Fighting the Good Fight
Or maybe just fighting the fight. Any fight.
I’m struggling with several writing things this week, not the least of which is figuring out passive voice versus active voice. In spite of the erstwhile efforts of many friends from ChristianWriters and efforts at self-education, I just can’t quite get there. I think I have a concept nailed down when reading worksheets and taking quizzes, only to be totally at sea again when attempting a rewrite on my own stuff.
I’m certain I’m making things more difficult than necessary, but I remember similar struggles learning the classical painting technique. That eventually ‘clicked’ in the ol’ gray matter, but it did take a while. I expect the same with the current learning curve.
While all of this is going on, I’m developing ideas for National Novel Writing Month and attempting to maintain a daily fiction word count of 1,924.
The ideas are flowing fast and furious and are running circles around me.
The fiction writing is a struggle. I want to write on the new ideas to the point I can taste it. No writing is allowed on a NaNoWriMo idea or it automatically becomes a non-NaNoWriMo idea. The fiction I have been writing is unguided, daily writing exercises that may or may not go anywhere, descriptions of the weather and other such things with no end game in sight. Not very motivating.
And most definitely not very encouraging.
Consequently, the third thing I’m dealing with is discouragment. I’m hip deep in the stuff! That is not a good thing!
The title for today’s post comes from I Timothy 1:18 (NIV).
Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, 19holding on to faith and a good conscience.
The Apostle Paul is urging Timothy to continue with the fight of faith no matter how overwhelming the odds may be.
That’s what I’m attempting this week. Just to keep swinging away at the enemy that confronts me, whether I can see it or not; whether I understand it or not.
At present, the fight I wage doesn’t rise to the level of ‘The Good Fight”. It’s just a fight. A down and dirty, hand-to-hand street fight struggle between me, myself and I. As you might guess, it’s difficult to tell who’s winnng. I have come very close to giving up on this particular front and giving my time back to painting.
But there are things to do until the murk clears, so I’ll keep doing those.
And keep swinging.