Know Who You Are

Thursday Thoughts on Reading and Writing

Our guest blogger today is Tiffany Colter, a writer, speaker, and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. Welcome, Tiffany and thank you for sharing your vast knowledge with us. You may subscribe to Tiffany's own blog posts here. She can be reached through her website here.

Do you know who you are? As fiction writers we live in a world of our own imaginations so much that sometimes it is easy to get lost in that world we create. Add to that the fact that as writers we MUST wear multiple hats in order to write, edit, pitch and sell our books.

And then there is our personal life. Writing is one of those careers like firefighting, nursing, or teaching. They are jobs that go beyond a paycheck; they become part of our identity.

That is why I ask again, do you know who you are?

Before I began to sell books I had to get comfortable in my identity outside of writing. Outside of mothering. Outside of being a wife.

I had to find out who Tiff was.

Now, this isn’t some feel good kind of thing. I really had to recognize the value I had as a person even without ever contributing. That is because I have a tendency to want to please people. I want to help everyone. I want to make all people happy. That is exhausting.

Writing is a very long process. There are the years of learning craft. Then writing the actual book. Revising. Realizing that book will never sell, and starting the next one.

All with the hope that someone will like it.

Then come mean spirited reviews.

The marketing.

Book signings.

Sophomore Slump.

But this isn’t all bad because I come back to the title of this blog, KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

If you can first find out who you are in Christ. Find out who you are as a real person. Recognize that you have value outside of anything you’ll ever do, then the process becomes a fun adventure. It will become the excited anticipation of a roller coaster ride instead of the dreaded ticking of a clock in a hospital waiting room.

The writing process can all be fun. Challenging. Exploring. Growth.

Or it can be grueling. Agonizing. Long-suffering.

When your self-esteem is tied to the end result we long to get to the end. We feel like we’ve done nothing until we’ve finished and been accepted or approved of. When your self-esteem is tied to who you are in Christ we can enjoy the journey.

Christ heard, “This is my Beloved Son,” when he walked out of the baptismal water…before he’d begun his ministry.

The disciples heard, “This is my son in whom I’m well pleased” on the mount of transfiguration, before he’d fulfilled his purpose on the cross.

God loved His son for who He was, not what He did.

Who are you?

This week on my own blog I talked about my 9 year old daughter and her dream. I talked about how people will join you in your dream when they see your passion. I hope you’ll go over here and read the blog “What does Editing have to do with Space Camp?” 

Till next time ... keep on smiling.