A day in the life of a writer.

Me..a writer?

I became a member of the Association of Christian Writers this year as I work hard at writing my blog, a children’s novel and various other bits and pieces. I write lots of training materials about autism and have started to write talks for the Good News Group.  In joining a writers group I was eager to make links and learn from other writers…and the group has been brilliant for that – and for the occasional good on-line laugh!

It was a big step in acknowledging that I was a ‘writer’… a curious label that I have struggled attaching myself to!

So armed with a bit of reckless enthusiasm I entered their 500 word competition “A Day in the life of a Writer” just for the experience and then attended a writers day in Birmingham.  (which was brilliant).  I can’t say how surprised I was to listen to the competition results and realise that I had been HIGHLY COMMENDED!

So, because other writers have been posting their competition entries on their blogs, I thought I would do the same…helps me get over some of my fear of having people actually read what I write!!!!!!

So here it is…..

 

The duvet suspends me in its warm and loving arms. I shiver in the cold winter air. The writer inside me shouts at the duvet to let me go. I could lay my laptop on its soft downy folds and write in bed for a while, but then I remember…no luxurious writing day for me…I have a regular job too. If I’m lucky and have woken up early, I steal a few precious moments reading my Bible and praying for the day.

 

Up – I’m dressed and wave goodbye to the family as we go our separate ways. I drive through the darkness and the rain on a thronging motorway, my mind playing out a scene in my novel. Arriving at work, I start to write. My pen or keyboard never lays still. Occasionally I get to teach and I love the time with the extra special kids. Afterwards I am visiting other teachers, writing notes, writing advice, writing reports and writing social stories. I am no longer cold as the rain subsides and the first rays of sunshine peer through the clouds.

 

Passion, that’s what drives me, keeps me watching, asking, listening and explaining. I want others to be able to support those kids really well…and I help them by more writing. Courses written and delivered; I love to tell stories of real kids and real teachers as I explore the lives and support we can give those with ASD. And now the sunbeams shine through the window bringing hope and laughter as people see a way through the fog and feel there is something they can try. They understand because of my words.

 

 

My stories take shape as I drive home and as I make the tea for my family. Precious time to gently thank God for wisdom that came just in time, for patience and for answered prayer. I thank him for imagination and energy, my heart singing with joy in HIS creativity – a gift to his creation. I thank him too for the difficult days when no words come, when others reject what I write…and I keep writing, for it is a fire in my very being that cannot be quenched. Faith spurs me on. I write because it has been given me to do.

 

As the sun sets, gloriously crimson from my kitchen window, I write some more, a few hundred words of my latest story. My mind escapes from the problems of the day and enters into a new world which invents and weaves its way through the world of someone I’ve created, here on my page. Out pours my love of Jesus through my imagination. Made in his image the Bible says – a creative God and a creative creature.

 

Darkness compels me back to my duvet. Its soft folds envelop me once more and I enter the land of dreams…where once more…I write.