By
David Hyde http://davesdevotions.blogspot.com/
Now I sit me down to write
I ask God for words not trite
I wish I can, I wish I might
Pen a masterpiece tonight.
Many times as we sit down to write, visions of grandeur fill
our minds. After all, how hard can it be? I am sure Charles Dickens or Samuel
Clements simply put on paper whatever came to mind didn’t they? It is simply a
matter of letting the words flow from our exceptionally creative minds through
our fingers to the page. Right?
If it were only that simple.
Plot line? What’s a plot line? What do you mean I
should rewrite that? I like it that way! For every potential Oscar winning
screenwriter out there, for every potential poet laureate, for every possible
Nobel laureate for literature, I say enjoy your craft. Do not write for the
accolades of man. If you do, your work will find itself becoming a creature
that you do not enjoy. Enjoy your craft.
To sit and write for the enjoyment of others, for the
edification of others, for the lifting of man’s spirit is more fulfilling than
any prize to be won. Enjoy your craft. Find the joy in the development of your
story. Watch your characters grow as if they were your own children. Your ideas
coalesce into a nearly physical being in your mind as you press on in your
work. Enjoy your craft.
Let rewrites become a joy as you mold your piece like a
potter would shape a vase. Let your critics become your friends, for the truly
honest ones are invaluable to the writer. Enjoy your craft. As with the work on
the potter’s wheel, know that many works do not end as originally intended. In
well trained, experienced hands many will become great works admired by man.
Many more, still will be simply useful, bringing a smile or a reflective moment
into someone’s life. Still others will be broken and discarded. But even here
the broken pot thrown to the ground becomes the foundation on the soil for new
works to begin. Let nothing go to waste. Enjoy your craft.
For the joy in writing comes not in the far flung dreams of
grandeur obtained by so few in our world, but rather in the moment of
discovery. The birth of an idea, the epiphany of a story line that returns to
it path long ago lost in the ramblings of your wandering mind, the joy of one
person living a better life because what you put on that page spoke to them
when they needed it most. Enjoy your craft and your craft will bring joy.