write Christian fiction?  In fact his exact words were: "You are such a good writer, why do you want to limit yourself writing Christian fiction when you could probably have a great career writing other kinds of books?"

I know what he was trying to say was that if I just wrote what the "world" wanted I would probably have a larger audience of readers.  You know, he does have a point...

Writing from a Christian worldview, will limit my reading audience somewhat.  Christian readers will naturally embrace the message but many others will not even pick up the book if it says "Christian" anywhere on the cover or in the storyline.

Several years ago, I participated in a book giveaway so that I could get a few book reviews on Amazon.  It was a good marketing strategy and I had numerous people post reviews.  Unfortunately, although I was completely up front with telling potential reviewers that my books were written from a Christian world-view a young lady whom I later discovered was an atheist, requested my books and she proceeded to write a scathing review slamming every aspect of the book just because it was Christian!  Although I was at first unhappy and distressed by the negative review, I have since learned to accept it and rejoice in the fact that she read my book cover to cover and the Gospel message was shared with that person.  Who knows?  Maybe a seed was planted!

As much as my reading audience may be limited according to some, Christian Fiction is becoming more and more popular with a world-wide reading audience (especially in the young adult genre that I write in).  Tired of the occult and paranormal fare that has dominated the market for years parents and teens alike are now looking for wholesome messages and family-friendly books.  They are looking for well-written literature that is not filled with expletives and graphic sexual content.  They are looking for books that give them hope.

"Sales of religious paperback books represent a significant market share in today’s publishing arena. The new gospel on book sales has spiritual and religious titles crossing over into mainstream bookstores and taking upwards of 7 percent of all book sales. The Purpose Driven Life, for instance, has sold over 22 million copies." http://www.christiancommunitynetworking.com/apps/blog/show/8056956-books-news-and-publishing-industry-statistics 

Do I sometimes feel like a little fish swimming in a great big sea if I compare my books with the blockbuster secular books of today?  Absolutely.  As a Christian I know that the "world" has a dominating influence right now and people will wallow freely in their own sin.  Books written that glorify sin will be popular...for now...

I still need to stay true to what I believe in and the message I want my readers to grasp hold of...the Hope that is only found in Jesus Christ.

Lynn Dove calls herself a Christ-follower, a wife, a mom, a grandmother, a teacher and a writer (in that order). She is the author of award winning books: The Wounded Trilogy.  Her blog, Journey Thoughts won a Canadian Christian Writing Award - 2011.  She has also had essays published in LifeWay magazines: "HomeLife" and "Parenting Teens", "Mother of Pearl: Luminous Lessons and Iridescent Faith" and "Chicken Soup for the Soul - Parenthood" (March 2013).  Readers may connect with Lynn on Facebook, Twitter and on her blog: Journey Thoughts 

Enough Readers by Brenda Leyland

Yes, there are enough readers for all of us. That's what author Jody Hedlund said in her blog post Fighting the Green-Eyed Jealousy Monster on dealing with jealousy and envy at the success of other writers and bloggers.

In my own musings about jealousy and wondering why it shows up in my own life, for me it seems to stem from a sense of lack, that there isn't enough to go round, maybe even a sense of being left out. I wonder if the root of it comes from a poverty mindset—the belief that if one person gets something, then there's not be enough for me.

But that's just it, isn't it? When we look at the world God created, there's abundance everywhere. More than enough. Enough seeds in a single cantaloupe to reap crops. Stars so freely created that they keep pushing out the expanses of the universes (just ask any Hubbles Telescope fan what they keep discovering). And, enough readers for all of us who write or blog.

Of course, maybe you have this already figured out, but as for me, I am grateful for Jody's reminder today. To read her wonderful post click here. Now, I'm off to write what's in my heart to give those dear readers something to read.



Brenda is a member of InScribe and writes on her personal life blog at It's A Beautiful Life.