~ May 29, 2021 ~
“The past couple of months have been good. All the random turmoil curtailed, work calming down. I’ve been writing in pockets, wherever I can. Most times I don’t even know what’s coming. Rhyl’s ragged song, the glimpses- none of it planned. And I’m learning to trust God because of the spontaneity. He is in control of these books, not me, and I’m glad.
“We’re camping this weekend. As I’m wrapping up a draft of the third book, I was sitting around the fire last night thinking about working with a freelance editor on the first one. Thinking about publishing, and how my first book might be received. How unlikely it is to get published. He will lead the way.
“Also on this camping trip, I’ve been reading a writing craft book. He keeps saying you’re either a plot-driven or character-driven writer. He’s never met anyone that’s both. I cannot figure out which one I am. Perhaps readers will tell me someday.”
My fellow journalers out there will attest how reading old entries centers the soul. Like putting ornaments on the Christmas tree, stirring memories. Last week my editor started on the third book- the same editor I sent the first one to years ago. I marvel now at all it took to get this trilogy here to the end.
Yes, that word spontaneity… not the first one that comes to mind for those who know me. Rigid, planning, slow. That’s what they’d say, and I’d have to agree. Truly, the Lord works in mysterious ways. For He shows up by leading me counter to my nature when it comes to the books. Everywhere else, I schedule, I calculate, I budget, I bore. Stands to reason I’d fall deeply into the writers camp of plotters. Ha! I’m a pantser. One of the wildest, maybe. I’m dumbfounded, but this is the calling, and He calls the shots.
That writing craft book touched on human nature. People are complex individuals, yet it seems to me the complexities are rooted in a collection of dualities. Introvert or extravert, thinking or feeling, detailed or big picture. To write compelling characters, the author recommended a book on psychology/sociology. I never buy a book because it was recommended, but this time I did. I thought at best it may be a useful writing tool. Just doing writer’s homework to elevate my characters by suffering through a lame nonfiction book, but it ended up far more than that.
The book is Please Understand Me II. In it, the author peels back history to unveil the lost study of personality types. The ideologies of Freud, Maslow, Darwin and others are the backdrop of modern society. Such ideas are relatively young and frankly don’t hold water. Keirsey debunks their randomness, absence of meaning, and lack of design. He lays out four main kinds of people, with four sub-types of each, boldly claiming there are sixteen key varieties in total. With billions of people on the planet?! What a theory.
He explains how there was a different way of thinking in the past, describing his ideas as merely a rediscovery of what many before him observed. Centuries ago and even across millennia, others reached this same conclusion independently about four archetypes.
His evidence is compelling, for his viewpoint, unlike many in the recent western world, is predicated upon design, order, and purpose.
Brace yourself- he goes so far as to claim the Bible itself testifies of these archetypes, as there are four gospels and each writer fits squarely into a different type.
I never meant to slip down that rabbit hole when I started this entry. The perils of spontaneity! I feel sheepish divulging all that, but I submit, a leaf on the water. The point of this blog is openness about my writing journey after all, apprehension or no.
I let this surface because the message of that book is life isn’t random, and people are created in specific ways by design. Instead of criticizing and seeking to change each other, we should seek to understand and appreciate our God-given differences.
I had not expected a spiritual component, much less conviction. After reading it, I realized I can be judgmental simply because others are not like me. If they were made differently, they should be different, and I should enjoy that, not resent it.
May you be comfortable in your own skin, embracing whom you are meant to be, and enjoying those around you of all varieties.
Write On,
Fellow Traveler