Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 03:02:05 -0700
Subject: ICW Report, August 2000
X-Mailer: Juno 1.49
From: Stanley C Baldwin scbaldwin@juno.com

Many writers feel they are on the River of No Return, or at best are getting a meager return on the time and effort they put into writing.

At what point does one give up? I sometimes offer as encouragement at writers conferences these words attributed to Mark Twain: "Write without pay until somebody offers pay. If nobody offers within three years, the candidate may look upon this circumstance with the most implicit confidence that sawing wood is what he was intended for."

One conferee responded, "Three years! I've been at it much longer than that already!"

Should she quit? Should you?

We live in a time when good Christian writers are legion in America, though the same cannot be said for many countries. A generation ago, when I started, it was comparatively easy for a good writer to get published and hard for a publisher to find good material. Through writer associations, conferences, training, and critique groups, we have drastically changed that situation. Members of the writer community are now victims of our own success.

At a recent conference, I asked writer/humorist Bob Hansen why God seems to have gifted and called more people to write than the marketplace needs.

Bob pointed out that we Christians are in this thing for the long haul--eternity.

Maybe. Meanwhile do we keep writing? Keep working to polish our craft?

Some say they do, simply because they are writers. That is what writers do--they write, whether they make any money or not, whether they are even published or not.

Should you write? Perhaps the advice applies that an older pastor once gave a young man thinking of becoming a preacher. "If you don't have to, don't."

Jeremiah was once a discouraged writer. (Little wonder when you read what was done with his dictated work. King Jehoiakim cut his manuscript to pieces and fed it to the fire--see Jeremiah 36:20-32). Yet, God's message was like a fire in his bones, and even when he purposed to stop speaking it, he could not (Jeremiah 20:9).

If not quite as on fire as Jeremiah, I can say that most of my writing has flowed from a conviction that I have learned from God certain truths and insights people need.

Elizabeth Baker, in her first book, published after years of frustration and rejection, wrote, "The only reason I have persisted in this foolhardy venture is that I have discovered something wonderful . . . and I want with a fervent want to share these things with you." That's it. That's why we write.

However, it is also true that people write for a variety of other valid reasons, some of which are:

Sometimes we may write for dubious reasons as well. Martin Luther said, "There is no measure or limit to this fever for writing. Everyone must be an author, some out of vanity to acquire celebrity and raise up a name, others for the sake of lucre and gain."

Why do you write? Are there reasons to write that I have omitted? If you'd like to contribute to a dialog on the question, e-mail me at the address above.

Reprinted by permission. Back to Jim Watkins' writers' resource page