By: DeAnna Lynn Sanders @deannalsanders

I haven’t always wanted to be a writer. It was number three on my list:

1. Veterinarian
2. Artist
3. Writer
4. Cross cultural worker

It didn’t take me long to jump from #1 to #2. While I loved animals, especially dogs, I learned by the time I was in the fourth grade that I didn’t have a scientific mind. When I found out a person had to be good at science AND math, I began to rethink my life choices. When it dawned on me that I would have to be around bloody, diseased, sick animals ALL the time, I decided I would just love animals. Not try to fix them.

I learned by sixth grade that I could draw. I could look at someone’s drawings, especially cartoons, and accurately sketch them into my drawing pad. But it was hard for me to draw things from my imagination. I thought maybe that was an important part of being a successful artist.

Then I discovered #3. I could write. In the 10th grade, I took a Creative Writing class. I liked poetry of all kinds. And short stories. Then journalism. I loved writing the words and sharing the words. I filled journal after journal with lots of words. I was hooked and knew this was my calling and chose Communications as my major study in college and graduate school. For a while, I combined #3 and #4 by writing for missions publications and also serving in Indonesia helping at-risk women and girls and writing their stories.

Over time, I’ve written church-based curriculum, a fiction book (yet unpublished), a nonfiction book (in the publishing process), magazine articles, book articles and a blog. I was also Director of Communication at She Is Safe — a role that taught me much about writing content and much about the value of nonprofits.

People think that writing is blissfully imagining characters and weaving a best-selling novel together effortlessly. That it is delightful Every. Blessed. Day.

Sometimes it is wonderful when I sit outdoors, sip my coffee and breath in inspiration as the birds chirp. I savor the aroma of flowers and the fresh morning air. And sometimes, on really great days, the writing life is this for me. For those days, I am grateful.

But most days, it is this–

Imagine a cluttered, messy desk. I share my writing den with my lovable, goofy, sweet Fox Red Labradors- Cheyenne and Rosie.

Sometimes, as I sit at my disordered mess of a desk, the writing life looks like taking the puppies outside. Then bringing them inside. Then breaking up loud dog fights, and then doing it all again. Until they plop down, snuggle together and sleep sweetly on the sofa or the floor near me. And snore.

That’s when I get to work on my nonprofit content writing projects. That means, I write blogs, newsletters, webpage copy, grants, brochures, presentation copy, social media posts and plans, PSAs, communication strategies, stories of all kinds, and on it goes. It also means, through my writing, helping desperate young women find their way to a pregnancy resource center; informing people about how they can help prevent women from becoming trafficking victims, and how African young people can learn how to develop community leaders in their own countries and help themselves and improve their lives for now and the next generation.

Lately, it has meant editing my soon-to-be-published book. Line after line of correcting my mistakes. It means cultivating the discipline of consistently writing a newsletter every Tuesday. Editing it and sending it out every single Wednesday.

This writing life of mine, it’s not blissful. It is hard, exhausting work. I sit in my desk chair with my laptop every day and write the words. Words that provide help, hope and encouragement. I love living this writing life. Now, back to work, right after I take the dogs outside again.

What do you enjoy about living the writing life? What do you find hard about this work?

DeAnna answered the call to write in high school and she hasn’t stopped many, many years later. She has written in journals and notebooks. On typewriters and clunky desktop computers. And on sleek silver laptops and apps on her phone. She crafts communication pieces for nonprofits through her business DLS: Communicator for Global Good. She fills her weekly newsletter, A Good Word Wednesday, with bite-sized slices of life from her own experiences and from those she has met around the world. DeAnna is in the editing phase of her book, Unseen People: Sharing Light and Life with Your Neighbors and the Nations. It will be published by Ambassador International.

DeAnna has served as a church missions minister and worked in a global nonprofit as Indonesian Country Director and as Director of Communications. She has communication degrees from Ouachita Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

DeAnna lives in Duncan, Oklahoma with her husband, Johnny, and their two Fox Red Labradors. She loves long walks and then relaxing on her deck, sipping flavorful coffee and savoring one of the several books she enjoys reading at the same time.

You’re invited to visit DeAnna’s writer’s website: https://deannalynnsanders.com/ and to subscribe to her weekly newsletter https://dlscommglobal.substack.com/. Find her on Twitter https://twitter.com/deannalsanders and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DeAnnaLSandersauthor/