The Glamorous Life of a Work-At-Home Writer

I am in exercise clothes, with my hair in a ponytail. However, because I had Bible class at church earlier in the day, I am wearing make-up and earrings.

Child: "You're all gussied up!"

There ya have it. Wearing make-up and earrings constitutes "gussied up."

Sad? Yes.

True? Absolutely.

Catching Up and Planning Ahead

Y'all. You thought I was not going to make it today, huh?

It's overcast and has even rain a little today. A perfect day for doing some catching up in the house and on my work stuff. Scootch up a chair, I'll pour you a cup, and I'll fill you in on what all's going on.

Don't forget! Today (assuming you are reading this the day it's written) is THE LAST day to enter the contest to win a $10 Amazon gift card. Your entry is your comment giving me a name for my newsletter (there are some good ones there!) but the drawing will be a random drawing, so don't worry that it doesn't sound all clever or word-smith-y. Anyone who will use the word 'word-smith-y' is certainly not one to judge!

Are you following "The Cleft of the Rock" on Facebook? You can click on this link, or you can click my little Facebook button over there. Either way, I have come across some very cool articles and quotes lately about marriage and forever love that have been fun to pass along.

As mentioned (probably 42 times more than you wanted to hear) it's a busy season for our family. Perhaps not the best season for me to be trying to focus on writing from home as a business.

I have applied for several jobs that haven't worked out, so I am sticking to what I know I can do -- writing. But, like any other business you will run yourself, it only works if you do. So, I am trying to settle into a routine. And so far haven't yet.

I think back to what Dave Ramsey says about learning to budget: "You aren't going to get this overnight. You can bank on getting it wrong. That's part of the learning process."

John Bingham says the same thing about running: "When one becomes an athlete, one can exchange criticism for assessment. There are no bad runs or races, only events to be considered."

Yes, as Edison came up with 999 ways not to invent the light bulb, I have at least 8 days under my belt of how not to have the best day writing (I have had 3 or 4 pretty good ones, though -- CLAIMIN' them!) But I refuse to let the crazy voices inside my head (you love those guys -- they're the ones that let me write funny stuff) tell me that means I'll never be a writer. No, I am having Sane Sarah tell all the other voices: "Let's examine the pitfalls here and what exactly is going on and find some solutions."

So this afternoon I had a little ministry business meeting and made a plan. No... I don't have a plan yet. I identified problems and wrote SOME solutions, but "further action is required." Do I sound more official if I toss out business-y phrases? I need to use 'leverage' for good measure. That word honestly makes my blood pressure go up because I am so OVER! it being used.

I get a LOT of my productivity resources and ideas from Michael Hyatt's website. He has many valuable tools and ideas on his blog on a regular basis. If you are in any supervisor or leadership position, have your own business, etc. -- you would do well to start reading his blog on a regular basis. Wise man.

So, I am off to make myself an "action plan" to get those other things done. You go enter that contest!
And have a super evening.

Your Child's Village

originally in Abilene Families

As the initial school bells pealed this year, parents had varying emotions and approached the year with different attitudes, in different vehicles, and from various neighborhoods. However, as the paperwork filtered home, one thing bound us all together in a united brotherhood drowning in felled forestry: our loathing of the forms.

As a former educator, I recognize that (some of) the forms are a necessary evil that must be waded through. I believe that I even read somewhere that this year an effort was made to reduce the number of forms, but once I filled the same one out for athletics, band, drama, chemistry club, and my cashier at the grocery store, the effort was really lost on me.

Some of the questions on the forms stumped me, too. Questions that I know were meant to be easy: “Is Yiddish your primary language at home?” I mutter. I rant. I speak in half sentences. Whatever language that the children answer in, claim that one. I don’t know.

“Is your home a temporary living arrangement?” Well, that’s just a can of worms, isn’t it? First, we have high hopes that these people that require piles and piles of forms will move out and fill out their own forms some day. So, yes, this arrangement is temporary, Lord willin’.

Also, occasionally in church I sing a song about this earth not being my home, I’m just a-passin’ through, though I don’t believe having a heavenly home as a permanent dwelling is what the form is asking. I doubt there is even government assistance for that.

This year there was a new one that really stumped me. Next to all of the student’s contacts, you were to check a box next to the contact name if he or she was a “responsible party”. Hmmmmm. We sometimes eat popcorn for dinner and I have been known to leave my children at school forgetting it was my week for carpool. Can you really call me responsible? I checked my husband’s box.

Then, there were the blanks that make me freeze up every year. You know the ones - especially you military families that move frequently. Those dreaded “Emergency Contacts”. Not having family in town, my mind is as blank as the form before me as I consider who would drop everything to help my child were he or she to need it.

Sometimes I play Russian roulette with my cell phone and land on my dentist and my pizza place and call it good. Giving it a little more thought, I begin to realize how blessed I am.

An African proverb accurately states “It takes a village to raise a child”. While our villages today have more brick and mortar and drive-thru windows, the premise still holds true.

I consider the village that loves my family and have been our extended family here. People who have driven, housed, fed, partied, entertained, hugged, and loved my children are all on standby willing to be emergency contacts.

As a young person, I prided myself on being “fiercely independent”. Now as a not-so-young person, I realize what a handicap independence can be. Seeing myself as a member of my village I recognize the astounding value in the community that surrounds me: people and families each a different puzzle piece to complete the overall picture of my family.

Now the hard part is deciding which one to use as an emergency contact. While I do that, I shall be icing my carpal tunnel syndrome from filling out all those forms.

Off Track

So.

Once upon a time, I put it out there.

My dream, my goal, my hope, my idea.

No one laughed (audibly).

But the next month I got a record number of migraines. Hmmmm.... 

And I started drowning in a cycle of migraines and figuring them out, then once I found some relief from migraines I went on a medicine to PREVENT a migraine that instead gave me a headache EVERY day (but it wasn't a migraine!). Can you say irony? 

Also, how great do you think it is to be MARRIED to someone that truly has a headache EVERY day??? Yes, indeed, we were livin' the dream over here!

Lo and behold, this week I look up and realized that the end of (now) this month is a writing conference I'm attending. A writing conference I have scraped and saved to be able to getto  register for, that my parents generously bought me air fare for, that I had grand plans to go to with book proposal in hand. 

I don't have a book proposal in hand. I don't have a book inside my head. I'm doing good to still have my head attached at this point, I figure.

I'll be honest. If I didn't already have loads of my own money and other people's sunk into this conference, I wouldn't go. I have this week that I will be finishing swimming lessons and next week I will be on a mission trip with Ashley. I'll be back in town for a few weeks, then here's my conference!! Yay! or not...

I think I even signed up to have either my writing or one of my talks critiqued by a group of my peers, but I don't even know which I signed up for right now. Susan has finished getting ready for hers (which is what made me remember that was even part of the conference). 

So, I'm off the writing track. I feel lost as lost can be in trying to nail down this dream of mine. After battling my health, I feel like I'm starting completely over which would be fine, but now I realize I have to go to a conference. Yes, I'm supposed to learn at the conference, but everything in me is already screaming at me, "You don't belong there! You aren't really a writer! Poser! Imposter! They're all going to know you don't belong!" 

So.

Once upon a time I had a dream. I think I still have it.

Good Friday

Why do we call it good? Oh, when I think about the events of that horrific Friday that Jesus was crucified, I can't imagine calling it 'good'. But Sunday? Man! What a wonderful day. Well, it's everything I base my faith on -- a risen Savior.

I said yesterday that I've been in a bit of a 'dry spell' spiritually. A dry spell of my own making, I might add. God is faithful and God is still my Savior and Lord -- I'm just wandering a little and He's letting me. I seek Him out when I wander, so I end up right where I should be, I suppose.

Part of my dry spell has to do with my erratic schedule. I talked about that recently, as well. But part of my busy schedule has been writing for the newspaper, which is fine. I have actually come to enjoy that WAY more than I expected to -- I HATE to talk on the phone and, well, I have an erratic schedule! But I have so enjoyed hearing what others are passionate about and wouldn't God have it that I have gotten several assignments about the Lent and Easter season.

A few weeks ago, I was assigned this article about Lent. It was such a blessing to me to talk to people whose minds were focused on the time of sacrifice and centering on God.

Last week I turned in this article about an AMAZING production locally (that is also this weekend if you would like to see it). Not only did talking to each of the folks that I interviewed bless me immensely, but I ended up taking my family to the production last weekend. It was heartbreaking and humbling and victorious and wonderful. And the people I interviewed? Every last one reminded me -- "the script changes, but the story is the same -- it's the gospel that we want the community of Abilene to hear". How precious...

I did an article (that I can't find online) about a family at my church and it just blessed me to hear of the generations of traditions and family memories this family has.

My final Easter season article is this one. It doesn't go exactly like I think my editor thought that it would. But, oh, how wonderful to talk to ministers across the town and hear that each of them are burdened with getting the message of the risen Savior to as many people as possible.

Besides blessing me with each of those articles, God also blessed me with a lighter writing schedule for a few days, so now I have a moment to take it in. Now I'm thinking back on how God gave me many opportunities to speak of my faith with people across many faiths and be reminded why I believe what I do. God put people in my path to remind me of His love for me, and why I'm crazy about Him in return.

Yes, the miracle of the cross is huge -- everything, perhaps -- in my faith. But to know that God used some 'mundane writing assignments' to bring that miracle back to the forefront of my brain is more than I can bear right now.

Oh, I am abundantly blessed.

Celebrate our risen Lord!

Livin' The Dream

Hello.

My name is Sarah.

I am a writer.

I'm writing a book.

That's hard for me to say all together. But I am throwing it out there, at the encouragement of a couple of wonderful, godly men.

This week I had the honor of having a lunch meeting (with about 20 other people -- all ACU students) with Michael Blanton, agent for Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith, and Steve Green, agent for Max Lucado and Phil Gulley. They both spoke a little about their respective industries, the paths they took to get where they currently are, then opened up the room to questions.

Let me say, above all, as they spoke, their faith was tangible and unmistakable. They know, through years of trying and succeeding, and plenty of years of trying and failing, that they and their business are wholly God's and He will fulfill His plans in their business.

I'll be honest -- I walked away from there initially discouraged. Mainly because what I heard (especially in response to my specific question) was what I've heard a million times before -- it's hard to break in, writers are a dime a dozen, yada, yada. But I also knew that I heard some golden wisdom from those two gentlemen.

One that was my favorite was from Michael Blanton: "God doesn't give us dreams to tease us. He will either fulfill that dream in us, or change the dream." Michael told the story of leaving ACU in 1973, determined that he was going to work just long enough to raise the capital to open a Christian ski resort in Colorado. When he was offered a job in Nashville, he initially refused since it was in the wrong direction from Colorado, and wasn't a job he really wanted. But Michael came to love what he was doing, how one thing led to another, and now, he says, his family is able to vacation in Colorado as much as he wants, but Michael is able to know that he has affected people's lives by his work.

They also talked a LOT about the fear of failure holding us back. Evidently Max Lucado has a book coming out the end of this year entitled, "Fearless". (Jana -- he totally stole your idea!) They mentioned that the fear of failure -- which is really just the fear of embarassment of not doing what you want/ hope to do -- keeps so many people from fulfilling their dreams.

My dream is to write a book. Maybe lots of books. And speak to groups. I LOVE to speak to groups. And I HATE telling you all of that. Because Satan whispers to me, "Writers are a dime a dozen. You'll never make it. Do you have any idea how many writers are out there? What do YOU have to say that makes a hill of beans of difference?"

And, truthfully, I can talk myself out of trying to do any of my dreams before I ever write the first word. But those men encouraged me to grab my dream, submit it to God, and work to make it happen. I was a LITTLE encouraged to hear that I am doing some things right: "You may want to think about starting a blog." (ya think?) "See if anybody shows up!" "Find out if people respond to your writing." "Sign up at Twitter." (check...)

So, I'm doing all I know to do. And it is all in His hands. And that's the absolute best place for my dreams to be.

"The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever— do not abandon the works of your hands." Psalm 138:8

Reading to Write

I was going to say THE most helpful thing to me in trying my hand at this writing business has been.... But then I thought of 2 other things that have also been incredibly helpful, so let me just call this one definitely in the top 5:

Being given permission to read a lot.

Actually, I heard MANY times before this that a good writer reads a lot. Period. But I wasn't reading and thought I could get by without it -- my life is busy, I'm running a home (and carpool), have 2 active kids to keep up with, involved in my church... yada, yada. Then Tammy recommended Stephen King's book about writing to me:

She warned me that it's a bit rough around the edges in places. If you've read any Stephen King this won't surprise you. I still haven't finished it because I keep getting stuck in the valuable mid-section of the book where he talks about your "writer's toolbox". That's the basics like vocabulary and grammar, but when he goes into the specifics of writing, he starts with reading.

He starts that section with: "If you want to be a great writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut."

He goes on to say that good writing can be instructionary, and bad writing is golden -- "worth a semester at a good writing school, even with the superstar guest lecturers thrown in." (King is NOT a fan of "Bridges of Madison County", I can tell you...)

About good writing: "You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you."

Later he says: "If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that." (ouch...)

He has a great few paragraphs about what, exactly, you're missing if you turn the TV off to do your reading -- love when he refers to it as "the glass teat".

He wraps up this section by saying: "If you feel you need permission to do all the reading and writing your little heart desires, however, consider it hereby granted by yours truly."

So. Stephen King himself granted me permission to read and write to my heart's content. Truly, it has changed my life! As a human AND as a writer. He's SO right about learning by being swept away from others' writing. And I have been blessed to be swept away by the force of some writing lately. One was in "The Year of Fog". The other, I'll write about later this week. And, I have learned that while Kate Gosselin is an amazing baby-making machine, she is no writer. Her friend, Beth Carson, is a writer... and got a sweet book deal because TLC already gave her a ready-made 'platform'. Literary genius it isn't...

I, in turn, give you permission, writer or no, to read to your heart's content. I am on the verge of giving you instructions to turn off the TV so that you can. Of course Denise watches TV with every light in the house on, so she does both at the same time. Whatever. Reading's good, and there is some good stuff out there, and there is some trash out there. May you spend more time with the former.

Expelliarmus!

Nathaniel got the closest guess to the cardboard tube conundrum at my house. Indeed, if the Harry Potter craze isn't over soon, I will not have any hangers for pants! We are casting spells on each other, Mom, Dad, and the dog. Expelliarmus!

You MUST see Paula's idea for diverting grumpy shoppers in her comment under "A Plan". Aren't digital cameras the best thing ever? "Sure, take 48 pictures of your thumb! No sweat!"

I'm doing "assigned writing" today. Now I remember why I don't consider myself a writer -- assigned writing is also what I refer to as "forced writing" because I have to force myself to do it. To me, it's like building a brick wall using only my hands -- no tools. It's messy, each word is laborious, and when it's finished it's as attractive as a brick wall built using only hands. My writing, the writing that pours from my soul, does just that -- it pours out of me, as frantically as an artist who MUST get their work on canvas. I can't write or type fast enough. Unfortunately, I have to wait for that kind of writing to wash over me. As you have noticed, if you're still hanging around this blog, I'm in quite a dry spell lately. So "forced writing" is about the only writing happening these days!