A Word of Enjoyment



One morning last week, I received an email from my editor.
The evening before, she’d sent back her latest edit of my book, and that morning I’d responded with; ‘Thank you for this, I’ll get on with it shortly’.
She immediately replied: ‘great - enjoy your day’.

A simple reply, but a reply that surprised me. 
She knew I’d be looking at my own work that day.
And she’d said enjoy.
Which is why I was surprised.
Enjoy?  My own work?
Isn’t that a bit, well, not quite the done thing?
I found myself recoiling from the idea.

Then a realisation of great irony hit me.
The book we're editing includes a section on creation.
God’s own work.
Work which He looked at and said, ‘this is good.’
In other words, He enjoyed it.
He took pleasure in what He’d done.

As I settled down at my computer, I determined to not only follow my editor’s advice on the manuscript (question an editor? Me? Never!) but to follow her ‘enjoy’ advice, too. 
I often let criticism over-ride enjoyment when reading my work.  Reading my work feels a bit like looking in a mirror, and I’m not a huge fan of mirrors.
But ‘enjoy your day’ said the email. 
I’d enjoyed writing the book, why shouldn’t I enjoy looking over it as well?

I wonder if I’m not the only one who needs reminding to enjoy their writing. Or to enjoy what they have written. Sometimes we can get so bogged down in life, or deadlines, or negativity, or pressures that maybe we forget that writing is such a wonderful thing – and we get to do it!  What a privilege. Whatever form our writing takes.

My favourite thing – or one of them - about writing is words.  I love to feel words and experiment with them.  I juggle them to see if they fly in unison or fall from the page like uncaught balls dropping to the floor.  If they fall, that’s ok.  I pick them up and try again.  Perhaps introducing a different ball this time. If they are destined never to fly well, that’s ok, too.  Because words don’t have to fly to be fun.

Even as I write about words – trying not to be too wordy - I am reminded of how much I enjoy writing. It’s the reading of my writing I find more difficult.  But perhaps my editor is right. No, my editor is definitely right. 

‘Enjoy your day…’ was, essentially, saying ‘Enjoy your writing’.

Later that day, I saw a post from a writer saying, ‘Yippee! My book has been shortlisted for an award.’

Enjoy your day…

I also discovered that my nearly three-year-old nephew has learned to write his own name. 'Look! I can write my name', as he proudly shows the mostly-decipherable squiggles.

Enjoy your day…

Whatever you write or read today….don’t forget to enjoy your day.



Comments

  1. Ah what a lovely post - thanks for that reminder. Got a busy day of writing various things after a difficult weekend. Felt too tender to do it yesterday, so settled on admin and editorial work instead - but I'm really going to ask God to help me enjoy the writing process today :) Thanks for this gift xx

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    1. Thank you, Claire. I hope you did enjoy/are enjoying writing today. I asked God to help you enjoy it, too...

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  2. Thanks for permission to enjoy reading our own writing. As you say. God looked at what He had created and 'saw that it was good'. If it is good enough for Him ...
    Sudden thought: I wonder if He did some re-reading/ editing?

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    1. Good thought! If He did, I'm not sure how spiders exist in such a creepy crawly scary way...
      Perhaps His 'very good' declaration on day six was editing/embellishing His 'manuscript' from good to very good.

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  3. What a timely and uplifting post. Thanks for this reminder about using a different view

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  4. A lovely thought for today, thanks Emily. Most of us cringe at re-reading our writing and it's a good challenge to approach it differently.

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    1. Glad it's not only me who automatically cringes; thank you.

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  5. A lovely, uplifting post. Thank you!

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  6. Yes, me too! A whole new perspective on things! Thank you. x

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    1. It's always encouraging to have a me too :-)

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  7. Meant to comment on the day but got distracted! A very encouraging post Emily! It's a lesson I've been trying to learn recently too!

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    1. Thank you. I hope we are both obedient learners, then!

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  8. I loved reading this post Emily, thank you. Your love of writing and words comes through in every line. (For the record, I usually really enjoy reading what I've written....) x

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    1. Thank you, Mandy, I really appreciate that. And I am truly delighted that you enjoy reading your writing; good for you, I think that's great.

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