The View Inside My Writing Space

This is the view inside my writing space – the desk at my office. I get a significant amount of writing done here. I come into the office an hour early each morning just so I can spend that quiet time writing. I’m here during my lunch hour, writing. My writing muse are my three imaginary friends; Tori, AJ and Kalea. They’re also the main characters of my first novel – The Heart’s Journey Home. I keep their photo in a frame on my desk to remind me that there’s more to me and my life than my regular nine to five job. I keep a copy of my book here at the office to remind me that my dreams can come true. They are each an encouragement and continued inspiration.

The View Outside My Window

The immediate view outside my window is the street outside my house and the Detroit River outside the window where I work. If I were so inclined that could easily be all the view I would ever see in my lifetime. But I was never so inclined. The real view outside my window is the view of me in the world. I wanted to see the Grand Canyon from the ground up so I went. I wanted to do Missions with my church in China, Thailand, Pakistan and Peru so I went there too. And because I went the view outside my window grew exponentially! And guess what I discovered? How I viewed me and my world grew also.

I believe the sum total of everything a writer will ever write is there inside of him or her simply waiting to be tapped. I also believe that the reason so many writers talk about writing instead of actually writing is because there’s so little there. You see, the view inside the writing space was never meant to be the whole entire writing universe, it was always meant to be the space where the work of writing got done. It’s the view outside the widow that inspires and equips a writer to pen great things. It’s going to brick and mortar libraries and sitting there reading great works among the stacks, in the midst of a community of people doing the same. It’s rafting through the Grand Canyon and climbing the great mountainous rocks, standing there and just taking in a panoramic view that will stay with you, inside you, the rest of your life. It’s getting out of your comfort zone and going to China so you can sneak Bibles to the underground churches there (we got 8000 Bibles total across the border in the one week we were there). It’s going from village to village and little church to little church in places like Thailand and Pakistan, sometimes walking for miles in the company of armed soldiers because the cease fire just might cease and war break out again. It’s about sleeping on a villager’s floor or on the ground and going to the bathroom outside. It’s eating rice three times a day four days straight and waking up to see the sun rise brilliant and new and you’re a million miles from home and in no hurry to get back, because you can write anywhere.

We writers write what we see and know and hope. We write what we dream and experience. We write to tell the stories that we’ve lived, in real life or in our imagined dreams. We write what’s outside the window.

I don’t know where I’ll be going next. Pakistan will be a tough trip to top, but I know this – I’m outta here. Passport in hand I’m leaving the view inside my writing space and joining the world outside my window. I want to see Mt. Everest up close. I want to touch an Egyptian pyramid with my bare hand. I want to go to the Sahara Desert, stand there in the midst and turn seeing nothing but sand around me. I want to see and touch and experience it all. And I want to write. Like I said – I can write anywhere.