A CHANGE IS AS GOOD AS A REST?

 

I had great plans for November. I decided that for the first time I was going to do NaNoWriMo. I had never heard of it before joining the ACW, but knew many people raved about it. For those who don’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and is basically an invitation for writers to challenge themselves to write 50k words of a novel in a single month. You can find our more here nanowrimo.org.

I desperately wanted to get my third novel written, and having made a good start of 27k words I thought that another 50k words would get me to the end. I needed the motivation, as the story has been in my head for months, and I had other things I wanted to do in December, and potential new projects for the New Year. And I made a really good start. I was writing every day and clocking up the words, even when away for the weekend at Book Blest. The thing I found most challenging was that I had to CHANGE the way I write. I usually write a scene and then go back and edit it, sometimes more than once, until I am happy that I can move on. NaNoWriMo doesn’t let you do that, there just isn’t the time if you want to maximise your writing time. So I had to learn to NOT edit what I had just written and just keep writing. And it was really hard! After a couple of days I got into the mindset of writing ‘dirty’ and just powered on until I had over 20k (unedited and sometimes incomprehensible) words done. Until…

Covid.

My husband and I have had a stressful year one way or another. We both really needed a rest, and were thrilled to get a last minute cancellation to visit our favourite Christian retreat centre, Ffald Y Brenin, for three days. The CHANGE in scenery, change in pace of life, escape from the everyday family demands was just what we needed. We were so looking forward to going and were even going to fit in a research trip to a favourite Abbey ruin on the way. Until…

Covid.

Our plans for this month have had to CHANGE. Someone once said ‘a change is as good as a rest.’ Who said that?! And why do we repeat it? Because it just isn’t true a lot of the time!

Change can be stressful and hard to adapt to. Change isn’t always nice, and definitely not restful.

And we have been forced to rest – not to refresh and restore our souls as we had hoped, but because our bodies have been assaulted by a nasty virus. We have had to change our plans and forego the rest we really needed. So neither change nor rest has been what we hoped it would be.

November is a season of change. The weather gets colder and damper, the nights get darker, the leaves on the trees change colour and begin to fall. And all around us things are changing – things outside of our control – the cost of living, world and domestic politics, climate change. But after November comes December and Advent, and Christmas. I have planned to write a series of Advent blogs this year, focussing on the names and titles of Jesus. I don’t know how those plans will work out, but I’m hopeful! And just pondering the many ways in which Jesus is described is so comforting in these times of change. He is still the Servant King, still the Good Shepherd, still the Son of Righteousness with healing in His wings. He was those things when those descriptors were written – some hundred of years before He walked on the earth – and He is still is all those things and much more. The same, yesterday today and forever (Hebrews 13:8)

All may change, but Jesus never. And that is always true.

And I still have those 20,096 words to edit…

Joy Margetts writes Christian Historical Fiction. Her debut novel 'The Healing' was published in March 2021, and her second ‘The Pilgrim’ in July 2022. She makes her home in beautiful North Wales and takes her inspiration from its rich spiritual history and stunning landscapes. She is also wife, mother and grandmother and a lover of the Word of God. Her personal blog and more information about her books can be found here www.joymargetts.com