Maybe God's Trying to tell me something...

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I'm Catholic and believe in God. I thought writing was my calling since I've received enough motivation to keep writing. My novels aren't very religious, but have spiritual elements. I don't know now. I haven't received much praise lately. In quite some time. I'm having a lot of trouble connecting with an agent and or publisher. I was semi-successful with one of my novels, but I can't seem to meet up to that level on the rest of my novels. I have two that just aren't working at all. I keep thinking there is a reason to this. God is trying to tell me something like I shouldn't be doing it anymore. I love to write, I was very passionate about it years ago, but now with very low to no feedback, I'm losing motivation to keep writing. I feel like maybe I should be doing something else with my life and I'm not getting the hint on what it truly is. I want to know that this is what I'm supposed to be doing, but I'm losing faith in it.

Does anyone else feel this way with your writing?
 

JBVam

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I used to feel that way. I mean i don't write religious books, mine are new adult/YA contemporary, but I did go through a period where I felt like I should give up on my dreams of being an author...a SUCCESSFUL author.

I woke up one day and said to myself that writing is the only thing that I am passionate about. I write because I love to do so. I believe in the gift that God has given to me and am determined to make the most of it. I don't have an agent or publisher either but guess what I am in the process of doing? Self- publishing my book(s). I will get my work out there one way or the other. That is how much I believe in myself and my voice.

I said all that to say, don't give up. If writing is what you love to do and it sounds like it is, keep at it. If you, yourself feel that what you are currently writing on isn't working, go write something else but don't quit. Know that in life there will always be dissapointments. You can either decide to sit there and sulk about it or get up and push on......I say push on and write on.

Have a good day.
 

Osulagh

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I'm not a particularly spiritual person, but if anything ability or way of life was given to me by any G/god(s) I wouldn't believe that they are also giving me the entire path so easily. They've given me something, but have erected challenges to test if I am worthy of such graces. Failing and getting myself out of failure is just another challenge placed in my way towards my goals to test if I have the courage and persistence to deem that I am worthy.
 

JBVam

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if anything ability or way of life was given to me by any G/god(s) I wouldn't believe that they are also giving me the entire path so easily. They've given me something, but have erected challenges to test if I am worthy of such graces. Failing and getting myself out of failure is just another challenge placed in my way towards my goals to test if I have the courage and persistence to deem that I am worthy.

Very well said and I agree.
 

Chris P

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I've felt this. One way through it was to accept that even if God gave me the urge to write, even if I'm telling an uplifting story that entertains or gives voice to the marginalized that doesn't mean I'm destined for commercial success or critical acclaim. I believe God calls us to the tasks, and not to the outcomes.

I'm meant to use the gift in some way, that's for sure, or at least for that time. Callings change, and I might never know why it's changed or what some period in my life was supposed to mean. I try to focus now on following in real time the guidance I'm getting. I've not felt the call to write in a long time, and I'm not letting it bother me as long as I'm looking for what he wants me to do at this time.
 

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I think it's important to do whatever feels best in that moment. Like my writing is never important when it comes to my kids. I'd rather be with them then to write.

Unfortunately I want validation which shouldn't be the motivational facter. It is the facter that I can create a busy mind, staying healthy with writing. I have to learn that not all my work will be published. But just that I accomplished doing it and that always counts for something.
 

Deb Kinnard

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Upfront: I'm a Christian, and I believe God gives the zeal to write as a gift along with the ability. You're allowed to go dormant for a season if that's where you need to be. I believe He understands the need to regroup and refill the creative well. I shouldn't wonder if all creatives need some down time to refill it. Strangely, I couldn't write whilst pregnant -- it was as though I could only build one thing at a time! But afterwards (naptime, mostly) I got going again. Writing isn't something I can give up for very long.

Unsolicited advice warning: take your down time. Do what you need to do. I think the urge to write will come back to you after a suitable time, and only you can know how long that is.

ETA: sometimes it's not that we're writing, but what we're writing. Do you think He might be hinting that a change-up is in order? Could you write something quite different from your books that aren't working so well? Just a thought.
 
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Rufus Coppertop

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Apparently the Jews have a saying..............You are God's gift to yourself and what you make of yourself is your gift to God.

Maybe it's more within your power than you think. Maybe your lack of motivation comes from a lack of emotional investment in your own stories.

Do your characters have goals that are pressing? Does the outcome of each scene actually matter to your characters?

If the answer is no, then it won't matter so much to you and hence you won't have motivation to write the next scene.

If you give your characters goals and obstacles, you may well find that you yourself have an emotional investment and that will generate motivation.

Also, remember what Jesus of Nazareth said. Render unto God what is God's and render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.

You are the very centre of your own experience of being alive in the world and therefore you are the secular ruler (or Caesar) within your own life. Give yourself the responsibility to write or not write. Give yourself the responsibility to provide motivation or identify reasons for it not being there and take the appropriate remedies.

Give God thanks for your imagination and capacity to write and either utilize it by writing or by some other means you can find fulfilling.
 
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Sungoddess

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I'm Catholic and believe in God. I thought writing was my calling since I've received enough motivation to keep writing. My novels aren't very religious, but have spiritual elements. I don't know now. I haven't received much praise lately. In quite some time. I'm having a lot of trouble connecting with an agent and or publisher. I was semi-successful with one of my novels, but I can't seem to meet up to that level on the rest of my novels. I have two that just aren't working at all. I keep thinking there is a reason to this. God is trying to tell me something like I shouldn't be doing it anymore. I love to write, I was very passionate about it years ago, but now with very low to no feedback, I'm losing motivation to keep writing. I feel like maybe I should be doing something else with my life and I'm not getting the hint on what it truly is. I want to know that this is what I'm supposed to be doing, but I'm losing faith in it.

Does anyone else feel this way with your writing?

i do understand how you feel, I think. I'm not Catholic, but my writing has a spiritual/inspirational quality to it. I also feel I was called to write this book I've completed.

What I find difficult, is apparently there just isn't much of a market for this kind of writing. I don't see any agents ask for it in their laundry lists of desired manuscripts. They might seek or accept non-fictional, but I don't see any accepting queries for fiction in this market right now.

It feels very disappointing when you feel you have a message, and you hope some people will feel inspired from some of your thoughts. But you can't get it to people if it isn't published. I understand that publishers need to make money and they do't want to invest in something that they don't think will sell.

I see things I write about on TV and the big screen, but very little in books.

I don't believe God is telling you not to write any more. Maybe you need to go a different route. I'm to going to give up. I'll self publish if I have to, but I do relate to the strong feelings of disappointment you can feel. Let yourself feel it for a moment and then pick yourself back up and keep at it. You said you haven't received much praise lately. Who are you hoping to get praise from? Maybe you can have a few beta readers take a look at what you've written and get some feedback. Don't lose faith in yourself. :Hug2:
 
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Muxy001

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Don't lose your motivation.

I'm currently writing on some religiously sensitive topics/material. I'm an atheist, but I have the greatest respect for those that follow religious teachings. Something happened the other day which made your headline resonate ...

A very elderly gentleman was on the receiving end of a rather "heated" lecture from a well-dressed young man who was obviously passionate about his atheist beliefs ... too passionate perhaps. I couldn't help but overhear the conversation.

The poor old guy couldn't get a word in so I decided to make sure everything was okay and went over and introduced myself in a non-threatening way. It turns out that they were related ... the young man was his grandson. Their conversation had turned to the topic of evolution and continued now in my presence.

'What do think?' the young man asked of me. 'How can religion explain the proof of evolution?'

The old man looked at me looking for any sort of lifeline. I'm an atheist, but I couldn't resist that look. LOL

'Okay,' I said. 'Try to view that question from an ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVE . . . God's perspective.'

'There's no such thing as God,' the grandson insisted.

'But, we can still imagine that God exists, and we can try to imagine how he would answer that question. For the moment, imagine YOU are God. YOU are master over everything in our universe. Are you in the role?'

'Yes,' said the young man, reluctantly.

'Okay, how do YOU explain the evidence of evolution?'

The young man, to his tremendous credit, thought about the question seriously.

'If it exists, it is because I made it so,' he answered. The old man was beaming. 'If God did exist, evolution would be part of His design.'

BOTH sides of the argument saw something they hadn't seen before.

The encounter was an excellent example of the effective use of lateral thinking.

It seems strange to me that sometimes I think I might be getting my inspiration from something higher
 

mccardey

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Zombie thread, dude. Five years old.
 

ColoradoGuy

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Do you have a specific point? Because you just resurrected a thread from 5 years ago. We generally don't encourage that. This post seems better suited to your personal diary or something.