Tag: clearness

Faith

A memory of Friends Meeting

It’s been years since I’ve gone to Friends’ Meeting (what we often call Quaker Meeting), mostly because there is no meeting place here in town and the nearest meeting is 90 miles away. However, I remember a concept we had there, a way of thinking about the world and our actions. Actually, two concepts related to each other.

The first is waiting for the way to open. When one is choosing an action, one doesn’t give it up right away, assuming that it will fail. Instead, one waits for the way to open, waits for something to happen, with the guidance of other Friends which we call a clearness committee.

By Boscophotos – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43877061

The other is laying something down. We also do this with the guidance of other Friends. The idea behind this is that sometimes it’s just time to let go of what we’re doing, again with a clearness committee.

The idea with the clearness committee isn’t that they speak from their own opinions. The committee centers themselves with the speaker with the belief they will speak from Spirit and give inspired guidance. Does this always work? I have a divorce that proves it doesn’t. But it’s good to feel supported by others.

I need a clearness committee

I have a lot of things going on that are unsuccessful by most standards. I have unread books, a blog with 10 regular followers, not much luck with social media, and a feeling of aimlessness. Is it time to lay my writing career down or try new tricks with promoting?

My husband might get called into a committee soon. I’ll let you know.

Seeking clearness

I want to hear your thoughts. I’m thinking about where to go with my writing.

I have come to the point where I need to think seriously about whether to continue writing and whether to continue my quest to be published, which are related but seperate things.

Thoughts:
1) One doesn’t write novels “for oneself”. The rough draft of a novel is about 80,000 to 100,000 words. I write about 1000 words in an hour when I’m in the groove; much fewer when I’m not. This doesn’t count the number of hours editing and re-editing, which I would estimate at least another 60 hours.

2) If I could share with people for free, I might be inclined to keep writing. I have trouble getting my friends (that’s you!) to beta-read or read for the heck of it. The time I tried serializing on WattPad or that other platform way back when, nobody read. People don’t read much anymore, I’m told.

3) It’s easy to say “If I get an agent/get published/get readers then that’s a sign from God that I’m supposed to keep writing.” What if I don’t get these? Is it a sign that I’m not supposed to work toward getting published anymore?

4) I will be working with a publishing coach, probably to pursue the self-publishing route. But the recommendations are likely to be “find some friends to read it, and have them write reviews”. This bothers me because a) it seems like gaming the system and b) #2 above.

5) Without people to share my stories with, I’m losing the thrill. I want you to know my characters. They’re like family to me — the immortal lawyer Luke and his Denisovan consort Su, the dark Grzegorz, the droll Weissrogue, edgy Kat, and others.

I need your thoughts and your help.