Step 3 – Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to a power greater than ourselves

Photo: Nvvchar

It’s funny. When I tell people I’m a writer and I have a book published, they get really excited. Most do. Some don’t. But that’s good too. In life, some people will not celebrate your successes, for whatever reasons. Prepare for it, and forgive them.

But the “most” who do get excited, well, they don’t get the whole picture. All they know is that I did something that’s really hard to do and they get excited. It’s even better when they read it and scratch their heads and think, “Wow, that Aaron wrote a book and it doesn’t suck.”

So for most writers, there is some external motivation, some outside stimulus, for us to write. And yes, like I said in my last post, we have a duty to write if we have a story to tell. And yeah, when I write, when I overcome my fear, I am displaying some of my best parts to the world.

But for me, I had to go deeper. I had to know exactly why I was writing. The “why” of writing is something I had to come to terms with if I was going to spend the countless hours making up stories and not being with my family, not sleeping, not watching baseball or the new shows that aren’t streaming for free on Netflix.

Here is more about my “why”:

For me, writing is the hope that life is good, that I am good, and that there is a purpose, a reason, for all of my pain. When I write, I am affirming life’s inherent goodness. This is my sacred, secret dream. When I write a story, I am spitting in the face of doubt, despair, and death.

That is my why.

So I have to believe that since I have been given this desire to create, that I can do it sanely, rationally, and with a heart full of hope.

I need to give up my pre-conceived notions about what it all should look like and let it just be. Write and finish the book I’m working on. Try to get it published or publish it myself. And keep at it.

Because I’ve come too far to give up now. There is a point where you have spent so much time and energy and have spilled so much blood that to quit would be a crime.

When I meet new writers, I ask them if they’ve tried to quit. The newbies look at me and shake their head. The veterans understand. If you can quit, quit. If you can’t, figure out your “why” and follow it until you can’t any more.

Yeah, I’ve written a lot about the third step, but let’s boil it all down to this. Are you willing to commit to working the rest of the steps?

If you’ve committed yourself to finishing the steps, then, well, you’ve turned your life over to something greater than yourself.

Photo: Guadalupe Cervilla

And we can continue on to the fourth step, which is probably my favorite step. It’s the step where you get to do a whole lotta’ writing.