by: Staci Stallings
Most of the time I try to write these posts well in advance and get them scheduled so I don’t accidentally miss getting them up OR the day doesn’t sneak up on me so I have to write them right quick before the post is supposed to be up. This one hasn’t worked out like that, and I was kind of getting antsy with myself about it. I was thinking along the lines of what books I have coming up that I could write about or post about. I was thinking about what book or books I wanted to put in front of you as “my readers” or thinking maybe I should post about the New Year or something inspirational to tie-in to a book that is set around the New Year. (See, you all think these posts just “happen,” but we on the other side of the keyboard do often put a lot of thought into just what we’re going to post.)
Suddenly this evening multiple pieces of disparate information started coming together, and I finally knew exactly what I wanted to say with this post. This is important so pay attention.
The first piece happened before the second (haha, that’s funny! Of COURSE it did!), but I didn’t put the two together until the first piece showed back up in my Facebook newsfeed again later as two posts that got me thinking along this line.
That first piece is the sad one. Carrie Fisher died today.
Now I know, you may not be a Star Wars fan. I get it. But MY experience with Star Wars is this: I was 7 years old when my uncle took me to see the very first Star Wars… in the theater! Of course, now that’s not really a big deal, but back then, for a girl from a tiny little town who had probably seen a total of five movies in a theater in her life to that point, it was a BIG DEAL.
Also, (of course), Princess Leia was my hero! Grab those blasters! Shoot your way out! Don’t let the guys push you around! Be sassy and strong! Take charge of your own story! Be beautiful and brave! Stand up to evil even if you don’t know how this will ever work out!
In short, she was the definition of COOL to a 7-year-old girl.
Added to that, I went to see Star Wars as a 7-year-old with a brother I adored. He was 13 at the time, and Star Wars became a touchstone of our growing up together. We went to see The Empire Strikes Back and later Return of the Jedi when I was a senior in high school… back when there were no DVD’s to “watch it again.” You watched it ONCE, and burned it as much as you could into the fabric of your soul during your viewing. We would get out of the movie and talk and talk and talk about it.
My brother also is no longer here with us, so there’s that.
Shortly after finding out about Ms. Fisher’s death, I happened to see this video someone posted on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/deltaprotective/videos/10157890106040640/ ). Now honestly I’ve never heard of this guy, Simon Sinek, but I see exactly what he’s talking about with many of my daughter’s friends. Millennials who grew up being helicopter-parented and who are now in college or just out—facing a life they do not feel prepared to deal with.
One of the points Mr. Sinek makes is that Millennials say they want to have an “impact” on the world when they go to work. Then they get jobs that are not inspiring and do not appear to have any impact. Thus, they become bored and uninspired, just going through the motions because they do not see how what they do is even worthwhile much less having an impact.
Now I’m going to add one more piece to this puzzle (and it’s about writing Christian Romance!). I’ve recently added a new series, The Grace Series, to my growing library of books written by me. In writing this series, I’ve ditched some of the conventional wisdom of writing Christian romance. Things like “only two points of view allowed”—the first book has three points of view, and the reader doesn’t even know who the actual heroine will be until about Chapter 3. And other things like the length of a long novel is roughly 100,000 words. The first book in the series, Mirror Mirror, clocked in at 240,000+ words!
None of this was really MY idea or plan. I simply wrote the story God was giving me, as unconventional as it ended up being.
So far I have gotten some very nice comments on the series such as:
“When Stallings writes, she writes to where it is no longer fiction but to where the people in her novel are real. When one reads this novel it brings to light that there are actual situations and people in the world who hurt this way, feel this way, and live this way and who really needs God’s authentic non-condemning love.
“Yes, the story is revolved around Sage and Luke, but once you continued to read you are longer just concerned about those two characters but about all that surround them. Your heart is drawn to reasons why certain characters act the way they act, and you long to see them helped.
“The way Stallings invites God into her writing gives the reader a chance to see the author. What she believes and what she has learned from God in the process of writing this novel. There’s a line in the novel that says, “We give from the overflow of what God’s doing in our lives.” I truly believe that is what Stallings does when she writes her books and novels, and I am grateful for her pouring out what God is pouring into her. We are filled only to be emptied.”
To put it simply, readers write reviews saying that my books have had an “impact” on their lives.
I will not presume to speak for Ms. Fisher, but I know for me early on in my career, I did not start out with the idea that one day I would have this kind of impact. In fact, even when I started writing this particular story (Mirror, Mirror), I did not realize the impact it might have. I just knew it was a story I was being called to write, and I wrote it the way God showed me to. Basically, I wrote as authentically real to the characters I was given as I could.
So to you out there (Millennials or not) who want to make an impact on the world, start with being authentically YOU. Do what you love to do. Just like that little 7-year-old that Ms. Fisher never met nor even knew existed, impacts are often made not when you set out to make them but when you throw your heart over the bar and expect the rest of you to follow. That’s how you go about making an impact, but it starts by being willing to put forth the time and effort on the front end, going into projects not really knowing, doing your best, following what God shows you and asks you to do, and putting the results in His hands.
The more I do that, with the books and with life, the more impact my life has on those around me.
To all of you, may 2017 be the year God either uses your life to impact and inspire others or gets you ready to do so! God bless you all on this amazing journey we call “life.”
A stay-at-home mom with a husband, three kids and a writing addiction on the side, Staci Stallings has numerous titles for readers to choose from. Not content to stay in one genre and write it to death, Staci’s stories run the gamut from young adult to adult, from motivational and inspirational to full-out Christian and back again. Every title is a new adventure! That’s what keeps Staci writing and you reading. Although she lives in Amarillo, Texas and her main career right now is her family, Staci touches the lives of people across the globe with her various Internet and writing endeavors.
Be authentic, this is what I got from this post. Often I feel as though I don’t know what that is anymore until I do something or say something that someone hold up to me that I didn’t know I had said or done and I think , ‘ now that is me, where have I been’. I have often in the past become who others want or expect me to be, so much so that I lost ‘me’. I am rediscovering ‘me’ and hope that this year with Gods help I will once again be authentically me.
I love your books, so cliche, but I do. They speak to me and make me think and hope. Thank you.
As a grandmother, your post connected to me. I think God uses us wherever we are in each stage of our life. I want to be the best grandmother I can be to show my granddaughters His love.
As a grandmother with three little granddaughters (soon to be four) I can’t agree enough. These little ones are so precious!
Thanks for sharing.
My verse for the year is this:
If you’re called upon to talk, speak as though God put the words in your mouth; if you’re called upon to serve others, serve as though you had the strength of God behind you. In these ways, God may be glorified in all you do through Jesus the Anointed, to whom belongs glory and power, now and forever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:11 VOICE
Sooooo ties into what you’re saying, Staci. Thanks for a great post. :)
Thanks for sharing this video. I work with college students and deal with Millennials a lot. I like the break down to explain some of the issues into a combination of “parenting,” “environment,” “impatience,” and “technology.” I don`t think it’s just it, but it’s a good summary of how they view of the world searching for “happiness” and “impact” in everything and feeling “entitled” and “upset” when things don’t turn out how they’d like to.
Thanks, Staci! I enjoyed reading your post. May you have a wonderful 2017. I’m looking forward to reading more of your books.
This was a wonderful post and I appreciate you sharing so much of yourself with us, the readers. Carrie Fisher was a big deal to me too growing up and I also went to the theater with my older brother. Never realized how significant that was until reading your post. Thank you for being an instrument and pouring yourself out on the stories that you write. They are a wonderful part of my digital library.
I think the original Star Wars movie is one of the few I remember going to see as a family, even though we went frequently to movies. I also saw it when I was seven and loved it. I would play “starwars” with my boy friends in the neighborhood, and I always got to be Princess Leia. Such great memories.
Ana, I think for me the trick was to do something I truly loved–not because of any other reason than I loved it. Once I did that, I understood the FEELING of “this is me” and I could find other things that helped me be me also. The more “me” I am, the more I’m not satisfied when I’m not. Learn to be authentically you. It will change your life!
I think one of our biggest callings in life is to help others to become authentically themselves and to cheer that on. I think grandparents are uniquely positioned to do that because they’re not weighed down with the day-to-day stuff. I just told my nieces and nephews the other day that I’m so proud of them for following their very diverse dreams and callings. I want to be their cheerleader in learning to do just that.
I LOVE THAT, Autumn! I think when we surrender our agenda and let God speak through us, miracles happen! Here’s to a year of miracles!
I think he was primarily addressing a corporation, but what I would tell the Millennials is that it really doesn’t matter how great or awful you were raised or how many bad hands you got dealt. It really doesn’t. What matters is what you decide and what you do NOW. If you learned it wrong, relearn it. If life isn’t working, do something different. Don’t wait for a corporation or anybody else to do it for you. They might get it wrong too! Get in there and do it yourself… with God. You don’t have to stay stuck in, “This isn’t working.”
I’m writing as fast as I can! :) Have a blessed beginning of 2017!
Thanks for being an awesome reader out there! I love that others love my stories as much as I do!
Light sabers and Princess Leia. Those two things encapsulate my 7th year on the planet. :) Here’s to a great 2017!
Thanks for stopping by! God bless!