3 Things You Didn’t Know about Writing

No, it’s true. Just think about it for a minute. Don’t you think it’d be fun to control people? To tell them what to do and where to go? Or what about taking them to the farthest point north one can go and making them get from point A to point B with only a compass and a boat?

When you write fiction, you’re creating entirely new people and entirely new worlds. You may even create new languages or names. It’s akin to being God! Only God gives us free will.

I admit that, sometimes, your characters can take on lives and wills of their own, but for the most part, I get to control my characters and make them do (or not do) what I want.

And unlike God, if a particular character gets on my last nerve, I can kill him off and move on! Consider that. I get to kill an annoying character, and I don’t have to worry about the police coming for me. (Although the character I use to commit the character-icide may have to evade them!)

That may be murder to those who don’t like to write, but it’s an awful lot of fun to me.

Don’t get me wrong. It can be hard. But being hard doesn’t necessarily mean something’s not fun. It just means making my mind work a little more to get the words out of my head and onto the paper in a way that will persuade my audience to keep turning the page until the end.

And when I can do that—F. U. N!

“An art form?” I hear you question.

“Yes, an art form,” I insist.

Why? Well, because writing is a creative endeavor that has no real right or wrong. (Though please hire a proofreader to make sure everything’s spelled correctly!)

Let’s consult my favorite dictionary, Merriam-Webster:

Art form (noun). 1. A form or medium of expression recognized as fine art. 2a. An unconventional form or medium in which impulses regarded as artistic may be expressed. 2b. an undertaking or activity enhanced by a high level of skill or refinement.

Writing may be tedious for some, but that’s how I feel about the sciences and mathematics. In either, the answer is precise. If I introduce chemical A to chemical B, an explosion is inevitable. Two plus two must equal four.

But with writing, perhaps introducing character A to character B doesn’t result in a love affair. What if, instead, A absolutely loathes B? What if A plus C ignites the sparks instead?

There are so many possible outcomes in life. The same is true in writing. If I want those outcomes. If I want a different outcome, I can make that happen too. Maybe I want A to fall for B. But A’s personality isn’t conducive at first, so something needs to happen in A’s life to make her heart change.

And I think getting A to that point, creating the plot and character arc is fun — a creative release that makes writing exciting and an entirely new ride every time I sit down at my computer.

Writing, for me, is art with the pen (or keyboard) as my paintbrush and the paper (or screen) as my canvas. The words that form sentences that become paragraphs over whole pages are my brushstrokes that make up my bound masterpiece.

As the definition says, writing can be as unconventional as modern art. It can be as impulsive as interpretive dance. Some writing can take skill or refinement to produce.

But mostly writing is just a creative outlet that tells a story to transport its audience to another place and time.

Okay, so I’m going to tell you a little secret. I used to work at a company in which I had a difficult supervisor. (No, that’s not the secret.)

I’d come home after work and complain about yet another bad experience I’d had at this supervisor’s hand. Or maybe it was just general drama and meanness from other employees that would set me off. And my sainted mother would be my sounding board, listening with patience, then offering what advice she could.

Until one day, she finally said to me, “Why not turn your situation into a book?”

After all, she knew I was writing, that my dream was to be published one day. So, to her, it made sense. Write it all down in the form of a story as a means of venting and a way of controlling conditions outside my control.

And so my foray into murder mysteries began.

And, oh, how cathartic my mother’s prescience.

I don’t think even she realized how much it would help me deal with all the aggravation I met with on any given day. But it did.

I can’t even begin to say how therapeutic it was to turn my supervisor into the murder victim. To make so many of the difficult (read, impossible) employees red herrings. To choose the perfect person to be the murderer.

I would saunter into work the next day with a smile on my face, completely relaxed from yesterday’s drama because I’d spent the night writing my next chapter or plotting my next book in the series.

Back then, I wasn’t living for Jesus. Today, I’d take my issues to Him and vent (and write a new novel!), but back then this was my release, and it worked (still does).

Writing also helps me solve problems. Maybe I’m confused about a situation. I can create a new novel, write up new characters, and throw my heroine into the very fray I’m pondering. By the time I’ve worked out my heroine’s journey, I have my answer.

It really is that simple sometimes.

And sometimes, well, life takes so long to get on with itself. Sometimes I just want to know the outcome of a situation I’m currently in. Or maybe I’ve already had the outcome and it didn’t live up to what “should’ve been.”

So I simply go to my laptop and start a new story. I craft my heroine, hero, and the plot and then I work out the very situation I’ve just lived out—only I make the outcome the ending I would’ve preferred instead of the one that really happened.

Writing also helps me process some of the pain and rejection from my past. I’ve endured a lot in my relatively young life, and so much of my childhood pain and traumatic experiences will find themselves in my books.

The Bible says that everything we go through in life won’t be wasted, that God will take all our good, our bad, and our painfully ugly and turn it into something He can use for our good and His glory. And I think part of that is by helping someone else who may be in the very situation you’ve endured.

So that’s why my experiences make it into my novels. Because I know the things I’ve been through just may help someone else currently going through them. And if someone can find God in the middle of their hell because she sees that He was there for and with me in mine, then it will have been worth it to me.

(But if you’ve read my freshman novel, Unconditional Love, then let me set you at ease. Nothing in it was ripped from the headlines of my life.)

Well, I hope I was able to cast writing in a better light if you’ve always held it in low regard.

And the next time you’re looking for some fun or to dabble in art or even to work through some inner turmoil, pick up a pen or get to your laptop and just see what fun your fingers create.