Dear Writer: An Open Letter

By Rei Lovik

Dear writer,

Storytelling. The chance to transport readers into a whole new world. The chance to show new perspectives and old beloved values. The chance to open eyes and heal hearts. 

The chance to find one reader, who needed your book more than anything, who connected to it in a way she never had anything before, who found it was singing her song before she knew the lyrics, who passed it down to her daughter, and granddaughter, and to this day it sits in the place of honour. 

The chance to shine out Truth and show the light of God to the world. 

That sounds like the chance of a lifetime. 

I wonder how many writers, when pen is put to paper, think about that. 

When it is hard. When one word at a time isn’t working. When you are frustrated because you thought this was THE story- and if it was why isn't it working… 

Those are the times when it is all too easy to forget. 

And doubts slowly but surely start to creep in. Your pen is on the paper, but suddenly you can no longer find the right word. Or come to think of it, the right prose or chapter or story plot. 

Have you been there? 

As a storyteller, what you are doing is unique and beautiful and special. 

But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. 

Because when you really care about something, and it doesn’t work out, well, that’s hard. It hurts. 

There have been moments in my writing journey where things have – to put it lightly– not worked out

My whole story has fallen out of place before.

Perhaps yours has too. Perhaps you have doubted that you were even meant to be a writer, or considered giving up entirely, sinking into an indulgence of dramatic thoughts and doubts that get you nowhere. 

But you didn’t give up. 

You can’t. 

Something keeps you going, a spark, a hope, a one-liner that won't go away, a character that has come way too alive – 

A story to tell. 

It won’t let go, and that is why you are still here. 

Remember the moment you first wanted to be a writer? 

Born from a longing to share stories with the world, a lifelong desire to create fantasy realms, or a way to pour out your heart on paper… 

It was an important moment when you decided to take the journey of crafting stories with all its joys and troubles. 

Maybe you didn’t know it would be so hard. Maybe now you doubt your decision. 

Well, now, let me tell you, it will be hard. You are allowed to make mistakes, and feel stuck or discouraged every once and awhile. 

But don’t you ever doubt yourself. 

I’ve known writers who had ‘writers’ block’. I myself have been there.

But you have a choice whether or not to stay there. 

You’ve heard this advice before right?

The ‘just write’ quotes. 

Well, I am not just telling you to ‘just write’.

Far from that.

I am telling you to write, no ‘just’, ‘barely’ or ‘only’ about it. 

Write from the heart, write when it hurts, write for God, with God, write for your younger self who had no good books to read, write because you can not keep those words inside of you.

There is no ‘just writing’ when you write like that. 

Pick up your pen and a notebook, and write the very first sentence that comes to your mind.

Maybe it isn’t even part of your story. Maybe it is a new beginning. Maybe it isn’t the best thing you have ever written.

Maybe that is okay. 

What I do know is that writing is hard enough, a challenge just to find the right word to describe a sunset, without facing discouragement. 

So let me encourage you. 

You are writing a story no one else can. 

And it is a good story. A beautiful, inspiring, genius story. 

Maybe it doesn't look or feel like that right now. 

But even Tolkien and Austen and all the greats had a daring ‘once upon a time’ before their triumphant ‘the end’. 

Everything good starts somewhere.

I haven’t had ‘writer's block’ for a long time. Not because I woke up one day and writing was suddenly easy, because I think of the right word every time, nor because I never have a plot hole or a stuck character… 

But because I have made a discussion: I want to enjoy the journey. 

Because this is Writing, and it is a special passion not everyone has. 

I write because I love it.

We are not good writers because we write all the time and never have a problem and sell hundreds of books. 

We are good writers because we write what we love and when we write we love it.

You are a writer. 

A crazy, wonderful, creative, dreaming, daring person with a story to tell.

Do not let doubts stop you – doubting what others think, if your book will ever be published, if you have the right theme, the right beginning– don’t you dare let that stop you from using those 26 letters of the alphabet to craft a life-changing, light bringing tale of everything that sets your soul on fire. 

Imagine if C.S. Lewis gave up at  ‘Once there were four children…’ and never created the beloved world of Narnia.

In his early stages of  ‘Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’, the story was slandered. People told him it didn’t work, that it would never amount to anything, that it wasn’t unique. 

For a while, he believed them. 

He put Narina into a drawer and tried to forget about it. 

But he couldn’t.

It wasn’t until he let one friend’s little daughter read his story, when she fell in love with the magic of Narnia, that he remembered why he wrote it– for children, not cynical adults. 

Nowadays, his stories are classics beloved by children and their parents all over the world, and Narina has blessed and inspired more people than I think Lewis ever could have imagined. 

It all starts with a blank page. 

That clean sheet staring up at you, just waiting for the brush of your pen, to be full of your words.

Words you write. A story you craft. 

Tell me that is not amazing. 

Tell me that a story of love or adventure or redemption written in your own voice at the end of it all, is not worth it. 

Let’s say you are at chapter three and have no idea what is to happen next.

Don’t groan, don’t go walk around moaning that you are surely the worst writer in the world.

You don’t know what is going to happen next. 

How exciting. 

You never know what your ending will turn out to be, even if you have it all plotted out, you will never know who will be blessed by your work, what your characters will do next, how God will use your book to change the world. 

I don’t know about you, but when I became a writer I had no idea how exciting it would be.

What I know for sure is you may be able to meet your word count by hammering out one word after another until midnight, but if you don’t take time to enjoy it, to remember why you are writing, to put your heart into crafting each scene as an art, you’ll easily slip into writer's block again. Get frustrated at yourself or rip a page from a notebook. 

Listen up, writer. 

It's not everyone who takes hold of the pen with intentions to bring characters to life with a story no one else has ever heard before, to tell it in a way that will cause laughter or blow minds or heal hearts.

Or change the world. 

You might as well have a sword in your hand.

You have been knighted, writer, not when you publish a book, not when you finish your first novel, not when you get to the stage where everything you write is amazing. 

You have your sword in your hand, and this is the Kingdom. 

You have the opportunity to show them the King.

Are you excited?

I am not going to promise that everyday henceforth will be perfect and you will never feel the urge to groan over a terrible sentence ever again. 

What I am hoping for, is that when your writing is not perfect, when the sentence is terrible, you see an opportunity. 

To grow, to enjoy this journey, because trust me, it is so much easier when you do. 

You have an amazing story to tell, and for the sake of everyone who will ever read it, be they one or one million, don’t give up. 

Sincerely, 

Another Writer