The Museum of Good Intentions

During our courtship, Maribeth and I spent hours talking about what the future might hold. We still aspired to do meaningful things for the Lord, though we were both in our sixties and had retired from full-time ministry. What might we do together? How could we make the most of the days God might apportion to us? These questions opened some rather creative visions to us.

In the midst of those conversations, Maribeth asked why I had not undertaken a writing project that I had been mulling for several years. I laughed and said, “Honey, I’ve relegated that to the museum of good intentions.”

You know the place. You’ve often visited it, I’m sure, and ensconced some lovely mementos there. Unfinished portraits, rough-hewn statues. Perhaps you dust them from time to time, but you have no serious intention of bringing them out of those polished marble halls to complete the work of your imagination.

Maribeth keeps me mindful of it. When I muse aloud about some project left undone and get that faraway look in my eyes, she will fix me with those penetrating eyes and say, “Is that in the museum, too?”

These weeks of isolation at home would be a good time to walk through your own museum. What treasures languish there? Why not trundle them out the door and see how they look in broad daylight?


Joe Allison writes both fiction and nonfiction, and has been a member of the Indiana chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers since 2010. He lives in Anderson, IN, with his wife Maribeth and daughter Heather.

When to Let Your Child Go

My first book was going to be a work of perfection. I'd spent more than two years researching, writing, and rewriting it. That was the dawn of the personal computer age, so I did much of the work on index cards, handwritten notebooks, and typewritten pages that I cut apart, rearranged, and taped back together. (Can I get a witness?)

I was laboring over the typescript with correction fluid and transparent tape one day when I realized my late wife Judy was standing behind me. She peered over my shoulder and said, “Don’t you think it’s time to let this child go out and play in the street?”

She was right, of course. While it’s important to give readers our best work, if we insist on revising and polishing it to the nth degree, we'll never give it to them. As a panelist on the TV show “Shark Tank” recently said, “Perfection is the enemy of profitability.”

So how long have you been working on your work-in-progress? Check the computer’s date stamp on your earliest version of the manuscript (something I couldn’t do in the day of correction fluid and tape). Make your best guess about how much of the work you've completed. Now take a deep breath and honestly answer this question:

At the rate you’re going, when will you be ready to show your manuscript to an agent or publisher?

The answer may make you wince, but let me ask another: How many other books do you hope to write? Multiply that by the number of years you're taking to finish this one. That means you'll achieve your writing goals by what year? Hmmm.

Admittedly, it's difficult to know when your "child" is ready to go out and play in the street, but here are a few tests that might help you decide:

1. What do your critique partners say? Are they recommending major changes? Then your book probably isn't ready to release. Are they recommending minor tweaks? Then it's probably time to wrap it up. (This test assumes that you have objective, knowledgeable crit partners, of course.)

2. How do agents and editors respond to your pitch? Can they grasp the essence of your story? Are they able to discuss it intelligently with you? This indicates that the idea is well-formed in your mind, so you are likely to have well-focused manuscript.

3. Do you feel the book tells your story effectively? Notice I didn't say "flawlessly" because your editor will help you repair any flaws. But if the manuscript tells your story convincingly and with sufficient detail to convey your message, kiss it and send it into the big, wide world.

By the way, I heeded Judy’s comment. I stopped coddling my “baby” and sent it off to the publisher, who published it. The book is far from perfect, but it’s still in print 35 years later. If I had kept pursuing the elusive dream of perfection, I suspect it would still be that—just a dream.

Joe Allison writes both fiction and nonfiction, and has been a member of the Indiana chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers since 2010. He lives in Anderson, IN, with his wife Maribeth and daughter Heather.

20 Things You Can Do about Writing Today

20.  Read about writing.
19.  Attend a workshop about writing.
18.  Talk/text with a friend about writing.
17.  Daydream about writing.
16.  Pray about writing.
15.  Schedule a time for writing.
14.  Reschedule a time for writing.
13.  Watch a documentary about writing.
12.  Hear an NPR interview about writing.
11.  Surf blogs about writing.
10.  Lurk in a crit group about writing.
9.  Ask a writer for an autograph and finagle a conversation about writing.
8.  Describe on Facebook your frustrations about writing.
7.  Attend an ACFW meeting to hear others talk about writing.
6.  Test a highly recommended piece of software for writing.
5.  Spend weeks mastering the writing software.
4.  Post a YouTube video of tips and tricks for the writing software.
3.  Research carpal tunnel syndrome so you can find the best chair, wrist pad, and desk lamp for writing.
2.  Post a blog on "Hoosier Ink" to inspire others to write.
1.  Write.

__________________

Joe Allison and his wife, Judy, live in Anderson IN, where Joe serves as Editorial Director of Discipleship Resources & Curriculum for Warner Press, Inc. Joe has several nonfiction books in print, including Swords and Whetstones: A Guide to Christian Bible Study Resources. He's currently writing a trilogy of Christian historical novels set in the Great Depression.

Visit Joe's blog at http://southernmtns.wordpress.com

Rivals to Our Work

This month marks the 50th anniversary of C.S. Lewis' death, so for my daily devotional readings, I've been using A Year with C.S. Lewis (HarperCollins: 2003). The reading for October 22 came from Lewis's essay on "Learning in Wartime," which he addressed to university professors and scholars. But I feel it's a timely message for us writers as well:

There are always plenty of rivals to our work. We are always falling in love or quarrelling, looking for jobs or fearing to lose them, getting ill and recovering, following public affairs. If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come...

I see myself in every line of that, don't you? I want to write, feel called of God to write, and have been granted experiences and insights worth writing about. Yet too often I allow the clamor of daily living to drive writing to the margin. I let the rivals take over.

Joanna Davis writes, "I have been brought face to face with the demands of discipleship: total love for Jesus Christ above all else. He doesn't merely want my service; He wants my whole heart...As I have come to Him, acknowledging my absolute dependence on Him, and His sovereign right to rule the throne of my heart, He has always conquered every rival love that had a stronghold in my life."

O Lord, keep my mind and heart focused on the work You have given me to do. Let me not yield to the temptation to allow good things to crowd the best things from my daily agenda, especially when Your work is difficult and demanding. It is Your work indeed, and I yearn more than anything else to be Your faithful servant. Amen.

__________________

Joe Allison and his wife, Judy, live in Anderson IN, where Joe serves as Coordinator of Publishing for Church of God Ministries, Inc. Joe has several nonfiction books in print, including Swords and Whetstones: A Guide to Christian Bible Study Resources. He's currently writing a trilogy of Christian historical novels set in the Great Depression.

Visit Joe's blog at http://hoosierwriter.wordpress.com

Procrastination

Procrastination.

Don't do it.

I speak from sad experience. I planned on writing my post tonight but yesterday I broke my thumb. That makes writing quite a task right now.

If I had started earlier this would have been a fabulous insight on the writing life. Because I procrastinated, it's kind of not.

Anyway, hope you all have great productive weekends!

Procrastination Redefined

If I ever got around to polling writers, I bet procrastination would be one of the top detriments to success. There are so many loop threads and blogs bemoaning it and how to overcome it that it would seem nothing new could be offered.

Pier Steel, PhD in his book "The Procrastination Equation" says psychologists and psychiatrists long believed procrastination and perfection were linked without realizing that it was perfectionists who most often sought help. Steel pulled his test group from random college students and found procrastination was more widespread than first thought.

Even more interesting was that it stemmed from various motivations. For instance, do you have low expectations? Maybe you value enjoyment more than the abstract rewards of tasks that seem irrelevant? Perhaps you’re simply impulsive, easily distracted, and hate to wait. Dr. Steel further divided expectation, values, and time into reasons people procrastinate. He offers actions for each particular type of procrastinator.

*Someone with low self-expectancy can build confidence by improving a skill that is already an interest, though unrelated. This is why students who have extracurricular activities often improve their grades. *Boredom can be avoided by increasing challenge through competition thereby increasing the value of a task. This is an idea most of us understand, but not all find comfortable or stimulating.
*Impulses can be managed by preventing your needs from becoming intense enough to cause distractions. Most surprising is this that type of person actually works harder by first scheduling something pleasurable. Could this account for that euphoric rush of creativity following an ACFW conference?

Procrastination is linked to personality type, which is how God made you. Understanding how to address your particular needs will prevent a personality type from becoming a personality flaw and possibly leading to sin. While procrastination isn’t always a sin, it can be if our delay misses God’s timing or plan for our lives.

We all procrastinate at some time or another. As writers, let’s not equate it with negative personal experience or culture by labeling it “lazy” or “immature”. Procrastination literally means “in favor of tomorrow”. This is only negative when the delay is irrational or not in our best interest. When diligent people procrastinate they call it “prioritizing” which is making wise and positive choices for available time, energy, and circumstances.

To sum it up, not all procrastination is equal. Expectancy, Value, and Time each create different reasons for Delay. Understanding how to self-motivate can unlock some mysteries for delay – and help solve the problem of procrastination.

Mary Allen lives in the Midwest with her husband and a German Short Hair Pointer. She loves God's Word which never changes and also enjoys playing with words which can be endlessly changed. She writes about God's Truth, Women's Fiction and was the La Porte County Poet Laureate from 2010-2011.