There are moments of sheer and incomparable joy, when the words come together. When people like your stuff, when the comments flow.
There are also moments of great internal struggle. Deciding what to share, what to keep private. That old fear of scaring people away if I am too deep. Too personal.
Scaring people away if the words are too shallow, too irrelevant.
Emotions compete with great ferocity. Much of the time, the work I do here feels valid. Maybe even important. Those are the good times, when I can’t wait to get to my keyboard.
“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” ~ Richard Bach
But other times? I think who really cares?
New writer worries
Who wants to read a funny story about your kids, or how much you love your husband, or how to create an artful life? Or see pictures of abandoned buildings and tiny flowers?
To read about the brokenness of people or the conflict of wanting to be a better person?
I know what causes this conflict, I think.
Being a person with great affection for life, and the desire to share experiences sometimes opposes the harder stuff. I seedifficult things around me, and my work seems insignificant. Petty.
When I see the pain in everyday life, lives so very different from my own, the despair of my community…it leaves me off -kilter.
Is that a problem for you as a new writer?
What should new writers do?
Show up.
Grappling with the question of Who Am I? Should you be doing more, something different to impact the world? (By the way, click here to read my thank you message to YOU)
“Good writing is remembering detail. Most people want to forget. Don’t forget things that were painful or embarrassing or silly. Turn them into a story that tells the truth.” ~ Paula Danziger
I can’t not write. I would have no outlet to express the deepest parts of my heart. I am true to me. That hopefully translates into these humbly offered words.
I could keep them private, these tumultuous mental battles. There are at least 150 million+ blogs.
I am the tiniest whisper among a roar of voices.
Your voice matters too. Only YOU can speak your message…don’t let comparison be part of your distraction!
Your words matter
I am a writer.
I am not a blogger, but a writer who expresses angst and joy and confusion and sorrow and delight and beauty through words and pictures. On this blog. The best I know how.
And that tiny voice? I keep writing because maybe?… just maybe, that whisper will be direct to your heart.
“You have to follow your own voice. You have to be yourself when you write. In effect, you have to announce, ‘This is me, this is what I stand for, this is what you get when you read me. I’m doing the best I can—buy me or not—but this is who I am as a writer.” ~ David Morrell
Maybe you won’t hear me at all behind the words, but you’ll see a tiny light of God breaking through the cracks of my humanness , and you’ll change and grow with me.
And that is the reason that today I click the publish button.
Writing is a risky business. But it’s my business, this sharing type of life. God’s business, this transparency. And I am showing up for work.
If you can swing a bigger investment? This is worth every cent. I have been writing and blogging since 2008. When I started hearing about the SEO Boot Camp course from Kingdom Bloggers, I wasn’t sure if it was right for me.
I am over the moon that I jumped in, because I learned more in 8 weeks than in the 10 years prior in regards to the nuts and bolts behind the scenes of writing material that can encourage and inspire others in a way that they can FIND it. SEO wasn’t a thing back in the day.
I can’t say enough about the information packed into this course and the VALUE of what it held for me, and for many people I know who fel the same renewed confidence after taking it!
It would be great for beginners who can do things “right” from the outset. (It opens again in January 2022, bookmark this and write it on your calendar!)
But also, for people like me who are long-term invested and need to update our skillset!
*Disclosure: I only recommend products I do/would use myself. This post may contain affiliate links that at NO additional cost to you, may earn me a small commission to help support this blog. Read full privacy policy here.
Well, what you write touches me, and they always say, “write for an audience of one.” So I hope it means something that you are touching one life when you sit down at your keyboard, or take out your camera and snap a photo. To me, it means that there is someone out there who also loves God, and loves their family, but struggles with life and isn’t always so sure. And that is very comforting and encouraging.
I have had a few days away from technology – days with no email, no text, no computer. While I enjoyed every moment of that slower, calmer, quieter disconnected pace, I cannot tell you how quickly my fingers swept across the keyboard to hurriedly get logged back in. 🙁 I am addicted. 🙁 I have to say, Friend, that my eyes quickly scan my inbox to find your post and those are the first I read. They have to be read in the order you blogged (a bit of my personality shining through there – lol) – but every word, every picture, every hidden whisper behind those things speaks to me. Hope that doesn’t sound a bit stalker-ish there! 🙂 Christa, I love your little space here because you are R-E-A-L and you keep it R-E-A-L! You are candid, funny, motivational, inspiring, Godly….my list goes on. I am certain that you are touching more folks than you know….keep true to who you are and keep pushing that publish button!
Well, what you write touches me, and they always say, “write for an audience of one.” So I hope it means something that you are touching one life when you sit down at your keyboard, or take out your camera and snap a photo. To me, it means that there is someone out there who also loves God, and loves their family, but struggles with life and isn’t always so sure. And that is very comforting and encouraging.
You bless me friend. Thank you…
I have had a few days away from technology – days with no email, no text, no computer. While I enjoyed every moment of that slower, calmer, quieter disconnected pace, I cannot tell you how quickly my fingers swept across the keyboard to hurriedly get logged back in. 🙁 I am addicted. 🙁 I have to say, Friend, that my eyes quickly scan my inbox to find your post and those are the first I read. They have to be read in the order you blogged (a bit of my personality shining through there – lol) – but every word, every picture, every hidden whisper behind those things speaks to me. Hope that doesn’t sound a bit stalker-ish there! 🙂 Christa, I love your little space here because you are R-E-A-L and you keep it R-E-A-L! You are candid, funny, motivational, inspiring, Godly….my list goes on. I am certain that you are touching more folks than you know….keep true to who you are and keep pushing that publish button!