How do you like to party?

 

In case you haven’t noticed, the Association of Christian Writers is celebrating its golden jubilee this year. Fifty years of supporting and encouraging Christians who write – that represents a humungous number of words written, and a huge impact on many people. The Bible talks about a year of jubilee rather than a single moment, so of course we’re going to spin the partying out over a twelve-month period. (Even hardened introverts like me can see the value of having multiple celebrations instead of just one.)

 

Of course, it’s easy to celebrate when it’s a big occasion or you’re with a group of special friends. Where we sometimes struggle is when it comes to celebrating our writing on a personal level. We’re too good at looking at what we’d like to accomplish and feeling we’ve somehow fallen short. Maybe we play down our achievements because we haven’t won the Booker or had a book published, or we’ve just received our forty-seventh rejection letter of the week.

 

·       Sitting down to write, whether by hand or on the computer – even if you only manage a few words, that’s still more than you started with.

·       Finishing a piece of writing – I’m sure it’s not only me who has dozens of abandoned writing projects languishing on their laptop. Finishing something is a big deal.

·       Editing something you’ve written (I find it’s better to do this after I’ve finished the first draft) – it might not sound exciting, particularly to non-writers, but having the determination (and the humility) to work on improving something takes perseverance.

·       Sharing your words with someone else – let’s face it, this is one of the scarier things we do as writers.

·       Getting something – anything! – published. I don’t just mean a book-deal - even a letter in the local newspaper or an article in the church magazine is something to be proud of.

·       Hear me put on this one – not writing. Because sometimes, it’s more important to give time to something else (including our mental health), and giving ourselves permission to do this can be a solid, five-star achievement. (And it’ll almost certainly benefit our writing in the long run.)

Of course, how you celebrate is up to you, but my reward for finishing this post comes in a glass …

Fiona Lloyd is Chair of the Association of Christian Writers and is married with three grown-up children. Her first novel, The Diary of a (trying to be holy) Mum, was published by Instant Apostle in January 2018. Fiona writes regularly for Together magazine, and also works for Christians Against Poverty.

 

Twitter: @FionaJLloyd & @FionaLloyd16