by Tammy Karasek, @tickledpinktam

The popularity of adult coloring books is staying the course. I have a stack myself. I’ve always loved to color and for years our daughter would try to find a new pack of crayons for my stocking at Christmas. Often a new fun book would be sticking out of the top of the stocking, too. Now we don’t have to color in children’s books. We also don’t have to use crayons should we choose not to. We have a huge assortment of colored pencils and markers to pick from as well as fancy adult books in which to use them. 

I’ve always used coloring as a stress reducer, even though I’d probably be considered a little OCD about staying in the lines, or that the colors would be balanced in a paisley design. Just the experience of slowing down and coloring was a way to clear my mind. But I colored the page my way with no pressure to color it the way everyone else did or said I should. If you do color, are you the type that has to stay in the lines or are you okay with the occasional slip over the edges? 

Though how does coloring relate to writing you might ask. Quite a bit of parallel I would answer. 

In writing we have certain rules—or lines—we need to say within. There are guidelines and boundaries we must follow to keep somewhat within the industry standard or expectation. But the way we write within those lines is chosen by us when we write in the voice God has gifted us with. Just like we might choose pink (I would!) to color the flower, we choose the words to best describe our thought or design if you will. We describe a character or story world in our own words.

But just as we have the choice to stay within the lines or rules, we can also sneak a little over the line, bend the rule a tad if you will. In essence we get to add a little pizazz to the picture. As writers, we are using words rather than colored pencils to tell our story—or color our page. And each of us will use our own creativity to do that. We may choose carnation or a fuchsia pencil rather than just pink to liven up our story. We’re staying pretty much within those lines, but we’re going bold to make our statement pop. Or we may go with taupe or greige instead of cream to subdue the story. Our story—our color.

If you like to color, are you the type that stays perfectly within the lines and uses the basic eight colors? Or are you a daredevil and go bold with the sixty-four pack and go over the lines a bit?

And what type of writer are you? Do you stay in the lines or take it to the edge? Do you write with bright colors and show your personality—your voice—in your writing?

For me, I’ll be grabbing that fuchsia pencil and will try to stay within the lines, thank you very much. Wink.

---

Tammy Karasek uses humor and wit to bring joy and hope to every aspect in life. Her past, filled with bullying and criticism from family, is the driving force of her passion to always encourage and inspire others and give them The Reason to smile. She’s gone from down and defeated to living a “Tickled Pink” life as she believes there’s always a giggle wanting to come out! 

A long-time member of My Book Therapy and a contributing team writer for Learn How to Write a Novel, she’s also the Social Media Manager for the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference, Founding President of ACFW Upstate SC, Founding President of Word Weavers Upstate SC and a writing team member for The Write Conversation Blog and others. Her work was published in a Divine Moments Compilation Book—Cool-inary Moments. When not writing, she’s The Launch Team Geek helping authors launch their books.

Connect with Tammy at https://www.tammykarasek.com.

k.com.