30 Days of Hope for Writers

By T.K. Richardson

30 Days of Hope for Writers offers a spark of humor, a healthy dose of encouragement, and a daily dash of hope for writers. Whether you’re published or not, seeking the traditional route or self-publishing, this series, by author T.K. Richardson, is sure to encourage you, and most of all let you know you’re not alone – there’s always hope in this writing life. 30 Days of Hope for Writers contains thirty entries with accompanying scripture verses about hope.

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Also look for 30 Days of Grace for Writers, the companion book to 30 Days of Hope for Writers

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Sep 21, 2012
• ISBN: 9780985936181

Book preview

Richardson

Day 1

I like to think I live each day as though it were a page in my own book. Some days are filled with the errands of real life, others are filled with philosophical ramblings, some are filled with delicious aromas of cooking, and some are just long and drawn out.

This is life.

Each page, or each day, must be turned and the story continues on. We choose much of what we write into our books. Sometimes others choose it for us. We don’t get to edit the bumps and bruises away, but they add drama, make it interesting, and give us depth.

The bumps and bruises of life are part of the plot.

Often ideas, thoughts, and actions are packed into each day, and therefore added to each page of life, but that’s not enough. Every day has a story of its own – a mini plot within a larger plot.

But the key is knowing how to write it, and write it well.

How to live life, and live it well.

In the end, we’ll each have a book with our name on it, written with permanent ink onto the pages and lives of those we have touched.

Dip your pen, and write your story – it is your masterpiece.

Hope for today: 1 Thessalonians 1:3

Day 2

Writers of long ago knew the secret to writing. They knew that books were waiting to ‘be born’ and those books were written with clarity and precision, with beauty and expert prose. The writing ‘rules’ we live by now were nonexistent then, and I believe it left the writer free to choose which words flowed, which phrases had the ‘swing and sway’ of beauty, and which words had the power to convey the images they saw within. What their characters wanted, believed, saw, smelled, felt, and thought.

We all try to do the same, don’t we? We struggle over the correct word, phrase, situation, and scene.

But with so many characters and words and thoughts and scenes living and roaming inside of us waiting their turn to burst onto the page – which ones do we choose? Which stories demand to be written, deserve our time and devotion? Which characters call to us more or need to be expressed and fleshed out? How do we choose between so many living and breathing imaginary people and places?

I believe the answer lies not within our heads, or the characters that call to us, and want to be written. I believe the answer lies deep within our hearts. For it’s only the stories and characters and scenes and plots that have made the journey from our heads to our hearts that deserve to be written.

Thoughts and ideas are fleeting. They pass through our writer’s imaginations in the blink of an eye, but the ones that root in our hearts and grow from there are the stories and the books we should write. They’re the ones that want to ‘be born’. They’re the ones that need to be written.

If not for anyone else, but ourselves.

Hope for today: 1 Thessalonians 5:8

Day 3

I love old maps. I always have. I love their brittle look, their aged and golden color, their faded lines, their etched images. I admire their detail and when I close my eyes I picture the hand of the creator delicately crafting each stroke of a continent, or each precise line of a river.

Old maps make me wonder where I could go, allow me to dream of new worlds and old worlds, and worlds yet to be. They spark memories that