Apr 22, 2010
My “What If” Challenge: Making Time for Stuff That Isn’t Real
Last week Bonnie over at Faith Barista shared her own spin on Don Miller’s “What If” Challenge. She asked readers to list 5 things in a “what if” list, to post on what happened over the past week, and to then share it on her site.
I didn’t give it too much thought. I kind of took the “what if” challenge when I committed to writing full time last August. I have since found out that it is really tough to make a living writing full time. I’ve been working on finding the right balance of time between blogging, writing book proposals, querying magazines, looking for speaking/teaching opportunities, and applying for copywriting contracts.
What if I did all of this?
I’d be completely humbled, pushed to my limits, and still digging deep to make something happen. The set backs have been more numerous than I would have ever guessed, but the gains have been real, lasting, and rewarding—just fewer and less frequent.
However, once I read some of the other “what if” lists, I decided to give Bonnie’s challenge a shot. They came to me surprisingly fast:
What if I took a writing retreat…
What if I pursued that volunteer work I’ve been putting off…
What if I focused on my next theology book no matter what the acquisition editors say…
What if I wrote more fiction…
What if I visited my family in Philly more…
I’m moving forward on each of these a lot faster than I would have guessed. A few things fell into place that I’ve been waiting on, and one in particular hit home: writing fiction.
I’ve been toying with fiction for years now. I have a few stories that I’ve started and stopped because the main characters are lame. I wrote all of this peppy dialogue and then I realized I’d just rather kill off the main characters and let random people have conversations. It wasn’t looking good.
Once I began to think seriously about allowing myself some time on the weekends and evenings to write fiction, something snapped inside of me. A story came out that isn’t flat and uninspiring. It’s zany, over the top, and unabashedly silly. The more I played with it, the more excited I became. I had a real character that I cared about in a story that would be fun to write.
Maybe it was a coincidence, but it seems that once I let myself imagine any kind of possibility for writing fiction, I gravitated toward the kind of story that I would read, the kind of story that I would want to tell others.
So it’s just an outline and a few thousand words right now. It’s a tiny thing with a long way to go. But I have something, and I think I may complete it this time without some kind of apocalypse killing off all of the characters…
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by edcyzewski. edcyzewski said: New blog post: My “What If” Challenge: Making Time for Stuff That Isn’t Real – http://tinyurl.com/265ykty [...]
Popping in from FaithBarista.com
It’s funny how at first most of us seem to have had the same reaction about doing this What If challenge, but once we committed and started writing our What If’s came out fast.
I enjoyed reading your post.
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Happy to hear that God is allowing you to be playful!
He Is indeed a playful and creative God.
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It may be “an outline and a few thousand words”, yet it is a dream which you have given wings and allowed to soar. A lived-out life!
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Thanks for dropping by and for your comments. It’s wonderful to see how God can take the foolish things of this world and put them to good use… even our “foolish” stories. Here’s to letting God take us to new places.
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I think you answered “what if I tell the story that I have inside me to tell?” Thanks for sharing this, Ed.
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I read this and laughed a little: I probably carve out way too much time in my day for things that aren’t real (and I’m not even going to think about the time spent just *thinking* about these things that aren’t real…) But, I think you came to a conclusion that makes a lot of sense to me: write something that you would actually want to read without really thinking much about marketability or audience. After all, if you’re going to spend that portion of your life working on something, and hang out with these characters and their situations for a couple hours a day, they probably shouldn’t be insufferable or deserving of death (right away, that is.) They’re your (imaginary) friends… you wouldn’t want to kill your (real) friends off, so why kill off these less-fleshy people?
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Thanks Emma. I’m glad that connected with you. Julie commented on a draft of a short story I wrote recently, “You included things that you cared about, and that made it work.” Since then I’ve been searching for those things I care about and enjoy for my fiction experiments.
There are so many directions I want to go with your last sentence, but I feel like the humor would be lost online…
Glad you dropped by!
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I have to admit, I had written: “unless there is a dark, evil side to you that I haven’t noticed,” or something to that effect after that final sentence, but then thought better of it.
Although, maybe I’ll start watching my back at small group, now. Just in case…
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When I first told my mom that I was dating Julie after meeting her in Israel, the first thing my mom said was, “Does she know you’re really a rat?”
I’m not sure how much that tells you about me or my mom’s sense of humor… You’ll have to be vigilant I suppose…
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I think this is the first time I’ve visited here. And you don’t seem like a rat.
Hooray for the snapping and letting “your” story come out.
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I think that’s great! How wonderful that this “what if” challenge led you to go outside of the box and find your story.
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“then I realized I’d just rather kill off the main characters and let random people have conversations. It wasn’t looking good.”
Pardon me, but forgive me for falling off my chair. Laughing.
That is too funny!
… I am so happy to hear that fiction is playing it’s tune on you. I feel like your creative side has come out to play finally. Good for you, for following that voice – to make time for it. I’m with Glynn – I loved the line about telling the story that’s in you.
I’m so glad you were a part of this What If Challenge, Ed!
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Sandra, Thanks for letting me know! I think my mom was just giving me a hard time…
Thanks Kristine. Now it’s time to do the hard work of writing the thing I imagined! Even if the inspiring moment feels great, writing can be tough work all the same.
Bonnie, I’m glad you didn’t come away from that line thinking I’m too morbid! Yep, I didn’t even realize I could write a story like this–well, I still haven’t quite written it yet. However, as I look back over the past 15 years of my life, certain things are starting line up and to make sense. Kind of crazy…
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I had to laugh at your desire to kill off the main characters in the story, too…I’ve had moments reading or watching stories like that, but I never considered feeling that way as an author. Is it wrong that I still feel laughter bubbling up as I imagine the characters suddenly disappearing in a puff of smoke and life going on as normal around them?
I love that the what-if challenge opened you to writing more. We could all use more “stuff that isn’t real” in our lives.
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