A Door to the Writing World

What is behind the door?

When I opened my devotional booklet this morning of July 1st, the writer began with thoughts on the booklet's name--Portals of Prayer. She said a portal can be a passageway, an approach, an entrance, a gate, or a door. Being the writer I am, thoughts of all those synonyms for portal made me ponder on all of them as they relate to the writing world you and I belong to. 

When we approach a door, we don't always know what is behind that entry. If it's a familiar place, of course we know what we will see when we grasp the handle and push it open. On the other hand, in our writing world, we often stand outside an entryway not knowing what is on the other side nor having any confidence that we are making a good move to enhance our writing successes. We must find the keys.

Let's look at the writing itself. When we first begin our writing journey, we stand on the outside of the portal, hoping to write our way into the writing world. The only way to do that is to write, edit, then submit in hopes of unlocking the door. With our first success, the door stands ajar. To open it all the way, we need to keep writing, editing, and submitting. No haphazard writing here and there, but regularly.

If we want to continue down the path that leads from the inside of the entryway, we must keep on finding story ideas. They're all around us, but it's up to us to use our writer's eye to find them, pull them in, and think long and hard about where we might go with the kernel we've seen..

The door to the writing world is never going to open if we only stand in front of it and wish we could open the entrance and find the path behind it. Thoughts alone will never give us the key. I can't tell you how many wannabe writers spend years only thinking about writing. The desire is there, but so is the fear that maybe they can't do it, or maybe it is the wrong time in life, or maybe no one will like what they write. I was one of them, which is why my writing journey started later in life. Regrets? You bet. I wish I had started much sooner.

Your goal should be to write, edit, and submit often enough to march right through that door with no hesitation. Set your goal, push the door open, and continue your writing world journey. There will be bumps in the road, highs and lows, but I doubt you'll regret starting the journey.