Writing in the Unexpected - by Liz Carter

So often in life our plans don’t work out as we’d hope. We set goals and timings for ourselves, but then life happens and God sometimes interrupts us, doing something completely unexpected. Today I thought it would be good to explore ways in which we can write within those sudden unexpected moments in life, and even embrace them.

 

I had my Plan all worked out when I went into shielding in March. Suddenly, at least 12 weeks stretched out before me, acres of time where I would be away from all the usual calls on me, and even away from my family. It seemed to me as if God was nudging me to finally write the book I’d been procrastinating for a year, and so I got down to it. At first things went swimmingly, ideas were coming together and I got a proposal written, it all seemed to fit into place. As the weeks went on, though, despondency and loneliness began to sap the energy from me in a way I’d never envisaged, and it started to feel like the words were dragging, devoid of life. And then the book got turned down by the publisher of my first book, Catching Contentment, and suddenly I was out there in the wilderness as a great heaviness set in; the weariness of shielding and all that involved, and a sudden uncertainty about this project at this time. It didn’t feel like a joy, anymore, it felt a burden, and I knew I needed to let it go a while (I completely believe in this book, though, and will be going back to it--when the time is right.)

 

Now many of us know about the doldrums of rejection and how they can cause a great stagnancy in our writing. It seemed I’d come to a standstill. But the unexpected rushed in with a couple of comments from friends, one about writing for joy and one about getting together my stories and poems from my blog and producing a book of them. The idea caught hold of me and I decided that wasn’t enough. I wanted to write more, to pour some creativity into this in a new way, and somehow God allowed all the emotion of shielding and rejection and interrupted plans to shape the poems and stories I then went on to create. God took me down a new road, a road I hadn’t really considered, a road that perhaps looks a little like foolishness – I wondered if it was a little self-indulgent, publishing an anthology of my own stories and poems. But it was as if the Spirit was whispering the poetry in my ear and so I wrote into this new unexpected, and the upshot is that my book Treasure in Dark Places will be published in October, with an online launch (anyone want to be in my launch team? Please let me know.)

 

So what about you? How do you write when the unexpected happens? I’ve seen so many of you wonderful ACW authors create beauty out of the unexpected, out of pain and grief, out of life getting turned inside out, and I’ve seen God transform many lives through that work of hankering down and going with your situation, rather than fighting back against it in order to work your own plans through. Books like Taking off The Mask by Claire Musters and Broken Works Best by Catherine Campbell have spoken profoundly to me of how God works again and again in the messy times of life, and how our willingness to allow God to shape our own words in these times can allow for such blessing and resonance for readers.

 

It’s not always easy, though, especially when we have our plans mapped out ahead of us. Sometimes, of course, our plans are exactly right for us, and we go with them and they work out as we want. Other times, we get shipwrecked and everything gets scattered up in the air. It’s how we respond to those times that mould us and grow us in faith and patience. Sometimes we have to let go of a big idea to let a smaller one bubble up within and take first place for a time, and within that God shows us how to appreciate the day of small things. 

 

I wonder if you are in a place where writing – or life – isn’t quite going as you’d planned and hoped, and you feel adrift, wondering what’s next and what path to walk. I wonder if you are halted by rejection (from publishers or otherwise), or by mourning, or by depression. I pray that you find a way to be kind to yourself within that, to not beat yourself up for the collapse of your plans, to find a way to live in peace with where you are. I pray that you are able to access the glorious riches of who God is and his plans, that so often supersede our own, and to tap into his creativity to bring to birth new projects that will upbuild you and bring you new life in seasons of pain. I pray that you will find the treasure in dark places, the treasure of God’s fathomless depths, the breadth of his love and how much he delights in you. I pray that if you need to sit back and be for a while, you may find the resources and strength to do that.

 

As I write this I am sensing that there is someone who had a plan all mapped out with your writing, but things have fallen apart around you and you feel as if you are a failure and that you will never be able to use your gift as much as you had hoped. I sense that God longs to remind you of his love that does not measure you by your productivity or your fulfilment of a five-year plan, and that he wants to speak into the midst of your pain, anger and hurt, and remind you that it’s in the unexpected places where you will find more of him and access more of who you are in him—and your creativity in him, too. I pray that today you will be able to let go of a burden you have been carrying, a burden of bitterness and possibly guilt, and dive deep into God’s ocean of treasures as you are set free from your own expectations.

Liz Carter is an author and poet from Shropshire who likes to write about the painful times of life. Her first book, Catching Contentment: How to be Holy Satisfied explores finding peace when life gets tough, and her new book, Treasure in Dark Places, an anthology of poems and stories of hope in the hurting, will be published in October.

Find out more at greatadventure.carterclan.me.uk