What it Takes to Write Well
This post accompanies another post of mine, what it takes to get well with the main theme being surrender and “Are you ready versus are you willing?”
To “get well” in that post acknowledges that we must be willing and ready to give up what God is asking us to give up. In this post I want to focus on what it means to write well.
It seems to me that writers are constantly seeking to improve their craft, and many of my fellow writers ask themselves, “How can I write well?”
Below are the “three P’ words” I think every writer needs to understand and accept in order to write well.
Permission.
Many of us assume that writing is selfish. We have a hard time placing writing and finding time to write high on our priority list. One way we can start writing better is to realize that our words do matter and what we have to say is important.
Our ability to give ourselves permission to write and find space and time to write is preceded by our ability to let go of any guilt that we feel.
Moms who write, or have a desire to write, have a hard time carving out space in our day to sit down and write. It feels guilty. It feels selfish. We only think of the 1000 other things we should be doing or need to get done. Our kids might not be entertained by us, and they might have to entertain themselves. The dishes might not be done right away, and the laundry starts to pile up.
Who we are, what we do, and how we spend our days is rooted in our ability to accept who we are in our identity in Christ.
We’ll never embrace our identity as a creative until we embrace our identity from our Creator.
Permission involves giving allowance to write and make time for it to happen. Speaking of time, have you ever found yourself saying the following:
“I don’t have time to write.”
The truth is that we will make time and space for things that we consider high priority (a bonus “p word”). If writing is a priority for you then you will make time in your day to write, period. As we make writing a priority, we realize the value of our writing by letting go of guilt and the underestimation of the benefits our writing has on ourselves and others.
We give ourselves permission to write without judgment and without being too critical of our “messy first draft.” Remember, there is beauty amid those first words and ideas and the act of untangling them and learning how to draw them out leads us to our creative discovery.
Creativity is not only in a polished final draft, but it is in the mess of the words on the page leading up to the final draft. You can only see the result after you have sorted through everything. When we clean out our closets, we tend to throw everything into the center (at least I do) and then once it is a huge mess in front of us piled up high, and no visible carpet or floor, we can start to pick out each piece and decide where or if it still belongs.
How different our writing would be if we looked at our words as not absolute, but instead somewhat disposable, noting what fits or no longer fits and serves or no longer serves. Our words are fluid. The only thing that is constant in our lives is change. But during all the change we face in our lives we can rest in knowing that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today now and forever. What comfort we can take away from knowing that life changes, but God never does.
As we give ourselves permission to make writing a priority, we may also start to view our writing time as a form of self-care. What if you started telling yourself that making time in your day to write makes you a better mom, a better wife, a better friend, and dare I say, a better person. We start to really to see our writing time as an opportunity to be faithful and obedient to God.
I always say that inspiration shows up when we do. It seems to be widely accepted that we can only write when we are inspired, but that is simply not true. If it were true that would mean we manufacture our own inspiration out of our own self will. God is the one that provides our inspiration. Many of the heroes of the Bible did not show up in their own strength and in their own power, instead they relied on God to give them the strength the power and the instructions.
It's along the lines of the famous phrases, “Here I am Lord, send me.” or, “Speak Lord your servant is listening.”
I am getting ahead of myself, so for now let’s focus on the next piece of the puzzle to writing well. Patience.
Patience.
This is a word that most Christians don't like. It is a running joke for me and several of my friends to say whatever you do don't pray for patience because God will then give you opportunities to test your patience. Patience as it relates to writing well really comes down to the idea that it takes time, and many mistakes to move from rough draft to polished final piece. Creativity is not limited to a picture-perfect final draft, but it is in the mess of our first words that true creativity emerges.
When we sit down to write, we want everything to click right away. We want to understand the direction that our words are heading and be able to pinpoint the path to getting there. The truth is we simply can't see exactly where our words will lead us when we are fully immersed in the creative writing process. (This is a good thing!) A good idea takes time, and a well-written book takes time, and space to marinate or incubate.
Incubation is when an idea or a story or a message must sit within us and continue to develop before it is fully ready to come out. It's kind of like making a stew. You have all these ingredients you mix them together in a big pot then you keep the pot on the stove all day to help the flavors reach their full potential. Just like the flavor of the stew, the words that you write on the page cannot fully be expressed until you allow them to fully develop. This full development cannot be rushed.
Or what happens when we pull out a cake too early from the oven? It’s will gooey and raw in the center. We need to pull out the cake when it is finished baking so we can then top it off with delicious frosting that compliments the cake. This cake is our well-formed idea, and the frosting represents the finishing touches- our unique voice, clarifying examples and illustrations, and anything else that highlights our original words.
One practical way to ensure that we don't pull out our idea until it's ready and ensure that we don’t rush God’s timing is to continue to look for inspiration in the daily and ordinary things. In doing so we can avoid trying to develop our words in our own power. What we find in our everyday lives as inspiring may lend itself to different ideas and creative works. Some might say that you should work on one thing at a time and not try to juggle too many ideas at once, but as a writer, more specifically a spiritual writer we can rest in knowing that God provides to words that we place on the page.
Power.
Our words have the power to build up and tear down, there is power in the tongue to speak words of life or death., In the same way, there is also power in our fingers to write words of edification or destruction. What we write about, what we share with others, must be fueled by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Spirit-led and spirit-driven words are what make our story matter and give power to our testimony. It’s not the word choice or the vocabulary we use, but our ability to be directed and guided by the power of the Holy Spirit in our writing.
Do you see your writing as obedience, obligation, or self-directed opportunity? In truth, to tap into the power that our words possess we must view our writing time as sacred time, as a response to God.
What if we treated our writing time as an act of worship backed by dependence on Him? Can you approach your writing space, not with a writing goal in mind, but as an opportunity to commune with God and allow His words to be the ones written on the page?
I recently met with a client and like my other clients she has been working on her first book. During this meeting, we were catching up after I had been out for several months on maternity leave. She was telling me that she felt scattered and random, her writing was no longer fitting in the categories we identified her book would be about. She had been consistent in writing almost daily, but the organizational strategy we had put in place had fallen by the wayside.
What started out as a goal to help her get back on track quickly shifted into a new mindset to adapt. She wasn't going to focus on writing her book at all, instead she was just going to focus on writing what God told her to write.
It seems so simple to write from that quiet space where God whispers to us, and I think at the core it is. But our self-imposed restrictions and limitations, and our desire to control the outcome have stripped us away the ability to hear and listen and respond to God in our writing.
I invite you to take small steps to give yourself permission, create space for patience and tap into the Holy Spirit’s power in your writing by first discovering and adapting faith-based frameworks to make real progress as a real writer.
I‘ve designed a guide to help you identify many of the thoughts we have that can lead us to self-sabotage.
This guide also includes a worksheet to give you space to identify the negative and false thoughts that are holding you back while also being able to replace those negative thoughts with the truth.
Fill out the form below to download “How to Use Faith Based Frameworks to Make Real Writing Progress”
Cheering you on in your journey,
Stephanie
