Today I am telling a story that I am living right now – a story of finding God’s true purpose for my life – and there is an awesome giveaway from Jeff Goins to go along with it! If you’re most interested in the giveaway, just scroll down to enter. He’s giving away two of his most recent eBooks, and I would love for you to have a copy! I’ve read them, and they are just like all of his other works – useful, practical, and without fluff! Every aspiring writer’s must haves!
But first my story of becoming a writer and finding purpose . . . wow . . . yes . . . a writer . . .
I think the first time I really wrote about it was when I announced that I was getting off of the ferris wheel. The ferris wheel started two years after I graduated college, and believe it or not I did get off a few times, only to get back on again. It’s funny how the familiar, ever how miserable or possibly outside of God’s will, keeps us going around and around and around – feeling hopeless and afraid.
That was me. And sometimes it still is me. But at least now I’m working on getting off for good.
But anyway, it was when I was sitting in John’s hospital room before he had his transplant that it came to me. The missing piece to the puzzle that has left me feeling bound to a career I detested to the point of feeling moral guilt. I began writing each day in the months that led up to those hospital days about caring for my sick husband and how my soul hurt and how God was faithful. And with each post I wrote I felt better. I felt like there was a place for my mind on those pages, and I was able to release it each night there. Shortly after I began writing it became my mission to write for a purpose. I did not know if John would die or not, but I was determined that our story would be used for good. So I wrote it. Day in and day out. I wrote it.
And I remembered my little girl self sitting in my room writing a story about a unicorn. I liked to write, and by school standards I was a good writer. But I never thought so. I got frustrated with it, and pushed it down deep, deep inside. I remember telling myself over and over again that I wasn’t creative. I was logical and organized and predictable. I was the first child. The responsible one. Not the artist. But no matter how hard I tried to make my life match these labels, it didn’t. I was really a dreamer and messy and spontaneous.
So I began to explore this new need to write that gave me my oxygen each of those days, in and out of the hospital, not knowing what tomorrow would bring. And I began to really contemplate the effects of the ferris wheel and my purpose for this life I’ve been given.
After those scary days had passed, I sat in our pastoral counselor’s office at church not knowing which way was right. I knew I had to get off. I knew the ride had to come to an end. Then he said to me, “Brenda, you are a writer. You are a creative.”
My world opened up. For once I knew myself and was comfortable there. It was o.k. to hate the ferris wheel and to be messy and disorganized and dream about unicorns.
I was meant for something different. I was meant to write.
So, I began to study the art and industry of writing. And, boy, is it vast and hard. It is a lot of work.
But there are some great people out there who not only are great writers, but who love writing so much they like to teach us how to do it better. Jeff Goins is one of them. His blog is an endless well of information, and he is so gracious that he offers most of it for free.
Most recently he has written two new eBooks: Every Writer’s Dream: How to Never Pitch Your Writing Again and Before Your First Book: 5 Tips to Get Published Now.
I have read both of the eBooks, and this is what I like most about Jeff’s writing:
- He is honest. He tells it like it is without fluff or dramatized sentimentalism. But he is also encouraging.
- His books are practical. They are easy to understand with one, two, three, . . . steps to take.
- His books are useful. I am always feel like I have information all in one place that I would have taken hours to find bits and pieces scattered all over the internet.
- I am left with the feeling that he truly loves writing, so he genuinely wants to help people be successful at writing, too.
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