Brother Lawrence, in his book The Practice of the Presence of God, writes about a prayer life that is not dictated by hours or structure. To practice the presence of God is to use every moment as an opportunity for prayer, be it words, action, or a simple awareness of and openness to God’s presence.
By practicing the presence of God, our writing stops being a source of income or enjoyment and prayer. To understand how to accomplish this, let’s look at three key elements of writing.
Creativity
God is creative. If He weren’t creative, we wouldn’t be here. As we are made in the image and likeness of God, we are naturally creative as well, whether that creativity involves writing, designing, or doodling. It is when we offer that creativity back up to God and invite Him to be a part of the process that our creativity truly comes into its fullest form. Remember that we all have a God-shaped hole within us (St. Augustine speaks of our hearts being restless until they rest in Him). It is when we invite God into all areas of our life that we fully become who we are. And using our ability in its fullest form praises God and is a form of prayer.
Discipline
The need for discipline is everywhere we turn, whether that discipline is remaining true to the Church’s teachings or keeping to a writing schedule. The Bible calls for us to complete tasks that require discipline, especially where gifts are concerned (see Matthew 25:14-30). Discipline requires sacrifice and sacrifice makes for good penance, because we’re giving something up in order to glorify God through right action. Therefore, discipline is prayer. We are glorifying God by taking the necessary steps to rightly use the gift He has given us.
Planning
Being open to the movement of the Holy Spirit is a big part of prayer. The difference between just reading and lectio divina is an openness to the Spirit. That is, the Holy Spirit makes a word, phrase, or idea jump out and that’s our platform for prayer. With that in mind, consider the planning stages of any piece of writing. If we have invited God into our creativity, then we’ll want Him to be a part of the planning. By being open to the Spirit (and therefore aware of God’s presence), we are praying.
In these three ways, our writing can be prayer and will be richer for it. This does not mean that all of our writing has to fit into the Christian fiction section of the bookstore. Like Tolkien, we can use Christian themes and ideas in our work without anyone being the wiser. But by allowing our writing to be a way of talking and communing with and praising God, we are letting it come into its full potential. After all, we can do nothing without God.
Suzanna Linton writes the blog Haunting the Sacristy, has a degree in Professional Writing, 
and works at her local library. She lives in South Carolina with two dogs, Benedict and Scholastica, and is recently married. Her genre of choice is fantasy, though she also enjoys writing poetry.
