It’s been an interesting few months as far as my writing goes. I usually have the next story brewing in my mind a quarter of the way through my current work, but that didn’t happen this time around. I waited and thought and wondered why I hadn’t been inspired. When I finished my fourth manuscript, I thought maybe then it would come to me. Still nothing.
It was time to worry at that point. I went to my sister and asked her for some ideas, hoping she’d jar something loose in my mind. NOPE. Then I turned to my muse. That would be my husband. Still nothing.
What is a writer to do? I don’t know how to function without ideas to develop and grow and turn into outlines.
It was time to pray. Maybe that should’ve come sooner. Guess what? Nope, still nothing. I had no choice but to stop trying and wait for an answer. It started small, almost unnoticeable by all accounts. A comment here, a thought from a friend there. My husband made a suggestion. He couldn’t be right, I was sure. Then the pastor preached a message that seemed to be directed right at me.
I got the message. It wasn’t the one I wanted, but none the less it was what God had for me. He wanted me to rewrite. He showed me that I needed to shift my focus to one of my first manuscripts. It needed to be reworked bad, and I’d put it off for a year.
I hemmed and hawed for a week. The amount of work involved would make any writer cry at the thought. But, there’s only so long one can ignore divine advice. So off to my computer I went. The first page and a half took five hours to edit and rework. It was as bad as I’d expected.
With a lot of hard work and double perseverance, I’m trudging through to what I hope will be a published novel some day in the near future. I’m so glad God directed me to fix it, even though it hasn’t been easy. It’s been amazing to see how much my writing has developed and changed in the past four years.
Do you have a story or two that sit buried on a shelf; ones you don’t think will ever see the light of day? Let me encourage you to pull them out and refurbish them. It’ll be worth it in the end.
What a wonderful and TIMELY post, Erin! For the past 8 months, I've been in the same situation as you; no new story coming for the novel I want to write. The more time passed with no creative sparks, the more frustrated I became. My husband told me to stop trying so hard, and that was sage advice. But the best advice I received was that I should take this situation directly to the Lord (which I'd done countless times), however, this time, praise God out loud – just like Paul and Cyrus did when they were imprisoned – for the incredible story that He would give me. Within minutes of my starting to do this, a new story came to me. For the next three hours, the details poured into my mind from my Great Creator. I wrote down in a notebook all of the details that came to me so that I should not forget them. And God dictated them to me at the same speed I could write by hand as I was riding in the car with my husband on a three hour drive! I will never forget to praise God out loud from now on.
Never ignore the divine advice :o)!!!
That's great news Cynthia. I'm going to try it myself!
Here, here!