Why are you interested in writing?

So ya wanna be a fantasy/scifi writer.
I can relate. I’ve read tons of scifi and fantasy. I used to sneak scifi and fantasy novels to the dinner table and read them in my lap while eating, or wolf my food down so I could run back and devour more of the worlds and stories I loved. Back then, video games involved a white dot bouncing between two little paddles. Called it PONG. But I would have played them then and I waste a lot of time even nowadays playing them…

Back when I was your age, I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. I wish someone who knew something about writing had sat me down and asked me some hard questions and given me some good advice on how to get past writer’s block. That wall you hit when you get about 50 pages into your book. I have a lot of unfinished stories.

So, Here I am, and I’m going to ask you some hard questions I want you to think about, before we get into whether you want to be a writer, and then, how to get there…

Question 1) Why are you interested in writing?
Are you writing to get famous? What do you want to get out of writing? Is it a book under your belt that you can point to and say, “Look, I’m a writer!” I have to tell you, it’s a thrilling feeling to have a book done, and there’s a desire to brag on yourself about it, because you HAVE accomplished something when you get to “The End” of a good book. But, you need to prayerfully consider whether pride and selling yourself to others, getting recognition for your work, is what’s driving you. Because I’ll tell you right now, God says that you are already something special in Him. He knows how many hairs are on your head. (Matt 10:30) He formed you in your Mom’s womb (Psalm 139:13) and He loves you with an everlasting love. (Jer 31:3)

Yet, everything we create should be for His glory, not our own. That’s a hard lesson and I’m still learning it. But He doesn’t bless what we do until we give it to Him. This doesn’t mean you have to write Christian stories like C.S. Lewis’s ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ – you can write something totally secular like ‘The Lord of The Rings’ and yet lace it with Christian concepts, like the battle of good and evil, where good triumphs in the end. In LOTR, it’s actually Bilbo’s pity and God’s guidance and orchestration of Gollum that save the day and destroy the Dark Lord Sauron. Frodo had already given himself over to the ring, but Gollum destroyed it through his own greed. The ring is like sin that ensnares us. Frodo could relate to Gollum, who showed clearly the two natures warring against one another in all of us.

When we write for our own glory, it’s really pride that drives us on, and that’s something to try to avoid. Because God doesn’t like it, and we want to please Him, and He deserves the glory, we… really don’t.

Are you writing to get rich? Seek elsewhere. Most writers don’t get published at all, or self-publish. Those that do, usually can’t make a living at it. Christopher Paolini is an exception, the writer of it needed some more work even then.

Most books that are published don’t even sell enough copies to ‘break even’ – to make more than the cost of printing and marketing and the advance given to the author (usually a few thousand dollars). There are exceptions. But a book doesn’t break even until it’s sold at least 20,000 copies. And many don’t sell that well. If your first book doesn’t sell at least 10,000 copies, you usually don’t get another opportunity to publish.

So, suffice it to say, getting rich shouldn’t be your motivation. It’s like a painful lottery, where instead of buying a lottery ticket you work for several thousand hours on the off chance you’ll get paid a dollar an hour…

Are you writing to escape? This world is painful and large, and fantasy worlds are cool, the danger in them isn’t ‘real’, and they take you away from the problems of growing up for a bit. Reading then would be more fun, or playing video games. However, even with all that, remember that when you close the book or shut off the video game, or even put down your pen, the problems you were escaping will still be there, maybe larger than they were. Escaping for a break from reality is ok, but don’t let it become a rule that when problems face you, you simply run and hide. Alcoholics and Drug addicts get started that way, too. The problems we face in this world are huge to us, but with God all things are possible. Hang in there and pray, and God will help you face the problems of this day. And remember that it’s only today that we have to make it through. The future will wait until tomorrow, and the past is history. Learn from it, but don’t wallow in it.

So, writing to escape for a bit is ok, just don’t use it to escape from God or as a crutch to avoid problems you MUST deal with.

Are you writing to get the story out? Is there a story, a dream, burning a hole in you that you simply MUST get down on paper? Is it an itch that you gotta scratch or you’ll just die? Do you feel driven to express the joy or frustration of your life by getting it down as a character in a book that you can ‘live through’? We often write what we feel, and our characters often reflect who WE are, or at least how we WANT to be.

Sometimes this is like escape, yet it’s also getting emotions and desires, problems and solutions, down on paper where we can get them out of the depths of us, and then deal with them. There can sometimes be healing and help in doing that. And there may be many stories burning inside you with many characters hollering for life that you need to write about. Don’t fight the urge to write if that’s what you are driven to do. Which leads me to the last reason:

Are you called to write? Do you think maybe God put it inside you or in your heart to write something for Him? That will be a burning desire like the itch described above. I will say that you should always examine what comes out of your story, to make sure that it’s something you wouldn’t mind showing to your family to read, or your pastor. If you are called to write, then you will naturally want to write things that honor God and not the things of this world. It’s a blessing and a curse to be called to write, because the world may not want to publish what you write, but you still feel the drive to get it down. If so, God has a purpose in it, and you should just write as He directs. But realize that for it to sell, it will almost always need to be edited and revised. Because although God doesn’t make mistakes, all of US do…