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| Melinda Viergever Inman |
Writing
in the Wild Times
We all have them. Wild times. There are times when our
worlds come crashing down around us, when everything falls apart and calamities
multiply. Beloved family members need care, someone we love requires focused
attention, or death touches our family. A child faces a crisis and is in need
of support. A chronic illness may strike us or a loved one, changing
everything.
There are also times when so many blessings pile up that our
joys multiply beyond our abilities to keep up. Blessings overflow. Our family
gathers for the holidays. We marry and begin a new life with our spouse. New
babies are born to us or to our children. Promotions relocate us to faraway
places. That novel finally releases, and we must now market it.
The common factor in both calamity and blessing is that our
time commitments, our emotions, and our schedules change. We perhaps are taken
away from home. We may not receive much sleep. Everything in our lives may be
turned upside down. There may be only rare moments of solitude to focus or to
even hear our inner voice.
Can we continue to write? Can we finish that work in
progress? Or will we simply give up?
Right now my husband and I are relocating. Shortly, he will
be on the other side of the country. I will be selling our home, sorting, and
packing. There will be two major holidays, both our last in this home where our
youngest children grew up. There is chaos. There is upheaval. There are strong emotions.
On top of all this, I’m attempting to complete the first draft of my fourth
novel.
Will I keep writing?
This is the point when many writers give up. We let go of
that story and that dream, put it into a saved file, turn our imagination away
from it, and walk away.
Maybe it’s only for a season, as I once did when I
discovered that I couldn’t homeschool our large family and be a fiction writer
simultaneously. Many can, but I couldn't. Later, once the children were older,
I returned to my writing. But many others never do. Maybe that dream is never
pursued again. Maybe decades later it is the biggest regret of our lives.
How do we know what to do when life threatens to crowd out
writing? We ask Jesus. We consult the Lord and seek his will. Is he the
instigator and inspiration of our writing? Is the desire to tell stories as he
did our driving motivation? Listen to his leading.
If this is what the Lord has given you to do, if this is how
he has blessed you, if this is where he is leading, you must continue to write.
Call on him for help to do it. Ask him to show you when and
where and how you are to write. Seek the openings he gives you, no matter how
small the window of time. Squeeze in the writing of mere sentences or
paragraphs. Don’t feel as if you must be able to write whole chapters at a
time. Write what he gives you in the time he gives you.
These simple steps are what determine who becomes a
productive writer and who does not. Follow the Lord. Trust him to provide what
you need to do the task that he has given you to do. I encourage you to pursue
his will for your life. You'll be glad you did.
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| Books by Melinda V Inman: Refuge, Fallen, and No Longer Alone |
Raised on the Oklahoma plains in a storytelling family,
Melinda now spins tales from her writer’s cave in the Midwest. Her fiction
illustrates our human story, wrestling with our brokenness and the storms that
wreak havoc in our lives. Find her at MelindaInman.com.
Connections:
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/melindavinman/
