Slightly Sunburnt // How It All Started

Hello!

So, considering that the book I just finished writing took me 3 1/2 years from start to finish, I decided that I'll have to really discipline myself in order to get the sequel written in a reasonable amount of time. And why put off starting on it, right? But yesterday afternoon it was just so beautiful outside that I couldn't bring myself to sit in the house and type. So, I grabbed a notebook and a pencil and went out to enjoy the weather. Finding the perfect little place out in the sunshine, I sat down and wrote for a few hours. It was lovely! But apparently my mind was so lost in a frigid Minnesota winter evening that I completely forgot my body was still sitting out in the 75 degree sunshine of an Ohio afternoon! It turns out that I got a nice little sunburn on the right side of my face, the right side of my neck, my right ear and right arm....ah, such is life! :) But hey, I filled 4 notebook pages, so at least I accomplished something!

I thought I would share with you all how I got started writing. It definitely wasn't one of my favorite subjects in grade school. I actually didn't care for it too much. But at the end of my freshman year I was given an assignment to write a short story. Got that? A SHORT STORY. Like 10 pages long, max. But no! It couldn't be that easy, could it? I got this grand idea for a story set in the "olden days", because I love everything about the way of life in 19th century America. "Little House on the Prairie" and Sauder Village were a big part of my childhood. And for those of you who haven't heard of Sauder Village, come to Ohio for a visit sometime--it's pretty cool! 

So anyways, back to the story! I made up all these little characters who were friends from church--David, Hannah, James and Jill. Then there was Henry. He was the bully at school. Henry was always mean to these four friends, but they decided that they were going to try really hard to be nice to him anyways, and then he would get saved. After a week or so of working on this story that shouldn't have even taken me that long, I started to get more and more ideas and the story just got longer and longer. One of the nice things about being homeschooled was that my wonderful teacher {a.k.a. "Mom"} told me that I could have as much time as I wanted to finish it because she saw that I was really putting a lot of effort into the story and not just trying to get out of doing the work! So, a few weeks turns into leaving it sit for the summer and then tackling it again my sophomore year. As I watched the story develop, I started to see something that wasn't sitting well with me. At that point I was calling my story "Because of the Faithful Four" and saw my characters thinking that by their actions they would be able to change Henry. So, I decided to bring them to a point where they realized they wouldn't be able to do it on their own. Only God can change a heart. At the same time, I really started to like the character of David, and I was following him more specifically. I can't really explain what has happened since that point, other than I can say without a doubt it was God. He gave me a vision for what HE wanted the book to be, and each time I sat down to write and prayed for His guidance, the words just came to me.

In Paths of Righteousness isn't anything like the little story that it started out to be. I am still amazed to see how God took the ramblings of my 15 year old brain and turned them into something big that He can use to touch others. What a privilege to serve such an awesome God, don't you think? 

Because of Him,
          Keri Nicole