A Simple Project Part I

There comes a time when you have to set aside whatever you were planning and do the thing that just won’t leave you alone.

In the last week or two, after a lot of wrestling, praying and putting it off, I gave up and started writing the story that wouldn’t leave me alone.

Sometimes, you have to surrender.

I put over 25,000 words down in 10 days.

I feel like I keep sinking deeper into this story. No story has consumed my attention like this since Sani: The German Medic, although I’ve matured as both a human and an author.

Sometimes, I feel like all my prior writing has prepared me to come back to my deepest passion. Not that I think this is my masterpiece or my life’s work, but it does seem, at least to me, like the next level. It may be internally, but its still the next level.

I’ve been at a writer’s conference/retreat and in one of the training sessions, the speaker made the point that writing is not always about producing a consumable product; perhaps God wants to produce something in us.

I’m wrestling with what kind of story to make this. I’ve expressed before, I don’t want to write Christian Fiction. (Side Note: I read plenty of Christian fiction, in fact most of my writer friends write CF, and I LOVE their books. I just don’t want to write it.)

For this story, however, I do need to give myself permission to be 100% real about life and death. Do I want a redemptive theme? Absolutely. That is the whole point of the story… and really, what good is redemption if it only means a person goes from “evil” to “good”? There has to be more.

The problem is, I DON’T like preaching to the choir, and I don’t want people to get lost in Christian themes, either.

Right now, as I’m drafting, I just need to write from the heart.

I do want to be real. So, I invite you to join me on my journey.

It’s ironic because while I’m calling this blog series “A Simple Project,” that title is more of an allusion (which I will explain at a much later date) than a title that describes the nature of the project itself.

I’ll be honest: I’m hesitant to share too many details, because as an author, my ideas are precious to me, and one of my greatest fears is having my ideas stolen. I’ve given up worrying about AI. What I fear more is pouring my love and passion into something I will never be able to publish it because someone publishes something very similar before me. What happens after I publish is in God’s hands.

Entirely.

And again, sometimes, it’s about what God produces in us, rather than producing a final product. But… I’d like to publish this.

Again, I’m inviting you on a journey in which I’m going to be as honest as I feel I can. At this moment, that is my honesty.

While I’m not sure this song is thematic for the project itself, it is my fight song in this season and ministers to me personally:

Yes, God, You can break the mold with this story. I’m going to be bold. No more doubt. 

Years ago, the song Unbreakable by the band Fireflight also ministered to me. Deep in my heart, I knew I was praying these words:

“God, I want to dream again,
Take me where I’ve never been”

I was fully aware that I couldn’t know how He intended to answer that prayer, but I believed He would answer it, and give me something so irresistible that I was willing–nay, determined–to do it regardless of the cost.

I think sometimes we stymie our own growth by saying, “This far but no further.” But when we’re unbreakable, we’re unwilling to say that. The passion–the hunger–keeps us willing to press further, because we know something truly amazing lies on the other side.

I hope to add a few more articles in this series as I work through this project. Over time, I will reveal more. It is different from what I normally do, most notably, it is a present-day (“contemporary”) story.

But no more hints today.

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