The Bottom Line to My Writing Choices

So, Nanowrimo is coming. It's only weeks away. I am wrestling with two ideas, trying to decide which one to engage for the 30-day whirlwind. The more personal of the two is winning. It'll be good to write it--cathartic, really. Of course, I think that also means it's going to be the easier idea, and I don't know if I want to do what's easier.

Then again, that may be the best thing for me when my writing time and energy is hanging by a thread. I don't know. It's hard to choose where to invest one's energies, and I feel that my walk as a Christian compounds this. I feel that I am accountable for how I spend your time, and why. I also ask questions before starting a project--questions like, "Will this idea/work glorify God?"; "Will my story make him look more desirable?"; "Will I be able to give an answer for why I wrote this instead of the other 50 ideas I had in the pressure cooker?" These are hard questions for me sometimes.

Ultimately, I am unsure if they matter. I think that excellent work glorifies God in its quality, and some of these questions are more of my personal concern than God's. I want to believe that what I am doing honors him. I want to put my time and energy and effort into stories that I think matter in the most important ways. I strive not for the "immortality" of creations that live well beyond my years on earth but for work that carries eternal, kingdom significance. So I ask these types of questions.

But in the end, I keep coming back to the same answers. And they are hauntingly simple.

Tell the truth.
Be honest.
Be real.
Be sincere.
Bear your soul.

If I want to move people, if I want to honor God, if I want to do what's right, then that's what is required of me. The honest truth, from my soul. I may limit my audience in doing so, but I will connect with that audience. I may sit in the darkness longer than I desire, but doing so will make the light appear that much brighter when I share it. And really, that's my whole life, isn't it? Trying to share that light, in whatever way I can.

Here's hoping I use the opportunity that NanoWriMo provides. More updates to come.