WRITING TIP | Chalk It Up to Experience

Saturday morning. The clock read 4:50 a.m. And I couldn’t move.

I manage to pull the same muscle in my back a couple of times a year. Sometimes I’ll just stand there getting ready in the morning and I’ll feel something slip out of place. Usually it just ends up stiff for a week or two. On rare occasion, though, the pain is severe: I’m hunched over like a grandpa and sucking air with each painful step.

So late last week, I turn in my chair to look at a clock—I think that’s how it happened—and I pulled the muscle. For a couple of days, it felt stiff. No big deal.

Then I woke up Saturday morning, no alarm clock necessary. As soon as I budged, severe pain shot through my back. When that happens, you can’t get up like usual. So I figured I’d take my alternate approach: make a slow roll out of bed, ease onto my knees, then rise slowly. But on this particular morning, the slightest movement shot fresh bolts of pain through me. I’m a fairly young guy, so this was scary. I didn’t know if I’d get to my feet at all and, for the first time in my life, wondered if this should qualify as a 911 episode. But of course, I couldn’t reach the phone ten feet away. At least with each doubling over in pain, I fell a few inches forward!

Somehow I ended up on my feet. By that time, I wondered if I was about to pass out. Sweating profusely, my body felt like it was burning up inside. Perhaps the initial fright had caused my blood pressure to soar. I grabbed the phone in case I wouldn’t get another chance. Then, still feeling like I had a body temperature of 107, I stumbled to the refrigerator and stuck my head in the freezer—literally—for a couple of minutes until I cooled down. The last thing I wanted to do was asleep again!

Experiences like these remind us of our mortality. It sounds ridiculous in hindsight, but at the time, you truly wonder if you’re on the verge of death. Those are the times Bible verses take on a special meaning. Believe me, the words out of my mouth that morning were: “I’ll live and not die and declare the works of the Lord.”

Needless to say, I made it through. Looking back, I’m shocked at the details I could remember from the experience. Oftentimes, when I go through an unusual experience, whether severe or not, I write down the details of how I felt or the nuances of what happened.

Experiences like these provide us with reference points for future stories. Then enable us to step into a character’s shoes in a way few others can. In one experience, we’ve captured an array of emotions and physical reactions. Write them down! We might as well make them useful for something!

Hope this helps. Never give up!

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INSPIRATION | Fighting Irrational Fear

As a writer, one of the recurring fears I face is: What if I sit down to write and nothing comes forth?

Sounds ridiculous, right? A small thing. But if you’re a writer, you live and breathe words. I don’t know if it’s mental, chemical or what, but you need to birth the written word. If you don’t write, you shrivel up inside, much like a slow death. The writer within is part of your identity—not just how others see you, but how you see yourself.

Because I had a childhood habit of quitting long-term writing projects—as I called it, “putting them on the shelf” for later—today my fear has morphed into: “Will I be able to complete another novel?” And as I sit down to write each day, another fear nags: “What if I sit down to write and I can’t gain traction for the first 30 minutes?”

As I wrote From The Dead (and also a prior, unpublished novel), I dealt with the what-if-nothing-comes fear almost every night. The last thing I wanted to do was invest two hours, complete two weak paragraphs, and feel like a failure in my area of calling. But each night, I decided to turn on the laptop, open the outline, and take another step forward with the story.

In time I realized, despite the continual struggle, the first-draft pages continued to pile up. And as I read through them, I found myself satisfied with their quality.

As long as I showed up and put my fingers to the keyboard, the words seemed to flow.

The fear, although real, turned out to be irrational. An empty threat.

I’ve heard it said that showing up is half the battle. I believe that.

I’ve also heard it said, “If you’re afraid, then just do it afraid.”

Are you a writer? Are you something else? Fight the fear. Keep showing up. You’re halfway there.

Hope this helps. Never give up!

johnherricknet.blogspot.com
www.johnherrick.net