A lot of writers have to write stuff they’re not completely enthusiastic about.
It begins in school, with academic papers like such lofty topics as, “How I Spent My Summer Vacation.” Big yawn, right?
But as we get better at writing, sometimes we’re expected to be creative on demand, and that kind of writing assignment can completely suck. Need an example?
When I was in high school, I had a couple friends who were born-again believers. At the time, I wasn’t. I was just a fairly mild-mannered church-going Lutheran boy. But a friend of theirs had died and they wanted a song written in her honor. Who do they come to? Yup, me.
Now, I had written song lyrics that year. I’d even performed one of my songs a Capella in front of a psychology class as part of a “share your talent” thing we were all required to do. So kids in school knew I wrote song lyrics.
Then I was approached to write a song for this girl who’d died, for a girl who was born again, from a family who was, and considering I wasn’t, it was kind of damn hard to even attempt.
I’d never known the girl in question. I knew nothing about her family, her friends, her likes, her dislikes, I didn’t even have a picture of her. And I was being asked to write a song that would capture the essence of who she was for everyone who knew and loved her?
Needless to say, that song never was written, at least not in any completed form. It disappointed my born again friends.
I’ve since come to faith and you can read about what I believe these days on MessianicMusings.com, but I will say that even today, I think being asked to do that kind of writing assignment was a bit beyond reason.
