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Why do we bother?

September 4, 2019 by Nic Nelson Leave a Comment

Writing is hard. Creating anything new is always fun in the beginning (for me, at least) but it becomes hard, soul-drainingly hard, as you push all the way through to completion and delivery.

If it's so difficult... why do it?
In a general sense, doing hard things, creative things, is part of being a healthy human. Erwin McManus has argued for decades that "creativity is the natural result of spirituality," of spiritual and emotional health. Creative expression is a path toward emotional health, too—think of all the tortured souls whose artistic catharsis kept them alive and injected a modicum of light and health into the darkness of their lives. Also, people need our best creative work. The enjoyment of creative work, whether strolling through a beautiful garden or reading through a beautiful story, nourishes and strengthens us, and recalibrates our minds and hearts towards health and life.
These are good reasons to write, and to pour our souls into our writing!
But this initial conclusion makes a tyro mistake: it is inspiring in a broad sense, but too abstract to help us in the concrete details of the week-by-week, day-by-day, hour-by-hour struggle to complete and deliver our creative work to those who await it. The question we must ask, of each of our works, is why exactly am I doing this particular thing? 
 
The answer will give you moment-by-moment strength to press on, and wise insight when facing dilemmas. It will help you identify, or clarify, your target audience. It will suggest the best ways to bring your work to delivery, getting it into the hands of the persons who want it, who appreciate it... perhaps who need it.
This answer is what you need to keep you going, in the right direction, and in the right ways.
Here's a post from my friend and colleague Russell Nohelty that digs deeper into this, and we'll talk more about it at the next SLAKE meeting,7:00pm Sunday, September 29. Reply and tell me what you think. And Russell would love it if you comment on his post, too. 😉

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