... Easy.I have a friend who is an office manager. She has an Easy Button from Staples on her desk and it just draws the hand. I can't go into her room without pushing it. "That was easy" in a high-pitched computer voice rewards my hand smack. I wish
there was such a thing as a real Easy Button. There’s so much about this career that is so darn hard. But the Lord is certainly teaching me a lot through the difficulties.
My first lesson has been in perseverance. When writing my first drafts,
it’s easy to get caught up in the doldrums of the middle of the book and lose
heart. I think a lot of would be authors struggle with this. They start stories
that jazz them. Show a passion as they develop the characters and the incidents
that set the plots into motion. But they lose steam when the initial ideas are
through and the great story goes into a box under the bed. Perseverance pushes
through the windless times. In fact, through those sections of my books, new
inspiration has come, new events unfolded that I hadn’t expected. How cool.
Then my passions stir up again as I near the ending and the climax of my story.
But the key is to keep going.
My second lesson has been patience. You know, I could take the
perseverance lesson everyday if I didn’t have to do the patience thing. How
tedious! Day after day of do-nothing-but-wonder-and-worry. And I HATE to worry.
My solution for the patience lesson is to start a new project. Writing is a
non-ending process, after all. The same could be said for other areas of
patience instruction, though. As long as I’m living, I’ll be waiting for
something so the best thing for me to do is not think about the waiting. I know
people who just don’t wait. They demand instant gratification. I neither think
that’s Godly living nor is it healthy. Learning to wait in a patient,
non-worrying manor is an important life-lesson.
Yep, there are times when I’d REALLY like an Easy Button!
P.S. This post is as part of a meme started by Patty Wysong called A2Z Take 2. You can find out more about it and all the great folks that take part in it HERE.
I have a hard time when I try to write a story or novel. I get excited when I come up with the story idea and the characters and even when I first start writing it, but then after a while I lose interest and feel like its no good.
ReplyDeleteI can't tell you how many stories I've scrapped because of that very same conundrum.
I have struggled with that. I found I'm not a "pantser." When I plot out my story from beginning to end, I write each scene with a fresh start. I know exactly where I'm going and the purpose of each scene, so the writing doesn't drag for me in the middle. And the best part is, the story doesn't drag for the readers!
DeleteThere are some tasks that I dread and procrastinate doing. But when they're finally completed, I think "That wasn't so bad!
ReplyDeleteI need an easy button for house cleaning!
ReplyDeleteI'd like an easy button for the mundane (but necessary) chores like house and yard work, bill paying, laundry, keeping things organized, etc. It seems like those take up so much of my time. If I had an easy button for all of that I could get a lot more done on my writing, photography and so on! :-)
ReplyDeleteThere are so many things I'd like an easy button for: dusting my ceiling, finding my chargers (and anything else I've carelessly set aside and lost!), removing splinters, and repairing anything electronic! Oh the hoops one must jump through!
ReplyDeleteI'd like to have that button available every night when I'm making dinner!
ReplyDeleteSquee! I don't need an easy button for that one; I have teenage daughters! Woohoo!
DeleteI flunked that whole waiting curriculum, did you know? I pretty much stink at it. ("Hi, my name is Rhonda, and I stink at waiting.")
ReplyDeleteWriting is nothing if not character-refining, that's for sure. Keep writing! He guides our steps.
I'm lousy at waiting! Can't stand lines or wasting time - mine or anybody's! I feel your pain!
DeleteI agree with your about the middle sag of any large writing project. I am right now seeing the end to one and my enthusiasm ( another E word) is rising with the End in sight. Isn't this meme fun?
ReplyDeleteOh! And when you make it to the sweet spot, that last, best part of the story, your fingers are practically flying across the keys and a permanent smile graces your face. LOVE THAT FEELING!
DeleteI wish I had an easy button for my attention span! When my mind starts to wander, I could just give that button a good smack and my focus will just zip right back into place.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I would probably need to replace the button within a week from overuse, but....
LOL! I'm so with you one that one, but then I don't get distracted that often. At least that's what my mom tells me, but she tells me a lot of things. She told me about not going barefoot in the grass because these gross little worms can crawl up into your feet and from there make it into your heart and your brain and everything. I hate worms. Never liked to put them on fish hooks either. And I didn't go fishing all that much, but I caught one when I was a kid. Had set my pole down to eat a piece of pie. I guess the fish caught my rod is a better way of telling that story.
DeleteUh, what was the question?
I also wish I had an easy button for tedious house work - Or a George Jetson house. Still waiting for that. Push a button and boom, dinner is ready, push another button and the kitchen cleans itself. Ahhhhh! I sort of wish I had and easy button for my son's life too. I know that you grow stronger through trials, but he should be 7ft. tall by now.
ReplyDeleteLOL! Oh I know how you feel! And I LOVED the Jetson house! Or to be able to snap my fingers like Mary Poppins! That would be so cool!
DeleteI wish there was an easy button for parenting transitions: baby to toddler, toddler to child, child to tween, tween to teen, teen to adult.
ReplyDeleteThat teen to adult one has me discombobulated. So glad my dear boy made it through okay!
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