WRITERS BEWARE

NO CREDIT TAKEN! Please note: my husband Ray's computer programme was playing up so although says "posted by Mary Hawkins," he only used my computer to publish this post.

There are words lining up to bite, annoy, charm, tease and motivate you in 2014. Over the past few days or maybe weeks such words have remained dormant, waiting but restless. They bided their time. Words of all shapes and sizes knew you had to have a ‘vacation’ from them, but time is up!

Words are longing to be constructed from various letters. They have a certain loneliness which can only be overcome by sentences, phrases and paragraphs. Now it’s time for you to marshal them into coherent groups. As can be suspected there are always one or two irascible and unruly letters and words unwilling to co-operate.  Strange isn’t it how these very words which have so much potential require so much discipline and refining.  

As you try to sleep at night it is these wayward words which keep running around in the mind. The result! Making sleep a fleeting experience. Trying to match them with more compliant letters and words is difficult but you cannot leave them out of the story. What they offer is vibrancy, colour, power and emotion. Without them the book remains listless. 

2014 has such words and ideas waiting to be tackled and conquered. Harnessing such taunting words into the ‘arms’ of graphic phrases can make us sense something special. At the end of the year we will probably miss out on the Nobel Prize for literature. Our bank balance may not be greatly improved after zealous promotion so…!  

Why do we bother dealing with hard to get along with words? Why juggle with letters to form words and ideas which have a mind of their own? Because we have a story to tell that embraces eternal issues. Because we believe, under the Lord, what we write can be a blessing to others. On top of that when we believe God has given us the gift to play with, enjoy and discipline ‘naughty’ words. But we also know there is accountability. I think that without such a conviction there would be times I’d break the fire ban. On the bonfire would go pen, paper and words. 

2014 is opening its ‘door’ for you as a writer to enter. What waits inside? That is one of the exciting aspects about this calling. This I feel sure of, there are words there waiting, ready and willing to ‘bite’ you.  

May the Lord give you the strength and encouragement throughout the year to ‘bite back’. How? By harnessing those words into something that pleases Him, blesses others and thrills yourself. 

© Ray (peeking through the door) Hawkins.