"Just don't write crap."

     My wife and I went on a short walk a few weeks ago.  The stated purpose was to go to the corner store to grab some ice cream for the progeny.  Mostly the purpose was to have a few minutes away from the progeny.  As usually happens when we are together and not solving offspring issues, we talked through a variety of topics:  money, kids, home repairs, upcoming schedules, ways that the world is broken and how do we protect our hearts and teach our kids through all of that.  As we were heading onto our street and the final few minutes of our time, we landed on my new job.  The FSAF director position allows us to have a solid budget, creative and administrative challenge to keep me engaged at work, and a solid chunk of time each week...ideally set aside to work on writing.  It is an exciting prospect, but a little daunting as I am trying to figure out what to write and how to do that well.

     Carina turned to me as we were nearing the house and said, "Just don't write crap."

     Her point was not that I needed to pay attention to my style of prose because sometimes what I produce is just simply God-awful...I hope.  I choose to believe that her point, instead, was that the type of projects that I pursue should be of high quality and value.  There are a lot of opportunities to make money writing that do not develop the writer or build up the reader.  This summer I spent a number of hours on freelance writing sites, submitting proposals for various projects.  Some people wanted a new company slogan; others wanted help writing a children's book; others needed a series of sermons written; others wanted subtitling done; still others were looking for someone to write instruction manuals.  I won't even get into the romance novel industry requests.

     So what do I want to do?  What is worth the investment of 10 hours per week when I could be doing a thousand other things?  There are three avenues that spring to the forefront of my mind as I think about long-term writing.

• Novels.  I really enjoyed writing "The Seer" and having it in print.  I have the first draft of the sequel finished and outlines for 4 more after that.  I love the world-building and problem solving of creating a large story.  I enjoy creating real characters wrestling with physical, emotional and spiritual challenges.  And now I have no publisher as mine went out of business.  Part of what I want to work on in my writing time is editing and finishing the 2nd book and investing some effort into hiring a literary agent to help me move forward with getting "The Seer" back into print.
• Devotionals.  I would really like to write a series of devotionals specifically for Families with Special Needs members.  It combines a lot of areas that I have experience in.  It is challenging to fully engage with the church...it is difficult to fully engage with God when you are struggling so hard to keep your family afloat.  I would like to provide some tools to help families do that.
• Freelance work.  If I want to become a professional writer someday, I need to learn how to get paid for my writing.  I am pitching blogging for some local non-profits as a way to make a little bit of money and also provide a service to the community.  I am also keeping an eye out for requests for magazine article submissions and opportunities in that vein.  

     So that's where I am at.  It is not unlimited time, but I have a time and a place and a setting where I can get consistent writing work done.  It is a start and I am excited to see where the path leads.  I just have four words that now constantly ring in my head:

"Just don't write crap."