We writers often fantasize about our words blowing over the wall of our word gardens we work so hard to cultivate. Beth Reekle’s amazing success with her novel, “The Kissing Booth,” is an incredible example of this, and a real pick me up for any aspiring author.
This teen writer decided to craft a book about teen romance because “She just wanted to read something that didn’t involve vampires, werewolves, or fallen angels,” contributing writer, Nina Mandel, explains in her article for Today News: “Teenager lands 3-book deal with record-breaking romance.” As the Kissing Booth” storms the e-book market, another writer’s dreams come true.
I often imagine my words blowing over the wall of my writer’s life. When they do, the results are far from Beth’s success, but I still feel the warm fuzzies that happens when someone thanks me for something I’ve written. I don’t quite know how to describe this feeling you get when your words encourage and inspire someone, but anyone who has experienced this knows what I’m talking about.
The challenge for the rest of us “Word Gardeners” is to continue tilling. Our seeds blow over the wall in modest amounts. We must persist regardless of how many readers we have. We write first and foremost for ourselves. We want to get the streams of dialogue and diatribes out of our brains. We transfer them onto paper or into word docs and blog posts.
We write because not writing would lead to our brains imploding. The mess would be far grislier than any zombie attack.
We write because we are madly in love with words. We relish the results we see in others when our words land in fertile soil. They burrow deeply into hearts and sprout new ideas. These ideas eventually blossom.
We write because God has crafted our genetic code with the desire to capture the human essence. This essence is transformed into explanations, poetry, dialogue, and many other written expressions.
We write to feel closer to ourselves and our Creator. We plunge the spade of the wordsmith deep into the soil of possibilities time and time again. We write because it is our birthright to do so. And in doing so, we brush with angel’s wings.
JoDee Luna Art 