Often referred to as “the dark night of the soul” in writing circles, lament often leads our characters to a moment of clarity about how the choices they’ve made and the experiences they’ve lived through have brought them to this specific moment in time. This key scene is crucial for the character’s transformation and ultimate victory. Read on to learn more about what lament is and the role it plays in the lives of our characters—and in our lives as well!
Category: Encouragement
Your time is precious. And what you choose to invest it in now will impact what it yields to you later. If you’re waking up on Mondays, dreading the week ahead, perhaps it’s time to take a good look at what exactly it is about the week that’s making you feel this way.
While working on multiple different projects can help us discover what type of writing we enjoy most and can help us start adding publishing credits to our name, it can also leave us feeling a bit like we’re “butter that’s been spread over too much bread.” Before too long, we can find ourselves looking back and wondering where we are and how we got here.
Our position in life and the things we have (or haven’t) experienced aren’t the only things that qualify us to speak into our readers lives. Do we have a desire to learn? Are we willing to listen? Are we confident that when we allow ourselves to be stretched as individuals and as writers, we can grow in areas we hadn’t anticipated?
Merriam-Webster defines the word “encourage” as “to inspire with courage, spirit, or hope. To hearten.” It also defines it as “to attempt to persuade: to urge”; “to spur on: to stimulate”; and “to give help or patronage to: to foster.”
MW defines influence as “the power or capacity of causing an effect in indirect or intangible ways. To sway.” It also defines the word as “the act or power of producing an effect with apparent exertion of force or direct exercise of command.”
(January 23, 2018) Lord, I received a much-needed reminder that busyness isn’t the same thing as productiveness. Nor is working for you the same thing as working with you. Once again, I have caught myself running myself in circles and wearying myself out. Thank you for reminding me that you are the source of my inspiration and the wellspring…
I once met a man who dreamed of being a garbage man when he was a little boy. And when he grew up, that’s what he did. For as dirty of a job as it was, he enjoyed it until he retired. For him, it was a way to serve people in his community. It…
It doesn’t matter how long it takes. It doesn’t matter how many times you need to start over. Each time you sit down with pen and paper, laptop and coffee, or book and highlighter, you’re adding to the foundation and the framework on which all your future storytelling will be built.
What is something you believe you’re gifted at when it comes to your writing? Something that, no matter what else you try, you keep finding yourself coming back to?