Writers: Are You Asking for Help?

We’ve talked a lot about writing with community. Surrounding yourself with a group of people that you can trust your heart and writing with. People that become your friends beyond this writing journey and support you in nearly every aspect of your life.

They are your warriors. Your champions. The people that hold you up in prayer when the going is rough and the people you in turn laugh and cry with when they are joyful or struggling.

This is your tribe. These are your people.

But I was challenged recently for how often I actually come to my tribe—my people—and ask for help with my writing.

Allen Arnold has talked and ministered to many, many writers about not writing in a vacuum. About not being the “orphan” that writes alone, creates alone, processes alone and instead invites the Creator into the creative. Instead, invites in the people that the Creator has given the creative to form this story that He has laid on their heart.

It’s shockingly few and far between that I ask for help.

I don’t want to inconvenience someone. Take away time from their projects they need to be doing. Make them obligated to say “yes”, when they just really need to say “no.”

But I’ve been stuck on my story now for about a month and a half. Only written about a thousand words between family being in town, ACFW national conference and then more family being in town. It’s been a great month of fellowship and reconnection, but also a month filled with the trepidation of the next thing I have to do: which is dust off that story and start writing the next scene.

Only problem is: I have no idea what that next scene is.

Minor detail is all.

So the other night, at my writer’s mentoring meeting, I decided to pipe up. Gulp back any feelings of worry that I would put something beyond their time in helping me, and asked for help in outlining my story.

See, outlining your story might not be a big deal to you. You might love it. Get inspired from it. See new plot twists and scene ideas.

I hate it.

I’d so much rather sit down with my laptop and just write. Except then, I write myself into a corner and oops, I don’t know what happens next.

It’s not a complicated project, this request that I’m making. A lot of the work has already been done

in a previous brainstorming session. This is just me, needing a friend to join in writing these scene ideas out on 3x5 cards and inspiring my love for this novel all over again—and putting me back on track to do the work.

Once the words are said, it’s not hard asking for help.

It’s hard getting to that place where you have to ask for it. Invite someone else into your story world; let them take your hand and journey with you in this process.

Don’t get stuck in your cave. The answers don’t all lie in what only you are capable of doing.

So invite someone in. Let them take partnership with you. Don’t be ashamed, but let yourself be motivated and encouraged.

Because remember that tribe of friends you’ve formed? Yeah, they are here for you in this too. And you’re not alone. By a long shot.

What are you needing to ask help for in your writing today? Have you done it? 

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Casey Herringshaw is a homeschool graduate and has been writing since high school. She lives in colorful Colorado where she gets to live her dream stalking--er--visiting with her favorite CO authors. 

Letters, Words, Hearts

Nomade by Jaume Plensa

When a writer walks through a sculpture garden, her heart frenzies at the meanings behind the art. From one artist to another, we get it. Don't we? Read this description of Nomade:

"The sculpture exemplifies Plensa's ongoing interest in ideas presented in written text, as wel las the human body and how it perceives the world around it. He has described individual letters or symbols as components that have little or no meaning on their own, but blossom into words thoughts, and language when combined with others. Plensa's screens of letters offer a metaphor for human culture, in which a person alone has limited potential, but when formed into groups or societies, becomes stronger."--from the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park Visitor Guide


At first glance, this piece of art is a simplistic sculpture with letters that I've recognized from the time I could speak. I even snapped a shot of my new kindergartner in front of it, thinking, a perfect backdrop for her school beginning.

But, it's not just that.

Not when you stand beneath the towering nomad at night, with the lighting just so--hinting that there is something more. And there is so much more after reading the artist's intent, isn't there?

Writer, have you ever considered that while your letters and words might not be unique, but the connectivity of them in a unique order, with unique meaning, translate into a story of great potential? One that describes the human heart in a special display of humanity?

In the art above, I have found a beautiful example of the existence God has invited me into, not just as a human (hehe), but as a writer.

Writers are part of this special metaphor of culture. We are individuals that cleave to a whole society of artists and become stronger in our relationship. Not only on a personal level, but in our art. A book is never only one person's doing, is it? I am learning that after receiving my first revision letter (all you experienced authors snicker, I know). But, after years of critiques and chipping away of my pride, I receive the voices of editors without anger. Fright, well, yes. Uncertainty? A smidge. But, after learning to value of others' voices spoken over my work, I cannot help but accept and revise. I know that this book will only make it to a shelf by the hands of many. It's potential is limited in my hands alone, it must be given over to others.

Writers, we are not islands, even if we choose to be as we write in our caves. We are connected to this fantastic whole which make our potential burst forth into the flowering of creativity refined especially for the human heart.

In a matter of days, I will join in with the whole. I'll be among the people who share my vision to weave Christ's love in the crafting of letters and words and stories. And the writer people to which I belong, as individual as each of us may be, will find that we are so connected by passion and art, that our potential rises to heights beyond ourselves.

The ACFW conference is a mirror image of this art above. As many individuals unite for a cluster of days to form this beautiful whole.

I daresay that whole actually takes on a different body.

Not a nomad.

Possibly a Savior. One on a cross.

We are all parts of the body of Christ, individuals working together to strengthen this goal--

God's love displayed by letters and words.

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Angie Dicken is a full-time mom and lives in the Midwest with her Texas Aggie sweetheart. An ACFW member since 2010, she has written seven historical novels and is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of The Steve Laube Agency. Angie also spends her time designing one-sheets and drinking good coffee with great friends. Check her personal blog at www.angiedicken.com and connect at:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/dicken.angie, 

Twitter: @angiedicken
Pinterest: pinterest.com/agdicken