Forrest Gump and My Writing Path by Bob Jones

"I just felt like running." Forrest Gump 

Writing was to me like running was to Forrest Gump. Early in my formative years I started to write. That day I wrote for no particular reason. I wrote a limerick and later a song and not long after a short story. I just felt like writing. Along the way I discovered that building a reputation for writing can provide unexpected opportunities to form a writing career. You are following a path that took you to where you are today. If you reflect on it, you'll see God's nudges along the way.

 

Whatever talent I had as a kid was raw and remained unrefined. I liked the creative writing portions of high school English classes. The grammar portions were endured, much to my regret. A project in English 11 class was a defining experience. I wrote the story of the Vietnam War through the eyes of a fictional US Marine. I created a journal of his experiences based on a composite of news reports in Life magazine and newspapers. The last page of the journal was an unfinished sentence, on a page stained by what looked like blood. The teacher’s A+ was encouragement enough to contine.

 

In English 12, I crafted what I imagined a reporter’s journal from 1864 would look like. I wrote the story of the Army of Southern Virginia during the American Civil War. Pictures with handwritten notations were pasted into a scrapbook. I singed the edges of the scrapbook endeavouring to make it look authentic. Another A+.

 

During my first job as a pastor in 1980, I wrote articles for a Canadian youth magazine, sharing real life stories of teens who came to know Jesus as their Saviour. Over time I got up the nerve to submit articles to a national religious magazine. The editor favoured me by publishing everything I sent and asking for more. More fuel for the fire. Editors are opportunity managers.

 

God opened doors for me by opening hearts to me. My first published book was the biography of a mom of three very young boys who died of cancer a few weeks after her 30^th birthday. Her husband allowed me to include family photos and gave me access to her journals. The last chapter of the book was her husband’s reflections on his grief and his life raising three boys as a single parent. The book, Ornament, won the Word Guild Inspiring Story of the Year in 2015. More fuel for the fire. Two additional books followed.

 

In 2020 I was asked to ghost write a woman’s story of childhood sexual abuse; her journey of recovery and building a world class treatment centre for victims of childhood sexual abuse. Her story became a Canadian bestseller in 2021.

 

Are all writers their own worst critic? I am. My best attempts at prose fall short in my own eyes but I see that God can take what I write to benefit others in unexpected ways. In May 2022 I was seated at a conference luncheon next to a stranger who introduced himself by saying he was inspired to pursue his own writing path by reading what I write at REVwords.

 

And so, I just feel like writing.

How about you?

 

 

I write to grow hope, inspire people to be real, forge an authentic faith in Jesus, and discover their life purpose.

Please follow my writing at REVwords.com

I would love to hear from you.

“Writer Interrupted” by Sandi Somers

I once said that If I were to write my literary memoir, I would title it, Writer Interrupted, because much of my writing life has wound through my experiences sporadically like a meandering brook, now appearing, now hidden under mossy grass.

 My writing success began early when I entered a contest in a Christian youth magazine—and won! Interestingly, this event didn’t birth a dream to be a writer. That came later.

  After graduating from university, I was invited to teach in a mission school in Colombia, South America. This was my first overseas experience, and I had so many interesting life experiences to journal and write to my family and friends.

 During this time, the first trickles of my writing dream began to appear. As I read books by Catherine Marshall to nourish my faith, I also absorbed her own story of becoming a writer after her husband passed. I was inspired to write faith stories just as she had done.

 However, when I came home from Colombia, I became engrossed in a new job as Teacher Librarian, and my writing stopped.

 Several years later, I discovered the devotional booklet, The Upper Room, and began submitting devotionals. Each of my earliest attempts was accepted.  My first entry was even anthologized and I was invited to write a seven-part series for their Upper Room Disciplines. In addition, after I queried The Quiet Hour, (David C Cook’s devotional companion to their Sunday School lessons), the editor phoned me—yes, phoned me—early one morning inviting me to write a series of devotionals. The genre of devotional writing seemed natural to me.

 Shortly afterwards I bought my first house, and my writing again flagged. Only occasionally did I write and submit an article. But over the years I was part of a local writers’ group that published our church newspaper, and I wrote an occasional article for our teachers’ professional journal. 

 Fast forward to the 1990s when I began teaching ESL. The cultural theme was a perfect fit for me. I had so many immigrant/refugee experiences to relate and so many cultural anecdotes my students told me. My writing momentum began again as I journalled and wrote initial drafts of articles.

 It was here I began developing my craft and vision, studying writing, taking writing courses and gradually planning different projects. Some ideas were workable, while others needed to be left in the back reaches of a closet.

 Several years ago I came to a crisis point, and prayed, “Is developing my writing part of Your plan for me, or is it just my idea?” Gradually God showed me that, Yes, His open doors of opportunity meant that He was guiding my writing. Then He gave me a special verse: Haggai 2:19: “Is there still seed in the barn? From this day I will bless you.”

 Sometime after I joined InScribe, I was invited to be lead writer for this blog; I also began developing monthly themes. Doing so has stretched my faith and writing, from my first tentative posts, to a variety of writing strategies. Comments from other bloggers affirmed and encouraged me.

 As I review my writing life, a number of themes emerged which I hadn’t noticed before. He gave me early success to begin my pathway. He provided major turning points, from the birth of a dream, to encouragement to grow in developing my gifts. Stopping when I had other demands in my life showed me that He was building my life with a breadth of experience and faith that I can bring to my writing. 

 Which brings me to today. I recognize how much the dreams He’s given us and our life stories are a vital part of the Lord's gospel narrative for the world. Sharing what the Lord has given me may be the key that unlocks the door to someone's needs.

 Though I haven't finished much of what I've dreamed of writing, the Lord often reminds me to keep faithful in creation and at the right time, He will open the way to greater publication. “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will do it (1 Thess 5:24).

My Writing Path, to Date by Marcia Lee Laycock

 My Writing Path, to Date by Marcia Lee Laycock

Photo by Jaime Spaniol on Unsplash

Perhaps it was living in a stressful home that drove me to write, plus the space my father provided for me. He fashioned a little door and hung a single lightbulb in a room under the eaves of our house. I wrote for my dolls. They didn’t complain so I kept it up.

That space morphed into school, where I learned to fashion words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs that revealed my own story to my own heart and a few others.

A summer house on Lake Huron was the next place on my journey. There, the year I turned eleven, I was given a copy of Emily of New Moon. I determined, in some small crevice of my heart and soul, that I would someday be a writer. I expected to keep it hidden away, believed no one would ever know.

In high school teachers used the word ‘talent.’ I looked over my shoulder every time. Surely they were talking about someone else. Those “Emily words” were buried deep. How could they have seen them?

Years later, at a kitchen table, my father convinced me that you couldn’t survive writing short stories and poetry. So I abandoned the idea of studying creative writing at UBC and went to Carleton University to study journalism. It was in a professor’s office I pondered the idea of becoming a writer who was known, when he said, “You write very well.” But after two years I knew journalism was not the path for me, though I picked up some skills that have served me well.

The next Providential place was a log cabin outside of Dawson City, Yukon. As temperatures fell to -60’s, I sat by our barrel heater writing my first novel on a stack of rough yellow legal pads. I was also introduced to the work of Rudy Wiebe that winter. It was The Temptations of Big Bear that instilled in me the power of setting and poetic language and pure, sing-it-to-the-world story.

I continued to scribble on those legal pads until God took me to a place where I challenged Him to reveal Himself. He did, and everything changed. It was at Briercrest Bible College that I realized the talent I had was God-given and had a God-designed purpose. I asked God to show me how to fulfill it.

He led me to the cluttered office of a small town newspaper. The editor scanned the short devotional I’d brought and said, “Yeah, it’ll do.” That was the beginning of an almost twenty-year run of a weekly faith column. At about that time I discovered InScribe, heard stunning poetry and moving short stories written by people I rejoiced to have found.

Not long after, I met Gus Henne. He convinced me to publish my first book, a collection of the devotionals I’d written for that faith column. The first edition sold out quickly, as did the second. The third is still in demand.

I continued to write devotionals and the occasional article but I grabbed every moment I could to write fiction. That came to a screeching halt one afternoon when I was at my tiny desk, absorbed to the point of obsession. My daughter had come home from school, needing to talk. I kept my eyes on the monitor, giving her a few ‘uhuhs’ until she cried out, “Why do you never have time for me?” Struck to my core, I prayed. God said, “Stop.” I fought that answer but finally agreed on the condition that He take away all the stories that swirled in my brain. He did. I wrote no fiction for over a year.

I was in the foyer of our church when God released me from that prohibition. A fictional character took shape and would not go away. Again, I prayed and was given the gift of time to write One Smooth Stone. It won the Best New Canadian Christian Author Award from Castle Quay Books.

I was working on the sequel when I saw a link to a mentorship program at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg. The Mentor was Rudy Wiebe. My heart raced. Was my writing good enough to be accepted into the program? I filled out the application. No email arrived. I did receive a large manilla envelope. I thought it was a school calendar. I almost threw it away without opening it and was stunned when I did. I had been accepted into the mentorship week. The deadline for acknowledging my entrance was the next day. I called the school immediately to say yes. Goin’ to Winnipeg!

Sitting in that bare classroom, my pulse raced. It was my turn to have my work dissected. For years people had been telling me I wrote well. But what would Rudy Wiebe, a literary icon of Canada, say about it?

The session began with students’ comments, most positive. Then Rudy began. “What do you think of this sentence?” Everyone loved it and my heart soared. Rudy looked at me. “You love it too, no doubt?” I nodded. He stood and turned to the blackboard behind him. “This is what’s happening.” He drew a line across the board. “The story is going along well.” He turned and looked at everyone. “And by the way, this is good writing.” I almost gasped. “But then this happens.” He drew a box on the line, then continued it on. He smiled at me. “It’s a lovely sentence. Maybe you can use it in something someday. But not here. You have to cut it because it takes the reader out of the story. They’ve stopped to enjoy that sentence. You can’t do that to your readers.” I nodded again, barely breathing.

“This is good writing.” Had I really heard those words? Could I truly believe them?

As reader’s responses arrived in my inbox and mailbox I realized that all those words of praise were wonderful but only one thing mattered – what God did with the words I put into sentences and paragraphs and chapters. My skill was only as valuable as His purpose in it.

As I continue to follow this path He has put me on, I strive to remember the words “Soli Deo Gloria.”

An Ordinary Writer by Wendy L. Macdonald

 Sandi gave the following prompt for July: 

"My Writing Path Defined

In November 2021, we wrote about defining moments in our lives and writing. Brenda Leyland combined a number of defining moments in her writing life and posted, ‘A Writing Path Defined.’ 

Combine key moments/events that were crucial in defining you as a growing and/or proficient writer (no matter what stage you are at now).

Weave them together into your writing path."

The writing tapestry God weaves for each of us is as unique as we are. Mine hasn't had and probably never will have flashy colors in it. I'm an ordinary writer whose goal is to inspire faith that overrides fear.

The first thread that hinted I was going to be a writer was my fascination with writing poetry at a young age. My poems still aren't fancy nor worthy of being traditionally published. But they help me sort out my thoughts and feelings. I began writing poems and puppet plays when I was a preteen. My puppets were created using paper mâché and scraps of fabric from my mom’s stash of leftovers. My first poem was written on a piece of paper that blew into our backyard while I was watching my mother hang out laundry.  

The next thread that stands out in my past is a comment my grade seven teacher said when I described something through my love of nature. She said, “Wendy, you’re good at making metaphors.” Since I was experiencing bullying that year, I treasured her words and tucked them into my heart. 

The third thread was a bookstore gift certificate I was awarded by my grade 8 English teacher. She was strict with the class and taught us well. While she didn’t tolerate shenanigans, she was generous in rewarding hardworking students. She never shamed anyone. But she smiled warmly when we followed the rules. Several years later I found out she was a Christian. Interestingly, I bought the book Christy (by Catherine Marshall) with the certificate she gave me. 

The next thread woven into my journey to writing was in my grade nine English class when we were given the task of creating an anthology of our own poetry. Although I adored this project, I wrote depressing poems. Since I wasn’t in a close relationship with Jesus, and my family life was stressful, it’s no wonder the cover I chose for the assignment was dreary too.

Over a decade later while living in a remote seaside village with my husband, I was introduced to Catherine Marshall’s nonfiction books when a pastor’s wife highly recommended them. The author—though gone to heaven by then—quickly became my mentor in studying the Bible. She also inspired me to write deeply and honestly in my journals. Catherine Marshall’s willingness to let readers know she struggled along with us made me trust her and love her more. It was while reading her books that I realized I wanted to be an inspirational writer too.

But life got busy. 

Although I kept writing in my journal, my hopes of becoming a writer were set aside as work, house renovations, a move to the country, and three babies took most of my time and attention. Thinking I needed to return to college first before I could become a writer, I gave up my dream. And when I discovered there was a Christian writing course I could do through the mail, my plan was intercepted by plans to homeschool my children instead. (I’m sure all those classics I read aloud to my family helped me almost as much as a course would have.)  

Eight years later when I joined Facebook, my craving to write was stirred once again. So, I started blogging. Blogging led to taking online classes and to reading how-to blogs and books about writing and the publishing world. 

I don’t know what the future holds for me. But I do know God already knows which additional threads will be woven into my writing life. He asks His writers to abide in Him so that a steady flow of His inspiration flows through their pens. That’s enough for me to know for now. I know His plans are always good. 

I look forward to reading your posts, dear InScribers. Hearing how a writer began his/her journey is always a delightful read. And by the way, I enjoyed reading all the other posts you’ve done too. Reading is one of the best (and most fun) ways we can improve our writing.

Blessings ~ Wendy Mac