I desperately needed a day off. A day on the sofa watching the pilot of Timeless, the season premiers of Flash and Arrow (of course!) and an episode of Dual Survivor (about being stranded on a desert island, which at that moment, I wouldn’t have minded so much.)
Why?
Because I’d spent the last five days packing and moving our MBT office and house, and cleaned our previous office/residence for 5 hours to get our deposit back and frankly, I needed a breather.
But I didn’t have time to collapse. See, I have a book launching next week (Wild Montana Skies), and classes to write for the upcoming ACFW Virginia Writer’s Conference.
So, I dug in hard. With a little prayer, and energized by my new view…
I s
I spent the week working on a new project and putting together a new set of videos for Novel.Academy.
(And then on Sunday, I collapsed and watched the MN Vikes go 5-0!)
Sometimes being overwhelmed makes us BETTER. We dig in, look for our resources, reach out to God for help and suddenly we’re doing more than we thought we could.
Sunday’s sermon was about what we do in the face of Oppresson. Weariness. The feelings of being overwhelmed.
You know that feeling, right? We’re all standing on the precipice of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and thinking…what? Write a book in a month?
Or maybe you’ve just been handed edits, or…egads, REWRITES!
Or maybe you’re in the middle of your mammoth book, feeling like YOU’D like a day on the sofa.
You probably do, but before you collapse, let me tell you a football story.
During last night’s final game of the JV season, our only quarterback went down. Without a backup, a wide-receiver took his position and suddenly we had to figure out how to win without throwing the ball.
Which meant different kinds of plays and a new kind of thinking. It meant that suddenly the boys had to think outside the box, dig in, find their courage and fight harder.
We won. And boys learned something about themselves.
They were more than they thought they were.
What do you do when you’re overwhelmed? You pray. You believe. You keep moving forward. And you discover that you are more than you thought you were.
Do you have this moment in your story? When your hero, near the end, discovers he is more than he thought he was? He just had to reach out for truth, embrace it and hold on to become that new man.
That triumphant hero who saves the day.
No one said this writing journey would be easy. But, if you keep going, you will surprise yourself. You will discover truth and see God at work in your life.
And you will see that there is more to you than you thought there was.
And that you is brilliant.
Go! Write something brilliant–because your story matters!
Susie May
P.S. Need some help for NaNoWriMo? My writing primer, The Story Equation, the book that tells exactly how I plot a novel, comes out in Kindle tomorrow! Pick it up here!! (and here’s the Paperback version for you to highlight and dogear!)
And, if you want in-depth, step-by-step help in plotting that novel for NaNoWriMo, we have a series of classes at Novel.Academy to help you get that story on the page! Look for our Plotting 101–how to plot a write a story using the SEQ (and don’t forget to watch the follow up class–getting Act 2 on the page!)