Random Ramblings of A Writer

I am still trying to learn to navigate around here, so I appreciate all of you who have been helping me do just that.

As I have stated before and I am sure you gleamed from my postings, I am a Christian Author, my faith is reflected in what I write, even in my fictional pieces. I began writing while I was still in school, and by 2003 it was my profession as well as my calling. I also worked with Children in the Children's Ministry at our church. A calling I believe has made me a better person.

I have had my share of up's and down's as an Author, just as I have in life. People who will have you to believe "writing" isn't real work, has obviously never spent a great deal of time, researching, or writing for that matter. It was Ernest Hemingway who said "There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit a typewriter and bleed."

I've learned what it means to be an author, just as I have learned that there is far more to being an author than just sitting at a keyboard typing your story. You will become a researcher, I.e a fact checker, a PR person and so much more, you will learn to carry ideas with you everywhere and you will live and breathe your work.

Natalie Goldberg tells us to “Take out another notebook, pick up another pen, and just write, just write, just write. In the middle of the world, make one positive step. In the center of chaos, make one definitive act. Just write. Say yes, stay alive, be awake. Just write. Just write. Just write.” Honestly there are going to be times that that is far easier said than done.

Stephen King tells us "Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that."

Writing and reading are as much a part of me as air and breath, and as an author it needs to be that way. We must be readers in order to be good writers.

“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It's like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can't stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

As a writer I find myself staring at a blaank page with both anticipation and uncertainity. Will my words come out brilliantly, or will they fight their way through the pages. I have learned though that sometimes when you struggle, if you step away for a short time, those words will come flowing through your fingertips.

(C) Michelle R Kidwell
March.29.2017