The Catholic Writers Guild

Are you a professional writer? The definition of being a professional is being paid for your work. Technically if you have received as little as $5 or a free yearly subscription to a magazine for a short story, you are a professional writer. If you don’t believe me, just ask the I.R.S.!

However, that’s not the definition I think is important. I want to know if you think of yourself as a professional writer. Do you believe in your talent? When I first started writing and had some success with short stories and articles being published, I remained silent about my work.  If I did mention my work, family and friends made comments like, “Oh what a cute hobby,” or, “It’s good to keep yourself busy, no sense getting bored.”  I smiled and nodded. I couldn’t answer them correctly. Why? Because I thought exactly like them.

It was as if I were embarrassed to say I was a writer or an author. It seemed so presumptuous.  After all, I wasn’t supporting myself with the small amounts of money I made. I wasn’t Stephen King who made millions spinning scary tales. I didn’t see myself winning awards. To me the true authors walked the red carpet while their novel was being turned into a Hollywood blockbuster. The real writers had well-known names and books lingering on the Times best-seller lists.  I didn’t think of myself as a true writer.  I didn’t believe in the gift that God had given me.

What are the signs that you don’t believe in your talent:

• When people asked what I did or what my job was, I told them that I was a retired nurse. Somehow being a nurse was an accepted occupation. Being a writer seemed to be a pie-in-the-sky idea (pardon the cliché). Are you doing something similar?
• When friends or family called and needed my time and attention, or even just my company for a social outing, I dropped my writing schedule. After all, my writing was not as important as real life. Are you doing the same?
• I had no schedule for my writing. It came last. First came the farm work, cleaning, cooking etc.  Even grocery shopping came before my writing time. I couldn’t give myself permission to write unless the house was spotless and the meals all prepared.  I couldn’t excuse myself to write unless I fulfilled everyone else’s expectations of me. Are you putting everything else first?
• I couldn’t even tell my friends or family that I couldn’t linger on the phone. When they asked me if I was too busy to talk I always said no. Even when I got up the courage to tell them that I was writing, the usual response was “Oh! Okay then listen to this!” Are you answering the phone?
• I allowed myself to be the volunteer for every good work being done in my parish or my children’s school. I helped everyone else with the ministry that God had placed on their heart. After all, I decided, aren’t we supposed to help everyone else? Isn’t that what Jesus said? I did their paper work, wrote their ads, and produced their brochures to promote their needs. After all, they had a mission and I didn’t. Are you writing for everyone else’s ministries?
• I had no special place for my writing. I would travel around the house with my laptop, looking for a quiet place where the TV wasn’t blasting and I wasn’t in anyone’s way. Do you have your own space?
• I didn’t have a schedule for my work. I would squeeze time in here and there. Even though I usually can’t write at night because my brain is too tired, I wouldn’t carve out morning time for myself unless no one wanted me for something else. Do you stick to a schedule?

The really sad part of this is that I was not appreciating the gift that God gave me. He knew me before I was born. He created me with a special talent that I was burying. In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus teaches :

¹⁴ “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. ¹⁵ To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. ¹⁶ He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. ¹⁷ So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. ¹⁸ But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. ¹⁹ 

Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. ²⁰ And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ ²¹ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

²²And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ ²³ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

²⁴ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, ²⁵ so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’

²⁶ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? ²⁷ Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. ²⁸ So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents.

²⁹ For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. ³⁰ And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Some day we will stand before God and answer for how we used what he gave us. For the next few Mondays, let’s talk about becoming serious about our work. After all, it is His work.

Karen Kelly Boyce lives on a farm in NJ with her retired husband Michael. She has two grown children and two grandchildren. She is an award-winning novelist and writes a children’s series for Chesterton Press

Karen Boyce

Karen Kelly Boyce lives on a farm in N.J. with her retired husband. She is a mother and grandmother. She is the author of “The Sisters of the Last Straw” series published by Tan Books. You can see her work and learn more about her on her website: www,kkboyce.com