I’m joining with the online discussion group that Kate Motaung is hosting on her blog Heading Home, based on the book On Being a Writer: 12 Simple Habits for a Writing Life that Lasts, by Ann Krocker & Charity Singleton Craig. Today’s chapter is on planning, on being intentional with our next steps.

I’ve been a planner for as long as I can remember. I can still remember my wedding day. I had all the details on my end worked out ahead of time, so when my soon-to-be mother-in-law and my family wanted to go out to breakfast in the morning, I was ready to go. My fiance, on the other hand, passed up the breakfast invitation, and he has told me since that he was running around until ten minutes before the ceremony trying to get everything on his end set up. Planning ahead is wise.

Concerning my writing, I also have been planning. The thing I’m currently working on is story leads and openings, and as God reveals other weaknesses in my writing, I’ll move onto them. But I know where I’m headed eventually, and I have the steps to get there laid out.

My final goal for my writing is to write a memoir on my life as the mother of a medically fragile and mentally disabled child. But I recognize I’m not even close to handling such a complicated project. So my next step is to continue working on writing skills, while I expand my reader base by posting on a variety of blog link-up sites. After that, I’ll start finding some magazines and online sites that fit my writing style, and begin submitting queries for article ideas. Once I have had a variety of articles published by paying sites, it will probably be time to start on the book that I believe God wants me to write.

Finally, being a planner by nature, there’s a balancing truth I need to remind myself of frequently. Even though I have an idea of where I want to go with my writing, God is the One who is in charge. I make plans, but as I give God control of my writing – and every other area of my life – He has veto power over my plans. As Corrie ten Boom said: “Trying to do the Lord’s work in your own strength is the most confusing, exhausting, and tedious of all work. But when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then the ministry of Jesus just flows out of you.” Planning plus being filled with the Holy Spirit and sensitive to His voice together result in moving forward to complete God’s plans for me as a writer.