I love listening to/reading about author history. Many of them knew from a young age they wanted to write stories for a living. I’ve heard a few say they have notebooks filled with old writings they’ve kept through the years.
I wrote stories in school because they were part of an assignment. I enjoyed the work, but never considered it a career choice (too busy dreaming of being a vet for the wild horses in Montana). Though there was that one time I wrote a play for me, my sister, and her best friend to act out one summer with our parents as the audience.
But…writing? For a career?
Never saw that coming.
I look back now and see the pattern, and it all makes sense. God took His time leading me to this point. No doubt He knew I’d balk at the idea of being an author. I LOVE reading. You would think that I’d have a natural inclination to travel the author road. Nope.
I balked harder than a Missouri mule having a bad day.
When a story idea hit in the middle of the night, I ignored it until it started keeping me awake. All. Night. Long. That’s when I grabbed a notebook and started scribbling, thinking, “If I can get it out of my head, it’ll go away, and everything will go back to normal.” And I can get back to sleep (I really like sleep).
Eh, no.
Three years and several notebooks later, I broke down and started typing, still without a clue as to where this rabbit hole might end.
All I knew was, I had to get the stories out of my head. These characters became real to me. They still do. Each book is a discovery of new friends and sometimes a return of old friends.
It’s the best job I never knew I wanted. I was asked earlier this week if I enjoyed writing. The answer was an emphatic, “Yes!”
God knew what He was doing when He took me down the long road of becoming an author. He knows me. My thoughts and fears. My strengths and weaknesses. And He led me in such a way that I took on this role almost without realizing it. Almost.
My path to publication has been long and treacherous (and I’m still traveling), but that’s a story for another time.
Is there a time when God has taken you on an unexpected journey?
Tabitha Bouldin has a bachelor's degree in creative writing/English from Southern New Hampshire University. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and has been writing since 2015. When she's not homeschooling her kids, you'll find her curled up with a book. Tabitha's genre of choice is Contemporary Christian Romance which she describes as: Adventure with heart.
To answer your question Yes I served a few months as a Christian missionary. I was an unlikely person to go….lol So God took me there…lol
Without a doubt … starting with what it was like to become a Christian at 19 after spending my entire adolescence loving Wicca and the occult, having serious problems with what Christians believed (but I loved the Chronicles of Narnia I ironically thought that if God I would like Aslan much better than good … my image of God at that time molded by the wrong people).
The second was the career that I wanted to study … since I was a child I wanted to study medicine but once inside I discovered that I did not like now I study law … it was within the law that I finally considered writing a book in the future and letting stories be made in my head and notebooks only.
So I thought about writing fantasy / adventure stories because that’s what I read and loved the most … until I realized that I loved them only if they had some romance there or otherwise they bored me, I will admit that “The Horse and the Boy” is my favorite Narnia book because its protagonists marry at the end, and “The Magician’s Nephew” with “The Silver Chair” the ones that follow because … I “Ship” so much the protagonists (well they are children but I was between 9 and 13 when I did).
So here I am now I am a Christian college student planning to write romance books.
Hi Tabitha! Happy Wednesday. Since my mom was the church custodian, as a child and teen I knew our church pastors well; therefore I never wanted to marry a preacher. When I met my husband, a new Christian, he was studying premed. A safe choice, until God called him to heal souls, not body. We married, he attended seminary, we served 30 years, and just celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary. Definitely God’s doing. Best wishes. Happy Writing.
I thought I would be a professor of computer science at a nice Christian college somewhere. God provided a major detour that took me right out of graduate school. By His provision, I wound up using my computer skills to work with satellites and the people who keep them flying. After a quarter of a century doing that, God allowed a brain tumor to take my ability to hold a 9-to-5 job. I am still in a holding pattern on that part of the journey. Yep, never would have seen either of those coming. Never would have seen the corresponding blessings and growth either. :-)
I went back and forth between wanting to write and wanting to be an artist, and chose art as my major when I started college. After a semester in which I loved and hated my art classes at the same time, I decided maybe following the other path would be better.
And within the first month of meeting the man who is now my husband I told him, “I’ll never marry a guy like you.” Oops. Seventeen years of marriage later, we’re still going strong.
Like you, I have to get the stories out of my head for them to leave me alone. And then God sticks another one in there and I start all over again. It’s a blessing, right?
Numerous times…I’m glad He is always with me through the journey.
Yes he has. I never thought I would be able to volunteer being a sub for a Catechism class when I was asked if I could sub for 2 days, well those 2 days turned into being over 25 years and I loved it! I still give Catechism classes to my 2 grandchildren that live in our same town, I have been doing that for over 7 yrs now. Thank you for sharing your story about your writing career. Have a Great rest of the week and stay safe.
Isn’t it great how God does things like that. I love seeing His plans come about.
I absolutely love your testimony! Amazing.
Happy anniversary! That’s such a great story of love and celebration. Just goes to show how good God is.
The blessings are always there, though sometimes they might be difficult to see. So glad to see you pressing on, Lincoln.
Absolutely a blessing! I can’t draw a bit, but I can see the appeal for art as a career. I am glad you picked up writing though!
Isn’t it a great feeling to know He’s there through it all
Love this, Alicia! Wow. 25 years is amazing.
My whole life is an unexpected journey.
I am still walking the journey of being disabled. As I become weaker, it is harder to get around. I am also learning how to let go. My Mom is now living in a nursing home. We had lived with her and taken care of her for 8-10 years. It is a new way of life. God has it all in His hands. God bless you.
God has taken me on many journeys, but He has never led me astray.