Getting The Message Out About Our Writing

by Tim Suddeth @TimSuddeth

Whether it’s getting back from our conference or from a vacation, many of us have returned to our cozy hidey-holes in front of the computer/laptop/typewriter. If the conversations at Blue Ridge are any indicators, we tend to lean toward being introverts and are most comfortable with our characters, all apologies to our families and friends.

It’s an impression that has come down through the ages to us writers. The wise sage, whether sitting on a mountain, in some tower at a university, or locked away in a monastery, writing wisdom for hours until he or she throws the masterpiece out their window to the anxiously waiting public. I see, for our Harry Potter fans, Dumbledore standing at the window either with an owl or with a folded airplane and releasing his latest story to the waiting masses.

The problem is how are the masses going to learn where to come if we stay in our safe hidey-holes? Look at your Twitter feed, your Facebook timeline, or the new books in Publishers Weekly. How many channels do you have on your TV or how many blogs pop up in your email box each day? I feel my heart rate going up already. With the deluge of information all around us, we have to make an extra effort to be heard.

Now, I don’t know about you, although I do love to write, I do hope to have someone else to read it. Preferably more than just me and my family.

Before we look at the hows on getting noticed, I think the more important question is the why. Why should someone take their time to read what I’ve written?

That question makes me want to run to my closet. Even if I consider myself average, that means fifty percent of people are smarter, more erudite, more creative, and just plain better than me. 

Maybe I shouldn’t bother opening my window since the masses have better places to be.

A good thing about our hidey-holes is that no matter how many locks we have on the doors or how out of the way we make them, we are never alone in them. Our Creator knows exactly where we are: physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And He knows why He gave us the gift He crafted just for you, for me.

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Hope and a future. Isn’t that what our world is hunting for? What we are hunting for?

So, it’s you alone with God when you write. However, there needs to be one other person with you.

Your reader. For as much as you may enjoy your writing, if it doesn’t have a message for your reader, why should they bother? They are inundated with information and noise just as you are. What do you have to say that they need to hear? What does God have to say through you that they need to hear?

Whenever I sit down to do this blog, I hesitate. What do I have to say that you might possibly need to hear? After all the sermons that you’ve heard, the great books you’ve read, the teachers you’ve listened to, what can I add that isn’t just noise?

Four Messages the World Needs to Hear From Us:

• I can introduce you to my Friend, who isn’t new. He’s been here since creation.

• I can show, or tell, you His message, that He loves each of us, and that He has a plan and a future for you.

• I can tell you that He isn’t bound in the dusty pages of an ancient book, but that I know He is alive today in my life and others. And He wants to be in yours.

• Only I can tell my particular messages.

We have great messages that we can, we need, to share to a hungry world.

But I don’t think we can do it from our safe places. The world will say that is only your opinion. That it may work for you but you don’t know their situation. And if we never go outside into their world, why should they believe that what we say matters to  them?

God sent his Son. Now He sends us. Our, His, world is dirty, scary, and often it will break our hearts. The Bible says there is a cost to following Him.

The world is more likely to hear our message if they see our message. And it’s our purpose and commission to show it in our world. They can only see it as we live it out in public. And only you can fulfill the plan He has for you.

Only you.

Often, our most powerful stories aren’t the ones we write on paper.

TWEETABLE

Getting the Message Out About Our Writing - @TimSuddeth on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Tim Suddeth has been published in Guideposts’ The Joy of Christmas and on www.christiandevotions.us. He’s working on his third manuscript and looks forward to seeing his name on a cover. He is a member of ACFW and Cross n Pens. Tim’s lives in Greenville, SC with his wife, Vickie, and his happy 19-year-old autistic son, Madison. Visit Tim at www.TiminGreenville.com and on Facebook and Twitter. He can be also reached at timingreenville@gmail.com.