Steve Laube brings an interesting angle to the discussion about divine calling when he asks writers to consider what motivates them to tell agents their work is inspired.
What is being accomplished by invoking divine inspiration? A legitimacy that was somehow missing before the statement crossed the lips? An expression of passion and sincerity? Is the phrase being used as manipulation?
This fascinates me, because I’ve never stopped to consider motivation in this matter before. What is the goal of claiming that God has called us to write—that He’s sent us on a mission?
What has motivated me? Because I have asked friends to pray about about my writing. I’ve told them that I believe God has called me to write a certain kind of novel for a certain audience. Why have I done that?
Well, I’ve wanted prayer, of course, in the same way a man looking for a job wants prayer. I want to find the right job. I want to find favor with editors the way a person wants to find favor with an employer. But why not just ask for prayer? Why throw in the bit about how I’ve considered this carefully and I’m thinking that this is what God has called me to do?
I’ve Used God to Defend My Actions
It is exactly what Mr. Laube suggests up there in that quote. It’s that I’m seeking to lend an air of legitimacy to this crazy way I spend my time. I want to ward off disapproval, so I say, “The Lord made me do it. Blame Him.”
First, I want to legitimatize the genre I’m writing. “YA fairytale romance? Seriously? Why would anyone waste time writing that garbage?” Before people even ask, I say, “I never wanted to write these silly books. But I really think God has nudged me to write for boy-crazy girls.”
Even more, I feel a need to defend all the years I’ve spent writing (or pretending to write, 
) with no measurable results. Let’s face it, anyone who works for years (and years and years and years) without selling anything is thought to be crank at best. Maybe they are even sinfully lazy for not getting a real job. At least they ought to get a better job than the undemanding (and low-paying) job they’ve taken that allows them eke by and have some energy left over to indulge their writing hobby.
We live in a world that doesn’t value art unless the artist is making a million dollars a year. (And if you make that much then anything goes—you can blow up cars, show off your undies in public, or produce a pornographic music video, and people will follow you and want to be you.) We live in a world that values fame and money, not hard work. Not quality work. Not art. Not beauty (other than the shallow, fleeting beauty, belonging to young people on the beach).
So I can work all day on my writing, and if I don’t sell it, what value does it have? In the eyes of my friends and family I’m just wasting time indulging myself.
And the truth is that artists are often cranks. Many are eccentric. Maybe we just need to embrace that and stop feeling a need to defend ourselves.
After a While it Gets Embarrassing
All artists believe that they were made to be artists, and if they don’t create art they might shrivel up and die. Maybe they don’t use the term “calling” but they all believe they are fated to create art. They believe it’s in their DNA. And all artists who have kept going all the way to the grave, have managed to keep going by learning to ignore friends and family who kindly, or not so kindly, suggest that they should clean themselves up…get dressed…get out of the house…get a job.
After the first couple of years, your friends stop asking if you’ve sold a book yet, probably because they’re a little embarrassed for you. After all, if you were called to write, surely someone would buy the books you write. How hard can it be to write and sell a book? I remember my father saying to one of my writer friends, “But you all write and yet none of you sell anything. When will you actually sell the things you write?” That friend, whose wonderful debut novel comes out next month, laughed and said, “That’s what we’d like know.”
And it is what we’d all like to know. Will we be published? When will we be published? Should we give up and get real jobs? Should we keep writing and revising and submitting? For how long? But in the end, it doesn’t matter. We’ll keep writing even though God doesn’t tell us where the road leads. He gives us the next step. There is light enough right at our feet, even it we can’t see three yards ahead, and that’s enough for us.
That’s why I said last week, that if we have enough money to go one more day, then we might be right to say we’ve been called. Artists have always needed patrons. If God is our patron, if he’s giving us our daily bread, and if we can be satisfied with that and with the art and not feel a need for money to do things like…oh…pay for dental work and get the oil changed in the car, then maybe we really are called to write.
If we are feeling envious of those who are making more money than we are, then maybe we need to rethink our calling.
I don’t see a thing wrong with writing for the sake of the art itself. Is everyone with writing talent destined to publish and make a living from their writing? Of course not. I can cook pretty well, so does that mean I’m a slacker because I haven’t opened up a restaurant yet? If I paint wonderful watercolors to decorate my home, am I lazy or weird if I don’t care to sell them? I think we are just supposed to be obedient, and stop getting ahead of God, and assuming that if we have talent for something (or a “calling,”) it automatically means a career and money. Leaving the outcome up to God is the way we are supposed to live, not like the world.
Suzan´s last [type] ..March 30-Day Challenge How Did You Do
Interesting, Sally. I read Steve’s post earlier, too. It’s a fine line between believing that God has given us the ability and the passion to write and thinking we’re (literally) God’s gift to the publishing industry. Early on I realized one thing–that if the audience God meant me to write for was my critique partners, then that was a noble calling in itself! It doesn’t have to be a large (or paid) audience to be worthwhile. Yes, God has ‘called me’ to write. But that isn’t the whole picture by a long shot.
Valerie Comer´s last [type] ..Review- Swept Away- by Nicole O’Dell
Suzan, I’m glad you brought up the watercolors. Another friend once said that people who quilted weren’t expected to sell the quilts. They were allowed to give them away. So why should writers be considered slackers if they didn’t sell their work? I have written and framed poems and given them as presents, and I have a friend who gave a copy of her unpublished novel to family members for Christmas. Why not?
Valerie, Steve made a good point about people telling agents that God told them to write a book. I have no doubt that editors and agents hear that all the time and that they can tell what the person means by it. But when he asked if writers said this to give themselves some kind of legitimacy, I realized that was exactly why I said it. I realized that I’ve felt a little guilty for taking all this time writing and for spending money on conferences instead of working like a normal person. But I agree with you about the noble calling of writing for the crit group. I think writing letters of encouragement to people is a great privilege, too. There is nothing that makes me feel more useful and more in tune with my “calling” than spending a couple of hours praying for someone and writing to encourage them to keep the faith. Or even spending several hours critiquing someone’s work and praying that it will go out into the world and do the work God has for it to do.