When Writing Is Hard

Recently I participated in a free webinar with Mary DeMuth and Thomas Umstattd. The seminar was titled, Master Social Media Joyfully. Lots of fabulous information was shared during this seminar, but one phrase used that stood out most, "Write words that can change lives."



Photo credit: Jain Basil Aliyas (Creative Commons)

I was participating on this webinar the day after publishing a post that had very few page views. Let's just say there was a battle going on in my mind over whether what I shared was worth reading. Did I write words that could change lives? Could my words ever change lives? As my mind filled with doubts, a part of me simply wanted to call it quits. This writing stuff is too hard!

Two days were spent chasing after these thoughts. Exhaustion took over and tears fell down my cheeks.

A dear friend came to my rescue and informed me that in these moments we need to take our thoughts captive and stop letting our mind run away with them. She provided an image of us chasing after our thoughts in different directions which was quite an accurate picture, and made me smile!

"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." - 2 Corinthians 10:5

Oh how I need to embrace this verse!

One of my posts in the works is about my hate for numbers and how I let them control my life. Numbers have been my way of determining my worth, whether it is the numbers on a scale or the number of page views to each post. But God is always at work and He will use our weaknesses for growth. Instead of giving up and calling it quits with this whole writing thing, there was a gentle nudge from Him asking me to remember why I write.

Why do I write? I find healing when I write, but the primary reason is to share His love (my God-sized Dream). If what I share only touches the life of one person my "why" is still being fulfilled.

I was catching up on blogs I follow and several seemed to be written directly towards me. Andrea Levendusky writes in her recent post on Allume, "Sometimes having a blog isn't about the numbers or how much traffic you can generate from a tweet at 2:15 p.m. Sometimes it's much bigger, much better, much more meaningful than a stat or comment." Read post here.

The words written by Andrea came on a day when I needed to hear them most. My "why" is that just maybe the words I write are written on a day when someone (maybe you!) out there really needed them. If my "why" is to grow in numbers then I'm writing for the wrong reasons.

Here is something we need to remember: When God calls us to something, He doesn't immediately make us great at what He called us to do. It requires work, and it requires faith in His timing. It certainly won't always be easy. You will have days similar to mine when you just want to give up. He does asks us to be obedient. And in that obedience he will do something "much bigger, much better" than you good ever imagine.

"And his affection for you is all the greater when he remembers that you were all obedient, receiving him with fear and trembling." - 2 Corinthians 7:15

I greatly desire to please God. When I'm at those pearly gates, I want to hear those words, "Well done my good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:23). So calling it quits on writing is not something I'm going to do, but I do realize I can always be working to be a better writer. You and God are worthy of words that are capable of changing lives.

Here is some very useful information shared by Mary DeMuth during the Master Social Media Joyfully webinar that I'm focusing on:

"Anatomy of a Good Blog Post" Source: http://www.authormedia.com/master-social-media-with-joy/
1) Awesome Titles
2) Tweet this option
3) Vulnerable story
4) Pinnable image
5) Key words that rock
6) Ask the reader a question

This particular post may not contain all six of these, but I'm working on it!

As for this pinnable image...I really wish I was able to provide my own images to my posts, but this is not a strength of mine. By chance do I have any followers that would like to collaborate with me on providing images? I'm still laughing at my attempts to use http://www.picmonkey.com/. Someone please help me!

Wishing you all a day filled with love, love and more love!