Created to Write by Melinda V. Inman

Created to Write

It’s great fun to write this post today for Seriously Write. The timing is perfect! This is my usual time to write, the first Friday of the month, and yet this particular first Friday is my sixtieth birthday!

The BIG 6-0! That’s right! You read that correctly!

Seriously Write is a site specifically planned and executed for writers like us who take our writing seriously. This special birthday provides a perfect opportunity to address the fact that writers are created by God, woven together in each one of our mother’s wombs with the particular bent that produces a writer. We’re designed for this task, and that’s pretty significant.

My mother taught me to read when I was three, and then, horrified at what she’d done (what would I do in first grade, she wondered), she backed away and gave no further lessons. I loved books. I memorized poems. I drew stories before I could write them. One of my granddaughters started doing this at the same age, and inwardly I smiled, happy to see the writer gene passed down. I’m sure that many of you can relate to all of this.

As the oldest grandchild in a storytelling family surrounded by great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, and the accompanying aunts, uncles, and cousins, I listened to the cadence of a story, enjoyed the roar of laughter that followed the punchline, and carefully noted all the stories told and retold within earshot. Many of these appear in my historical fiction.

I didn’t become a writer. I am a writer. This is how I’m made.

Like you, I don’t know what I think about a matter until I’ve dissected it in writing. Like you, I grow in my desire to write well, and the older I become, the more wisdom I bring to my writing. Aging sits well on writers. It gives us richer experiences and opens doors to the soul previously unexamined.

Some of us were able to jump right into our writing, perhaps majoring in journalism or literature and then embarking on a professional career as a writer. Others took different paths and journaled our way through life before turning to fiction writing when our experiences granted us the space to do so. This was my path. I always knew I would write fiction, but first, I had youngsters to instill with knowledge and to prep for life.

Then there was all the fun of learning to write fiction well, of using Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King until I’d pretty much worn off the cover as I worked point by point through the book. There was the practice of reading all dialogue out loud to hear the unique voice of each character, of learning how to elegantly describe scenes, and of weaving in sights, sounds, and smells. This included tearing apart manuscripts until the writing sang as each lesson was applied.

There were conferences. There was critiquing. There were beta readers.

We all had different ways we approached our careers as writers. We started for unique reasons, just as we write unique stories. There’s only one writer like each of us, and we are it. So, humor me. On my 60th birthday, I’m interested in learning how you knew that you were a writer and what you did about it. Choose one question or more, and weigh in.

How did you get your beginning?

When did you know you were a writer? How did that look in your life?

How did you hone your craft?

How have you pursued this high calling of putting God’s stories into written form?

I'm interested to know how you knew that you were a writer and what you did about it. How did you get your beginning? #seriouslywrite #encouragementforwriters via @MelindaVInman

When did you know you were a writer? How have you pursued this high calling of putting God's stories into written form? #seriouslywrite #encouragementforwriters via @MelindaVInman

Melinda V. Inman

Raised on the Oklahoma plains in a storytelling family, Melinda Viergever Inman now spins tales from her writer's cave in the coastal South. Her faith-filled fiction illustrates our human story, wrestling with our brokenness and the storms that wreak havoc in our lives.

Shattered Illusion and Benjamin's Blessing

Melinda has two projects releasing this fall. One is a novella—Benjamin’s Blessing, Book #2 in a Mafia Princesses and Mountain Men series written with a group of Christian writers. If you loved 7 Brides for 7 Brothers, you’ll love this modern take on the story. Book 0 is already available for preorder at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07V7K4LKS/.

Melinda’s other project for 2019 is the sequel to No Longer Alone—the novel The Shadows Come, publishing near Thanksgiving, just in time for Christmas gifts! All of Melinda’s work, including past titles, can be found on her Amazon Author page at http://bit.ly/MelindasBooks.

You can also connect with Melinda and learn more about her books here:

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melinda-V-Inman/189731601076470
Website: http://melindainman.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelindaVInman
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/melindavinman/

Balancing Writer Projects: God’s Smile by Melinda V. Inman

Melinda V. Inman

Balancing Writer Projects: God’s Smile

For the first time in my career as a writer, I’m producing two novels in one year. When I first began writing fiction, no serious author would have considered such a thing. It typically took at least two to five years to produce a well-formed novel, maybe longer. Publishing two in one year was considered impossible. Nowadays, it isn’t.

But, goodness! How in the world? What about quality of content?

First, let me quantify the two projects. The first one is a full-length novel that has taken me over three years from the beginning of the first draft to publication later this calendar year, a respectable span of time. It’s historical fiction and the sequel of another, so it required all the research and other work that goes into producing 300+ pages.

The second is a novella written for a series alongside other experienced multi-published writers. The energy of the group carries the project forward, along with providing feedback and brainstorming. The sense of collaboration is fun and energizing. I was invited into this project, and when I heard all the particulars, I wanted to be a part of it. The timing, the invite, and the opportunity were like a gift from God!

If God opens a door, if his face shines upon you, and you know it’s one you can and should walk through with his help, if he has provided the opportunity, by all means walk through the door. This is especially the case if you once thought it was impossible.

How did this work? Well, first off, the Lord orchestrated it all. My job has been to simply walk into what he has provided.

The group project sought me out as I was editing the full-length novel. This was perfect timing. I wrote the rough draft for the novella during breaks in editing the novel. My Patreon campaign then allowed me to get that novel professionally edited as I was doing major work on the novella manuscript. The projects layered together nicely.

The group project was bite-sized. A novella is one-third the length of a full-length novel, making it feel like a short story in comparison. The setting is contemporary, meaning less research.

The premise was inviting, and the genre is a new model. The characters’ lives embody many Christian principles I firmly believe in and want to advance.

Both stories broach issues I’m thrilled to write about, thus moving me in a God-pleasing direction in both. When we’re working on something fresh and new, something we know will please the Lord and promote his message, it adds vigor to our efforts. It’s like a fresh breeze blowing through, lifting the curtains.

All of this together brought God’s smile into my work. His face shone. Working under the providence of God’s smile on two projects in one year brings an awareness of God’s blessing. When we recognize that God is in any project or undertaking, our steps are lighter, and the work is less burdensome. As a writer with a chronic illness, this is incredibly important, for we often cannot simply power through as we did when we were healthy.

The smile of God, the unique newness of the project, the joy of collaboration, and the sense of God’s delight and blessing in giving the opportunity empower me as a writer.

When has God’s smile given you direction or lightened your load? How did his approval or leading make the work joyful?

How has God’s smile opened doors and made possible projects or plans you never before considered possible?

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace" (Numbers 6:24-26 NIV).

If God opens a door, if his face shines upon you, and you know you can and should walk through with his help, by all means walk through the door.
#seriouslywrite #encouragementforwriters via @MelindaVInman

Melinda V. Inman, Author of Refuge; Fallen; and No Longer Alone

Raised on the Oklahoma plains in a storytelling family, Melinda Viergever Inman now spins tales from her writer’s cave in the Midwest. Her faith-filled fiction illustrates our human story, wrestling with our brokenness and the storms that wreak havoc in our lives. Find her weekly at http://MelindaInman.com/blog/. To find her work and to be notified of future published novels, follow her at http://bit.ly/MelindasBooks/.

Connections:

Facebook Author Page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melinda-V-Inman/189731601076470
Website: http://melindainman.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelindaVInman
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/melindavinman/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MelindaViergeverInman/posts/p/pub

Writing What We Mean by Melinda Inman

Writing What We Mean

The difficulty of writing exactly what we mean and conveying it in a way that is clearly understood by the reader requires painstaking effort and many revisions. Human communication is broken, shot through with our human frailty and sin. Therefore, this is a lifelong challenge, one we must continually strive to address as writers.

One of the benefits of the written word is the power to edit. When we speak, our words often blurt out, surprising ourselves and others. We’re unclear or require many words to say what we’re attempting to communicate. This is why we write out and then practice pitches and presentations. The ability to edit usually allows us to get it right before we publish or pitch.

However, even then, writers need to retract. We think we communicated well, but we didn’t. We assume we conveyed a particular truth, but the reader received another, thinking we were making an entirely different point.

We publish a blog post only to read the finished piece online and discover a glaring error glossed over and unseen as we edited. We knew what we meant to say, so we became blind to what we’d actually written. This is a habitual problem, one requiring us to be alert as we edit.

Did we really write what we meant, or do we only think we did?

As a writer who has firsthand experience with these types of glitches, an undergirding truth always encourages me: I have a perfectly attuned, supernatural Collaborator.

Even when I can’t articulate what I mean, the Lord understands exactly what I feel and hope to communicate. He knows my heart and my mind, even before I think my thoughts or formulate them in writing. He perceives the truth I’m attempting to get across to the reader, and, thank God, he longs to help me to write it correctly!

Psalm 139:1-4 (NIV) puts it this way:

You have searched me, Lord,

and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue

you, Lord, know it completely.

As writers, we could rephrase: “Before words flow from my mind and through my fingertips, you, Lord, know my thoughts and what I hope to convey, even if I don’t.” Because the Lord knows what I hope to say and what he desires me to proclaim, I can cry out to him for help.

Our mighty God empowers us to write what we mean. This is an essential fact for Christian writers to keep in mind. We have a Helper. The Holy Spirit’s help in conveying the message, all while using our faculties, gifts, and yielded selves, is the powerhouse for our writing. He gives us the courage and the ability to hammer out words that advance the kingdom of God.

We can cry out to God for clarity. We can pause, ask him to help us to write what he wants for our audience, sit silently before him, and then write to the best of our abilities with his help. The words come to us. Our thoughts are clarified. This is what he does. We don’t write alone. We write with God’s help. Hold onto that fact. Lean on it. Trust it.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NRSV) says:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and do not rely on your own insight.

In all your ways acknowledge him,

and he will make straight your paths.

Allow the Lord to empower your work, your words, and your ability to convey the emotion of your message. He’s your most important collaborator. Acknowledge him in your preparation, in your writing, and in your editing. Trust him. Rely on his insight. Let the Word empower your words, touching hearts for his glory. He’ll make the way straight.

Our mighty God empowers us to write what we mean. #seriouslywrite #writingwhatwemean @MelindaVInman

Melinda V Inman, Author of Refuge; Fallen; and No Longer Alone

Raised on the Oklahoma plains in a storytelling family, Melinda Viergever Inman now spins tales from her writer’s cave in the Midwest. Her faith-filled fiction illustrates our human story, wrestling with our brokenness and the storms that wreak havoc in our lives. Find her weekly at http://MelindaInman.com/blog/. To find her work and to be notified of future published novels, follow her at http://bit.ly/MelindasBooks/.

Connections:

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melinda-V-Inman/189731601076470
Website: http://melindainman.com/ 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelindaVInman
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/melindavinman/ 
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MelindaViergeverInman/posts/p/pub

Don’t Give Up by Melinda V Inman

Melinda Viergever Inman

Don’t Give Up

If the Lord has gifted you and called you to write, persevere. Don’t give up! He has called you to a vocation that involves much time in the wilderness. Writing for the Lord usually involves long periods of invisibility and seasons of hardship.

As a writer, you are a proclaimer of truth, a prophet. “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,” Revelation 19:10 informs us. Writers testify, giving testimony to the work of Jesus in our lives, the message of God’s Word, and the calling and impact of the Gospel.

Pause to consider the prophets. Now consider the apostles and the earliest disciples. Reflect upon the lives they lived. Let your mind scroll through your inner files. None lived easy lives. Proclaimers of truth never do.

Elijah faced down the prophets of Baal, and then he ran for his life from Jezebel, overcome with terror. Jeremiah proclaimed a message no one wanted to hear, so they threw him into a cistern where he sank into the mud until he nearly suffocated. When he was rescued, he continued his mission. Stephen proclaimed the gospel to a hardened people. They stoned him. Paul was stoned, beaten, broken, and shipwrecked, and then he gave his life for the sake of the gospel when Nero beheaded him.

Don’t let this scare you. The Lord is with you. Don’t give up.

The Lord has said in Hebrews 13:5b-6 (ESV): “’ I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’”

Writers must ponder life, the condition of mankind, and the whys and implications of actions. We must think. We must research. These very acts must involve periods of isolation, times of being alone to consider and to reflect, to dig and to discover, to realize and then to write.

Hardships come into our lives so we can learn the lessons of reliance upon the Lord and the lessons of growth. Then, we’re able to take that message and hone it into a tool to be used mightily in the hands of the Lord.

Why are we able to write fiction with great emotion, with insight into the inner pain and struggles of our characters? We write because we, too, have suffered. Why are we able to determine plot twists and calamities that must befall our heroes? We know because we have seen the impact of these very events upon our own lives.

Writers must have a variety of experiences. Experience teaches. Lessons learned inform. Life lived and pain suffered produces strong storylines and impacts readers in powerful ways.

This is why we write, why we weave the testimony of Jesus into our stories in unique and individual ways. God made us to write. He called us to the task, and he equips us by shaping our lives with rich experiences.

So, don’t give up! Press on!

No matter the obstacle, stay true to this calling the Lord has built into your life. You won't regret it when you see him face to face. He’ll welcome you with open arms, and the Lord who sees all that you experience in the darkness of night, the dark nights of the soul, and the dark times of suffering will repay you for all you’ve given, a reward heaped high and overflowing, an eternity with him in his very presence.

Don’t give up. Lay aside the things that try to pull you from your calling.

With Paul, let us say: “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13b-14 ESV).

Melinda V Inman, Author of Refuge; Fallen; and No Longer Alone

Raised on the Oklahoma plains in a storytelling family, Melinda Viergever Inman now spins tales from her writer’s cave in the Midwest. Her faith-filled fiction illustrates our human story, wrestling with our brokenness and the storms that wreak havoc in our lives. Find her weekly at http://MelindaInman.com/blog/. To find her work and to be notified of future published novels, follow her at http://bit.ly/MelindasBooks/.

Connections:

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melinda-V-Inman/189731601076470

Website: http://melindainman.com/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelindaVInman  

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/melindavinman/  

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MelindaViergeverInman/posts/p/pub

Juggling the Author Life by Melinda V Inman

Melinda V Inman

Juggling the Author Life

Many of us envisioned idyllic times of writing in quiet rooms with little interruption. We would work as long as the inspiration gripped us, pounding out words and emotions onto our laptops. We imagined Jane Austen or Louisa May Alcott in attics or secluded locations. We would record our thoughts with the modern equivalent of their parchment and ink-stained fingers.

Rarely is it like this. Rather, it’s more like juggling.

Many of us rise at 4 or 5 a.m. to grab an hour of writing before we get our family up and off to school, and then we head to work ourselves. Some of us forego sleep, squeezing in our hours of writing long after everyone else in the house slumbers. These are the only hours available.

Some write on the run, driving our kids, watching their activities, perhaps schooling them, and then quickly pounding words onto the laptops we drag along. We hold onto that emotion or that next sentence as we drive from one location to another, chatting with kids and enjoying their stories, all the while hoping we don't lose the inspired thought before the next stop.

Some are full-timers, our entire day circling our writing. But life still happens, bringing repairmen, illnesses, company, emergencies, and cherished interactions with loved ones right into the climax of the novel, pushing us also to be midnight writers and carriers of ideas scribbled into notebooks crammed into our purses.

As with Austen and Alcott in their era, this is the time period in which God had us born. Therefore, we’re writing precisely where he desires.

So, what do we do?

First, we recognize that this tension has always existed for writers. Life happens to every Christian author. Consider, for instance, the apostle Paul. For about three months, he holed up as a houseguest in Corinth. There, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he penned a masterpiece. He also dealt with all the messy problems expressed in the letters to the Corinthians.

There were meetings, meals, disagreements, local church politics, conversations with repentant sinners, sessions with church leaders, and the urgent pressing of the Holy Spirit, all while Paul wrote the letter to the Romans, an organized theological argument filled with powerful doctrine. Three months. Miraculous. With all of those “interruptions,” imagine how he felt as he wrote.

Obviously, we’re not writing Scripture, but we are penning what the Lord has given us for his purposes and the advancement of the Gospel in today’s wider world. That means our words are important. It also means that those “interruptions” are necessary.

When the Lord allows a pause to enter the composition, there’s a real-life person or situation that takes precedence at that time. He pries us away, giving a lesson he wants us to ponder, a point he wants to make. A so-called interruption is, therefore, more like Selah, a term used in the Psalms, a call to pause and to reflect.

This is God’s way of giving us time to interact with him about what comes next and the impact of that particular portion of the story. Rather than merely pounding it into reality, we’re instead forced to step away, stow it in our brains, talk to the Lord about it, and maybe even sleep on it. This produces a sense of writerly frustration, but it’s coupled with our recognition of deeper truths, which are revealed during the wait.

God leads us. Remember that.

The events of our lives are significant and are used by God to shape the piece of writing. Take time to listen to the Lord, to consider the whys of the events that take us from our laptops, and, most importantly, to consult the Lord himself.

Rely on the Holy Spirit. Give the story into his hands. Let him lead.

The Shadows Come

The sequel to No Longer Alone is ready! You can help publish this story. I'm giving away free copies to everyone who does! I'll put your name right inside the book. Come and join me @Patreon! 

Raised on the Oklahoma plains in a storytelling family, Melinda Viergever Inman now spins tales from her writer’s cave in the Midwest. Her faith-filled fiction illustrates our human story, wrestling with our brokenness and the storms that wreak havoc in our lives. Find her weekly at http://MelindaInman.com/blog/. To find her work and to be notified of future published novels, follow her at http://bit.ly/MelindasBooks/.

Connections:

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melinda-V-Inman/189731601076470

Website: http://melindainman.com/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelindaVInman  

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/melindavinman/  

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MelindaViergeverInman/posts/p/pub

Where are We Headed as Writers? by Melinda Viergever Inman

The Holy One of Israel is great in our midst.

We can easily forget this as we slog through a writing marketplace that requires more than we’re able to accomplish. Rarely can we find quiet time away from the frenzy of our devices and the writing world’s demands. Forgetting that it was God himself who established the 24-hour boundaries on a day, we grow frustrated because we’re unable to keep all the plates spinning simultaneously.

Mindset is powerful for managing this type of pressure, and so, I say again:

The Holy One of Israel is great in our midst.

Believers in these last days since Christ ascended have always found ourselves squeezed by life in a fallen world. In perilous times that try our souls, we must keep our eyes on Jesus.

He’s the one who leads us. He’s the one for whom we write. He’s the one we follow.

So, how does our awareness of his presence empower us?

Scripture writers throughout the ages recorded this same truth, providing the reminder that no matter how bad it looks, no matter how far away God might feel, no matter how different our current reality may be from what we had imagined, still, the Lord is near.

We just had the annual Christmas refresher course, the reminder of Immanuel, God with us. This truth is right there in his name, lest we forget.

One day, he will return. That is our destination.

“With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: 'Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 12:3-6 ESV).

Read these encouraging passages. In their context, each has an eye on “that day,” The Day when Christ returns, and all is made new: Psalm 46:4-11; Ezekiel 43:1-9; John 6:37-40; 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12; 2 Timothy 4:6-8; 2 Peter 3:8-13.

That Day is where we’re headed. Don’t forget it.

Our lives and our work aim that direction. Those passages all proclaim a new reality on the horizon. For God, a thousand years are like a day. He lives outside of time. The awareness of all of eternity past and also of the future reality of a new heaven and a new earth are ever before him. He is omnipresent.

But, we are not. Imagine we stand on a marked spot upon a timeline. This timeline stretches to infinity, aiming off to our right farther than we can see. The other side shoots far, far away to our left, each side without end. That is eternity.

Where we stand is a speck on that infinite line. That speck indicates our brief time on earth. A minuscule dot marks our seventy, eighty, or ninety years.

Our personal existence and concerns during that speck of time overwhelm us, for they are the totality of our days. Yet, shocking and beyond our comprehension, the immensity of our God is intimately acquainted with each one of us, aware of all our thoughts, and concerned with every single detail of our momentary lives.

The Holy One of Israel is great in our midst.

And thus, we know that he will orchestrate the marketplace, our ability to work, our inspiration, our families, our health, our writing, and every single concern that touches our lives in order to bring about his purposes for us and for the world at large. He’s got this.

We’re in God’s hands. He’s wrapped all around, over, under, through, and within every single particle of our lives. Believe it. Talk to him about it. Trust him with it. Go forth bravely in 2019, with faith in his superintending presence in your life.

For the Holy One of Israel is great in our midst.

Melinda V Inman, author of Refuge; Fallen; and No Longer Alone

Raised on the Oklahoma plains in a storytelling family, Melinda Viergever Inman now spins tales from her writer’s cave in the Midwest. Her faith-filled fiction illustrates our human story, wrestling with our brokenness and the storms that wreak havoc in our lives. Find her weekly at http://MelindaInman.com/blog/. To find her work and to be notified of future published novels, follow her at http://bit.ly/MelindasBooks.

Connections:

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melinda-V-Inman/189731601076470   

Website: http://melindainman.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelindaVInman

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/melindavinman/

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MelindaViergeverInman/posts/p/pub

Writing at Christmas by Melinda Viergever Inman

Melinda Viergever Inman

Writing at Christmas

Writing our typical content is often difficult this time of year. We have more to do, and our schedules fill quickly. Presents must be purchased, wrapped, and shipped. Projects are often readied for launching in the new year, giving us pressing deadlines. Christmas plays and presentations keep us busy on evenings and weekends, rather than allowing us to recharge.

But, best of all, and maybe also inspiring the most frenzied of our efforts, family arrives, taking us completely away from our work to enjoy an even higher priority—our relationships built on love and commitment.

This is the season to prioritize the Lord, your family, and your giving.

To do so, step away from extra duties, activities, and appointments. Skip that party if you can. Avoid that loud event that will send you home with a headache and regrets. Maybe even dispense with Christmas cards. Minimize your shopping. Stop the craziness.

Focus on the reason—Jesus himself. Spend time with the Lord, concentrating on his Word and prayer. He is what our celebration is all about, and from him flows all else.

 Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus

 The main event took place in the lives of an obscure young Jewish woman and her betrothed. It happened in backwater portions of the land of Israel, first in Nazareth and then in Bethlehem, villages void of crowds and noise until taxation forced throngs of people onto the roads and far from home. This created a time much like our own celebration. It cost a lot. It required much.

This most important event was proclaimed by angels, bringing shepherds to their knees. It was accompanied by magi showing up after a journey of many months. It brought the anger of a vicious king and the slaughter of innocent children. This most significant birth brought death and the miraculous, foretastes of what was to come.

When we pare away the unnecessary and focus on Christ, our families, generosity in response to his generous giving of himself, and whatever words, insights, and truths the Lord impresses upon us, we come away recharged spiritually.

We come away in awe. We come away inspired.

You may find yourself writing a different kind of content, words that flow from your heart in adoration of our Savior, rather than marketing, writing goals, and manuscripts. If so, lean into it. Go with the words the Lord impresses upon you. Allow yourself to be refreshed in this season.

In the frenzy of the season, you may find inspiration, as you contemplate the chaos of the young couple battling the crowds to get into Bethlehem—Mary in labor, finding no place to give birth but a barn, most probably a cave under the noisy inn. Imagine birthing, perhaps alone, painfully, and with no idea of what would happen next. Take time to feel the paralyzing terror of the shepherds as they’re floored by the angelic host proclaiming the glory of God. Experience the wonder of the magi as they make their way across the desert in search of a colossal prediction.

Consider those predictions, the first one given at the moment of humanity’s fall. Ponder the foretelling woven all through the Old Testament, culminating in the arrival of Christ, with more to be fulfilled at his return.

What will this teach you? How will you be present in the moment to absorb the lesson the Lord has for you? For, he will indeed have a lesson, and it will be specifically for you.

Will you slow down? Will you pause in the moment when he impresses this truth upon you? Will you take the time to allow him to touch your heart? Will you look up and see Jesus there with hands outstretched, a gift especially for you?

Year by year, day by day, he wants us to experience even more of himself. What gift of himself does he have for you this year? Will you find it by seeking him with all your heart?

 

Melinda V Inman, Author of Refuge; Fallen; and No Longer Alone

Raised on the Oklahoma plains in a storytelling family, Melinda Viergever Inman now spins tales from her writer’s cave in the Midwest. Her faith-filled fiction illustrates our human story, wrestling with our brokenness and the storms that wreak havoc in our lives. Find her weekly at http://MelindaInman.com/blog/. To find her work and to be notified of future published novels, follow her at http://bit.ly/MelindasBooks/.

Connections:

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melinda-V-Inman/189731601076470

Website: http://melindainman.com/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelindaVInman  

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/melindavinman/  

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MelindaViergeverInman/posts/p/pub

Why Writers Need to Read by Melinda Viergever Inman

Melinda Viergever Inman

Why Writers Need to Read

We love to read. This is one of the reasons we grew up to become writers. We spent our summers in libraries and carried heavy tomes around with us to read in our spare moments. To extend our reading long into the night, we stuffed towels under our bedroom doors, lest our parents see our lights were on.

Our reading shaped us into writers, people who feel in our bones the rhythm and rhyme of a story. We often penned our first tales before we could even write words, illustrating them with the primitive art of storytelling. Later we wrote in notebooks, keeping our own private volumes of stories. We kept journals. We recorded our lives.

We who are older grew up on manual typewriters, feeling the rhyme of the story in the staccato strokes of the keys, the cold steel of the carriage return lever, and the swinging thud of the return.

Manual Typewriter

 But, as we became immersed in our lives as writers, cultural and business changes in the publishing industry cast us into the role of marketer as well as author. We didn’t count on this. It consumes more than half our time.

This is not what nurtures a writer’s soul. We need the intake of words.

To encourage you, I’ve been suggesting radical actions—helping one another by reviewing the work of other authors, writing the words God gives you, no matter how controversial, and trusting him to secure the audience for those words.

Now I have another suggestion: Don’t neglect your reading.

I’m going about this in a way that allows me to read new works of fiction, so I can leave reviews for other authors. But, I’ve also realized that my soul craves, and indeed needs, those classic works of fiction that motivated my writer’s soul in the first place. I’m returning to Dickens, Austen, Undset, Bronte, Alcott, and Gaskell. 

These authors knew how to write a moral tale without preaching. They knew how to make the point within the story and to shape the story to present the moral choice in a way that transformed the reader. Now that we’re writers with an eye for method, reading them reveals exactly how they did it.

I’m also reading Christian writers of the last century—the ones who wrote with such superlative skill that they were featured by secular press like the New York Times Magazine.

The poetic words of Marjorie Holmes were a catalyst for me. I’m revisiting her work. A new discovery for me is Christian writer John L. Moore, who started out as a newspaper man. While reading his work, I’m observing how a man tells a tale—a vital lesson for a female writer with a male audience. Because I’m working on my western sequel, Moore’s work in the Ezra Riley series is timely.

I’m sure you have your own favorites. So, why isn’t this a waste of time when we should be marketing?

There are several reasons. 

We have the souls of writers and the hearts of people who love the Lord. To write for Jesus, we must nurture both aspects of our spiritual selves. We must read stories and poems that uplift our souls and touch our hearts. Also, we must meditate on and fix our roots down deep into God’s Word and into stories—Biblical and otherwise—that impress upon us those truths. These are non-negotiable if we want to continue without burning out and giving up.

Additionally, we must develop our craft. If you’re like me, you have shelves full of books on writing. You've worked through those, implementing what you learn there. But, we also need to read good fiction in order to feel and absorb these lessons, so they become a natural part of us. Reading makes us better writers. It always has.

And so, dear writer, I’m encouraging you to read. If need be, neglect your marketing to do it. The fruit is too valuable. Feed your soul.

Melinda V Inman, Author of Refuge; Fallen; and No Longer Alone

 

Raised on the Oklahoma plains in a storytelling family, Melinda Viergever Inman now spins tales from her writer’s cave in the Midwest. Her faith-filled fiction illustrates our human story, wrestling with our brokenness and the storms that wreak havoc in our lives. Find her weekly at http://MelindaInman.com/blog/. To find her work and to be notified of future published novels, follow her at http://bit.ly/MelindasBooks/.

Connections:

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melinda-V-Inman/189731601076470

Website: http://melindainman.com/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelindaVInman  

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/melindavinman/  

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MelindaViergeverInman/posts/p/pub

Why Do You Write? By Melinda Viergever Inman

Melinda Viergever Inman

Why Do You Write?

Why do you write? Your answer determines all the rest. Most of us might respond that we don’t even know how we feel or think about a matter until we’ve written our way around and through it. That would be true of most writers. But that’s not what I’m asking.

Why do you feel that writing is your mission? Why are you pursuing the serious writing life? What is your purpose in writing for the public eye? Is writing your calling?

Think about that a moment, for writing is one of the most challenging, underpaid, “white-collar” occupations around. Is it worth it? Your reason must be significant because this job will cost you. You may not even break even.

We share a unique calling, we who gather here. We take our writing seriously, for we write in a world that ingests words twenty-four hours a day. Our words constantly pour out upon gadgets, phones, tablets, and computers all over the world. This is where God has placed us in history. We were born for such a time as this.

Why do we write? Because the Lord has called us to write for him.

We seek to promote his ways and his words. We long to reveal his story, his work, and his transformation of human lives. We proclaim his praise and herald his character and goodness.

The book of Ecclesiastes ends with advice that looks back on a life, admonition to remember our Creator in our youth, before the days of trouble come when our eyes, our ears, our brains, and our bodies will wear out. Then, we may not be able to write the words that proclaim God’s truth. Then, our eyesight may fail, and our ability to record his words to uplift others may dim.

If God has called you to write, I urge you to seize each day now as a gift from God and to write with all your might, whether you make any money or not. This is our ministry. Do not lose heart! Use your gift to the best of your ability to proclaim our Savior’s character, love, grace, and salvation to others. This is our only opportunity.

The words recorded within the pages of Scripture and exposited to us in sermons and teaching - these words goad us onward, impelling us to write, inspiring us to pen words that tell stories unveiling our Savior.

Lest we veer a little too far this way or that, we write with precision, guarding our words with care, preventing them from adding beyond what God has said. God’s words are nailed down. We must not deviate into false teaching.

Our task is exhausting. We often wonder how we can keep going.

The conclusion, the motivator, is the knowledge that we will one day stand before God and give a verbal account for our words. We answer to him now and will answer to him in the future for how we use the gift and the calling he has given us. Will we press on when the money is low, the body is weary, and the discouragement is high?

I say, “Be certain of your calling, and then, dear writer, press on!”

May we heed these words of wisdom, written by one who made many mistakes along the way:

“The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one shepherd. Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body. Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:11-14 NIV).

Melinda V Inman, Author of: Refuge; Fallen; and No Longer Alone

Raised on the Oklahoma plains in a storytelling family, Melinda Viergever Inman now spins tales from her writer’s cave in the Midwest. Her faith-filled fiction illustrates our human story, wrestling with our brokenness and the storms that wreak havoc in our lives. Find her weekly at http://MelindaInman.com/blog/. To find her work and to be notified of future published novels, follow her at http://bit.ly/MelindasBooks/.

Connections:

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melinda-V-Inman/189731601076470

Website: http://melindainman.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelindaVInman

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/melindavinman/

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MelindaViergeverInman/posts/p/pub