Ditching the Black Dog

Photo copyright Susan J Bruce - all rights reserved

Do you ever find that the difficult patches in the writing life come at unexpected times?

The last part of October and the first part of November was an encouraging time for me. I won the unpublished manuscript section of the Caleb Prize and I flew to the Gold Coast on the following Monday to do a Margie Lawson writing Immersion. For those who don’t know, Margie is an international writing coach, and I was delighted when a place became available in one of her teaching weeks. And yes – it was AWESOME. 

Life was busy when I returned and I lost some of the rhythm that I had built up prior to doing the Immersion. Then I received some negative feedback, had a flare of some health issues and then for some reason I stopped writing. Discouragement struck – and I became stuck. The launch of If They Could Talk: Bible stories told by the animals, an anthology for which I was editor, helped lift my spirits. But even this milestone couldn't fix my writing doldrums.  

Maybe I’m the only one who goes through periods like this. Maybe the rest of you intrepid writers have it together and never feel like a four-wheel-drive bogged to the windows in Gobi desert sand. 

No? 

I also have to admit to a tincture of perfectionism somewhere in the mix. Perfectionism would be okay if we were perfect, wouldn’t it? Imagine a first draft that you never needed to revise. Ah, bliss! Cue serene music…

But back to reality.

Discouragement, seeded with grains of perfectionism, can lead to procrastination which leads to more discouragement and more procrastination, etc., etc., etc., which leads to hopelessness and before you know it, the black dog is something other than my cheeky Chihuahua/ Shihtzu cross pictured above.

I wrote nothing, playing a LOT of Sudoku instead. The only good thing that came from it was that I finally beat my husband’s best time on the online version of the game. We’re not at all competitive in our house by the way (cough). Other than that one moment of domestic triumph, I was sad to the core and didn’t know how to break myself out of the funk. 

Then I remembered a section of a book I’d recently read. A friend had mentioned Stephen Furtick’s book, Greater, a while ago and I was intrigued enough to buy a copy. In Greater, Furtick uses examples from the life of the prophet Elisha to encourage Christians to live out God’s vision for their life.

In chapter five, the author refers to the Bible passage, 2 Kings 3. King Joram of Israel enlists the help of King Jehoshaphat of Judah to fight the Moabite army. The problem is that after seven days of marching in the desert of Edom, they don’t have any water left for their animals or their troops. 

Jehoshaphat, being a godly king, asks Elisha to talk to God about their problem. Elisha agrees and God says something strange. He tells them that they won’t see wind or rain but He will make water flow from the hills in Edom. It is easy for God to do this. In several translations (e.g., the NASV) God tells them to make the valley full of trenches – i.e., dig a vast amount of ditches (2 Kings 3:16). 

Imagine being those people. There were no clouds in the sky, just heat and dust and a sense of hopelessness. Two vast armies on the verge of dying of thirst, and God tells them to start digging. It would seem counterintuitive in the extreme. Sweat and toil all night when there’s no visible way of having your need for water met. Yet they did it, and in the morning the valley was filled with water.

Furtick uses this as a prime example of how faith works. He writes: 

It’s as if God says, “If you really believe I’m going to do what I told you I would do, get busy. Show me your faith, and then I’ll show you My faithfulness. Do your part. If you do what I asked you to do, I will be faithful to My word. 

(Greater, p. 66)

I agree with Furtick, but I also think it's one of the best metaphors I’ve ever read on the nature of the writer’s life. 
We need to believe in what we are doing and act on that belief. Most of us reading this have felt the call to write. We know God wants us to do this. So we need to do it, even if the ideas have dried up and the words we thirst for elude us. When discouragement invades and we feel like giving up, we need to seek God. And when we do, we need to act. Even if it's writing just a few words at a time. 

In this instance of depression God told me to ‘remember’. Remember that I have called you. Remember what I’ve promised you. Remember that I love you. Now go and do your thing. Write in faith: one word after another and I will fill your words with my life. Dig the ditches and I will send my rain.

And so I write – and the black dog morphs back into a naughty puppy again – and I have hope. 

How about you. Do you have times in your life where writing is hard? What helps? Does 'digging ditches' work for you? Let's encourage each other in the comments below.

Reference: S. Furtick, Greater: Dream bigger. Start smaller. Ignite God’s vision for your life., Multnomah Books, Colorado, 2017.

Susan J. Bruce, aka Sue Jeffrey, spent her childhood reading, drawing, and collecting stray animals. Now she’s grown up she does the same kinds of things. Sue works part time as a veterinarian, writes stories filled with themes of overcoming, adventure and belonging, and loves to paint animals. Sue won the Short section of the inaugural Stories of Life writing competition and recently won the 'Unpublished Manuscript' section of the 2018 Caleb prize. Sue is the editor of 'If They Could Talk: Bible Stories Told By the Animals' (Morning Star Publishing) and her stories and poems have appeared in multiple anthologies. Her e-book 'Ruthless The Killer: A Short Story' is available on Amazon.com. You can check out Sue’s animal art on Facebook.

Lessons Learned from Losing Wisdom

by Charis Joy Jackson

A magical idea strikes me. I run to my laptop before inspiration can leave. Well, “run” isn't the best word for it... it's more of a slow shamble while my vision blurs and the ground sways beneath me. Did I mention the pictures on the wall seem to expand and loom over me? That's not normal, right? Laptop in hand I settle onto my blue fainting couch. The battery's dead and the cord's all the way in my room. I consider the idea of crawling over walking but decide crawling would take more energy. Computer charging, I drink some water, careful to avoid sensitive areas. Finally, I open a new post. Time to write. What was that magical idea again?

It's gone! I tell myself to write anyway, a writer must write despite inspiration.

I struggle through a sentence, a paragraph. I make the writer's mortal sin- I edit instead of just getting the words out. I shuffle sentences around, try to find a better beginning. I am focusing on too many subjects for one post. Gah! I delete everything and start again. I can feel the story churning but an hour passes and I still can't form anything. The words won't flow. My worst fear is realized. I can't write.

Pain begins to throb through my jaw. An alarm goes off on my phone, time for more pills. I chug some water and swallow a handful of meds. The pain edges away again to be replaced by a swimming head and a roller coaster of emotions. The blank screen expands just like the pictures on the wall. Was this what Alice felt like in Wonderland? I fight through another paragraph, but it's hopeless. Fear wins. I put the laptop down. I'm just beating a dead horse and that's not very nice at all. Poor horse.

My nightmare's a reality.

Welcome to my life for the last few weeks. I had oral surgery to remove impacted wisdom teeth and I was sent home with a list of drugs that killed the pain but brought complications and dizzy spells. The ironic part - I was afraid I'd forget how to write. All I'd think about were the "what if's"... What if the meds messed with my brain and I lost all my wisdomy goodness? - WORSE! What if my stories disappeared?!

Fear consumed me. I'm a bit dramatic, can you tell?



Has fear or overwhelming obstacles ever held you back?

Here's the lesson I'm reminded of, one I keep close at hand – especially at times like this. No matter what, write. Every day. Doesn't matter how horrible it looks, keep writing. As writers we want to be praised for our work and fear is like a constant companion sitting next to us pointing out how unoriginal we are or how cheesy our writing is. Who cares about fear. Write! I'm convinced it's the author who pushes past all the fears and walls of insecurity that actually produces the real gems. Look at Tolkien. It took him over ten years to finish Lord of the Rings. I read recently where someone claims it took him seventeen years! Who cares. The story has captured our heart and it's because Tolkien kept writing. Imagine if he'd put his pen aside after three years of writing... the world would never know of Middle Earth.

That, my dear friends, would be a tragedy. So again I say, write! No matter what. Write!

What about you? What valuable tools do you hold on to when fear or other obstacles come knocking?

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

Defeating the Blank Faced Monster

Writer’s block – surely a writer’s worst nightmare.

The blank piece of paper or the white, spotless screen stares back at you, your fingers are poised, you stare and the white expanse mocks you as your mind is as blank as the screen. Too often I find myself researching a topic meticulously, mulling over the issues and teasing out its implications while constantly putting off the actual writing process. The blank page seems to create its own inertia. And sometimes the ideas just freeze.

Is there any writer that hasn't experienced this? At least once?

My most vivid memory of writer’s block was in the middle of Old Testament exam at Bible College. It had been a stressful night with little sleep due to an unexpected midnight clash with someone close and dear to me. Not now, I thought, I have an exam tomorrow. During perusal time, I marked the questions I thought I had prepared the best, jotting down some ideas and then on the first question I wrote too much – I knew I was spending too much time, but I kept on writing twice as long as I should. When I came to the second question my mind went blank though I knew the answer well. No matter how much I bludgeoned, pleaded with it, my brain could come up with nothing, zero, zip. The page stared back at me smugly and I began to panic. I sent up a quick arrow prayer, took some deep breaths and swept that question aside and went on to the next. Suddenly the ideas began to flow again and the white emptiness was filled with my increasingly crazy handwriting.

Writer’s block – I confess that up until 4 hours ago that was not what I was going to write about. From the time I wrote Saints, Seekers and Sleepers in December last year, I fully intended to write a follow on piece. I have done some research, made some notes, mulled over ideas. I had a good idea and basic outline of what I wanted to write – but travel, family commitments, study deadlines etc has made this a busy couple of months. Last week I submitted my 3000 word major assignment (On Slaying Education Dragons) for the unit I’m studying (phew) which left the weekly post due on Tuesday and this blog, due today. I finished the post on Monday with time to spare, ready to tackle the blog on Tuesday – only to wake up with a grade 8 migraine which was still pounding my head and nauseating me this morning. The pain has begun to subside this evening but my brain could not, would not think. As I tried to pull my thoughts together, I prayed– Lord, please give me the words to type, the ideas to explore – as I metaphorically speaking stared at a mind numbing blank page. Writer’s Block. 

Why not write on Writer’s block?

So, God willing, I will write my follow-on piece – but maybe in April when, hopefully, my mind is less in a migrainous hang-over and in the meantime I have a few thoughts on what do when writer’s block or its ugly twin, procrastination (aided and abetted by Facebook) rears its sardonic head and stares you in the face. And I would love to hear of your strategies too of how you deal with this blank faced monster.

Here are some of the strategies I find helpful:

• Taking time to pray, giving the idea or concept to God, asking for inspiration and direction.
• Writing an outline with main topics and sub points and breaking down the task into smaller units – concentrating on a smaller achievable goal one step at a time.
•  Starting to write without worrying too much what comes out or about getting a perfect introductory sentence or about being precisely on topic.  I can go back and review, fine tune and trim later but I can’t edit a blank page.
• It may help me to stretch, take a break, relax, and go for a walk or to play some upbeat music. 
• Do a short warm up writing exercise or (with my novels or longer pieces) reread what I have already written.
• If one section is giving me writers block, I can move to another section and come back to the one giving trouble later. (Hint – that’s what I’m doing at the moment.)
• Having a dedicated space to write in – I often write best when I get away from the house – with all the chores staring at me – and find a spot in cafe or library.
•  Writing regularly and often.
•  Nip the negative self-talk in the bud – and believe that I can do it.

So here we are – with a page nicely filled. Just as with my Old Testament exam – I didn’t get the best mark I’ve ever earned, but I more than passed. And this may not be the most brilliant of posts but I have a hunch it is one that will resonate with many of you. With some divine nudging and a little inspiration the writing paralysis is overcome and Writer’s Block slinks away defeated.

What about you – what works best for you?

Jeanette O'Hagan

Lives in Brisbane with her family, writes fantasy, blogs and other things.

jennysthread.com

fantasytrekkers.com

https://www.facebook.com/JeanetteOHaganAuthorAndSpeaker