Going back to my roots

It’s no secret that I’ve always dreamed of being an author. And while I am taking this dream so seriously (I have a partially written novel from a creative writing class I took in college), it tends to become delicate or sensitive when I talk about it, like a promise I’m not sure I can fulfill. So, this past year, I decided it was time to kick it into high gear; after all, I graduated from college, I have a full time job, I could use my free time to finish writing my book. I can make this dream happen. But, I felt like I lacked some accountability. 

I began to look at how authors were posting online, what they were posting, to build an audience or “gain readers,” and the more time I spent scrolling on Instagram and Tiktok, it appeared that their strategy was to share every single part of the process of writing their book. Easy enough. But most of them did so through creating videos using the latest trends & donning themselves “book content creators.”

An authentic writing journey 

The last thing I wanted to do was be a “content creator,” but did I have a choice? So, I rebranded my writing Instagram. If you’ve been here for a while, you know the writing Instagram was originally the blog Instagram, which I started in 2019. Except now, I was determined to share anything and everything: my writing process for my novel, poetry, music and books that were inspiring me at the moment. Well, inevitably, my posts became inconsistent and I held back on sharing some things because I wasn’t sure they were “picture perfect” enough to post or I had failed to meet a goal I set for myself. And in all that time between posts, I spent hours and hours scrolling through authors' Instagrams thinking, “I wish I could share my writing journey as effortlessly as they do.”

Then, the day before heading home for Christmas, sipping on a mayan mocha at my favorite Dallas coffeeshop, it hit me. 

Trying to build an audience on Instagram by “creating content” wasn’t working for me because it felt inauthentic. It doesn’t feel like me to create 'x' amount of graphics or finish 'x' amount of poems or reach 'x' word count on my book every week to share how I’m pursuing my dream. And as I attempted to work at this coffeeshop, I kept getting distracted, trying to figure out what does feel authentic to me. How could I share my writing journey in a way that feels like me? I ended up posing the question to God because at the end of the day, this is all for him. 

Immediately, he brought me back to 2019. I was fresh out of high school and all I knew for certain that I wanted to do was write and tell people about Jesus. I posed the same question then, “God, how do I share my journey?” That’s when he gave me this blog. 

He is the Good Shepherd, we are His sheep 

This is something I can't stop thinking about: Isn’t it crazy that we sometimes forget that Jesus is the Son of God? I don’t mean that literally. I mean that at times, we forget his power, his sovereignty, his holiness. We forget that he is the Good Shepherd and we are his sheep, whom he loves and so graciously guides along the path of righteousness (Psalm 23:1-3). He never leads us astray. He brings us back to our roots when we need to be reminded who he is and who he says we are. 

He is bringing me back to my roots, to Kingdom Minded, where he first called me to surrender my dream to him, to learn where he is leading me next. (I mean, I post "creative journal entry's" on Instagram, hello?! The answer was there the whole time!)

This is my green pasture for now (Psalm 23:2). 

Back to my roots, so what‘s next?

So, I’m going back to my roots, believing that when the time is right, the Lord will make it happen (Isaiah 60:22)… whatever “it” is. I’m going to continue writing my book and writing poems as the Lord inspires me. And I’m going to spend less time scrolling on Instagram worrying about other author’s processes more than mine. I’m not called to look horizontally anyway. 

We’re gonna talk about all of the things we used to; what the Lord is teaching me and what’s inspiring me, but we’re also going to talk about all of the things I’ve been fearful of;

• Where exactly am I in the writing process of my novel? What is my novel about? What are my goals behind it?

• We’ll talk about poetry.

• We'll talk about what's working and what isn't working.

• But we’ll also talk about reading, books and authors I’ve learned from this year

• Music and anything else that tickles my creative fancy. 

So, feel free to leave a question in the comments about anything & everything you want me to discuss!  

& with that being said, welcome back and happy reading!