Gifts for the Writer

by Tammy Karasek @TickledPinkTam

In case you haven’t noticed, it’s Christmas time. As a writer, you may be tapping the keys on your laptop to send off those last words to meet a deadline for your editor. Maybe you’re finishing off your December newsletter, or those last posts for 2021 to be placed on your website.

Possibly you’ve worked ahead in November and are all caught up with those items and are now off to get the right presents for those you care about. Most of us have started purchasing gifts and some of you may be already wrapping those purchased and placing them under your tree.

But have you stopped to pick up a few things for yourself? If you haven’t, I’d like to share a list: 

Things We Writers Should Give Ourselves this Year

1. Address a card with your name with a promise written to be kind to yourself. Please tell me I’m not the only one who critiques my work harder than my writer’s critique group. I think I can degrade my work faster than a Black Cat firecracker explodes. Those thoughts of you’re not good enough, what makes you think you can write and more may replay in our minds trying to convince us they are truth. C’mon, we know better. So make that promise for 2022 that no foolish talk (Ephesians5:4 ESV) will be spewed upon you or your work from yourself. 

2. Bake a batch of grace. Revert back to that kind of talk from number one above? Miss a deadline whether by your publisher or yourself? Grace was given to you and you didn’t do anything to deserve it from God. Why would you not offer that to yourself? Grace was given to us according to the measure of Christ’s gifts, which is abundant. (Ephesians 4:7 ESV) So also we need to extend grace to ourselves. 

3. Wrap up a big ol’ box of patience. Working on a new computer program that’s giving you the fits? Ahem, not me (cough). Stuck finishing a scene? Get up and make a cup of your favorite warm drink—new Christmas tea for me—and count to ten as you sip it. Or three thousand and ten if necessary. Then stretch, pray for the Lord to show you a different way to go at the project, and try again. 

4. Stick an extra dose of determination into your stocking. Make 2022 the year you are determined to finish your story. Determined to pitch that story. Then determined to start the next one that is rolling around that head of yours. Be determined to continue writing. God’s counting on your obedience to His calling on your life through your writing. Set that determination on path and go after it.

5. Serve a sweet dose of encouragement to yourself. There are many tins and platters of Christmas sweets all around us at this time of year. I believe there is nothing sweeter than kind words shared with others to encourage them. What about yourself? Have you tasted the sweetness of encouragement you’ve given to your own self? Seriously, who doesn’t like to hear an atta boy or atta girl? I Thessalonians 5:11 ESV tells us we are to encourage one another. I don’t believe we are excluded from this. I’m not speaking of boasting or bragging in any way. But have you ever finished something and been grateful it worked out or was done on time? Smile. It’s okay to encourage yourself to stay the course, to think nice things about YOU. 

6. Shove a gift bag full of laughter under the tree. Look for any opportunity to giggle and laugh this year. Definitely find some others to laugh with, too. I’ve been caught giggling away in line at the store with nobody along with me. We’ve had a rough couple of years, you and I, let’s find a way to make someone smile and get them to laugh as well. Can you even remember the last good belly laugh you’ve had with family or friends? Bring a gift bag of it with you when you visit people this year. It will do you and those with you a bit of good. 

7. Sing a song of joy. Yes, writing can be hard at times. I don’t need to remind you of the ways—you already know them. Yet, God has gifted you with the talent of using words, stringing them together to form sentences, then paragraphs, and finally a book. Sing a song of joy back to Him for the pleasure of walking in your calling. He doesn’t care if you’re a classically trained singer or you sing off key. He loves it all. This gift of song is for you, but also for Him that put that talent within you. 

None of these gifts above for you, the writer, will cost you money. They may cost you perseverance to follow through with them, though. But in the end, I believe they will serve us well if we gift them to ourselves this year. 

Which of the gifts above do you feel you might start with? As for me, I believe I’ll start with number one—I have some work to do.

TWEETABLE

Gifts for the Writer - encouragement from @TickledPinkTam on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

You’ll find Tammy using humor and wit to bring joy and hope to every aspect in life. She’s gone from down and defeated from a past filled with bullying and criticism from family to living a Tickled Pink life as she believes there is always a giggle wanting to come out! All because of HIM.

She’s the Social Media Coordinator for the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. President of ACFW Upstate SC, Past-President and current member of Word Weavers Upstate SC and Past-President of Cross N Pens Writers Group. She’s a member of My Book Therapy/Novel Academy. A writing team member for The Write Conversation, contributor for the Learn How to Write a Novel Blog and others. Published in the Divine Moments Compilation Book—Cool-inary Moments.

She’s married to her college sweetheart Larry, a mom to their grown daughter, Kristen and excited to add a son-in-law in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, she now lives in South Carolina. Connect with Tammy at HTTPS://TAMMYKARASEK.COM.