Guest Post: Don’t Stop Writing

     What-ho! It’s been far too long since I’ve done a post, and I’ve made many promises that I still intend to keep, but it may take longer than anticipated. (Real-Life has a way of getting in the way of things, if you catch my meaning.)

    But anyhow, I have a special treat today—the lovely Hannah Ruth of Faith, Fiction, and Fairytales has agreed to do a post-swap with me (despite my busy schedule and unfortunate habit of procrastinating). So thank you, Hannah Ruth, for your graciousness and fantastic advice in this post! (You can find my swapped post at this link.)

    Without further ado, here ‘tis…

    Hello, all! I’m Hannah Ruth from Faith, Fiction, & Fairytales, and I am so honored to share a post here! Today I want to take a moment to offer some tips and encouragement for beginning writers… and if you’ve been doing this thing for a while, these are for you too!

If you are among those who have dedicated hours upon hours to your writing, all while wondering if it will ever see the light of day, know you are not alone. And know, too, that what you are doing… this writing and working and waiting… it has purpose. 

If nothing else, I hope you walk away from this post inspired. What you’re doing matters, so don’t you dare hang up your writing hat.

1. There is no “arriving” in writing. Practice makes better!

2. Every draft you write gets you closer to a published manuscript.

3. It’s a hard thing you’re doing.

4. Criticism can make or break you.

5. Use the waiting to your advantage.

6. Just because you’re stuck now doesn’t mean it will always be this way.

7. If God’s put it on your heart, you’d better get it on paper.

I think we all have this notion that someday, somehow, we’ll make it… we’ll be a real writer. We’ll have the education, the understanding, the practical skills… and our writing will be fantastic!

I always find it interesting when teens or young adults want to be writers, have spent a lot of time writing short stories or maybe even working on novels, but then will say something like, “Yeah, this is what I want to pursue in college, so maybe once I have a degree I can get published!" 

 

Um, what? 

Education is great. There is such a wealth of information out there from other writers and from professionals on the subject, and they can teach us a lot about methods for plotting, how to fully develop our characters, and any number of specific topics. But a college degree won’t make you a good writer—you know what will?

Writing.

Plain and simple.

So what you’re doing right now? It may not feel like you’re working toward something serious. But “getting serious” about writing doesn’t have to be a future thing. It doesn’t have to wait for adulthood or a degree or anything for that matter. It’s just waiting on you, and on your writing. Becoming a good and confident writer is all about discovering your own methods and tendencies, and working to improve your writing.

As a yet unpublished author (other than a few short pieces), I have many, many manuscripts under my belt. Some decent… some embarrassing… some unfinished… etc. And while many of those aren’t my pride and joy, nor have any of them found a home, they are valid and important parts of my journey.

It’s incredibly discouraging to write when we think the story will never get published—I feel that 100%. It makes it hard to keep going, to not give up. But when we keep going, we get to learn how to build a story. How to bring a plot from start to end. How to develop our characters over the entire novel. All things that are incredibly hard to learn with just beginnings.

So keep writing! Finish that manuscript, even if it seems like a lost cause. It may not be published, but it will teach you important lessons.

Walk into a library, and you’ll see abundant books. Authors who have multiple shelves. So many people have gotten their books published. Surely it was easy for them… how would there be so many books in the world if it was this hard for everyone?

Don’t believe the lie that you’re the only one fighting writer’s block… that you’re the only one working on the same project for years… that you’re the only one wishing this was a smidge easier.

Writing is hard. And I think it’s meant to be that way. It’s the very outpouring of our souls. It’s the invention of worlds, of people, of lives. It’s powerful, and it has the opportunity to touch many. So let’s embrace the struggle!

Criticism is an easy reason to quit, and if there are people in your life who discourage your writing, I am so sorry. If someone is constantly down on you and what you’re writing, it can be incredibly hard to keep going.

Even if someone just has specific feedback on things you could improve, things you’re *gasp* doing wrong, it can be hard to swallow. And let’s be honest… sometimes pride makes it easier to just quit.

But stick it out. Take criticism as an opportunity to better your writing and your craft. Allow it to prune you rather than cut you down entirely. Keep going. That’s the only way to get better!

When you’ve got a manuscript in the query trenches, it can be easy to invest your whole self into seeing it published. Sometimes it seems like your entire publishing future is in that one story.

(I hope your lie detector is going off)

Your publishing future is so much bigger than a single manuscript. A great way to get your mind out of the query trenches (and to invest in your real publishing future) is to start a new project.

Here’s the truth of the matter… we’re all going to write manuscripts that never make it into our hands. And that’s okay. It’s part of the process. If you keep writing, you create more opportunities for publication… and, yet again, you have the chance to practice your craft.

When school started in August, I was at about 90K words of a 100K goal for a novel I’m working on. And, I’ll be honest… I was stuck. See, my plot outline was fantastic right until the very end, and then I had to flex my writerly genius.

My writerly genius was feeling pretty wimpy.

So I dove into school and homework and classes and the busyness of life, and it’s gotten me pretty far. I was kind of ignoring the fact that I had an unfinished manuscript sitting in my files… and then, out of nowhere, inspiration struck. I got the piece to connect what I had written to the ending I envisioned.

And, voila! The words started flowing again!

 

All this to say… it’s okay to take a break. But don’t give up on yourself or your project! Sometimes time and space is exactly what you need to find inspiration. Sticky situations don’t last forever. Make sure to give yourself margin.

More than anything, you and I need to hold ourselves to this—because God has given us gifts… and we’d better be putting them to use!

If you have the imagination to create worlds, create worlds! If you have the gentle wisdom to write inspiring fiction, write it! Use your skills and develop them. Bring Him into your writing process; ask him to inspire you and to give you His ideas. He will. Time and again, I’ve found the inspiration to pour out thousands of words.

Writing isn’t just a hobby, though it certainly is that too. For many of us, it’s a calling. Don’t lose sight of that!

 In conclusion…

I hope this post has inspired you to keep writing, even when it gets hard. Being an author isn’t easy—not by a long shot—but it’s certainly a worthy calling. It will feel like failure, time and again, but I believe wholeheartedly that you and I will make it to the other side someday—if we’re willing to stick it out.

Thank you so much for letting me stop by today and share my piece, and happy writing!

What do you do when you struggle to find motivation to write? Is writing a hobby for you, or a calling? What resources have you found that have helped improve your writing?

A Worthy End

   The unfortunate fact of life is that humanity is flawed.

    Lovely way to start a post, isn’t that? But it’s true. Because of the Fall and original sin, every one of us makes mistakes every day. 

    And so when authors write, we seek to create characters as genuinely flawed as ourselves. As readers, that’s the kind of stories we look for as well. When we read of characters who have no flaws, we consider them ill-formed because really, they’re not how we are but how we want to be. That’s wishful thinking, not characters to whom we can relate—and we don’t like that. 

    So we—both readers and writers—look for characters like ourselves. We want to “live a thousand loves and love a thousand loves”, and we can only do that if we read, and read about characters with a bit of ourselves in them. 

    One of the (arguably, I admit, but I’ve never met anyone who disagrees) greatest authors of British Literature was J.R.R. Tolkien, and not just because of his impressive world-building skills. (Though those did, I’m sure, impact the situation.) Rather because of his ability to bring such human characters to life—even though more than half are not, in fact, human. This post will be exploring two in particular, two that stand out as being particularly flawed (and are curiously often disliked because of it) but in the end redeem themselves most nobly. 

    Let me introduce you to the first—Thorin Oakenshield, King Under The Mountain. 

    If you’re a Tolkien fan in any regard you’ve likely heard of Our Lad Thorin—the stubborn Dwarf king who undertook a perilous quest to reclaim his home (and gold) from the dragon Smaug. He’s known for his pride, his stubborn Dwarvish nature, and eventual fall to dragon-sickness. If ever there was a flawed character, he’d be it. Thorin has a wicked sense of humour, but feels the weight of duty and pride over any joy or friendship. He’s thoughtless, deliberately provoking, and harsh.

    But he changes. At first for the good, for the tentative friendship Bilbo offers him works at his heart. Then for ill, when the dragon-sickness takes him. But then—again.

“Farewell, good thief,” he said. “I go now to the halls of waiting to sit beside my fathers, until the world is renewed. Since I leave now all gold and silver, and go where it is of little worth, I wish to part in friendship from you, and I would take back my words and deeds at the Gate.”

Bilbo knelt on one knee filled with sorrow. “Farewell, King under the Mountain!” he said. “This is a bitter adventure, if it must end so; and not a mountain of gold can amend it. Yet I am glad that I have shared in your perils—that has been more than any Baggins deserves.”

“No!” said Thorin. “There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell!”

    Thorin’s farewell to Bilbo is tragic, beautiful, and redemptive. Though he fell in the end, it was the only thing that made him realise what he had been doing—to himself, and to those around him. But whatever the cause, he did repent. And he departed with hope.

   So also does another unsung hero depart—though not with hope as much as peace. Boromir, Son of Denethor, Steward of Gondor is his name, a man known for his greatness in deed of arms and valiance in defence of his country. He’s judgemental, rash, and hot-headed, but he’s also loyal and brave and true. 

    When Boromir is tempted by the Ring, it creeps into his heart and corrupts his soul. He’s willing to chase after Frodo and threaten harm upon him because of the havoc the evil has wreaked upon him. 

    But, like Thorin, he too changes. 

A mile, maybe, from Parth Galen in a little glade not far from the lake he found Boromir. He was sitting with his back to a great tree, as if he was resting. But Aragorn saw that he was pierced with many black-feathered arrows; his sword was still in his hand, but it was broken near the hold; his horn cloven in two was at his side. Many Orcs lay slain, piled all about him and at his feet. 

Aragorn knelt beside him. Boromir opened his eyes and strove to speak. At last slow words came. ‘I tried to take the Ring from Frodo,’ he said. ‘I am sorry. I have paid.’ His glance strayed to his fallen enemies; twenty at least lay there. ‘They have gone: the Halflings: the Orcs have taken them. I think they are not dead. Orcs bound them.’ He paused and his eyes closed wearily. After a moment he spoke again.

‘Farewell, Aragorn! Go to Minas Tirith and save my people! I have failed.’

‘No!’ said Aragorn, taking his hand and kissing his brow. ‘You have conquered. Few have gained such a victory. Be at peace! Minas Tirith shall not fall!’

Boromir smiled.

‘Which way did they go? Was Frodo there?’ said Aragorn.

But Boromir did not speak again.

      Tolkien’s use of words is so poignant, so alive, it makes you feel as though you’re really there with Boromir, watching him fall, save Merry and Pippin, and redeem his greed with his life.

    Tolkien shows us through these characters, these people who are so flawed, that yes, there is sin and sorrow and suffering, but there is also hope. Because despite all they did, there was redemption, and noble sacrifice, and a worthy end.