A Writer’s Journey

It’s been about five months since I last took the time to sit down and write on this blog. That is the longest break I’ve taken since I started “Every Small Voice” and I still don’t know what the future of this space will be… but one thing I am certain of is that there’s a season for everything.

And there was a season for blogging in my life as well. Maybe there still is. I’m not ready to pull the plug just yet.

I started writing here way back in 2016, after a painful experience of rejection from a group of believers. This was a safe place to share some of my deepest feelings without resorting to gossip or getting too specific about the details with others. It was a healing process for me. And in the meantime, I fell in love with writing.

I began to see the benefits of sharing my story through carefully thought out words, rather than the thoughtless stream that often flows from my lips when I’m in conversation. It’s through writing that I can get out all those thoughts, emotions, and stories – and then – carefully look through and process everything.

Spoken words come out too quickly for me, and once in a while I long to take them back, only to realize its too late. Written words allow me to take the needed time to reflect.

In truth, I’ve loved writing my entire life.

As a child, I wrote silly little tales of children running away from home and visiting abandoned mansions or scary forests. As I teen I wrote poems that reflected whatever I felt in the moment. I loved poetry and it comforted me when I was feeling down.

Then in 2006 I became a mother. This changed the way I wrote for many years. Most of my writing was for my kids: notes to them for when they were older, scrapbooks filled with funny facts and anecdotes of their baby years. And I also journaled, filling up notebooks with the interesting moments of Motherhood, and also prayers to God through each ordinary day.

It was really in 2016 when my writing took a turn. I began sharing my stories; my many thoughts and feelings with the world. People seemed to connect with what I wrote which spurred me on. For four years I continued writing about little lessons that God was teaching me.

In 2020, our fast paced world changed abruptly. For the first time in history, everything world wide seemed to shut down. Travel was put on hold. Education was brought to a halt. Sports and entertainment, restaurants, and churches alike stopped… just like that.

And for the first time in my adult life everyone seemed to have something to write about and they wanted to share it with the world. I felt drowned out and suffocated with all the noise. The longer the season wore on, the louder the voices around me became and the less desire I had to be online at all. Everyone seemed so political, every topic became over-discussed and even the once lighthearted comments just seemed too heavy. So I slowly withdrew. Finally 2022 hit and I stopped posting altogether.

Yet, my writing is still very much alive.

A year ago I joined a small, but life-giving writers group that has both inspired me to keep writing and challenged me to grow in it. We meet every other month and critique each others work on the “off” months. Through this group I am able to write both fiction and non fiction, get feedback on my work, and discuss many of the common struggles that writers face.

I have three fictional pieces I’m currently working on at various stages:

“Project Slone” is the piece I’m most engaged with right now. It’s a fictional piece with a dystopian feel about an experimental community of children being raised by “qualified professionals” instead in homes with a family. I’m at 35,500 words that have been revised and edited, and although I’m only half finished, I am slowly going through the first few chapters with my writers group.

“The Millionth Penny” would be considered juvenile fiction and I’m at about 12,000 words, but I feel far from done. Although it truly is my favourite of all my fictional pieces… I am stuck. One day I’ll get back to it.

“Tales from the Secret Wood” is definitely in its beginning stages with only 6,000 words, not to mention, I’ve done zero editing on it. Somehow though, I see the most potential for this book to be fully finished first. Those 6,000 words only took me three days to write but the story is about a third done. It was written for my youngest two boys and it’s going to be a children’s chapter book so the final story will probably be quite short (maybe only 15,000-18,000 words).

I also lead a women’s group in my church and for the past two years I have been given the opportunity to write Bible study and devotional material for them.

I have finished (but not edited) two “15 Week Bible Studies” written especially for young moms to go through as a group:

“A Mother After God’s Heart” at 12,000 words.

“A Fruitful Motherhood” (based on the Fruit of the Spirit) at 17,000 words.

These are saved in a printable PDF format and I send them to women who are looking for such material free of charge. So far the feedback has been extremely positive and encouraging.

It’s a new world of writing, and although it’s certainly not making me any money, the journey is exceptionally rewarding in other ways. I still have dreams of someday publishing my work, but for now I am at peace with being where I’m at.

How about you? What is your story? I’d love to hear about your “Writing Journey”. Feel free to share in the comments below!

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