Don’t Think. Listen! by Ann Tatlock

People often ask novelists where they get their ideas. Sometimes, that's not an easy question to answer. Today, author/editor Ann Tatlock gives writers an inspiring tip for those times when the ideas don't seem to flow as well as they should. -- Sandy

Ann: Often people ask me where I find my ideas.

My answer? I don’t find them; they find me. Ideas for stories come to me when I’m doing things unrelated to writing--when I’m driving down the road or listening to someone speak or putting dishes away in the kitchen cupboard. They have somehow bubbled up out of that subconscious place where imagination resides, and suddenly they’re there, planting themselves in conscious thought and growing into novels.

Imagination is a gift from God. From out of it spring worlds that have never existed and people who have never lived, and yet once those places and people are captured in words and shaped into story, they are as influential and lasting as anything we’ll encounter on earth.

To do its job, imagination must be allowed wide open spaces of time. It can’t be forced and it can’t be argued with. We have to step back and watch it work the way we watch an amaryllis bloom at Christmastime. To interfere is to smother it. The blossom withers at the hand of the impatient gardener.

Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury is said to have kept this message on his desk: “Don’t think!”

But doesn’t a writer have to think in order to write?

Yes, but that comes later. The first thing a writer has to do is to listen. The imagination has a voice and will speak to you, but it’s a subtle voice and easily drowned out by too many anxious thoughts. If you can’t seem to get anywhere with your story, it may be that you’re thinking so hard you can’t hear what your imagination is telling you to do.

Once characters come to you, they’ll have minds of their own. They’ll tell you about themselves, about who they are and what they’re doing. They’ll let you know how the story should unfold, if you’ll let them.

Twice I’ve tried to kill off characters that refused to die. Turns out, they were right to insist on staying alive. I’d planned those stories the way I thought they should go but, heeding the guidance of my characters, I changed the endings and the stories were better for it.

Before you write, listen. A writer has no more powerful tool than imagination. Don’t squelch it by thinking too hard. Put on some music. Read a good book. Take a walk in the woods. Eventually, you’ll hear the whispers, and those first seeds of plot, character, theme, and dialogue will grow into the novel that you and God and your imagination want it to be.

Do you take the time to listen to your imagination?

~~~~~

Ann Tatlock is a novelist and children's book author. Her newest novel, Once Beyond A Time, was published in December 2014 by Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. Her books have received numerous awards, including the Christy Award, the Midwest Book Award and the Silver Angel Award for Excellence in Media. She also serves as managing editor of Heritage Beacon, the historical fiction imprint of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. She lives with her family in Western North Carolina. Please visit her website at

www.anntatlock.com.

Glory to God Alone by Ann Tatlock

How many of us have longed for the day when we’d walk into a Barnes and Noble and see our novel on a shelf? We’d feel like we’d made it. Right? (Dawn here.) I’m so pleased to have Ann Tatlock as our guest author this Fortifying Friday. I love her honesty and willingness to share her struggles before and after her own journey to publication. I found her words so helpful, and I think you will too!

Glory to God Alone

by Ann Tatlock

Thirteen years. That’s how long it took me to get published. And now I’ve been a published author for 13 years. In the 26 years of Before and After, my greatest struggle has remained the same: avoiding the temptation to define my worth by my writing.

That’s the spiritual danger inherent in any career we might have in this world, even if the work is devoted to furthering the Gospel of Christ. It’s a trap that spills over from our culture and I find myself wrapped up in it: even my “heavenly work” must succeed by worldly standards or else my life is meaningless.

As though by my accomplishments, I can become Someone of Value.

But there’s a problem with this sort of logic. Once you’re published, the temptation simply takes on new dimensions. It moves from If only I can get my novel published to a host of other targets: If only I can write a best-seller….If only I can win an award….If only my novel is made into a movie….

The if onlys are endless and the bar continues to rise and it’s only too easy never to reach a place of satisfaction. Oh, sometimes I feel like I’ve accomplished something. But the vast majority of the time I feel as though I’ve barely scratched the surface of success.

Before I was published, I remember standing at a bookstore window, staring at the books on display inside. When it came to authors, I was literally and figuratively on the outside looking in. I thought I would never join their ranks; it seemed little more than a pipe dream. Lord, I thought, why did you give me the desire to write? Isn’t this a good thing that I want to do?

Yes, it’s a good thing. But it can be undertaken for bad reasons. It can even become an idol, if one isn’t careful.

I have to be constantly careful and remind myself of this: My talents is from God and for God. Period. To believe that the talent is there to feed my own sense of self-worth is to believe a lie.

God didn’t put the dream of writing in my heart so He could crush it. Neither did He put it in my heart so it would become an idol. He gave me both the dream and the talent so that, through my small stories, I can reflect the Grand Story of His love.

I will never find my worth in my work because it isn’t there. My worth as a person is found only in Christ. Now that I’m published, I’m the same person I was before I first picked up my pen to write. It’s both humbling and liberating to realize that I will never be either more than or less than this: a sinner saved by grace.

Soli Deo Gloria. Glory to God alone.

Ann Tatlock is the author of eight novels. Her newest book, Promises to Keep, was recently named among the Top Ten Historical Novels of the year by Booklist magazine. Ann lives with her husband, daughter, three Chihuahuas and a guinea pig on the side of a mountain in beautiful Western North Carolina. 

You can read more about Ann and her work at http://www.anntatlock.com/