Uncle John was not my biological uncle but I knew him as “uncle” because he and his wife were very good friends of my mum and dad. They were members of the church my dad pastored and along with their daughters were beautiful people that I came to admire at a very young age. And at a very young age, I was certain that Uncle John was Black. He was an extremely “light skinned” Black man, but he was definitely Black.
Keep reading here.
I hope you make time to read it and share feedback. Here are a few lessons I learned from this writing experience..
1. When you’re asked to do something you love and something that helps you achieve certain goals, make the time. I love writing. I have a goal to write more and a goal to publishing more. I made the time. A related lesson: figure out your goals, write them down, and review/revise them periodically.
2. The experts are right—let the piece rest. This, of course, requires that you don’t procrastinate. I was able to let it rest a few times before submitting it. Each return brought fresh insights, one of which was to let others read it and give feedback. Thankfully, three ppl were available and each one provided different and helpful feedback.
3. Don’t settle. At one point in the process, I desperately wanted to be done but felt an itch to keep analyzing. Glad I did. In my haste, I would have submitted a piece that sounded like the same old tunes of 1995.
4. Brainstorm. Sometimes you want to write something and have no idea where to begin. That can make you freeze. So brainstorm. You may not use ANY of it or very little. Plus side? You got the crap out.
5. This came to me just before sleep last night. I was thanking God for helping me with my sermon. It has turned out well even though I hadn’t had a lot of time for it, writing the bulk on Friday night. I’d spent most of Friday on other creative work. His reply? You’ve got to create in order to create. See, at 9:30pm on Friday I had mental energy and a more precise thought process than I ever would have imagined. And God helped me realize that the other creative time had activated more creative juices. No wonder he created so much in the beginning.
What lessons are you learning as you create?
