Tuesday, March 11, 2008

On Writing


Maybe you want to be a writer. You blog, you read books on writing, you have a best-selling novel wafting through your dream senses.

Let’s talk.

If you google “writer,” you’ll find 24 million hits. And most of those are things for writers to collect buy. Writing is big business.

It can get overwhelming and maybe you’re stuck on how to meet your goals.

So let’s start with the obvious: what is your goal? Write it down. (What else would a writer do, anyway?)

My goal is to express ideas in a clear, creative way that impacts people and honors God.

Writing is about ideas. My sister is an artist who paints her ideas. My husband is a carpenter who builds his ideas. But for me, I write.

Writing is about thinking. I’ve found that I work out the idea as I write. It’s a meandering process that resembles that snaking line at Disneyland but I have often completed a few paragraphs to wonderingly discover thoughts that I didn’t know I had. How does that work?

But I want to give you a single assignment before we examine that any further. Write down your goal. Keep it in one manageable sentence. None of this using semi-colons to string 1000 words together. Pare it down. Make it clear. Store it on your hard drive where you can find it. I’d love to hear what you come up with.

Remember that words are important to God. God’s words created the world and God’s Word saved the world. Being made in God’s image ought to open that door of expressing thoughts with words

Next week, we’ll look more at the process of thinking and writing.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…”

Gen 1:26

4 comments:

God's girl said...

Thats great Kathy. It is no coincidence you are writing about this if only for me! :) I am sure it is for many others too but seriously this is what God and I are working on right now. What is my goal? What is the assignment He has for me? I wish I could answer it specifically like for what audience, etc. But the main top priority goal is to bring Him glory perhaps words written will draw others to Him, help them experience Him, and help them burn for Him or know they are not alone.

Looking forward to reading more.
Much love,
Angela

Kathy said...

I love that goal, to bring glory to God. That's always the first plan for our lives as followers of Jesus. How do you see your writing facilitating that? I see several ways, but what do you see?

Maxine said...

I suppose my one sentence would be to speak to the hearts of children and young people in a way that nudges them towards a life that honors Christ. Thanks for this, Kathy.

Kathy said...

Maxine, your sentence captures your heart. What a wonderful calling, because it's so much harder to nudge adults to the Lord.