17 Comments
User's avatar
Sandra Rose Hughes's avatar

Maybe this is why so many children's authors are parents. When I write stories, I think of my children, and I know that they at least will enjoy them.

Gary Badker's avatar

Thanks for being vulnerable. Not very many people would admit to being in a noontime bowling league. 😁

Jonathan Rogers's avatar

Haw! It was a league made up mostly of the underemployed—songwriters, writers, retirees, etc.

Karen Wells's avatar

Exactly what I needed today. Thanks again for the many nudges in the right direction.

Christy Jones's avatar

Perfect message this morning! And thank you specifically for sharing these words: ā€œFor much of that two-year span I was in a whirl-hole of despair, completely unable to move forward. I mostly knew where the story was going, but when I sat down to write it, I just couldn’t make the sentences.ā€ So encouraging to know a published, successful writer felt the way I do right now!

Meredith Davis's avatar

This was so encouraging this morning as I sit down to a blank page. I recently filled out some marketing docs at a publisher and they essentially asked what you're talking about here. Who am I speaking to? I'm so tempted to generalize, to prove how just about anybody would love the book, but in the early days of a blank page, you can't write to please everybody. And in pleasing the one particular, you write a story with heart and passion and umph that appeals to many.

Jerry Foote's avatar

Almost everything I write has already been a serious conversation at dining room tables, coffee shops, walks in the woods, around tables in the church basement, and in phone calls with family and friends. When people push back at the ideas, look again at their Bibles, and say, "That is helpful," I try to put the best parts of the conversations on paper.

Julie Gilbreath's avatar

This is so encouraging. Thank you. I’m just over halfway through my master’s thesis and feel like I’ve hit a wall. But I had dinner with some friends last night who said they’re intrigued by my topic and would like to read it when I’m finished, so I’ll get back to work and write what I think they ought to know.

Tina O'Kelley's avatar

Helpful.

Kathleen Bradshaw's avatar

Thank you for this.

Alison Vogel's avatar

I know what you mean now. The biggest fan of my YA novels is an old friend in her mid nineties. When she told me last fall that she was on hospice, I wrote faster to finish book 3 in the series she has loved. I sent my very first published copy to her. She's still around and cheering me on as I write book 4!

Mary Boyde Funches's avatar

I love this! Sometimes I write poetry for specific people in my life. It's hard to write poetry about/for one person, because they are so multifaceted and complex as humans, but sometimes writing for a person v. the unlimited ether gives me direction.

Jennifer Degani's avatar

This is what writers need to hear! The majority of what I have written has been to a specific audience, mostly my own children. It gives me motivation to keep going and the bonus is that I can send it on to them or read it to them whether it gets published or not. Every time I try to write something I feel ā€œqualifiedā€ to write for a broad audience, I can’t write anything. I have to start with a few people in mind or the idea has to come to me.

Katie Brewster's avatar

Appreciate you being real. Authenticity is refreshing. :):)

Lisa Hellwig's avatar

Sir, this article seemed to have taken all my unformed thoughts, laid them straight and shot through the mist and damps into my line of sight! Exactly what I was thinking! But never had the nerve or skill to draw it out of the abyss that is my whirlwindy brain. Thank you!

Tyler Rogness's avatar

A very much-needed reminder. Thanks for this.