I have, in the course of my life, come across this verse, but had never really read it in the all-encompassing 'everything is NaNoWriMo' glasses we wrimos tend to wear in November. so I had never applied it to writing, but it fits. Really well.
(Oh look at that I dated it because it was from a Bible study...on the 14th. yeah, procrastination can be blamed for you not having it. especially since I wasn't even writing Part 2 yet so...*shakes head despairingly at self* anyway here we go)
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
(Hebrews 12:1-2)
You see? Totally a writing verse. And I never knew... (though I have thought of God as the infallible, perfectly orchestrating Author before, which was from this verse, I guess)
Let me break it down for you. 'Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses' equals, pretty much, the vast number of people we have told about our ambitious writing endeavor, which is, as some of you might not know though probably do if you saw my older posts, the goal of writing a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. And, as we have told everyone we know, pretty much, that we are doing this, they get turned from the ambiguous 'friends and family' into 'guilt monkeys who will probably stare at you in accusatory glances if you should fail'. yeah. Having the lot of you out there, knowing we are doing this, means a lot to us. Really. Without the threat of embarrassment hanging over us, many of us would never finish.
Not that we're going to let you read it immediately, of course.
anyway. next part. 'let us lay aside every weight'--this translates to 'everything that distracts us from writing', which can be anything from the Internet in general, to movies and tv shows (Behold my impressive self-control: I have not watched the Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary special yet, and not only because my sister would kill me if I watched it without her-- I am writing, and my self-imposed goal is not to watch any of these things while doing so. after all, if you have time to watch an episode, you have time to write, and if you have time to write, you need to write.), to books, to lounging about on the sofa thinking about writing. Doesn't count. Lay aside every weight which ensnares us.
'And let us run with endurance'-- Every day, each of the 30 in November (or the 6 at the beginning and the last 15 if you did what I did which I do not recommend), you sit down at that computer and you write. If you miss a day (I have! I missed one! Entirely my own fault but I needed to be there to add helpful facts that greatly increased the enjoyment of my father when he watched the Hobbit for the first time. but yeah. my own fault. could have gotten up earlier and written.), if you miss a day you make it up. You run with endurance. Keep writing.
(hey, what are you doing here if you should be writing?)
'looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith'-- this stretches the parallels a bit, gets into more of 'the actual intent of the verse', but here we go. When we set out to do something, we find who else has done it, and finished, and use them as examples. For noveling, it's looking at others who have done the same and listening to their advice. (the pep talks given by the folks at NaNo are wonderful, wonderful things of joy and happiness and inspiration and encouragement. shout-out over.) For living the Christian life, it's watching what He did and doing that. The old saying 'what would Jesus do' is still applicable, though it should really be 'what did Jesus do', since... it really seems backwards to think of the Creator of the universe as someone you can pretend to know, in and out, well enough to guess what He would do in any given situation. Sort of. This is confusing. I'm suffering from sleeplessness; it's NaNo. sorry. um...yeah. utilize examples given.
'who for the joy'-- Why are we doing NaNo? We are writing a novel. In 30 days, we want to be able to look at our finished novel and say "I wrote a book." And because we can, we are going to be able to say "I wrote a book in thirty days." This is the goal we are aiming for, the glorious overconfidence given by our egos fueling our fingers as we pound away at our poor keyboards, each word getting us closer to that wonderful 50,000 mark, the treasure at the end of the quest, the goalpost we're running for.
Come November 30th, I will be able to say, and hope you will be able to say with me, "I am a writer. I write books. I wrote a book in thirty days."
