When Writing Fails…

…a Proverbs 17:17 friend doesn’t.

I wrote the following yesterday—didn’t have time to post until today.
Read Tiffany’s version here.

Something I do quite a bit is chat (online, not through the telephone) with one of my best friends, Tiffany. We always seem to come up with things to talk about! Well, today we were talking, and after a while we both needed to go (I to my writing, she to her brainstorming [? not positive on that]). She said, ‘turning chat off.......bye’.

Fine, I thought, I need to write, anyway…though I have no idea what to write. After staring at a blank sheet of paper (with one small scribble at the top corner) for several minutes, I wrote this down (please, do not notice spelling errors; I was writing fast!):

          HISTORY:

1. King arriving 
2. delivers speech 
3. helps rebuild temple
4. leaves
5. temple meeting (CLIMAX [for the day’s writing, not for the whole story])

Great, I thought as I looked at the page. This will help me a lot! After thinking and praying for several minutes, I still had not come up with any more ‘filler’ for the story. What should I do, Lord? I cried silently. Show me what to write! I gave this story to You, and told You that You’re the One writing this! I can’t do it; You’ll have to give the inspiration! After more thinking and praying, the idea burst upon me. Of course! Why hadn’t I thought of it sooner? I need to have a plot—inside of the main plot! A story—a conflict, inside the main conflict! I need a problem for my Main Character (MC) to solve!

After fruitless searching of the WWW (World Wide Web) for ten minutes or so, I was ready to give up. I can’t do it. I can’t find a conflict. I stared out the dirty window, not noticing that it had been about a year since I had washed it (it still needs washed). What kind of a conflict would be good for me [I learn through my character’s experiences], and good for my character? How would it add interest to the story? How would it tell the history, but from a point of view that I find gripping, and that the readers won’t just throw the book down in disgust over? These questions haunted me, and I had no idea what to do or where to go to find the answers.

There’s only one chance I have, I thought. I’ll send a quick chat to Tiffany asking her for help, and then I’ll go outside with my Bible, a notebook, and a pen. (I’ve always found being outside is the best place for a story to be written—my ideas seem to flow best there. It especially helps to have my Bible handy for quick encouragement, and I can easily flip through the pages reading precious jewels of the Word while balancing a notebook on one hand.)

I settled back down in the creaky chair (that especially sounds loud when you’re sitting on it at night!) to send my “chat”. Here’s what I said, thirty-one minutes after she said ‘bye’ (usually, after she says ‘bye’, it’s bye. She’s gone for the day.):

{4:20 PM}  Me: You still on? I need to ask a question.
*impatiently* In a BAD WAY!!!

{4:21 PM} Hmmm....you’re not responding.
You must be gone.

…10 minutes later (after more fruitless internet searching)…

{4:32 PM} Me: Okay, you probably won’t get this until tomorrow, but anyway—my problem is this:
I know what the history is, and how it’s going to work, but I don’t have a ‘problem’ for my MC [main character—writer’s lingo]. You know how it’s good to have a plot-inside-a-plot? That’s what I’m talking about. I don’t have anything “small” for her to resolve while I tell the real story along side. Nothing for her to fix. I’m stuck. HELP!!!! I’ve prayed about it, but nothing has come…yet. In a moment I’m going to go to a secret hidey-hole with my Bible and try to think…

{4:33 PM} your prayers would be very much appreciated (and I’m praying for you, too [she had mentioned yesterday that she was having trouble]).

…12 minutes later (after I was long gone)…

{4:46 PM} Tiffany: hello?
hellooooooooo?

{4:47 PM} I have a please please please please answer question, I will like have to ring you if you don’t answer
I think I might do that anyway

———————————————————

She must have gotten bored waiting for me to respond, so before I knew it (and before I knew she had replied), Mum came out on the porch with the phone.

“ESTHER! PHONE FOR YOU!” A phone call? For me? Maybe it’s my piano teacher saying she has to cancel this week… I hurried to the porch, got the phone, and was pleasantly surprised to hear Tiffany talking. She asked what my problem was, listened through my story, then I listened through her problem. We ended up talking for 1 hour, 31 minutes, and 4 seconds. (That’s what the phone said, anyway—I still wonder if it didn’t decide to use a little deceit and make it look like we talked a lot longer than we actually did. All I know is that it was about 6:00 PM when we finally got done.)

The good thing was that we both went away from that talk with (I believe!) a clearer idea in our heads as to where our novels were and are going. I did, at least. I didn’t get anything written today, but at least I have all my tangled thoughts straightened out again. I hope Tiffany feels the same way! I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s writing session. It will really be interesting to see where this story ends up!

I’m really blessed to have such a good friend as Tiffany. I could not ask for a better writer, editor (for all my crazy, dis-jointed stories!), or sister. Even though we are almost opposite in everything (totally different backgrounds, genres of writing, ways of writing [she writes for older people, I for younger], and even in our relationships with family and friends we’re different—everything, almost!), we’re still good friends. And sisters in Jesus. And that’s what counts. Thank you, Lord for giving me such an understanding friend and sister! I’m really privileged to be able to have such a friend.

And to imagine…I would have never met her if we hadn’t moved half-way around the world…. Amazing are the ways of God!

“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!”

(Romans 11:33)

Thank you for calling, Tiffy!