Little Seeds, Big Clouds and a Clock About to Strike

Habits. Good habits. Bad habits. You need discipline to create good habits and discipline to destroy bad habits. 

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Discipline. How do you get it? Some people seem to be born with it. Others struggle to maintain it. And still others don’t much care one way or the other. Me?  It depends on the situation. Sometimes, I really just want to see if I can achieve a goal and discipline comes naturally. Other times, I just can’t seem to create that same sense of excitement and my discipline has heads for the hills on a long vacation. 

At the beginning of this year, January 1st to be exact, I decided to do a challenge. A 75 Day Challenge. 

THE 75 DAY CHALLENGE 

Morning Cardio workout

Afternoon strength workout 

Eat 850 calories

Drink 4 litres of water

Read 10 pages of a non fiction book

Every. Day. For a total of 75 days. 

Now I know what you’re thinking. ‘Are you insane?!’ Yes. Well, probably. But all the best people are, aren’t they?

When I heard about the challenge, at first I thought, ‘HA! Yeah right. I wouldn’t last a week!’ I’ve been suffering from a sore lower back for a good year now and thought I’d maybe get through the first three days before pulling my back out again. Then I’d be in bed for a week and back to the Physio. But what if I focused on exercises that didn’t use my back and supported it as much as possible? Was I really going to let my fear of failing and getting hurt get the better of me?

My fear. How many times has it beat me down? It doesn’t feel like that at the time, does it? It keeps me safe. I mean, I don’t want to get hurt and I don’t want to fail.  But what if I succeed, then what do I do? It’s the unknown that my fear keeps me safe from. It’s nice. It’s comforting, but all those big ideas, all the story outlines I jot down for when I have time to come back to them … they just wait. They gather dust. So what my fear has done, is kept me stationary. Never growing, never evolving into something more than what I am. 

So, what’s the point?

I sat down with a lovely couple about a month ago and we were discussing the current issues - the pandemic, emergency mandates, talks of war. We moved to Revelation and how everything looked pretty grim. They said they believed we had maybe another ten years left before the Rapture.

‘Excuse me? I don’t think I heard you correctly. Did you say ten years?’

I hadn’t misheard. Now, don’t get me wrong. No one knows when it’ll happen, but just think about it for a moment. Ten years. That’s all you have left. One hundred and twenty months. Five hundred and twenty weeks. Three thousand, six hundred and fifty days. Eighty seven thousand, six hundred hours. And so on, and so on. But you get it. Ten years left of your life.

Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash

I don’t know about you, but should I even be bothering to do a Bachelor Degree that will take me six years to complete part time? And all those story ideas I have, do I just give up on them? It has taken me over a decade to write the story for one of my ideas, what do I do with the other thirty two I have outlined on my computer? All the other things I wanted to do, wanted to see … I don’t know, but ten years doesn’t seem like enough time, especially when procrastination and anxiety are such good friends of mine.

I just don’t know … but then again, I think I do.

It starts with a little seed.

Without a little water, a little dirt, a bit of sunshine, little seeds won’t grow. But if you put in a little effort and don’t mind getting your hands dirty, that seed will sprout roots and habits will grow. 

First things first. Show up. Nothing ever gets done if you don’t first begin. This builds habits. Things you can improve upon. You cannot improve if you don’t have a foundation.

Those big clouds you see in the sky above you. The ones you’ve imagined into dragons and castles and mushroom houses; they are your spark. They are the reason you want to write their stories. Don’t let fear stop you. Don’t let your doubts get the better of you. They are your past, not your present you. You woke up this morning as a blank canvas. Don’t let the negativity of yesterday paint the opportunities of today.

Today is day zero of my 75 Day Challenge. For the most part, I accomplished a lot. I will admit, the ten pages became a little too overwhelming - exhaustion and a heavy non fiction book do not mix well - and I didn’t continue with this aspect of the challenge. But I’ve now built up a few good habits and who knows what the next seventy five days bring. Even if the clock is about to chime - today, tomorrow, one year form now, ten years, twenty … I have an opportunity to learn more, see more, do more and it doesn’t matter how much I accomplish,  as long as I show up in the moments that matter and know God has everything in control.

Kirsten Hart (aka A.T. Richmond) is a born and bred Territorian who moved to Queensland and had no choice but to stay after her assimilation into the Toowoomba's infamous, collective known as Quirky Quills. Since then, A.T. Richmond has had two stories published. Stone Bearer, appears in Glimpses of Light and Tedious Tresses, in the As Time Goes By Mixed Blessings anthology. She is currently writing a fantasy trilogy.

Just Keep Pumping

In her bestseller The Artist's Way Julia Cameron recommends a routine she calls 'morning pages.' Each day, we're urged to set aside a block of time for free flow writing and honour the commitment no matter how we feel. Whether our writing seems like pearls of wisdom or trite rambling, it must go down on paper. When we're in a writing slump or a tired mood, it's easy to write such a habit off as a colossal waste of time. Why add to the glut of writing out there when we have nothing to say?

I always gave the nod to Julia's advice without being hyper-vigilant about it. Common sense tells me it's like keeping the pump primed, thinking of those old outdoor water pumps from former generations. If we go through the motions of cranking the handle a couple of times daily, it'll help prevent squeaking and stiffness from setting in. The same goes for that hardened plug of tomato sauce near the neck of the bottle, which has been exposed to air over a long period of time. If we simply give it a regular shake and squeeze, it has no time to congeal to something that's hard to budge.

It makes logical sense to think that our creative brains run on the same principle. Sure, we also like to believe that they're subject to wonderful phenomena like divine inspiration, but I've noticed that the guy God tends to inspire is the one who always has his pen or keyboard handy. 

At last I've read some interesting evidence to back this principle up; not with morning pages as such, but with making sure I squeeze in some daily writing time. In his book Atomic Habits, author and journalist James Clear recounts an experiment that took place in a class of undergraduate photography students. Half the students were assigned to a 'quantity group' and instructed to just keep churning out photos. Their assessment would be based on the sheer number they managed to submit by the end of semester. So those guys and gals rushed off to start snapping their trigger happy fingers whenever and wherever they could.

The others were assigned to a 'quality group.' The teachers told them they didn't care about numbers, but just wanted one or two of the most awe-inspiring and professional photos they could manage. So this crowd walked away thoughtfully to start researching techniques, gaining a solid knowledge base and waiting for ideal conditions. 

The staff were quite surprised themselves to find that the best quality photos consistently came from the quantity group. It wasn't just that the quality group sabotaged themselves by overthinking and building perfectionist mindsets, although this certainly came into play. The quantity group simply expanded their skill sets quicker by vital practice. Even though they were focused on sum total rather than excellence, the process of actually getting out there and having a go over and over again ensured that an admirable, sound quality was a welcome pay-off.   

I've sometimes found myself a bit bogged down in recent years, what with moving house, kids growing older, doing a bit of study, and most recently the anxiety of our Covid era. I'd decreased my own personal blog output from two or three to just one a week, which felt sensible. But it also made it easier to keep drafts sitting there for months, just because I balked at the thought of facing them. I did the same with the creative projects I was working on. Just because there was no urgency and nobody to care whether they appeared or not made it easy to slow right down. That hasn't really been the blessing I expected it to be.

From here on out, I'm committing myself to working on some writing every day, no matter what the result turns out to be. Because the notion that 'just dashing something off' is a slapdash approach might be one of the biggest lies we feed ourselves. What if it's really what gives us our impetus and our well-oiled edge? 

I'd love to know how all of you have faced this issue too. We are the Christian Writers Dowunder. (And some of us are also artists of various kinds.) How is your writing or art routine going? 

Paula Vince is a South Australian author and former homeschooling mother of three children. She lives in the beautiful coastal region of Adelaide. Her novels include the award-winning Best Forgotten and Picking up the Pieces, along with Australia's only collaborated Christian fiction novel, The Greenfield Legacy. She regularly blogs about matters related to books and literary appreciation on her own blog, The Vince Review. 
    

7Ks and Beyond

Are you presently grappling with a writing project? Do you feel you’ve hit a patch of resistance and wonder whether the work’s ever going to gain momentum? I’m in the process of readying my third YA manuscript, Activate, for professional edits. You might think by this stage of the YA series, the creative process would have great traction, but I must confess there’ve been many points of wrestling along that manuscript development path.

When contemplating some early revision challenges, I was reminded of a conversation I’d had with a friend who’d been doing a lot of long distance running. (Think half-marathons.) They mentioned how the 7Km mark still hurt, each and every time they hit it. (Personally, I think the 1Km mark is more where things start to bite ... but anyway ...) No matter how many times they ran longer distances, there was still a point where they had to break through fatigue and bodily resistance, before they’d find their rhythm and settle into their run.

I believe we’re called to share words that move hearts, change lives, and bring hope into a world where things don’t always seem hopeful. Resistance is a given. But my friend’s comment got me thinking. Maybe some of that grappling we experience when developing a manuscript beyond the initial raw draft, is a little like finding our writing rhythm.

A decade ago I began studying creative writing at a post-graduate level. This involved writing to set criteria, including submitting a proposal at the outset of a project, along with providing a sample of a VERY raw early draft. I swiftly learned that once I’d settled onto an idea, there just wasn’t time to mess about changing my mind if it seemed things weren’t working. Another valuable lesson was that I couldn’t edit nothing.

Often when we hit resistance in life, we’re tempted to jump out of the process; to change the topic; to run in the opposite direction. Our writing habits can reflect this general response. (Anyone else out there with half a dozen or more ‘first chapters’ hidden in a folder somewhere?)

As you might remember, I’m a great believe in timing, and resistance may also be an indicator that the timing isn’t quite right for a certain project. Yet, there is an element of discipline we must apply to our writing. I’m beginning to suspect that in every writing project, not matter how many writing years are under our belt, we’ll encounter a ‘7Km mark’ (or few!), where it can be tempting to give up and start something different. But just as sticking at a task eventually sees progress, I believe we grow as writers when we persist in the face of manuscript development challenges, especially when working to set criteria or topics.

Granted, there are times we need to put work aside for a season. To move forward, it’s also important to connect with other more experienced writers, seek feedback and invest in our craft. But if you feel you have a story to share and it’s just not coming together, maybe you’ve met your 7Km mark. Don’t give up. Your rhythm might be found just another kilometre away.

Queensland author Adele Jones writes young adult and historical novels, poetry and short inspirational, fiction and non-fiction works. Her first YA novel Integrate was awarded the 2013 CALEB Prize for unpublished manuscript. Her writing explores issues of social justice, humanity, faith, natural beauty and meaning in life’s journey. For more visit www.adelejonesauthor.com or contact@adelejonesauthor.com

Our Creative Natures By Buffy Greentree

There are so many places in the writing journey that we can get caught up and come undone. There are also various strategies we can put in place to combat these obstacles. However, today I want to look at just one simple idea which has saved me numerous times from problems in both the drafting and editing stages.

Your creative nature is not singular. 

The sooner you realise this, the sooner you will know exactly which door to knock on when you need help. So let's look at some of our options.

The Muse:

People talk of a creative spirit or urge, calling it a genius or muse interchangeably as if there were one unknown part of us that performs the creation. As a Christian, we really should acknowledge at least two, our side and God's. Those who have experienced a true creative flow, or have written a work that is so beyond what they thought they knew, must acknowledge that God inspires and helps form anything that we allow him to help on. How can we view anything except God as our 'muse'? Is not the creator himself the thing that inspires all further creation?

For me, the Holy Spirit directly and God's creation indirectly fulfill the ancient role of creative muse. It is the thing external to myself which inspires and encourages my creative work. This is a wonderful realisation, and constantly keeps me on my knees as I write. However, God does not do all the work. There is then the unconscious and conscious work that I must do in the creation of the piece.

The Genius:

A lot of my creation happens unconsciously. I may stare at a computer screen for hours on end, then finally get up and have a bath. Halfway through the bath, while humming along to some tune, a piece of dialogue suddenly jumps out of nowhere that is the perfect answer to my problem. Or I will wake up from sleep, and my character will be there, ready and waiting to tell me what happens next.

While some of this comes from inspiration, there is also the part of me that processes it all. This part I consider my genius. It is not external to me, as the muse is, but it is also not under my control. I cannot force my genius to write when I want to write. He is most secretive. I feed him scraps and ideas, and then leave him alone to digest it all. When he is ready, he will then open up a trap door and hand back out the diamonds he has created.

There are many things that you can do to encourage your creative genius, from the types of food you can feed him to the recreation that best allows him to process. I have found that when in doubt, give him a good meal of problems to solve and juicy words to mull over, then leave him in silence (ie. find a wordless activity to distract yourself with), and see what he churns out.

But your genius is really for when you get stuck. He is not something you can rely on for a steady flow of words. He does not write drafts, he only helps out a bit with the design. For drafting and editing you need your two conscious creative natures.

The Youth and The Elder:

These two aspects of our creative nature were first outlined to me in the wonderful book On Being A Writer by Dorothea Brande (if you haven't read it, it's out of copyright so you can download it for free, which I highly recommend you do right after you finish reading this). She argues that we have two natures that can either work together or against each other, very much like brothers.

First is the youth. He is the creative spark. He loves telling tall tales and playing with words. He is cheeky and a bit irresponsible. He doesn't care about grammar or spelling, and is easily distracted. If you let him have too much control, he will jump from one story to the next, leaving a mess behind him each time. On the other hand, if you restrain him too much, he becomes sullen and won't say a thing. He's a bit of a sulk that way. Without him you will never get through your first draft, but with only him, you will never get a complete book.

Second is his elder brother. He is much more interested in order and control, and he is fantastic at editing. He takes time over word choice, making sure that it is perfect. Then he considers the sentence structure. Did you break any important rules? He's big into rules. He's also pretty good at making sure his little brother sits down and stays on the same story all the way through to the end. Without him, your youth is likely to get overexcited and run off after butterflies. The elder, however, can make sure he stays in his chair until he is finished.

However, the elder can very quickly become overbearing. If you let him off the lead too much in the first draft, he will be watching over his little brother's shoulder, trying to correct the small mistakes or pausing his brother to find a better word. Under this sort of tyranny, any little brother would jack up and hide away.

So you need to balance these two as is appropriate to your stage in the writing process. If you feel you are being stifled or coming up dry in the first draft, it is generally because you are letting your elder creative nature crush your youth. But if you find you have lots of wonderful ideas but never get through them all, you might need to build up and encourage your elder a little, not let him be bossed around so much by his younger brother. Your youth needs to be disciplined just enough to get through to the end of the first draft. Then the elder can take over and brush up in the editing process. 

I find relying on these four aspects of my creative nature, identifying which one has been starved and which I might be trying to rely too strongly on, will get me through most problems. Though, I will admit it is an on going process to build them up and learn how to support them all. But that is part of the fun of being a writer.







Buffy Greentree was brought up in Melbourne, has lived in Japan and the UK, and now calls Brisbane home. She has a B.A. (Hons) in Classics and Archaeology, a Master of Divinity, and a Grad Cert in Business Management. Yes, she spent way too long at Uni. 
She now writes by day, and works as a boarding house supervisor corrupting young minds by night. So, life is pretty good. 
For a further discussion on creative natures and other ways to overcome your fears of writing, see her first book The Five Day Writer's Retreat, available on Amazon and other online retailers. Or follow her at her writing blog: www.100firstdrafts.com.

Difficult and Inspirational Tenacity by Charis Joy Jackson

“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.”  

JRR Tolkien

Many things have invaded my life recently like brick walls keeping the light out. I've said a lot of goodbyes, dealt with extremely crucial deadlines, been kept at work for long hours, and most recently I lost a loved one to cancer. Finding time and passion to write has been hard and honestly one of the last things on my mind. My world has gotten dark, but I don't want to be faithless so how do I keep writing?

“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” 

C.S. Lewis

I may not like “hard”, but Tolkien and Lewis shout to me across the years, telling me to keep going. Telling me to persevere.

To be tenacious.

I must hold on to even the smallest bit of hope and passion I have. I must write even when I don't feel like it. I must remember the difference between an aspiring author and a serious one is discipline. I must walk into difficulty, accepting the hard things that stand in the way and keep my eye on the prize.

Last weekend a friend and I went to our local coffee shop and settled in to write. I did everything I could to put off actually writing. I showed up late, scrolled through facebook, even took my time ordering coffee. I didn't have the inspiration or passion. It's been months since I've opened the document to even try. After a little pep talk from my friend, who told me to “just do it” I finally focused on the document in front of me and began to write. Haltingly at first, but then with more excitement. Within an hour I had 1300 words written and more coming. When I left all I could think about was getting home so I could keep writing.

Difficulties are hard, but tenacity brings hope. Even a spark beats back the darkness.

Already, just days after my success I can feel the weight of difficulty trying to quench the little hope I had this weekend. BUT I can't focus on what's hard, I must focus on the prize. I must remember how words and story gets under my skin and sets me on fire.

I must remember I love it.

I must remember how creating a new world with my God-given imagination seems like the most amazing thing ever. I will push through those walls. I can almost see my characters igniting like little lights in my mind.

I'll focus on God, the ultimate Creator and most tenacious inventor ever. What must it have been like for him when he created the world? Swirling dust together to form complex creatures that reflect His image...

Seeing that crisp, blank document may send thrills through my system and ignite my adrenaline, but now the idea of typing "The End" fills me with tenacity. And hope.

What about you? What is difficulty holding you back from?

Here's my challenge. Write. Be tenacious. Even when you don't feel like it. Even when life seems hard. Watch how God uses those times to surprise you. Let passion in, hold tight to tenacity and discipline.

They'll be your best friends. 

Charis Joy Jackson is working as a missionary with Youth With a Mission (YWAM) a non-profit organization & is part of The Initiative Production Company. She loves creating stories & is currently writing a novel, which she hopes to create into a seven part series. 

Here's to a life lived in awe & wonder. 
Welcome to the adventure.

www.charisjoyjackson.com