Writers as Good Stewards by Rebecca Seaton

                              Writers as Good Stewards by Rebecca Seaton

    The Bible encourages us to be good stewards, whether it’s the tale of the talents reminding us to use what we’re given or the example of Joseph demonstrating good stewardship to the pharaoh. Writing as a Christian means using all our resources well.

    This could look different for each of us but I believe a key part of it is making the most of opportunities. What God gives us now is often the seed for where he takes us later. I’m a big advocate of writing competitions: I would be, I won second prize and got my book published through a competition. However, I have also entered competitions where I haven’t got as much as a mention. Is this a waste? I don’t think so. Composing a piece within a word limit and the competition’s guidelines has helped develop skills and discipline in my writing. A daily experience is also relevant. Always make notes when you get an idea or take that interesting trip, don’t hope to remember it later, most of the time you won’t. It’s also doing the difficult work: writing when you don’t feel like it. Our pet peeves are different, whether editing or social media, but we have a duty not to procrastinate. This doesn’t mean we always have to work flat out; rest and breaks from work are of course, beneficial (and Biblical). We just need to consider why we are doing something and what the outcomes might be. This in itself is a key part of stewardship, considering the impact for tomorrow.

                                                 

A day trip can be an inspiration.

    A little while ago, I was fortunate enough to be able to interview a local writer, Luan Goldie*. She had a period where she was writing a great deal and had built on her short story success with a promising first novel. She had an agent and had had multiple meetings with publishers. Then the Grenfell fire happened. As her story involves a disaster befalling a block of flats, publishers were reluctant to take this on. Luna could well be forgiven for giving up and shelving the writing. However, she instead spent time honing her skills and won the Costa coffee short story prize. In due course, this prize enabled her to make choices related to her writing and a representative of a publishing house who was now running their own, remembered Luan’s novel and decided to publish it. But if she had succumbed to the temptation to give up, or even just lost her focus, I wonder if the end result would have been the same.

    ‘Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.’ (Colossians 3:23)

* Credit: Write On! Issue 4 Rebecca Seaton interviewing Luan Goldie, editor: Madeleine White   Time To Connect with Luan Goldie – Pen To Print

Visit:

pentoprint.org for more writer interviews 

luangoldie.co.uk for more information on Luan's work

#amwriting #amwritingfantasy #ACW     

 

Rebecca earned second place in the 2017-18 Pen to Print Book Challenge with her first novel, A Silent Song. She is currently working on a fantasy trilogy involving a prophet, a dodgy queen and a powerful relic.