[2/14/12] Writer's block and continuing Tender Mercies.

First of all,

Happy Valentine's Day!

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I do a lot of writing.

Every single class I take involves writing in some manner.

Which adds up to a lot of writing.

Especially for the awfully horrible English class I'm taking (which is now half over -- woohoo!!!).

For me, writing is kind of a love-hate relationship. Kind of like running. A lot of the time it's a bit painful and not enjoyable during the process, but it feels oh-so-good when it's done.

The writing assignments for the awfully horrible English class have been pretty intense the last couple of weeks. We've been studying different theories of literary criticism--specifically Feminism, Marxism, and New Historicism--and applying them to a poem ("The Goblin Market"), and a short story by Hemingway ("The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber"). This has been hard. I've only taken one other class that studied these theories, and this was only a "tip of the iceberg" kind of study. It's all been a bit overwhelming...

Most of the time when I sit down to write I think, "I have no idea what to write." 

A regular part of my morning prayers since I went back to school has been to ask for help and guidance when I'm doing my homework each day, especially the writing stuff, and that I'll be able to remember what I study and learn.

And since I went back to school, and especially these past few weeks, I have noticed something that is absolutely awesome. Even though these writing assignments have been frustrating and overwhelming sometimes most of the time, I have seen these prayers answered in some pretty amazing ways. I'll sit down to write, and random thoughts will pop into my head, and I'm off and running writing. Sometimes the words just flow, and my assignments take a lot less time than I thought they would.

Which is a huge Tender Mercy.

And I'm so very thankful for that.

*Image courtesy of dresswithcourage-elissa.blogspot.com