Discover The Adventure: Have You Discovered the Treasure Beyond the Fuzzy ...

Discover The Adventure: Have You Discovered the Treasure Beyond the Fuzzy ...: Before LASIK surgery at age forty, severe nearsightedness blinded my vision without corrective lenses. I only saw an advantage to this cond...

Have You Discovered the Treasure Beyond the Fuzzy Orbs?

Before LASIK surgery at age forty, severe nearsightedness blinded my vision without corrective lenses. I only saw an advantage to this condition at Christmas when the tree went up with its strings of colorful bulbs. Without vision aids at night, the lights on the tree appeared as fuzzy orbs, blending together in a dazzling display of color. To be honest, I was hypnotized by it.
      Yet my distorted vision kept me from seeing more extraordinary treasures around the tree. With my lenses in place, I discovered ornaments friends and family had given us, invoking dear memories of people I loved. I found ornaments my husband and I had collected from places we’d visited around the world, summoning fond remembrances of our years together. I observed the Christ child in the manager, centering my focus on the truth of Christmas. Letting go of my distorted vision and putting on my lenses showed me the beauty, wonder, and joy beyond the fuzzy orbs.
     Like my blurred vision, writers of faith can be hypnotized by the fuzzy things of this temporal world, but those things are mere shadows or distortions of the extravagance God has lavished on us in Christ. Donning our corrective lenses allows us to view our writing journey in perspective. First and foremost, corrective lenses enable us to see the light of God’s promise of true joy today as well as the astonishing beauty and wonder of the future to come even if our journey as writers contains bumps in the road along the way.
     Then we understand that what we write doesn’t merely revolve around our own little worlds but requires us to reach beyond to something more extraordinary. We demand more of ourselves by continually honing our craft, accepting constructive criticism, and throwing away the chaff. We search for unique ways to tell our stories and entice our audience to embark on the journey of discovery with us. We dare to embrace the world of marketing our work in spite of timidity and self-consciousness. Yet we adjure ourselves to forgo foolish pride and go about the journey in humility and faith.
     Only by letting go of our distorted vision can we experience the treasures beyond the world of the fuzzy orbs. I invite you to fix your eyes on the prize that is set before you as you experience the world beyond the fuzzy orbs.

Post Script: I also invite you to visit my updated website at www.donnawichelman.com/books to get a preview of my newest book, Undaunted Valor.

Discover The Adventure: Lessons Learned from Rejection

Discover The Adventure: Lessons Learned from Rejection: I will always remember the drizzly day I ambled Emily Brontë’s heather-dressed moors at age seventeen. As an American student in the Uni...

Lessons Learned from Rejection

I will always remember the drizzly day I ambled Emily Brontë’s heather-dressed moors at age seventeen. As an American student in the United Kingdom writing a thesis on Wuthering Heights, my romantic spirit soared, savoring my chance encounter with an old gent, sporting a cap and a cane, whose family had known the Brontës. The experience sealed my desire to write.

          The first time an editor solicited a manuscript I had pitched, my heart danced. I knew it would be accepted and become a best seller. I’d be another Emily Brontë. Months later, I received a rejection letter in the mail with constructive notes and the editor’s good wishes. I felt crushed and never implemented the changes.

           Over the years, I’ve sold personal essays, short stories and devotionals. Two years ago, after an unsuccessful run with an agent, I self-published my first Christian suspense, Light Out of Darkness, which will see a reprint at the end of March along with the publication of the sequel Undaunted Valor on April 4th.  You will hear more about that in the coming weeks.

          In spite of modest success, rejection has often made me think about giving up this seemingly hopeless cause. In time, I realized the onus was on me to hone my craft, never to be complacent about my work, to accept constructive criticism and throw out the chaff.  

          Most important, I learned my value as a person doesn’t depend on whether my work gets accepted. I am much more than my writing. As a person of faith, my worth comes from God, not glory or fame. I write to bring people with me on a journey of joy, wonder and discovery. If I’ve touched one heart, if one morsel of truth encourages a soul, then I’ve done my job. I may not be Emily Brontë, but I wasn’t meant to be, and that’s honestly okay with me.
          The greatest advice I can give beginning authors is this: never stop learning your craft, but always remember where your worth as a person comes from.