@LynnHBlackburn

If you’ve been calling yourself a writer for any length of time, you’ve undoubtedly experienced some form of writing stress.

• Maybe it’s in the form of a deadline—whether it’s self-imposed or from an agent or publisher.
• Maybe it’s in the form of a rejection—we’ve all been there.
• Maybe it’s in the form of a contract—when your dreams come true and then you realize you have to turn in a book in six months.
• Maybe it’s in the form of a misunderstanding—when the people you love don’t get you at all.

Or maybe the stress isn’t coming from your writing life, but from the rest of your life. Your job, your family, your finances, your church, your kids, your health, your house, your car—any of these things can be both a source of great blessing or a source of overwhelming stress at any given time.

Regardless of where the stress is coming from there are two things we know:

1. We all have stress and it isn’t going away.
2. Stress can negatively impact our ability to write.

Stress has stifled many writers and shortened many careers, but that’s not the future we want, is it? So what are we to do? Most of us know instinctively that we can’t be passive and expect things to just go away and everything to resolve itself. But often we are at a loss for how to protect our creative spirit from the stresses of life.

And this is where Soul Care for Writers by Edie Melson comes in.

Those of us who love the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference already know that Edie knows and loves writers. She knows the challenges we face, the fears we’re afraid to share with anyone, and the worries that cripple our creativity and she’s written a wonderful guide—just for writers—to help us care for our souls and ultimately to help us fulfill the specific writing mission God has given us.

Soul Care for Writers is made up of devotions which speak specifically to the writing life. The devotions are followed by prayers that help give voice to the unique burdens writers carry. And each chapter ends with key passages of Scripture to meditate on and memorize.

But my favorite sections are the “forging a creative connection” opportunities where Edie encourages us to stretch our creative muscles and lean hard into the Creator who gave us the desire and the power to write for Him. These creative connections involve everything from dreaming big about what we want God to do with our writing to going on a photo scavenger hunt. Sometimes the creative connections involve a verse of Scripture and almost always they involve colored pencils or markers. Stickers, washi tape, and watercolors often join the standard “pen and pencil” on the supply list.

And don’t let the stickers and washi tape scare you! They are optional, but I think you should give them a try at least once! You may be surprised to find how restorative it can be to exercise your creativity with texture and color, rather than words.

Soul Care for Writers isn’t the kind of book you’re going to read through in one sitting and put on your shelf. This is the kind of book you should work your way through slowly. It should be roughed up a bit, with random drops of paint, marker blots, and dried glue creating something more like a journal of your writing life—and the steps you are taking to be sure that you are still writing five, ten, and twenty years from now.

In the hurry to achieve publication, soul care is often overlooked in favor of studying the craft and honing our Internet presence, but the time we spend focused on our Creator, forging our connection to Him, and spending time in prayer and in His Word will ultimately be the best thing we can do for both our writing and our soul.

Lynn H. Blackburn loves writing suspense because her childhood fantasy was to become a spy—but her grown-up reality is that she’s a huge chicken and would have been caught on her first mission. She prefers to live vicariously through her characters and loves putting them into all kinds of terrifying situations—while she’s sitting at home safe and sound in her pajamas!

The second book in her Dive Team Investigations series, In Too Deep, released in November. She is also the author of Beneath the Surface, Hidden Legacy and Covert Justice, which won the 2016 Carol Award for Short Novel and the 2016 Selah Award for Mystery and Suspense.

She lives in South Carolina with her true love and their three children. You can follow her real life happily ever after at www.LynnHBlackburn.com and on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.