Writing The Message You Need To Deliver

I am on a crusade. I am a divine messenger. I have just discovered this.

A few weeks ago I was just writing. Now I am experiencing it as a higher calling.

I won’t say that it is truly biblical but the analogies are there. There has been a change in my thinking.

I was a run-of-the-mill postman. I was collecting the mail and pigeonholing it. I was sorting it and putting it in predetermined letterboxes. The letters themselves were irrelevant. What was in them was also unimportant.

I was just doing my job.

Now I realise that the contents of the envelopes are truly important.

In fact they must be delivered at all cost.

The messages need to get through. I am no longer on a bicycle or a scooter. The challenge is greater than I thought, but then again more exciting.

I am riding the Pony Express. I am the pageboy sneaking across no man’s land. I am a Chasquis, an Incan runner, trying to keep my balance on a narrow trail high up in the Andes.

I am standing up and exposing myself to the enemy in order to ensure that my radio signal is received.

I am furiously tapping away on my Morse code machine.

It seems that way.

I certainly don’t know the full message at this stage. I am just typing it out word for word. It is being dictated by some unknown force. I can interpret it but it takes effort.

That was my epiphany last week.

I found out that the whole reason for writing is that you have a message within you. You just have to keep writing until it comes out.

That can take a while. It will take even longer if you don’t spent the time on it. It is a major investment. More than I had first imagined.

The reward was the discovery that there was actually a reason for doing it. I hadn’t even wondered what the driving force was. I hadn’t concerned myself with a reason for doing it. I was just doing it. I had to do it.

Last week I found out why.

I think this came about when I realised that every piece of writing needs a theme.

A story doesn’t necessarily need to be written around something from the start. I found out that it can take a long time to find the core idea. Sometimes the theme needs to grow and gestate.

Sometimes it takes blood, sweat and tears.

Sometimes it takes years.

Actually I did know this. I have known it all along.

I just hadn’t paid attention to it.

Had I done that it might have convinced me to invest more time in it. I might have got to this point sooner. I suppose it’s just another part of the journey. It’s an integral part of the crusade.

There are many mountains to cross. Many foes to be faced. Many risks to be taken. And many lessons to be learnt.

But there is a good reason for it.

The message needs to be delivered.