Why write? Part 2

In a previous post, Why write?, I explained how writing is the particular expression of my creativity. We are creative beings, since we are made in the likeness of God, the Creator, and so we each are all creative. How we express that creativity differs from person to person. I write because I am compelled to write, and yet that is not the sole reason I write. Another purpose for writing is the potential impact on readers’ lives.

Since publishing, Fingerprints of Grace, I have received positive feedback from people who have read the book. This is the most rewarding aspect of being an author. To know that a reader has benefited from your book makes all the editing and agony worthwhile. Fingerprints of Grace is not a book that will appeal to everyone. It is written with a strong Christian world view and does not have a ‘happy’ ending in the traditional sense. Yet people have found it helpful in their own journey of healing.

One woman I spoke with recently is still coming to terms with the loss of her grown-up daughter three years ago. She cried for days after reading the book, but the tears were for her own journey, and were healing rather than upsetting. Another encouraging email was from a hospital chaplain. I sent her a copy of the book, thinking that it may be useful to pass on to parents on a similar journey. She wrote back to say that in fact, the book had helped her to get through her first month on the job. Previously she had felt overwhelmed and terrified by the prospect of guiding parents through difficult situations in a workplace that has traditionally been hostile to chaplaincy. It is stories like these that spur me on to write and rewrite.

Fingerprints of Grace is available from www.koorong.com.au and www.salvationarmy.org.au/supplies