If you write, you are a writer.

Sorry to keep banging on about writing lately, but I have received some more good advice that I would like to pass on to you, from a long-time American friend.

She wrote: “As a writer, one of the first things I learned was..."if I write, I am a writer." Say this every day. You do not have to be published to be a writer. Every time you write anything, you get better skills and learn more. “

So in what I expect to be my last current item on writing for now, I would just like to encourage everyone with my friend’s wise words. Not just with writing but also with whatever it is that you do. If you are doing something, then that is what you are. You may not yet be the best at it.

You may never be the best at it, but if that is what you are doing then that is what you are.

If you don’t like your current title then you might have to change jobs or profession, but if that is what you do, than that is what you are.
I remember an old Joke that asks, “What do you call a final year Medical Student who gets 51% in their final Exam?” And the Answer is, “Dr!” Now someone might write in and say that you actually need a higher percentage than that to actually become a Dr. But the point is that even if you just make the minimum requirement, you have still qualified. Now I’m not saying that I would necessarily be fighting for the right to be your first patient, but I hope you get my point.

So if you are doing something, then you are that something, but also remember my friend’s final point. Each time you do that task, your skills and your efficiency and your confidence will increase.

So if you are doing something that you like but you have not fully mastered yet, don’t give up, or get discouraged, but keep going and get more experience and practise as you go. That’s my friend and my opinion, what’s yours? Walter.

Agapanthus Story Response.

Recently I posted a blog about Agapanthus, called, “Which Agapanthus Story Do You Like Best & Why?”, where I asked you which version of the same story your preferred. I had done this because I had submitted the first version to the main paper here for publication in their Letters column and they printed the edited version. Now I didn’t particularly like the heavily edited version myself but was wondering what the majority of others thought, so I put it out to you all for your responses.

Evidently the majority didn’t care for either version that much, as I only received two responses. One in favour of each version. Which really didn’t help me much except to make me realise that I have to depend on and write, that which I am happiest with.

What about you? Are you still like I just was, and trying to please everyone and anyone else, but yourself?

It is right and proper to seek advice and even to heed that advice when you are not sure, but where you are sure and know what you want to do, then you need to apply yourself to that task and do what you want to do, to the best of your ability and talent, even if you are the only one who really acknowledges it, because there will always be others who will like it but for various reasons never acknowledge it. So as long as it is not illegal or immoral or hurtful to others, do your best in what you want to do and not worry about the applause (Or in a lot of cases, the lack of it?)

That is what I intend to do with my whole life from now on in and not just with my writing. As Long as I am happy with what I am doing and I am walking in God’s path for me, I am not going to worry (well not too much!) about whether it is good enough for anyone else. What about you? Will you not join me in going through life with that same attitude?

Agapanthus Story Response.

Recently I posted a blog about Agapanthus, called, “Which Agapanthus Story Do You Like Best & Why?”, where I asked you which version of the same story your preferred. I had done this because I had submitted the first version to the main paper here for publication in their Letters column and they printed the edited version. Now I didn’t particularly like the heavily edited version myself but was wondering what the majority of others thought, so I put it out to you all for your responses.

Evidently the majority didn’t care for either version that much, as I only received two responses. One in favour of each version. Which really didn’t help me much except to make me realise that I have to depend on and write, that which I am happiest with.

What about you? Are you still like I just was, and trying to please everyone and anyone else, but yourself?

It is right and proper to seek advice and even to heed that advice when you are not sure, but where you are sure and know what you want to do, then you need to apply yourself to that task and do what you want to do, to the best of your ability and talent, even if you are the only one who really acknowledges it, because there will always be others who will like it but for various reasons never acknowledge it. So as long as it is not illegal or immoral or hurtful to others, do your best in what you want to do and not worry about the applause (Or in a lot of cases, the lack of it?)

That is what I intend to do with my whole life from now on in and not just with my writing. As Long as I am happy with what I am doing and I am walking in God’s path for me, I am not going to worry (well not too much!) about whether it is good enough for anyone else. What about you? Will you not join me in going through life with that same attitude?

Comments, like everything else are relative!

When we were Missionaries and first went to Umtata (Now Mthatha) in the then Transkei in South Africa, we moved into a house that automatically and spontaneously brought comments from all who saw it for the first time. Those comments could be divided into two groupings almost without exception.

All the White/European people (includes Americans, and Aussies too,) that saw it, had a comment. And all comment, almost without exemption, was “What a poky little place”. While the Africans, again almost without exception, remarked along the lines of, “How blessed you are to have such a Big House?” And depending on which side you viewed things, both views were right.
To people with normal sized houses this one was on the miniature side, but to those used to even smaller Ones, ours was huge. So from that I learned to try and look at all comments about things from all sides of the spectrum where possible, before making judgments.

Recently I received a couple of interesting comments about my blogs that made me remember and think back on that particular house. Both comments interestingly enough were from American women. (Totally irrelevant, but interesting!)

One came from a Christian friend of long standing who writes children’s stories. She wrote:”

Your blogs are good; maybe more preaching than I'm used to. But good thoughts and writing.”

The other comment came from another dear friend, who would describe herself as spiritual but not Christian, who wrote: To one of my closest friends online, Walter. You make me think when writer's block owns my brain. You make us all laugh once in a while too! You are an unwavering friend that never gets too preachy, and considering that's what you do for a living, that's irony in a nutshell!”

So one thinks I am too preachy (Compared to her own children’s writing) and the other doesn’t think I am preachy at all! 9Compared to her experience with Christians.) Which is right? Experience tells me both are right, because both are looking from their own particular view on life.

Now, forget my writing for the moment and concentrate on yourself and how you see Life.

Through what particular, maybe even peculiar, prism or lense do you view life and the world around you? Is it the right lense or do you too sometimes need to cross to the other side to get the full and proper view on things?

Will you now try and look at things from all sides to get a full and rounded view of things or will you continue on seeing just one of possibly many views because you refuse to use any other lense on life, other than your own current one? Over to you for comment.

Lynx’s Tips On Writing.

Following some earlier comments of mine about writing blogs, I received the following from my blogger friend Lynx that I will pass onto you for your own consideration too!

Lynx wrote: ”Here's a tip I was given, and I'll pass on. You're not writing this blog for everyone else. You write it for you, it's YOUR ideas. Whether you have 1 reader or 1 million readers isn't the point. And besides, not everyone who reads comments. I don't even all the time. BUT as long as it's what you like, and you enjoy doing it, by all means DO IT. The rest will come around, or they won't. But your ideas will remain in the blogosphere long after you leave it. Enjoy what you do, and know those of us who read it enjoy it too.
I used to fret time and time again about no one reading my blogs, first on MSN then on Yahoo. That's why both of them no longer exist. No one wanted my jokes, and no one liked my politics. So I shut them down. My problem was that I was too focused on who I was trying to get to read.
When I opened my google blog, none of my friends thought I'd keep it either. But I made a promise to myself that it'd be what I wanted, not what anyone who claimed to be my friend wanted it to be. I have a couple people from back then that drop by now and then, but my blog friend circle is totally different, and I love it, because they read because they like what I have to say, or at least are curious as to what I'm up to and/or rambling about. But it's MY blog. If I want a team blog, I can set one up. But my blog is MY blog, and your blog is YOUR blog, not mine, even though I love it, so much that if I haven't read any blogs in a few days, yours is one of the first I check up on (along with Kahless, Katy, and Tom, among others). There's a reason, and it's not just because we agree a lot*. It's because you speak your mind, and it's what YOU want to talk about.
So keep on blogging my friend, and remember, only you know what's in that noggin, and anyone that claims that they know needs to be given a swift kick! It's your head, your blog, and your corner of this vast world we call the internet.”

So for any others out there who might be experiencing some self-doubts about your abilities, whether it be in writing or anything else, read and learn from these words of Lynx and where necessary put them into action in your own life and career. Take care and enjoy what you do, and do it well! Walter (& Lynx)

* We probably disagree on more things than on what we agree, but we disagree amicably with it!

Write To Your Audience

When writing, like in everything else, it helps if you like what you re doing, know what you are writing about, and know the audience that you are reaching. Even if it is not the audience that would be your natural target.

As I was a missionary and now a Pastor of a small church, one would think that my writings would be more biblically orientated and to a religious, if not Christian audience, but the fact of the matter is that my blogs started out originally as nothing more than letters to my mother, while we were overseas. Thus I started to write to mum, about things she either knew of liked; or I thought she would find interesting.

When we returned from overseas and she became extremely hard of hearing and often not using her Hearing Aid because it hurts her ears, I found it much easier to write her little stories of what was going on in our family and with our garden and pets. I also found that these letters got passed around among other family members and friends.

One day I wrote a little story about one of the girls’ dog, some magpies and a brushy fence, but it didn’t seem to stand very well as a story and so I added a little moral to it and everyone loved it and commented on it and from that came the idea to just write little stories from my life or events around me, giving them a little point or comment on the end, and from this growing collection came the idea to put them on a blog site for a wider audience.

Occasionally I will write a Letter to our Main Melbourne Paper. So far I have had two items published in them but also heavily edited, and so I have to decide what type of Items I really want to write: Letters, that are not what I really want to write and heavily edited, just for the chance of getting published in a leading Newspaper, or Blogs which I am happy with, for my Blog site. So just like everyone else I too have to decide what audience I want to aim, for, and whether I really want to write that type of writing.

Enough of me though! What about you? Are you really doing what you want to do or are you still trying to please others? It is your choice, and no one but you, can make the right choice for you. Have you? Will you? What say you?

Confidence Comes with Experience.

Whilst in Africa my mother started writing to me once a week and if I didn’t answer back she would tell me rather subtlety in the next letter or two, “No letters to answer back this week*”. So I soon got the hint that she expected me to write every week.

At first it was hard to find things to write about, but the more experiences we had over there the more there was to write about and sometimes I would have to tell only half the story for fear of ending up with a book sized letter.

In our 12 years in Transkei and South Africa, it usually wasn’t that hard to find enough to fill a one or two page letter, as although many things there were similar to Australia there was also many differences, so there was lots of Interest to write about.

Coming back to Australia, not only did I not have to write weekly to my mother but I also started to struggle to find enough information to fill an annual Newsletter to our previous supporters.

Now that I am writing simple blogs, I am able to draw on all areas of my life for these blogs, as they are short and there is no need to try and be chronological or in any sort of order.

So my suggestion to others who wish to write, even do anything else, is simply to write about (or do) what you know, and have experienced or have a real feeling or connection too.

Well that’s my thought for today. What’s yours and whom are you going to write it to?

* In my defense, later on I was able to legitimately blame the Postal service, because later she would write something like, “Three letters to answer this week two, recent and one fro 3 or 6 months back. So you see it wasn’t always my fault!”

Confidence comes with practice

One of the problems we often have when we try to do something different, is that we unrealistically expect to become experts overnight. It just doesn’t happen that way, does it? It certainly hasn’t with me in regard to my writing talents.

My letter writing began as a young teenager to a pen pal Aunt*. And my first attempts were only half a small page and that using big letters, just to fill up the page. (Lately I use large font, not to fill the page but so that I can see what I am writing!). And for many years it never progressed past that, as I never had the need or opportunity to do any further writing, until I went to Bible Collage at the age of 35, and found that I had to write 2 and 3 thousand word essays.

My first one was 2 thousand words and I had no idea how to do it. My lecturer kindly, gently & wisely said, “Pick out the main four points and write 500 words on each point.” Well I did that, but he only accepted one part and I had to redo the other 3 parts! But at least it was a start and I learnt from both what was accepted and what wasn’t. For that and the next 3 or 4, Two Thousand word essays I had to write, I generally struggled to get enough words for each essay, usually using the 10% under or over allowance to come in under the required 2,000 words. However, with exposure, and practice, by the time I started on my 3 Thousand word one, I struggled to keep it below 4000 words, and when finished I had to do some drastic editing to get it down to the 10% over margin allowed!

My point is, start out small and build your efforts up. Don’t expect to succeed immediately and keep practicing and keep writing. What I have written about my writing attempts holds true for most things in life too. There are very few things that we are overnight experts on but if we keep at them, keep practicing and starting off small and building up, we usually succeed. Again that is my opinion, what’s yours? Walter

(* She was actually my Dad’s cousin and my Godmother and living alone at the time and as my two or three attempts to get a pen pal overseas didn’t get a response, Mum suggested writing to her, which I did and we corresponded for quite a few years until she passed on. The moral there is to practice with whom ever is available and with whom you can!)

What I do, you can too!

Recently I have received a few compliments on my blog items. One commented that I was obviously getting more comfortable in my writings. And it is true. I am starting to get more comfortable in my writing, but I still find it an effort getting my thoughts down on paper. Especially as I only type with two fingers. But I have resolved to keep writing when I have something to write about.

Now I thought there might be a few others in a similar situation to me at this time and so I aim to write a few blogs about how my writing skills (such as they are) came about. (Not that I can claim any great success as a writer!) Two letters published in the Letter’s collum of our city’s number one News Paper hardly counts as a published author does it?

Nonetheless, I am going to keep writing for my small audience and myself. Whether I am published or not and whether others appreciate it or not, is not that important! (Although it would be nice. Very nice indeed!). Again that is not to say that compliments aren’t appreciated, just appreciated as bonuses and not as the reason for writing!

Before, when I wrote an earlier blog about; ”Self Confidence & Encouragement.” I was still going to continue writing anyway, but it did result in a few extra compliments, which was very nice. It is always nice when you get some response from the main audience that you are writing for. But not always necessary. But at least now I know it is worth the effort and time. So thanks again for all those comments. Both the good and the bad. They both help improve my writing.

All of this is just to introduce some future blogs on how I developed my writing skills and how you can too! And of course, what works for writing skills also works in other areas of our lives too. So never give up if you feel called to something and use all comments, both the good and the bad, to learn from and to further develop and improve your present skills. Catch you later: Walter