Hi! I’m Dawn, Annette’s partner in hosting Seriously Write. Please join me on Thursdays for devotions from the heart. I write them for YOU. My prayer is that you’ll be blessed, encouraged, and challenged in your writing life. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Today's topic is CHANGE.Annette and I are blessed to be in a critique group with two other talented women. We meet weekly at a McDonald’s at 6:30 pm, and always stay long enough to close the place down at 11:00 pm. We even call ourselves McCritters, and our time together McCrit.
For years we’ve shared our personal, professional, and spiritual lives. With that amount of entanglement, a huge amount of trust has been established, so we’re very honest with each other. During our crit meetings we feel free to express things like:
“Way too slow, honey. You need to kill the whole scene.”
“Needs more emotion. I’m just not feeling it.”
“Whoa! I was totally lost.”
As fiction writers, many of us labor over the first chapter—the first page—of our manuscript, rewriting every paragraph at least 20 times. We agonize over our characters’ goals and motivations, and pray that we’ve created enough conflict in their lives.
But as we strive to write words—whether fiction or non-fiction—that touches and change lives, something else begins to happen.
Another writer gets a contract – and we learn to deal with envy.
Our novel is not a best seller – and we learn to be humble.
Someone says unkind things about words we’ve written from the heart – and we learn to be gracious.
A writer, new to publishing, needs a mentor – and we learn to be unselfish.
And as we struggle to weave a meaningful thread into our story, we may discover the spiritual journey is our own.
Maybe—just maybe—while we desire to change people’s lives, God uses our writing to change us.
"Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in Your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long." (Psalm 25: 4-5 NIV)
This week, think about what God is doing in your writing life right now to help mold you into the person He created you to be.
Dawn Kinzer has published articles, devotions, and short stories. Believing that fiction can help change lives, she’s currently working on her third manuscript. Music plays an important role in her life, and she serves her church as a vocalist with a contemporary worship team. You can learn more by visiting her Web site and blog From Dawn til Dusk.
