3 Things a Country Music Singer Taught Me About Writing

by Sherma Webbe Clarke | @sdwc8181 

Life lessons are everywhere. Sometimes strangers teach them.

While attending my first ACFW conference in Nashville, Tennessee, my husband and I strolled along the Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge. We observed a young singer and a cameraman filming a music video. With a guitar strapped against his body, the singer belted out a few lines of a song while performing a choreographed move. An acrobatic move involving taking a leap while he sang and played the guitar. He tried the move repeatedly until he achieved the desired result. Intrigued by the idea that I might be watching a country music star in the making, I lingered. I watched. I listened to him sing.

Two years later, I wonder what rung he has reached on the ladder of stardom. Is he performing at the Grand Ole Opry? Is he paying his dues at a Lower Broadway establishment? Or maybe he’s working in a hardware store and living in his parents’ basement surrounded by boxes of his broken dreams. I'll never know, but I thought he was bold and fearless, qualities he’d need to be successful in the music industry.

As writers, we are just as vulnerable when sending our words out for the scrutiny of readers as a musician performing in front of curious passersby on a bridge. I wondered—am I fearless? Am I persistent enough to pursue my dreams?

Persistence

This summer I had a vulnerable moment in my writing journey. I entered a local playwriting competition, which gave me the opportunity to explore a different kind of writing. The well-wishes of family, friends, and strangers bolstered my morale during an Andy Warhol-ish fifteen minutes of fame. On closing night, I watched the performance with tingly skin and sweaty palms. When another playwright accepted the award for her winning play, I felt defeat churn in my stomach.

At first, I comforted myself with the fact that I had participated. I had tried something new, and for a moment, I felt content. Then I overanalyzed my contribution. Why wasn’t my play good enough? Why didn’t I…? Should I have…? For the next two weeks, disappointment grew, and I wrote nothing. Not even a shopping list. My bubble had burst, and I felt more unsettled than I’d like to admit.

Why do we push aside all of the positive reinforcement we receive to focus on one negative comment or experience?

Then, a church member asked about the competition. “I didn’t win,” I answered. There had been only one winner and the rest of us had lost. Boo-hoo. “So you tied for second,” he said.

Perspective

From that statement, my perspective changed. The chains of failure fell away and suddenly the desire to write returned. Ideas filled my mind. New characters appeared. Second place became a launch pad for possibility. I thought of the singer on the bridge. Perhaps he writes songs late into the night after his shift at Home Depot.

Power

Ecclesiastes 9:10 urges us: Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. Does that imply we try once and if it doesn’t work out, we surrender? Should we stop writing when an editor points out areas that need work in our stories or when a rejection letter arrives? Jeremiah 12:5 says:

If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses?

In other words, pursue your goal with power. Every day. Every time. With all your might. 

Sometimes I wish I could talk to the singer on the bridge. And maybe thank him for that moment in time. He is a reminder to “do it with all your might” no matter who’s looking or what Discouragement might whisper into my ear. I needed the picture someone taking a step toward a dream to lock into my memory bank for the days I’m tempted to give up on mine.

Big or small, what step have you taken this week to bring you closer to a goal?

About Sherma . . . 

Sherma Webbe Clarke is a contemporary fiction writer and a 2017 ACFW First Impressions Finalist. Her inspirational writing has been included in Christian devotional books: Grace Notes and Blessed. She loves to take her husband by the hand to explore nearby and far-flung areas of the globe. This wanderlust has its perks. She credits many of her story ideas to these adventures. Quiet, early-morning walks along the railroad trails on her home island of Bermuda provide inspiration when she is homebound.

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Feeling Stuck? Read on... Devotion by Dianne J. Wilson

I watched a bee try to get out of my house yesterday. He buzzed up a storm up and down the glass. He was trying to find a hole, I guess? Up and down, left, right. He pushed hard to get through every millimeter of that glass pane. He was dedicated. Committed. Probably a bit desperate. At the end of the day? Still stuck.

Before you think I’m heartless for watching the poor thing struggle without helping it, hear me out.

The window was open.

At any moment, he could have flown free.  I did eventually help the little guy, but it got me thinking about how we live sometimes.

We can see the vision, the goal, the dream. We push towards it with every scrap of our energy. We keep pushing and trying, we change tactics and try again – because surely a God-given dream should work, right? And yet sometimes, there is simply no breakthrough. We try until our all our energy and passion is depleted and then a small sliver of disappointment lodges deep inside. If nothing changes, this sliver grows to a wedge that can drive us away from trusting God and what He’s called us to do.

Friends, if God has placed a dream in your heart – the window is open.

If I spoke bee, I would have said to that little chap buzzing in my window, “Hey, take a step back. Stop the frantic buzzing and breathe a little. Find the scent of fresh air and follow it.”

God is saying the same to us. “Step back. Stop the frantic buzzing and breathe. Find the fresh wind of the Holy Spirit and follow it.”

‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.’ Zechariah 4:6

‘I know that everything God does will endure forever; 

nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.’ Ecclesiastes 3:14

Dianne J. Wilson writes novels from her hometown in East London, South Africa, where she lives with her husband and three daughters. She is writing the third book in YA series, Spirit Walker, with Pelican / Watershed. Book 1, Affinity is releasing on the 8th of June 2018.

Finding Mia is available from Amazon, Pelican / Harbourlight, Barnes & Noble and other bookstores.

Shackles is available as a free ebook from Amazon & Smashwords.

Find her on Facebook, Twitter and her sporadic blog Doodles.

BREAKING THROUGH THE WALLS - TO WRITE

Today Ray and I went with our adult children here for Christmas holidays from the Australian mainland to see the movie, Tin-Tin. It was a most enjoyable family film. Our children began reading Tin-Tin when they were quite young and have a number of those comics still on their shelves. In a couple of scenes the comment was made, “when you come to a wall, you’ve got to break through it!”

For this writer, those words accompanied me home in the car. Having this blog to write made the statement even more relevant. Why? Because over the last couple of weeks a number of invisible yet very real walls have appeared across my pathway to writing my next book! Breaking through them has required more than one type of “hammer.”

There has been the Wall of Sickness and now whooping cough which has infected our grand-children. We have six youngsters under ten years. The youngest is 10 weeks. By the grace of God and wise management by parents she has so far escaped its ravages. Prayer is sustaining the family as sleep has been in short supply. Christmas Day this year was certainly “different.” We did join them all in the open air for far too brief a time to give and receive gifts but no hugs, no kisses! I am a “hugger” so that was particularly difficult!

Over the years, the Wall of Distraction has often come to taunt me day in and day out. Before long my writing schedule is derailed and I become frustrated, even despondent. Fortunately I have a wonderful husband who prods me along. So many times he not only helps with tasks that should be my responsibility, but picks up the “axe” of priorities and helps me break through. I have to remember to let some things in the house and garden remain untidy, to delegate some responsibilities and try harder to ignore others. Having dealt with those levels of self-discipline, I still have to put seat on this chair, read back over some of what I’ve already written until I’ve crept back into the heads and hearts of the characters in my latest story.

At last! Fingers poise for a moment over the keyboard. A deep breathe, and off they go trying to keep up with those characters’ fears and problems, tears and triumphs. I am writing again at last!

None of this is easy. My having a perfectionist nature makes that very evident and something about myself I’ve had to come to grips with many times over the years. God sure knew how much I needed the help of a sympathetic “close enough is wonderful” husband to get me back on track to crash through that “Wall”.

Unfortunately, as in that Tin Tin story today, there are too many times series of Walls to break through when actually working on a manuscript.

Sometimes plots and characters just won’t “behave” as I thought they would or should in certain situations. This is the Wall of Disappointment when things don’t work out in the story. The encouragement of fellow writers through face to face contact at meetings, conferences, reading other writer’s blogs, tips on many aspects of writing help tear the walls down plank by plank or even brick by brick.

The Wall of Aging becomes an excuse as I find it takes more and more time to assemble fresh and stimulating words and plots. I can’t do much about the years but accepting a slower work rate allows for escape holes to appear in the barrier between me and my final edit.

There are all kinds of Walls of course that can slow or even stall the writing process. But my final one I’d like to mention here is the Wall of Criticism, especially from family and close friends. This is a hurtful barrier which I can only really conquer with the sense of conviction I’m doing what is pleasing to the Lord. I may not be a “World Winner”, but God will use what I’ve framed and had accepted by editors and publishers to be a blessing to someone somewhere.

Essentially, this is the best “Wall Breaker” I know. Nothing you do for the Lord, with the Lord and according to the Lord’s purposes will ever be contained by the “Walls” of the world, the Flesh or the Darkness. In fact, when all is said and done it has only been because HE is the one who has been my strength to break through the walls that would stop me writing – and being – what HE wants me to do and be.

What about your world – whether it is also that of the writer or some other tasks?

What kind of Walls do you discover may block the road you know you should be faithfully travelling on?



Ray and Mary with 2011
CALEB Award certificates.

 Mary Hawkins is a best-selling inspirational romance author. A Queensland farmer’s daughter, she became a registered nurse before going to Bible College. She and her minister husband have three adult children and five grandchildren, enjoyed over 46 years of ministry including church planting in Australia, two years in England, three short term mission trips to Africa and now live in Tasmania, Australia's island state. Her 19th title, Justice at Baragula was released May, 2011
Read more about her books, her husband Ray and his devotional books on their blog from the website: http://www.mary-hawkins.com/

Three "Demned Ds" by Rita Stella Galieh

I'll name them. Discouragement, Disappointment, & Depression.

I guess everyone who has ever lived has experienced their awful see-saw effect in their lives. Often it's when circumstances or grief overwhelms us. Or when things we hoped and planned for never eventuate. Maybe it's the downside of creeping depression. Perhaps the weight of disappointment dragging at us. Sometimes it's hormonal. Whatever. Each has the ability to crush us, body, soul, and spirit.

You just want to curl up and go to sleep. Or eat fast food or chocolate - a quick hit. Or wish for a dream holiday to escape reality for a time. This is when you need someone you can trust. Someone who won't think you're wallowing in self pity. Someone who understands perfectly, even before you can get the words out. And most of all, someone who won't judge.

If you have a friend like that, cherish them. But are they on call every hour of the day?

Oh, friends, you do have someone. Maybe someone you've been holding at arm's length for too long. Check this out for yourself. And if, after reading Psalm 139, your heart doesn't respond, read it again until it sinks in. Then believe it and hold onto this wonderful truth for all its worth.

Who else could know you better then you know yourself?

I have several booklet titles on Discouragement & Depression, and Loneliness. Perhaps you have a friend needing some encouragement, if so, leave a request in your comment & I'll post them to you gratis. May God bless you.

www.ritastellagalieh.com