Your Story More Than My Glory by Marie Wells Coutu

Marie Wells Coutu

I need music like I need air.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not musical. Although I took piano lessons for several years and sang in the church youth choir all during high school, I can barely play Chopsticks and, as my daddy used to say, I “can’t carry a tune in a bucket.”

But music speaks to me, especially Christian music. Whether it’s traditional hymns whose words I know from childhood, choruses from my youth, gospel, or CCM, I love listening and I have to sing along. I find myself humming a tune or singing the words to a favorite song many times a day—if not aloud, then in my head. (Just so you know how bad my singing is, my daughter used to tell me, “Mommy, don’t sing!”)

As a writer, I often find that a current Christian song mirrors the story I’m working on. Or at the very least, the lyrics reflect the struggles I’m going through.

This morning, I heard (again) Matthew West’s Broken Things, which follows the theme of my Mended Vessels series of novels based on biblical women with difficult pasts (http://www.klove.com/music/artists/matthew-west/songs/broken-things-lyrics.aspx). The song talks about how God uses broken people, weak people, imperfect people.

It occurs to me that those are the people God calls to be writers. It’s our pasts, our scars and broken pieces, which enable us to write stories readers can relate to. And because we have been mended by the perfect potter, we can show redemption and hope in our stories. So we sing along, offering our own brokenness to be used by Him.

I write Christian fiction because I want to share the hope and truth of God’s love. My tagline is “Blessing Lives through Stories,” and my continual prayer is that God will use my stories to restore others to Him.

However, I also feel the tug of fame and fortune (hah!) that the world promises to writers—at least, those who succeed in penning a best-seller. My flesh rears up and tells me I need to do more: more publicity, more promotion, more social media, more sales, more striving.

God has to constantly call me back to the simple fact that my writing is for Him, not for myself. If only one person is blessed by one of my stories, that should be enough. My deepest desire is to hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

That’s why Natalie Grant’s recent release, More Than Anything, speaks to me (http://www.klove.com/music/artists/natalie-grant/songs/more-than-anything-lyrics.aspx).

This song reminds me that my success is not found in awards or best-seller lists, but in being faithful to write redemptive stories. So here’s my author’s adaptation, my prayer for today—and every day:

"Help me want (to write) Your Story more than my glory.”

What songs speak to your writer's heart? We'd love to hear from you.

About the Author

The Secret Heart
by Marie Wells Coutu

Marie Wells Coutu began making up stories soon after she began talking. Her most recent title, The Secret Heart, and its prequel, an e-book novelette titled The Divided Heart, are published by Write Integrity Press, along with the award-winning For Such a Moment and Thirsting for More. She and her husband divide their time between Iowa, near their two children and four grandchildren, and Florida, where it’s warm all winter. Marie is working on a historical novel set in western Kentucky, her home state.

Marie is a regular contributor to Seriously Write. For more posts by Marie, click here.

Where Were You Today by Sue Duffy

Sue Duffy

I know that place where you go to write. It is hallowed, a proving ground where you go to wrestle thoughts and words into a story worth telling. Leo Tolstoy once said, "One ought to write only when one leaves a piece of flesh in the inkpot each time one dips one's pen."

What compels writers to spend years writing a book? Perhaps an insatiable hunger for the proving ground, the welling up of a story that must be told. Perhaps merely for the promise of royalties, but I think not.

When I was writing my first novel, my oldest daughter would call me at night and ask, "Mom, where were you today?" She meant, what scene in the story had I inhabited that writing day. I would tell her I had sailed alone into a dark cove in Bimini, or fled a cult in the Connecticut countryside, or stalked a U.S. senator through Midtown Manhattan. And she would understand the powerful reality of my imaginary journey. Like life, it’s the journey, not the destination that resonates and changes us. It’s the writing, the doing, that strums that deep chord inside those God’s called to write. In turn, the power of the story changes our readers.

In A Circle of Quiet, writer Madeleine L'Engle said, "…For most artists, the world of imagination is more real than the world of the kitchen sink…When someone comes to me when I'm deep in writing, I have a moment of frightening transition when I don't know where I am, and then I have to leave the 'real' world of my story…"

That's why some write ─ to harvest those imaginary fields inside us, for the mystery, romance, adventure, and humor that balance and enchant life at the kitchen sink. Ours and our readers’.

It’s nice to win literary acclaim, but not necessary. The thrill is in the writing. If there's a story you've wanted to tell for years, a rhyming of words that comes to you late at night, a memory of something that changed your life ─ write it with all your might. As if all the world will read it, when perhaps only a few will. After all, Christ would have died to save just one, wouldn’t he?

Where were you today? Why do you continue to spend hours and hours on that story? What's your reason to write? Leave a comment; let's start a conversation.

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About the Author

Red Dawn Rising
by Sue Duffy

Sue Duffy is the author of four published novels, all suspense-thrillers. Fatal Loyalty and The Sound of Red Returning were finalists for ForeWord Review’s Book of the Year Award (inspirational category). Her latest release is Red Dawn Rising, second in the Red Returning trilogy. Book three releases in 2014. She is former editor of Lake Murray Magazine and Reach Out, Columbia Magazine. A journalism graduate of the University of Florida, she lives in Columbia, SC, with her husband, Mike. They have three children and six grandchildren.

Red Dawn Rising
She is a young set designer on Broadway. He is a former KGB assassin trying to outrun his vicious past and the underground revolution he once served. What they have in common are painful secrets that fester deep inside them, and an urgent quest for answers that can save the U.S. from a massive terrorist strike . . . and famed pianist Liesl Bower from assassination.

Connect with Sue: http://www.sueduffybooks.com/
Twitter: @sueduffy2
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sueduffysuspense

Why Do We Write? by Bonnie Leon

Welcome to another Fortifying Friday at Seriously Write. This is the day we invite guest authors to share their journeys to publication, as well as encouraging words for writers.

Have you ever been asked, “Why do you write?” If so, did you have an answer? Author Bonnie Leon is here today to talk about that very question.

Why Do We Write?

When we signed our first contract, held our first book or took part in our first booksigning it was pure joy. However, over time, the adventure became a job and we wonder what happened to the wonder.

Creating characters and plotting story lines is great fun, but crafting a book is hard work. There are days when I’d rather do almost anything than plant my derriere in a chair and write. But deadlines and revisions wrestle me back to work. If I lose sight of the privilege I sometimes question whether I ought to do something else with my life. I’m sure God shakes His head at my fickleness, and with grace the Holy Spirit leads me to the truth. On one such occasion He reminded me of the apostle Paul.

Paul was an educated, respected man of status and power. But an encounter with God changed his life forever. He became a servant of the living God. While imprisoned his thoughts were with believers who needed guidance and encouragement, and though in chains he praised the Lord.

In I Corinthians 4: 10- 13 Paul wrote, “Our dedication to Christ makes us look like fools, but you claim to be so wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are so powerful! You are honored, but we are ridiculed. Even now we go hungry and thirsty and we don’t have enough clothes to keep warm. We are often beaten and have no home. We work wearily with our own hands to earn our living. We bless those who curse us. We are patient with those who abuse us. We appeal gently when evil things are said about us.” Verse sixteen says, “So I urge you to imitate me.”

Paul described a life of deprivation and affliction. Why would we imitate him? There is only one reason—to display the glory of God—not to make a name for ourselves or to earn a six figure paycheck.

One year after preparing our taxes our CPA asked, “Why do you do this?” I’m sure I appeared foolish to him. Some people who know how hard I work for modest wages shake their heads in mocking disbelief.

Though most writers make less than minimum wage, we’re not going hungry or without clothing, but we do live with tight budgets. Yet we persist. There are places in the world where writers give up their lives or spend them in prison because they’ve written the truth. I can attest to the weariness. Some work days don’t end until the wee hours of the morning. As to curses—I’ve had a few, and all my writing friends have had darts thrown their way as well.

So, why do we persevere? I can speak only for myself. God asked me to write, and I serve Him. But it’s not all drudgery. There are days when words flow onto the page like liquid gold and it is pure joy. When readers write to tell me how my words have uplifted them I feel divinely blessed.

Isaiah tells us, “Those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” Dear writing friends, persevere. The rewards are more than we can imagine or hope for. And it has been said, “The true test of a saint’s life is not successfulness but faithfulness.”

Be faithful. It is a privilege to uplift Christ and to glorify God.




Bonnie Leon dabbled in writing for many years but never set it in a place of priority until an accident in 1991 left her unable to work at her job. She is now the author of several historical fiction series, including the Sydney Cove series, Queensland Chronicles, the Matanuska series, the Sowers Trilogy, and the Northern Lights series. She also stays busy teaching women’s Bible studies, speaking, and teaching at writing seminars and women’s gatherings. Bonnie and her husband, Greg, live in Southern Oregon. They have three grown children and four grandchildren.

To find out more about Bonnie and her books, please visit:
http://www.bonnieleon.com/