It’s ironic, and not, that the prompt for Lisa Jo Baker’s “Five Minute Friday” is “write.”
Just write, but be intentional about it… |
GO:
Because today at lunch with a writer friend, who is writing a book with her husband, I asked, “How do you actually write a book on marriage? Do you guys, like, brainstorm ideas and topics on a marker board, get a plan and go for it? Is it linear, beginning to end? How do you actually write a book?”
She laughed and told me she had asked her husband who has written 2 books the exact same question! She told him she had some questions and wanted to talk about it, wanted to know the angle, “Do we write about topics? Do we come at it, ‘He said, She said’?”
I asked my friend what insight her author husband relayed.
“He said to just write.”
And we laughed and cussed and told one another how we both love Anne Lamott and Bird by Bird, so the prompt and advice wasn’t new, but still just as profound.
Funny how the thing we both love to do, that is write, the thing we do in our heads and hearts most of the day, writing the stories we observe in our lives and the ones we feel and experience, is so difficult to scribe on paper, or tink on a keyboard.
Yet we know we’ve been designed to write and when we do, we come alive and feel all is well with the world. Even when the writing sucks and no one ever reads it because it’s simply filed away in our documents, trapped in a flat folding computer on the desk.
As corny as it may sound to some, we didn’t hear corny as we exchanged our deep love for writing and how when we do it we know we’re doing what we were designed to do, writing for the One who designed us, published or not, not seeking the approval of anyone, just doing what comes naturally.
STOP
Grateful for this prompt today. If you want to just write, link up over at “Five Minute Friday” and then read the blog post of the person ahead of you and encourage them in the art of writing.
4 Responses
Hello Adrienne,
I love how you started your post on “Write” with photos of handwritten writing. In a world where we ‘write’ by typing it strikes me as very profound.
Good Luck on your book and thanks for stopping by Renaissance Women.
~ Cassandra from Renaissance Women
Thank you, Cassandra for the encouragement. There is something about writing, actually holding a pen in hand, and the feeling of it against paper, that I love. As if it’s almost nostalgic these days…
Love this!! I’m so glad you “just write.” May it continue to bring life to your bones and a fire to your soul!
PS: I’m recognizing a few pieces of your story as I click through your blog and wondering if your husband and I work for the same organization? Haha. He shared a bit in our devos one time. Fun coincidence that I came across your blog on FMF! 🙂
Ashley, thanks for stopping by and for the encouragement. It’s likely you do both work at CI 😉 What a small world!