Jonathon Mast: Author

Waiting to Write

Sometimes to complete a book you need to stop writing.

This last week I didn’t write a word, and for once it had nothing to do with depression nor a busy ministry schedule in my day job. Nope. This time it was my wife’s fault.

See, my wife edits all my books. She does a fantastic job, catching typos and plot holes and forcing the entire product to shine so much more than it would otherwise. She asks annoying questions to which I answer, “I don’t know!” …and then she figures out the solution to whatever she asks.

This week she had to get to editing. Because of the copious number of children in our house, it’s pretty common that only one of us can work at a time. So if she has to edit, it means I have to supervise the insanity of children that resides with us.

I’m happy to give her the time. Not only does she make the books better, but I kinda love her. So it’s just fine to let her go! I’m content to work for her benefit.

That means… two weeks in a row and basically no writing, though. For the first time in over a year, I may not have a book written in a month. I guess things happen, huh? Maybe next month I can make up for it. (Yeah… in December? Probably not. Maybe in January, though!)

And it’s worth it. This time of my waiting makes the books better. And next year ALL the kids will be in school, meaning that at least during the day we can both work! That’ll help immensely.

And until then… well, time to let my editor get to work!

The Empty Cup

November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. Around the States, and even around the world, people are pounding away at their keyboards to draft a full novel in only thirty days.

I’ve been writing a novel a month for over a year, but I thought… hey, why not use November as an excuse to challenge myself? Most of the books I’ve been writing are around 40k words. Let’s do something bigger. Let’s do a book that’s 60k. A challenge, but it should be doable.

I wrote nothing on the first day of the month. No big deal. It was a day of heavy ministry. The next day I made up for time lost. I was doing well…

Until Tuesday of this week. Depression hit. I spent most of the day laying in bed.

Your Feelings Don’t Matter

Should you only write when you feel like it? Should you await your muse to bring you inspiration from on high? Should you grind every day and force words out of the stone of your heart until you bleed ink?

Um… no. Also, if your heart bleeds ink, you should probably get that checked out. It can’t be healthy.

There’s two extremes when it comes to writing, and both of them mean bad things.

Our Five Year Mission…

Last night I sat down for a planning session with my business manager/ wife. We decided to do some long-range goal-setting. Where do we want Dawnsbrook to be in five years?

Whoa.

So, we’d already talked about all the various plans. We knew we were planning to do a six-book series a year until/unless it didn’t look viable, business-wise. We knew that there various other writing enterprises we wanted to embark on. None of this was a surprise to either of us, but it was the first time we put it all on paper in the same place.

So. Whew. There’s a lot of things coming if everything goes according to plan.

More Than Writing

I write most days. I pour time and effort into my books. The craft and making a living off of it is important to me.

But there are more important things.

I’ve started training to become a CASA. That’s a Court Appointed Special Advocate. Essentially, I am learning how to advocate for children that are involved in abuse or neglect cases. I’ll be making statements in court about the child, making recommendations to the judge. This is a huge responsibility.

This last week I also took suicide prevention training. I’m not an expert. I’m not a psychologist. But now, I’m essentially able to perform CPR in a suicide case until experts come. (This is also why I didn’t post a blog update last week; I was out of town and the internet connection was… sketchy.)

This week I spoke at a retreat about having depression and how to deal with it, even after treatment.

These aren’t the only things more important than writing. I have a wife that’s amazing. I have children that are dear to me. My faith is more important.

In other words… writing is important, but it’s not all I am.

There’s a line in Encanto that breaks me every time I hear it. “You are more than just your gift.” I don’t know about you, but so often I define myself by what I do. I’m a writer! Are the books selling? Did I write enough today? What has to get done? And if any of those answers are “no,” I despair.

But I am not my gift. There is so much more important.

Does that mean I should give up writing? Of course not! Writing is also a gift that I get to participate in.

But it is not all I am. There is so much more.

Your gifts? Yeah, they’re important. But you are not your gift. There is so much more. Let me encourage you to look beyond your gifts. See what else there is. Savor it all… not just your gift.