What Moses Taught Me About Writing

As I’ve shared before, during this time at home I’ve been using a Bible in a year reading plan with a new Bible. I’ve nearly worn out a new set of highlighters and have been floored by revelations that were sitting there all along.

One a-ha moment was as I read about Moses on the mountain with the Lord crafting the Ten Commandments.

It’s not a new story to me, most likely not to you, either.

But what grabbed me was the fact that Moses made his way down that mountain, tablets in hand, to see the Israelites carving idols and just acting like plain fools. The tablets crash to the ground and all that work, now in pebbles.

It was then I received what I call the heavenly downloads. A gentle and loving nudge from the Lord that I can’t ignore.

Moses didn’t present his writings with the first draft either.

What’s that now?

Confession. I’m starting a new contemporary romance series called Surrendering Opinions. I’ve had this vision all mapped out in my head for years. It’s about a set of sextuplets who remain in the national spotlight because of tragedy. Now they are young adults navigating their own identity while trying to find a love that matched what their parents had. Each sibling gets their own book by birth order. The first is Jordyn Bell Collins in a title called Anchored.

And I have started this book once. Twice. Three. Four. I think at least five times. I’ve given up counting and I’m frankly scared to submit my new chapters to my critique group. This time, I sense I found the vibe and I’m excited. But I thought I’d be on the third book by now. And here I am starting all over.

It was the same with Entrusted, my first book. That idea came to me in the early 1990’s. I wrote it and shelved it because I had a paying job. Then marriage. Then kids. When I had that heavenly download that it was time to write for Him, that story was junk. I completed the Christian Writers Guild. I wrote freelance articles. Created weekly challenges to grow. I started submitting to my critique groups. There was a draft in third-person. Several in first-person, present tense. Then I used NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) to start over. Finally, a draft I was proud of. Still, so many revisions and re-writes. I think from that first time when I was in my 20’s to publication in 2014, Entrusted was at least 14 attempts from start to finish.

That Moses reminder encouraged me to keep on keeping on. Moses turned around and scaled that mountain again. He chiseled out all the wisdom the Lord gave. And when he descended, those commandments guide us to this day, and Moses grew in his faith so much he glowed.

—Julie Arduini

My prayer is especially as I write romance, readers would relate to the characters and be encouraged by the transformation they take. That they would seek His face and surrender the things that keep them from living free in Him.

So this summer, I’m back to chiseling.

And I’m really excited about it.

This post first appeared at Christians Read.

***