Why I Love to Write by Susan May Warren

This Fortifying Friday, we're excited to welcome Susan May Warren back to Seriously Write to encourage you as you head into your weekend.

Here's Susie!

Why I Love to Write

God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure. ~Eric Liddell

I love this quote by Eric Liddell, champion runner (from Chariots of Fire) who went on to become a missionary to China. I love it because he’s completely aware of both his gifts, and the joy of using them for his Savior. I couldn’t agree more. God made me a writer. And I feel His pleasure when I write. I know that the words He puts on the page are as much to bless me, as they are (hopefully) to bless others. Because I love to know God’s pleasure.

He also made me a teacher. And when I work with writers who want to purse the gifts God has given them in writing, I feel God’s presence, giving me wisdom, and enjoying with them their journey. I feel the pleasure of God when they suddenly get a new idea, or a problem is solved in their manuscript. I love to teach.

Which is why I spent a lot of time (when I’m not writing!) teaching at writer’s conferences, helping writers through my fiction editing service construct their story, why I started www.mybooktherapy.com, a blog and community focused on writing craft, and why I wrote the beginner’s writing book: From the Inside…Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you. I love it when I get a note from someone I’ve been able to encourage, telling me that they’re getting published. My heart sings. God is good to allow us to do what we love for the One we love!

I love it that God longs to delight us with His pleasure, and that He does it by giving us gifts that he intends for us to use with joy. David says, in Psalm 16, “You will fill me with joy in your presence.” I believe he’s talking both about the future, in heaven, and here, now, on earth. God gives us a portion of that heavenly joy when we rightly use the gifts He’s given us. My hope for all writers is that they will embrace the gifts God has given you, and as you use them for His glory, you will feel His pleasure!

God bless you on your writing journey!
Susan May Warren
Founder, www.mybooktherapy.com

Susan May Warren is the award-winning author of seventeen novels and novellas with Tyndale, Steeple Hill and Barbour Publishing. Her first book, Happily Ever After won the American Fiction Christian Writers Book of the Year in 2003, and was a 2003 Christy Award finalist. In Sheep’s Clothing, a thriller set in Russia, was a 2006 Christy Award finalist and won the 2006 Inspirational Reader’s Choice award. A former missionary to Russia, Susan May Warren now writes Suspense/Romance and Chick Lit full time from her home in northern Minnesota.

From the Inside...Out: Discover, Create, and Publish the Novel in You!

This Writer's Journey Wednesday, here's an inside look at From the Inside . . Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you! By award-winning authors Susan May Warren and Rachel Hauck.

If you've always wanted to write a novel, this book is for you!

We all have goals, right? Dreams, desires, hopes that have been niggling at us for years. For aspiring authors, it’s the dream of writing a novel. You’re a writer if every time you hear an interesting job description or read a compelling story in the newspaper, you think, hey, that would make an interesting premise for a novel. You’re a writer if, when you get introduced to someone new, you can’t help but ask about their lives and can barely resist the urge to take out a pen and paper and jot down some notes. You’re a writer if, when you’re reading a novel, you occasionally take a breath and say, wow, I want to write like that. If you’re a writer, this book is for you.

I remember the day when I decided to write a novel. I was in Siberia, in the middle of a solemn and icy winter. I had four children, all under the age of six, and my husband was gone, again, planting a church. I had read everything in the house at least twice and decided that my own imagination could do at least as well as one of the books I’d devoured in a day. (Boy, did I have much to learn!) I sat down at the computer and said, “I’m writing a book.”

That’s about as far as I got. Because once I actually sat down and stared at the computer, I HAD NO IDEA HOW A BOOK WAS PUT TOGETHER. Where did I start? How did I develop characters? What’s my point? And most importantly – how did I get it from my brain to the computer and into print?

It took me a year of writing, first on Saturdays, and then every day. But I finished my first book. (To all who think that then I ran out and found a publisher – not! 4 books later . . .)

What I learned through that first novel was that:
1. Writing a good novel was harder than I thought, and I needed a lot of work.
2. I love to write and was willing to make the journey, whatever it took.
3. Even if I never got published, God could use my writing journey for good in my life.

A writer’s life is solitary, hard work, fraught with rejection, frustration, and even envy. BUT, if you look at it as another way that you will grow and experience your world, then it’s a journey that is ripe with rewards.

This is the book I wish I had when I first started. It’s because of those years of angst and study that I started My Book Therapy, a blog about how to write and a fiction editing service to help writers along the way. Because, see, I was in Siberia. As in RUSSIA. Alone. Just me, some novels, and my imagination. I wished I had a reference guide, something to organize all the information I needed in one place, maybe a step-by-step journey, and a companion/encourager to help me complete my dream. Sure, I had writing books, but they made the process so . . . complicated. I knew it had to be easier. Inside Out is MY writing manual – what I developed and now use to create stories. It’s my successes, my systems . . . and my secrets. And, as a bonus, you also get the perspective of Rachel Hauck, my pal and My Book Therapy partner, thrown in to add another rich perspective. It’s the manual of writing the books we know how to write.

God Bless you on your writing journey!

Susan May Warren

Founder, www.mybooktherapy.com

My Book Therapy

Book Therapy is made up of authors Susan May Warren, Rachel Hauck and Sarah Sumpolec. Their goal is to help writers identify and diagnose story problems, and then fix them!

My Book Therapy Mission Statement:

We at My Book Therapy are all about helping the writer help him – or herself. We are a professional story crafting service designed to give writers the tools they need to develop and enhance their craft. We don’t line edit - we footnote your story, giving you suggestions, lessons and examples on how to apply them.

In short, we’ll teach you how to write.

If you are ready to take your writing to the next level, we’re ready to help.

Check out their summer specials at this link.

Here’s a list of helps:

~Basic Book Therapy

~Chapter by Chapter Therapy

~Synopsis Therapy

~Brainstorming Therapy

Also, during 2009, these authors are writing a book with you if you join the Book Therapy Voices. Learn more here.