Pushing to the limit

How hard to you push yourself?

I watched the movie Facing the Giants last night, good movie. There is a scene where the coach blindfolds a football player after the player says he'll give his all to do what the coach asks. He has to crawl across the football field with another player on his back for 50 yards. (I'm not a football person so I can't remember the exact term for this exercise!) With the coach's encouragement the player made it all the way to the end of the field, way past the 50 yards. It was hard, he wanted to quit but he didn't know how far he'd already gone and he'd promised the coach to give it his all and he still had more to give. Are you with me? I feel like I'm rambling!

I'm that player (not really, you'll never see me crawling on a football field!) but I am not really giving my all to God. I want to change that. I think the blindfold helped because the player wasn't able to see how far he'd come and how far he had to go. A lot of times I think, well I've already written several books isn't that enough? It's so hard to give so much of my time, my imagination and my life to writing a book—and I write short books! I can't imagine being Julie Lessman and writing such a long book, no not one but three or more!

Sorry, back on track… so I am challenging myself and anyone else that wants to try. I'm going to give my all, 100% to my writing. That is a scary statement but I know my God won't let me down, I just pray I don't let Him down.

More on voice

Interesting comments on my 'finding a voice entry.'

Jennifer Tiszai said...

If you want to hear some unusual voices, come up my way. Oh my. We have some interesting people in our town. I never run out of story fodder.

I've been to your state Jen, and I loved it. My brain was alive with stories. I think it's the accent, it makes me hear things differently.

Casey Freeland said...

Ah, the search for a voice. That's a good one. I've found that if I relax, write with real honesty, the voices just come. When I start to construct, to push things around artificially, to over-plot, that's when my voices all sound like a third grade read-aloud.

Have fun on your travels!

I did have fun on my trip, Casey. Thanks. I spent a lot of time in the hotel sleeping though because I was sick. I did get to explore the library there though. Beautiful! It's a Carnegie Library, marble floors and stairs. I wanted to spend the night there. AS for voice, you're right when voices are forced they do begin to sound like a Dick and Jane reader.

Blissful said...

That can be difficult for me, too. Most of my heroes sound or act like my hubby. I also need to work on making them different personalities. :)

Hi Blissful, glad to see your comment on my page. I like that your heroes sound and act like your hubby. My first three books have been modeled on mine as well. I think God he gave me such a great hero to copy. Now that I'm on my 4^th novel though I think it might be time to stretch a bit and find more depth. I'm checking out Daniel in the bible. I'm thinking there's a powerful role model.