Enjoying The Scenery

I’m beginning to realise that the Christian writing community here in Australia is very close knit. It’s such an encouragement. People want to help each other and support each other. They’re so passionate about good writing, about promoting books that are amazing,

I never knew this. It’s a lovely, warm thing to discover.

I have been and still am very naïve about Australian Christian writers. I had no idea how extensive the numbers are. I am really excited to be discovering so many things that I never knew before. It’s like I’ve opened a book that I’ve never read and I’m being introduced to a new world.

This photo was taken at Cradle Mountain in Tasmania and an amazing friend of wrote this beautiful comment about the photo. I sums up this journey that I'm on, that everyone is on in different ways.

The picture with you and the boys on this long wooden trail just fit perfectly to what you wrote. You don’t know exactly where the trail leads you to, but someone has prepared it, you trust that person that he’s not leading you into difficulties and you can even enjoy the scenery. Isn’t it what God has prepared for us. And it’s not only the goal that is exciting, but the whole journey he’s leading us!

Killing Off My Darlings

I didn’t know that I would get so incredibly attached to my writing. 

In Jane Austen Regrets, Jane comments how she is worried about sending her books out into public scrutiny because she sees them has her kids. She doesn't want people to dislike them and criticise them. I never really understood what she meant but now I reckon that I’m getting closer to.

I’ve been working on my story for about six months now. I’ve thought a lot about it. Prayed about it. Agonised over wording, scenes, characters and dialogue. I’ve gotten really protective of my story and the characters within it. It feels like they are coming into focus, that they are more than just characters in a story.

I don’t mind people giving me constructive criticism and maybe if someone had said, ‘You need to cut that,’ it would be easier than having to make the decision myself of what needs to be cut. It’s heart rending to delete paragraph after paragraph of words. It’s like they were never there.

But I’ve got to be brave. I’ve got to be willing to sacrifice the mediocre to get to the rich core of what I’m trying to communicate. Hopefully my writing will be all the better for it.

Hopefully it will end up being a beautiful picture, something that people will want to look at again and again. 

The 3am Epiphany

I am beginning to realise that writing takes over my life. I think about my story ALL the time. The other night I was snuggled in bed, it was warm and cosy. Outside it was freezing cold and incredibly dark. My mind was literally buzzing with ideas about how to make my story better. I had the perfect intro epiphany, then my mind started going through all the niggly little bits of the story that I wasn't sure about and tidying them all up.
It was soooo annoying because I couldn't sleep. My mind was alive and my body was saying no, no just stay in bed.
I tried to fight it, I tried to go back to sleep. But everyone knows that perfect ideas that come to you at 3am vanish by morning. So, finally I dragged myself out of bed, put on my slippers, my fuzzy warm bathrobe and trudged down the cold, dark hallway to the living area. I turned on the light getting to my manuscript, I sat down and wrote out all my ideas.
After my brain was drained, I went back to bed and fell asleep. It has happened before that I have felt the need to get out of bed more then once in one night. I should probably have a notebook by my bed but that would mean I would have to turn on a light and thus wake up my husband. So, middle of the night trips down the hall will continue for the foreseeable future.