Blogger: Rachel Kent
I’m sorry I’m just getting a post up now! I have been sick this week and have a sick baby at home, too.
I’d like to put a question (or two) out today for some of your thoughts.
I believe it’s important to celebrate the little successes along the way to our goals. Could you please tell us about a time when your writing brought you satisfaction?
What do you like to do to celebrate the successes on the way to achieving your goals?
Thanks! Happy Friday!
Deep satisfaction comes each time I finish writing a scene where I moved myself to tears as I wrote it. If it tears me up, surely it will be a rich emotional experience for a reader. Then again, maybe I’m just a crybaby.
Praying you and your little one will feel better soon.
Yes! I have a scene coming up that I know what’s going to happen, and it makes me misty-eyed just thinking about what has to happen to this beloved character. Praying he’s as beloved by my readers and that God speaks through my words.
I’ve made some rather substantial (comparatively) progress on my WIP, getting 4 chapters finished after it sat for months untouched. That brought me great satisfaction and motivation. This week has been too busy to sit and write, but I still smile when I think back to what is waiting for me, rather than feeling weighed down or guilty for not writing as much this week.
I also had an article appear in a local magazine. It’s not a “big” platform, but it still is humbling and surreal each time I’m see my name in a by line in print.
To celebrate…coffee. Always coffee. 🙂
Every time I see my name in print I’m brought so much joy and thankfulness. I really understand that. And when my daughters take the time to read what I’ve written … melts my heart.
*And it’s wonderful when you love your work so much that you can’t wait to get back to it.
Rachel, I’m so sorry you and the baby are dealing with sickness. Praying for you.
*I write for a missions magazine, and because I received contracts for this next year and have been writing for them for 8 years, I’m going to do a giveaway this next week. I’m planning to anyway. And I’m so excited about it. And well, I’m nervous, too, because I wonder if anyone will participate. 🙂
*And I love how things come together. Writing my first book opened the door to writing for the magazine. And writing for the magazine led to my two novels.
*At this point, my successes usually come in the way of an email saying how much an article meant to someone. My celebrations are usually quiet … thanking God, with maybe a little clapping for Him and maybe a few tears of joy–for grace.
*Happy Friday, y’all. 🙂
That’s the kind of success I want most to celebrate and treasure, Shelli. An email from someone who’s read my novel and not only liked it but felt it strengthened their faith. Even better would be if they said they’d shared it with a friend who was touched by its message. Within three weeks, it will at least be possible to get one of those email. Once we launch something, who knows how God will use it?
Absolutely, Carol! 🙂 Three weeks! Yay!
Maybe even by Monday!
I write the blog for the small Bible Camp where my husband works and once in a while someone will tell me how my words moved them. It is amazing when it occurs and is always a thrill and delight. But strikes me most right now is that I just got the contributor copies of a children’s magazine that I submitted to…oh probably 2 years, maybe as many as 4 years ago…I think it was 4 years actually. I met the editor and he never got back to me and so after a year or two I just sent the article through the slush pile. They wanted it and when it finally came out, an article about Jonah’s deep fear that God might be merciful to the Ninevites…I just wept that my piece would have its moment during such a time of fear and upheaval, that I would be able to remind us all (myself included) of God’s power to move and forgive and change even in our violent world. And yes, such a moment deserves chocolate!
The best moments of satisfaction.
‘I think you write well.’
‘Please, who is Michael Emmanuel? I enjoyed reading this.’
The emails and publications are en route, but this gives great joy…
Prayers for you and the baby…
Excellent, Michael! You’re on your way…
Off topic: Andrew is still not doing well. Prayers would be appreciated. All weekend
Praying for you, Andrew.
It’s a small thing, but I really and truly love it when I write a phrase that sings. Sometimes we can surprise ourselves.
However, compliments rate up there, too. An acquaintance (missionar teacher) read my book and then he said some words that shocked me. He said he got more out of my book than reading My Utmost for His Highest. That was high praise, indeed. He and his wife had been through a lot, and I think it had something in it he needed at the time.
The blessing is seeing God use what we write to minister to others.
Hope you and your little one get well soon. Bless you.
Sorry to hear about the illness in your household.
Great responses from everybody today. For me, I get great satisfaction when a story comes together in ways I didn’t foresee. When something snaps into place, usually a gray place I wasn’t sure how to fill. It feels like the “boys in the basement” (Steven King’s description) are conspiring with the Holy Spirit to create something the little ol’ author never saw coming. It seems to happen in every book, usually just when I’m starting to think the book is broken beyond repair. I love that moment. It reminds me I’m not alone in this.
I hope you feel better soon, Rachel.
Of course I feel satisfied whenever something I write is accepted for publication and when I see it in print, but the greatest satisfaction is when I learn something I wrote has changed a reader’s life for the better.
I pray you and baby are well soon.
My greatest satisfaction comes when I know God inspired me to write the piece or the book. I did a story on assignment for Us Magazine years ago about an amazing handicapped person and was paid $500 for it. That’s the most I’ve ever made on an article, and probably close to the amount I made on some of my books. But I’ve written articles that have touched people, and a few caused some to turn to Jesus. That’s what writing ministry is all about. The person I interviewed for the Us article was worthy of being featured, but in no way lifted up Jesus. An article doesn’t have to be preachy to be successful though. It’s how we present the gospel. Frank Luntz in Words that Work says to avoid being preachy, “Tell the truth, but don’t do it in a condescending manner.”
Though I love writing a phrase that sings and I’m happy seeing my name in print, I may be different than the other people who have commented here. I’m not that nice. My husband has come to agree when I say that I’m a better mom when I write every day. Sometimes, when I’m really angry about something that happened to me, he’ll suggest that I sit down and blog. It helps me work things out. My grandma used to sit on her porch and tell stories after dinner, the porch swing creaking in rhythm to the sound of her voice. I remember some of those stories, but I’ve lost so many of them. Her words, breath that floated out over the horse fields among the lightning bugs, are nearly lost. When my father died, I clutched at the books where he’d printed bits of marginalia. Would I forget what he told me? There’s an agony to lost stories, so I write mine down to keep from losing them. On bad days, when I haven’t had a chance to work on my projects, I worry that I might die before I get them done, the story about the almighty road trip in 1969 and how my dad had to take the mirrors off the truck to drive the camper through one of the needles at Needles State Park in South Dakota. There’s the day that he died and how I watched his soul leave his body while everyone else in the room was distracted. I’m not about to cut off my ear, but I identify with VanGogh. I worry that I’ll write all these stories and the copies that I printed will molder in my son’s basement before he eventually throws it all away because Mom is just so boring. So, in answer to your question, I feel good when I write, when I come up for air and realize that an hour or two have passed, when the story means something, and when I let it go out to find readers of its own. Thank you for asking that question.