Writing vs. Writing

I sat down this morning at my favorite coffee place, conveniently located less than 1/2 a mile from my front door. I unpacked my bag and laid everything out in front of me... not sure where God would lead. I did my assignments for the #StartExp for days 5 and 6 (since I rested yesterday), I wrote in my Grat Journal what I had missed actually writing on paper the past few days, I caught up on my Bible reading that I had fallen behind on for my read through the Bible in a year plan, and I wrote a blog post on my other blog: Faith vs. Feelings. I then looked at the rest of my stuff and thought, OK God - now what?

He led me to the writing guidelines I had printed out for the online magazine I am planning to submit an article to next month. I went to the online magazine and read a few articles, I looked at the guidelines, I read some more articles, I looked at the guidelines... and I repeated this several times. I thought I knew what I wanted to say. I was wrong.

Writing for my blog when I can just put my thoughts out there, tell my story, express my sorrow, share my process and journey - this is easy. This is what I have been doing for years.... even before blogging when I would journal with actual paper. In my blog posts I do seek to be cohesive and have a point in what I am saying, but now... NOW I am trying to write something that is to be considered for publication. This is different and I am finding myself very challenged. So what am I doing to try to figure it out... writing... yep, that's what I do to process.

I think one of the problems I'm having is that I have had SO much going on in my life in the past year or so and I feel like I have SO much I want to say. Trying to narrow it down to ONE thing... ONE point... ONE story is where my challenge lies right now. For now I am taking a break... going to spend some time just reading for enjoyment, NOT thinking about this deadline I placed in front of myself and NOT stressing about getting it done. I always did work best under pressure... maybe it won't really get nailed down until a week before my deadline. Maybe I won't finish it until the DAY I want to submit it... but for now I think I just need to relax, pray, live, and trust that God will guide me in what I am supposed to write about to submit for possible publication.

Trying not to think,

Sherri