After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other hand, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection. – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Archives for February 2015
Write Right and her Big, Red Dog
Good Enough isn’t Good Enough
Whatever you do, do you work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. – Colossians 3:23-4 (NASB)
The words “sloppy” and “good enough” don’t sit well with me. They are not a part of my work ethic, nor are they to what I’m called. I’m called to excellence, to doing my work heartily.
Dread and Excitement
When we start a new play, I’m always filled with dread and excitement. – Lana Lesley
To attempt something new always produces a sense of dread and excitement. What if I fail? What if I can’t do it? What of the work to come? The hours spent learning a new craft or honing an existing one?
How to be a Better Writer: Watch the World
Look until you see something new, for the writer is the watcher of the world. – Francis Flaherty, The Elements of Story
Inspiration isn’t always easy to find, but it’s generally easier to find when a writer watches the world. The world is a never ending place of sights, sounds, smells, and experiences. The writer who notes those things develops a vast resource from which to draw. [Read more…] about How to be a Better Writer: Watch the World
What to do when You’re in a Writing Slump
Some of my recent work has been a lemon. A dud. An abject failure. I’ve been in what can only be termed a “writing slump.”
[Read more…] about What to do when You’re in a Writing Slump