{"id":1926,"date":"2011-11-07T09:00:06","date_gmt":"2011-11-07T13:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/?p=1926"},"modified":"2011-11-07T12:06:28","modified_gmt":"2011-11-07T16:06:28","slug":"writing-as-a-blessing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/?p=1926","title":{"rendered":"Writing as a Blessing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/purpleiris4.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1929 lazyload\" title=\"purpleiris4\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/purpleiris4-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" data-srcset=\"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/purpleiris4-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/purpleiris4.jpg 640w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/225;\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1929\" title=\"purpleiris4\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/purpleiris4-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/purpleiris4-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/purpleiris4.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Every time I sit down at my computer to begin the next phase of my novel, I realize how blessed I am.\u00c2\u00a0 When I begin my work, my characters show up to tell me their stories, to open the door into their world so that I can step into it with them, and hopefully bring my readers with me.<\/p>\n<p>It is a privilege to do this work, and a joy to watch as a new world unfolds before me. I feel almost as Michelangelo did when he said that the sculpture exists already beneath the marble, and he was the one to free it. I am no Michelangelo, but I think every creative person knows a shadow of what he means. The work as it is meant to be born lurks in the darkness just beyond our reach, whether a piece of sculpture, a painting, or a novel. As a novelist, as I begin to give myself over to the work and to the story the characters want told, the novel begins to unfold before me almost like magic.<\/p>\n<p>I do not mean to say that it is easy and effortless and that birds are always singing and that rainbows light my path. Sometimes it is dark where I&#8217;m walking&#8230;sometimes the Cave is a lonely place. But always, no matter how long it takes to bring a novel into the Light, the book and the journey to create it is a blessing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every time I sit down at my computer to begin the next phase of my novel, I realize how blessed I am.\u00c2\u00a0 When I begin my work, my characters show up to tell me their stories, to open the door into their world so that I can step into it with them, and hopefully bring &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/?p=1926\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Writing as a Blessing<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[361,47],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1926"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1931,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926\/revisions\/1931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}