Monday, March 9, 2009

Provoking an Apostrophe

I have a prompt for Weavers this week!

...Well, it's technically not a writing prompt, just something to get us thinking.

Virginia Woolf wrote that a woman only needs money and a room of her own to be successful as a writer. Since we're starving college students, money isn't exactly an option...nor is an entirely private room. Dreaming, however, is.

Imagine (and possibly design) your ideal writing office, one that you would make if you had enough money. How big would it be? What colors would you use in it? What would you keep in it?

(I know it's silly, but consider it an exercise in establishing Sense of Place.)

A Year in the Making

Almost a year ago, I sat in a dark theater watching a now-familiar movie. At the time, I struggled to write the first draft of my novel. I felt very alone with that conflict.

Toward the end of the movie, however, a realization dawned on me: I wasn't alone. Since I grew up in a very religious family, I believe in a loving God. Shouldn't God love me enough to care about my writing? The experience taught me it was appropriate to pray about my writing projects. I now do that frequently.

It's a pity it took me a year to take this to the next step.

I've known since childhood that I wanted to be a writer. In junior high, I decided that I wanted to write YA novels: I found myself with a somewhat limited reading selection, and I wanted to create books like the ones I loved so that later readers would not share my trouble. In college, however, I lost track of that goal. I was reminded over and over that you can't make a living as a YA author, that you have to have something to fall back on. I spent so much time focusing on the fallback that, until recently, I practically stopped writing and reading. Bringing writing back into my life should have brought that goal forward, but recently, I've still been paranoid about not having a fallback plan. Am I a good enough writer to make it in the real world?

This weekend at stake conference, a year-old realization finally hit me. The Lord knows who I am and who He wants me to be. If my goal of becoming a YA author is not part of His plan for me, He would let me know. I just needed to ask.

Ironically, I had a conversation about this with a coworker this morning. He has been struggling with the same question: should he pursue and MA or an MFA in writing? Should he train to teach literature that he does not love, or should he pursue his passion for personal essay? My circumstances are different--I want to be able to choose YA fantasy over technical editing--but I tried to offer what advice I could.

At first, I struggled with what to say. However, as I bore my testimony that God knows me and will guide me to the correct choice, I realized that I had my answer.

I'm not sure where YA publishing will take me. I should be terrified, but I'm not. I know that things will happen in the Lord's time. For now, I'm just happy to know that a prayer was answered...
Even if I really should have thought to ask earlier.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

the first thought

“For mere improvement is not redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now and will, in the end, improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine. God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man. It is not like teaching a horse to jump better and better but like turning a horse into a winged creature. Of course, once it has got its wings, it will soar over fences which could never have been jumped and thus beat the natural horse at its own game. But there may be a period, while the wings are just beginning to grow, when it cannot do so: and at that stage the lumps on the shoulders—no one could tell by looking at them that they are going to be wings—may even give it an awkward appearance” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).

While Lewis was talking about becoming Christ-like in this passage, I think the concept can be applied to any improvement we want to make. In my case, I want to improve as a writer. As I seek for improvement, I recognize that there may be times when I look or feel awkward, when it is hard and I still cannot reach my goals, but I will remember the winged horse that will one day soar over obstacles.

Happy weavings!