During a
recent Grandparents’ Day at our youngest granddaughter’s school, I was
definitely made to feel my age when her class asked what school was like for
us.
‘We sat on forms
– long wooden seats – behind long wooden desks that had holes for inkwells,’ I
explained. ‘When we practised handwriting in our copybooks, we would use a pen
and nib and dip the nib into the ink. We had to be careful not to make a big
blot on the page!’
We may
complain about aspects of producing our manuscripts today as writers, but at
least we do not have to use a quill and ink as Charles Dickens did – or my great-great-grandfather’s
brother, R D Blackmore, as he wrote Lorna Doone in 1869! How did they do
it? I well remember how long it took to write and rewrite by hand my many
essays at university in the late 1960s. Thankfully, by the time I returned to
study in the 1980s and again in the 1990s, things had changed. By then, we had
a huge, old desktop computer at home – yay!
Things have
changed too in the area of book promotion since the 1990s. When my first novel Heléna
was released in 2007, while online promotion was vital (Amazon arrived in
1994 and Facebook in 2004), my then publisher ensured my novel also featured in
the printed Christian bookstore catalogues mailed to subscribers, as well as in
printed Christian magazines. Now the picture has changed indeed. These days, whether
we have a traditional publisher or choose to self-publish, we need to be enthusiastic,
innovative self-starters, willing to promote our own books as much as we can and
to be as tech-savvy as we can.
Yep, times
have changed – and those of us who are older may find this a challenge. Yet it
is also interesting and even exciting to keep learning new things, don’t you
think? And what a bonus too that, at the click of a button, we can promote our
books far and wide rather than rely on print advertising only or word of mouth!
But most wonderful of all to me is the fact that God surely did not make a
mistake when calling us to write at this exact time in history. What a
privilege, whatever the challenge, to be Christian authors in 2025 and beyond!
In the light
of this then, could I suggest you take a moment now to stop, put your hands in
your lap, breathe deeply and remember the Lord is with you and in you right
where you are? Sit back and rest in his loving presence. Then, before moving
on, thank him that he knows you intimately, has given you the desire and
ability to write and will never leave you, whatever twists and turns your
writing journey may take. The Lord is so faithful. May we in turn be faithful
writers for him.
Thanks for that, Jo. I remember using slates in primary school in the 60s, but we were much more advanced than you. No long wooden desks for us. We had the much hipper wooden desks with the flip top lids that we shared with one other person--the desks not the lids. And I had such lovely copybook handwriting. What happened? Now I can't even read my own writing!
ReplyDeleteAnd 'wow' to your great great grandfather's brother writing Lorna Doone. There's a Sewell in my family tree, and the first thing I asked was, 'Are we related to Anna Sewell, author of Black Beauty?' Apparently not, but if we go back seven generations, there's probably some connection somewhere. When I become famous and go on 'Who Do You Think You Are', I'll make sure they dig up those links.
Regarding changing technology, it seems a lifetime ago that I was at Uni typing up my thesis on one of the department's computers that used Unix; and looking up all the journal abstracts by hand in the huge volumes in the library, then finding all of the journals on the shelves and photocopying the articles I wanted. Everything is so quick and easy on the internet these days. I wonder what RD Blackmore and Anna Sewell would think if they knew we could do our research in minutes (sometimes seconds) by consulting Dr Google and ChatGPT?
But as you say, God has us in exactly the right time period to do what He wants us to do. Though I still wish I could time travel like Dr Who. Thanks for a thought-provoking post, Jo
Thanks so much for all your interesting comments, Nola. And I'd be claiming that possible Anna Sewell link, for sure! As you say, you probably are related somewhere along the line. I don't think RD Blackmore ever married though so I can't be a direct descendant, but at least it shows that writing may run in the family. My grandfather (another Blackmore) was a good writer - and also had that beautiful, flowing handwriting that used to be around too.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, at Qld Uni in the sixties, I remember standing in the library flicking through all those little cards in the catalogue drawers on the ground floor, writing down the reference, then hunting on the shelves for said book, often to no avail! And I certainly remember those messy first drafts of essays, with little notes everywhere, then the final frantic re-write, just before the essay was due to be handed in! Ah, nostalgia, as you say - or perhaps nightmares?!
May we be very grateful we are called to be writers in this day and age, for sure, Nola. But I do hope you may still get to time travel like Dr Who, just the same!