Literature Harvest?

As I continue to market my spiritual memoir Chased by the Wind and write the early chapters of my college years memoir, literature ideas are brewing inside of me. In recent weeks there have been some creative tickles, some harbingers that a new season of fiction will soon emerge in my literary life. The other morning at Starbucks in downtown Franklin the tickles hit a new intensity.

Attempting to give some form to the formless, I shut down the laptop and pulled out my ideas notebook, pen in hand. I asked myself what kind of characters I could most relate to, the type of protagonists I would want to unpack and develop in a work of literature. What a shock that my favorite heroes would be a clergy type who moves beyond the church into the business world; a motivational speaker/executive coach; and a journalist. The three key professional hats that I have worn. The three hats that I still wear. I guess one really must write what he knows.

During the fictional outpouring that characterized my childhood, I created many characters with all sorts of vocations--but had not lived any of them. Time was on my side in those days, those long, boring summers and spring and winter breaks. I have to be very intentional about time now, given my obligations. The irony is having so much more knowledge and perspective with which to write, but less time to execute the writing itself.

But the season is emerging. The time is now, as it always has been, to let the words come to harvest.