I Wasn’t An Author, Until God Said, Write

by: Valerie Carr

The story came onto my heart rather suddenly. It wasn’t something I had purposely prepared for or even considered writing. But I had a story in my head, and when I went looking for something like it in a book, I couldn’t find what I was searching for. If I came close, the story often contained content I would have been embarrassed for my children to see me reading, and the alternative seemed to lack the grit and heartfelt substance I desired.

Then, one day, I heard a voice in my heart say, “You write it.”

Me? “Write a book?”

Every time I thought about that story roaming around in my head, thinking it would make a great book. The thought that followed was always the same. “Write it.”

I tried to deny it, even ignore it. Yet I kept hearing, “Write it.” After months of my protesting and doubting, I finally sat down at my computer just to see what would happen.

What happened?

A full manuscript. That’s what happened. Not right away, but over the course of many months. Each time I took a quiet moment to write, the words flowed from my mind to my fingers as they responded feverishly across the keyboard, almost as though the sentences weren’t coming from me. Because they weren’t! They couldn’t be.

I wasn’t an author. I knew nothing about how to write a novel. How could I possibly string together an entire manuscript?

And yet, there it was. The draft was rough. It needed finessing. It needed serious editing. But it was done.

And so, I thought, was I.

I walked away from it, tucking it safely away on my laptop, and went on with my life. 

Until I heard it again.

“The book. Finish it.”

I ignored the voice. I denied hearing it. But the story wouldn’t leave me alone. Nearly every day, the characters called to me. Haunted me. Asking me to let them live. To let their story be told. 

And so, I opened my laptop again and dusted off the manuscript.

I made edits. I put it away. Then I would hear the voice again. I’d pull it back out, make more edits, and put it away once more. Year after year, the novel pushed and pulled at me. And I would respond in snippets, brief moments, but had no intention of doing anything more.

Until I heard the voice again, as clear as day.

“Publish it.”

Writing a book was one thing. Publishing it was something entirely different. Publishing meant putting it out into the world. Letting people read it. Judge it. Criticize it. That felt like far too much. Besides, where would I even begin? I didn’t have a huge following. I barely used social media, nor did I want to. I didn’t like social media.

But again, the voice said, “Publish.”

And then an email arrived. A new publishing house had been created, and they were looking for new Christian authors.

So I emailed back.

Fighting every instinct I had to run, to ignore the voice, to convince myself I had never heard it at all—

I signed.

And now, as I write this, Sun Shining on the Porch Swing sits beside me. In print.

More than 200 copies have been sold and read, and I know the story has traveled beyond those original books because people have shared their copies with friends and family. I know because I’ve received messages from some of those very people. The response has overwhelmed me in the very best way. Even some of my toughest critics have loved the book.

So! What happens next? I don’t know, actually. I don’t know what God has planned for the book He wrote through my hands or the story He placed on my heart.

But I do know this: Obeying His voice, even when I felt completely unequipped to do what He was asking, has given me more than I ever could have received had I turned away and simply said, “No.”

I wouldn’t trade the growth I have experienced for all the comfort in the world. 

It forced me to stop worrying about the many and care only about the One.

I still don’t know where this story will go. But I have learned that when God says, “Write it,” you write. When He says, “Go,” you go. And when He asks you to trust Him with what comes next, you do. Because sometimes the greatest story God is writing isn’t simply the one He places on the page.

It’s the one He is writing in you.

Valerie Carr writes Contemporary Christian Fiction for women who want to see themselves on the page and experience faith and God’s hope in a way that feels genuine and believable. Off the page, Valerie is a wife to her husband of 25 years and a mom to three college-aged boys.