I want to touch on a couple of ideas in this post.  This post was prompted by one of my followers, Pam, who left me some comments recently.  She commented on my last post about plot and structure and shared that she struggles with writing conflict because she doesn’t like to hurt her characters.  This is not something I have experienced, but I do understand it.  Although I do like my characters, I have never had a problem creating obstacles and conflict for them to deal with because I have not viewed them as real.  I see them as creations of my imagination and so I don’t struggle with giving them difficulties.  But, I do understand that it can be a difficult thing to do.  I suppose that it is extremely difficult for people, who have suffered in their own lives or witnessed the suffering of loved ones, to deliberately cause suffering for someone, even a story character, would be a difficult thing to do, and I thank you, Pam, for sharing this.  It is an obstacle that you will have to overcome in order to create good story plot lines and I pray for your success.

In addition to this, I had a difficult day recently, to the point where I felt empty, unable to create anything.  It frightened me and I was afraid that I would not be able to write any stories because I had no story ideas.  Then I prayed and I asked God to help me because He knows how much I have always dreamed of becoming a published author and even in my emptiness that dream was not gone.  A day later God blessed me with ideas for two stories, which I quickly wrote down.  

Writing is a difficult job and if something affects our level of creativity or our ability to create we can stare at a blank page or blank screen for hours without result and too many days like that can cause us to give up.  That is why it’s so important to read articles and stories in the subject and genres we want to write, and it’s important to make time to write everyday.  

For me the most important thing is knowing God and knowing that He loves me and He gave me the talent and ability to write, and He gave me the dream to write.  Therefore, I know that when I am struggling with writing, I can take that struggle and lay it at His feet and He will bless me, enable me and empower me so that I can write again.  I give thanks and praise to my God for the ideas He has given me and I continue to pray, daily, for his help and guidance on my writing journey.