Beyond the Book: A Guest Blog by Janice Elsheimer

Routines for Writers is pleased to welcome Janice Elsheimer as our special guest every Tuesday in November. While we’re all busily writing away, Janice will give us tips and ideas for increasing our creativity. Please join us in thanking Janice for being with us this month!

After my first book was published, I experienced post-partum depression. My child had been born and was beautiful. Except for a misprint on the back cover (which was corrected in the second printing), my baby was perfect. I was too young an author to understand that the real parenting work—marketing—was just beginning. In fact, I kept waiting for my publisher to send me on a book tour, get speaking gigs for me, and otherwise launch this book out of obscurity into stardom. I was lucky in that WaterBrook nominated The Creative Call for a book award and it received second place in the inspirational category. A star, I thought, is born.

Nine years later, I know better. Whatever happened to The Creative Call to bring it to the attention of the reading public was through my own efforts and the grace of God. And whatever happens to raise up my next book, Garden Graces, to become worthy of praise will happen through my own efforts. I’m bracing for long sleepless nights (in motels as I travel to speak at garden clubs and flower shows), and long busy days (sending out brochures, postcards and e-mailings announcing the March 1, 2010 birth date). Because this book is about gardening, I’ll be paying extra attention to preparing the “nursery,” my own gardens, which will come under a certain amount of scrutiny. I’m already referred to as “the garden lady” in my neighborhood, but am now passing myself off as an expert on gardening to the whole of the reading public. My gardens better be show-stoppers.

We writers labor for as long as it takes our work to be conceived, to gestate and finally emerge as a new being. We hope it will someday stand on its own without our constant tending. But we delude ourselves if we believe that the work of writing ends when the first copies of our book arrive on our doorsteps. Without continual attention, our “child” might only live through one printing. Unless we are making arrangements for lots of play dates, lots of opportunities to introduce our child to other people and experiences, we will not have the pleasure of watching our offspring blossom and grow into a whole, healthy individual.

Whether we are parenting or writing, we are on a hero’s quest. We are “called to adventure” and expected to leave the familiar and venture forth into the unknown. God honors our courage by supplying us with “companions, weapons and amulets” to help us on our way. If we are courageous and wise, we use those gifts and press on, winning the battles that aim to prevent us from reaching our goal. But once we’ve won the battle, the quest doesn’t end there. It only reaches completion when we bring “the prize” back to the people we left in the first place, our community, both local and global, so that it can benefit not just ourselves, but others.

As writers our adventure can be seen as setting out to write our book; the battle is all that the world throws at us to keep us from succeeding; and winning the battle can be equated with finally finishing the book and getting it into publishable shape. But we’re only half way there: we have to bring the work back to the community for which it was written, our audience, by getting it published. And then we have to make sure our people are aware of the offering we bring them by doing the marketing we are also called to do as writers.

Once we begin to see our writing life as the hero’s quest, we will understand and appreciate this metaphor in a way that makes all the parts of our lives make sense. Whether we are in fact birthing a baby or writing a novel, we are involved in a process that doesn’t end when the baby or the book leaves our insides and goes out into the world. The rest of the story is bringing that baby up and making sure he or she becomes a person who will make the world a better place. The rest of the story is making sure, after we produce the best book we can manage, we do all we can to put it out to the world.

So I return to my home in Florida today after another 5-day trip, recommitted to the work I’ve set my hand to: becoming a better writer, speaker, and marketer. I don’t do this to lift myself up, I do it because it’s the work I’m called to do. And the more I do it, the more I realize that the writing life is both a quest and a “ministry.” As I conclude this final guest blog for Routines for Writers, let me encourage you to see your desire to write and talents for writing as a call and an opportunity. It’s more of a process than an event, and wherever you are in the process, the fact that you’re leaving the ordinary for the extraordinary possibility of being a writer shows that you are already on your own hero’s quest. I wish you traveling mercies as you follow your own Creative Call.

Author and speaker Janice Elsheimer delivers the message that creativity is a pathway to personal and spiritual growth. Writers, visual artists, musicians, actors–folks who want to start exercising their artistic muscles fill her workshops, seminars and classes. They leave with a new sense of what is possible: a conviction that they can enrich their lives by developing God-given talents.