Who's Your Family?

Family.

We all have them. And they are all so different.

I have been blessed with an amazing family.

This is my dad with me and my siblings on his back...a long time ago LOL. My parents just left yesterday after coming out for almost a week to free me to work on edits for two August 1st deadlines. They sent me flowers ahead of time to thank me for letting them come!

Did I mention I'm blessed?

But not everybody is so fortunate. They didn't grow up with loving parents in a secure home. They didn't receive hugs freely as a kid to have them to give to their kids. They didn't hear that they were treasured by God from an early age.

Experiencing that marked me. It made me the woman I am today.

Not hearing or experiencing that is just as scarring. It makes people who they are.

So think about your characters...what's their family like? Are their parents married? Divorced? Were they an only child or surrounded by siblings? Did their family have money? Were things hand to mouth? Did they grow up in a family with parents who led them to God? Or did their parents give them a warped image of God? Those questions matter because the answers change how they will respond to the life and challenges you're giving them today.

So what about you? Was your family more functional...or dysfunctional?

Time to Think

“We are not the father of time. We are the children of time.” – Ilya Prigogine, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, 1977
I’ve finally figured out what keeps me from approaching the next level of writing prowess. Time. Now I know what you’re thinking. Nobody has enough time, Dana. Get real. We’re all working, parenting, serving in church, tending to life’s daily tasks, etc. True enough, but I have come to the realization that I purposefully fill my life with so much business I don’t have time to think. I don’t mean time to plot, write a synopsis and the like, I mean time to really think about what moves me, bothers me, alters the world around me at any given moment. Yes, I make time for my morning devotional but then I’m off like a scalded cat, running hither and yon with no time for reflection. Are my tasks important? Probably. Are they as important as sitting down and really thinking about my purpose and passion in God’s world? Nope.
It stands to reason that if I don’t take the time to listen to the tides of life go by, those tides will not wash over my writing and make it all that it could be. They will be words well crafted, and plots that engage, but will they really move people? If I made more time in my day and in my life to think, what would I hear? A strong call to move in a direction I haven’t contemplated? A revelation that someone nearby needs me? I only hope that I can step off the endlessly spinning wheel I have created for myself long enough to give it a try.
“Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue.” -Eugene O’Neill, Nobel Prize for Literature, 1936