The Joy of Writing

by Cindy Sproles @CindyDevoted

There is much to be said about the writing community. Though we may be labeled as somewhat “odd” at times, writers understand writers. We can safely say that talking out loud to ourselves is completely acceptable. Our writing peers understand the isolation of “the cave” in which we reside. Solitude and quiet help us perform at our peak.

The one thing we really don’t discuss is the pure joy of what we do—the satisfaction, sense of accomplishment, and success. At best, our families and friends don’t always understand this fact. I once had a friend say, “Why do you keep doing this? You don’t get paid for months, if at all.” That was certainly a truth, but my answer was simple. I do what I do because of the joy I find in crafting words.

Honestly, I wish I could make others understand the complexity of placing a word in just the right place in a sentence. For example: She had red curly hair versus She had curly red hair. To the average person, there is no difference in that sentence, but to the writer, there is There is a sense of accomplishment when we take the same words that read a little bumpy and move them around, so they slide off the tongue. This is the craft of writing.

I recently told a writing client that writing was exceptionally hard when done correctly. There is layer after layer of technique involved. If others were willing to put into their daily jobs the amount of labor that a writer does, companies would never have employee issues. Their businesses would run flawlessly. There is a difference between someone who does a job because it’s a job and someone who does a job and loves every aspect of it. Writers understand that success comes slowly in the publishing industry, and they are willing to keep at it because they love the process.

 

 

I was in the airport in Orlando after Hurricane Helene. A lady pointed out my shirt which had the proper pronunciation of App – uh – latch- un on the front. She laughed as we discussed the difference between my mountain twain and her very Floridian accent. She asked me about the area of the mountains where I lived and I began to describe the mountains. “You should be a writer,” she said. “That makes me want to go there.” I laughed, gave her a business card, and bid her goodbye. Writing is learning to love words so much that you can paint a picture in someone’s imagination without hesitation.

Crafting words requires thought. If you are happy with your first draft, understand that this is a giant red flag. There are always things you can rephrase, rethink, and rewrite that take that initial first draft to polished. Once the first draft is done, the real work begins.

Writers understand that the pay scale of the business is, at best, periodic. Yet, we keep ticking away at the keyboard. Why? Because we love the creative process and it’s worth the sacrifice.

There is a writing side that can sometimes be harder than crafting the words. That is rejection. Who in their right mind, loves rejection? It’s not fun and if we allow it a place in our heads, it can be devastating. I met a rather prominent author at a book signing, who spoke to a group of patrons waiting to grab his hot new novel. One patron asked, “It must be wonderful to have such success with your books.”

The author smiled, picked up a stack of unsigned books, and handed them to the patron. He took one book and held it up, then laid his hand on the stack. “Success is nice, but for this one success, there were this many failures.”

A gasp nearly sucked the air out of the room. The author grinned and began to explain.“You see, I love to craft words. It brings me great pleasure, but what you don’t understand, is for me to have this one successful novel, I’ve suffered the loss of these tries. Success and rejection go hand in hand and what makes me successful is my love of the craft. What keeps me pushing ahead is the rejections.”

That brought a smile to my heart because this well-known author understood and experienced the same things I do. It was the love of the craft that was prominent for him.

There is great joy in a profession that you love and writers tend to be a group more apt to stick with it —I think, because of their love of writing, of fitting sentences together, twisting words, and finding new ways to say old things. There is joy in creating, in writing something that resonates so deeply with the reader that they cry. Or in developing a character, that when the story is over, a reader misses them. Writing is an obsessive occupation. It demands our full attention. It tries our very essence, but at the same time, its tentacles wrap around us, bore into our hearts, and love us as much as we love it.

Your pathway to publication may be long and fraught with obstacles. You may be tempted to throw up your hands and quit. But at the end of the day, the sign of a real writer is sitting back down at the keyboard and starting again. That is the love of writing.

 

Cindy K. Sproles is an author, speaker, and conference teacher. Having served for a number of years as a managing editor for Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas and Ironstream Media, Cindy now works as a mentor, coach, and freelance editor. She is the co-founder of Writing Right Author Mentoring Services with Lori Marett and the director of the Asheville Christian Writers Conference. Cindy is also the co-founder of Christian Devotions Ministries and www.christiandevotions.us, as well as www.inspireafire.com. Her devotions are in newspapers and magazines nationwide, and her novels have become award-winning, best-selling works. She is a popular speaker at conferences and a natural encourager. Cindy is a mountain girl, born and raised in the Appalachian mountains, where she and her husband still reside. She has raised four sons and now resorts to raising chickens where the pecking order is easier to manage. You can visit Cindy at www.cindysproles.com or www.wramsforwriters.com.

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