Are You Listening?

by +AneMulligan  @AneMulligan

Do you look for a new word on which to focus throughout the year? I started this practice a few years ago, because of a friend and fellow writer, Julie Garmon. This year, my word is "listen".

Uh-oh. I'm in trouble. And it's only the beginning of January. Oh, I can listen to a conversation I'm involved in. I can eavesdrop on them, too. As a writer, it's important for me to listen. And I do - to the conversations around me.

But to sit quietly and listen to God? Not so much. I'm A.D.D. My attention span is that of a gnat. I try to empty my mind, which is hard when it's filled with voices telling you their story. But I try. I'll pray, then be silent and wait for God to speak to me. 

Within a few seconds of nothing, my mind wanders. It leaves on its own, anxious for the next adventure or something. Pretty soon I realize I've mentally left the room. I don't mean to, but I can't seem to help it.

Which makes this word so difficult for me. I guess God expects me to learn how this year. All I can say is He's going to have to smack me upside the head when my mind starts wandering. I will say, sometimes God has spoken quickly and I've heard Him in my soul. And it's awesome. 

Looking back, I realize there have been times when I was noodling on a plot or character, and God has "spoken" by giving me the exact idea I needed to make the story work. And yes, I remember to thank Him.

So this year, I'm going to work on listening more, for both those story ideas and for God to simply share something with me because He loves me. That in itself is a mind-blowing thought! 

What are you going to focus on this year?

Ane Mulligan writes Southern-fried fiction served with a tall, sweet iced tea. She firmly believes coffee and chocolate are two of the four major food groups. Novelist and playwright, Ane is the executive director of Players Guild@Sugar Hill, a new community theater and president of the award-winning literary site, Novel Rocket. She resides in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband and a dog of Biblical proportion. You can find Ane at her website, Novel Rocket, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+ and on her Amazon author page.

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Marcia Laycock tries to write, in spite of her trouble focusing, from Alberta Canada. She has won awards for both her non-fiction and fiction writing and her work has been broadcast on national radio. Her second novel is in process and her devotional book, Spur of the Moment, has just gone into a second print run. Visit her website - www.vinemarc.com

This one is just for fun because I think some of you might relate. :)

I start my day with a cup of coffee and think about what I should have for breakfast.

I decide on cereal but there isn’t any milk, so I find a scrap of paper and begin a shopping list.

The phone rings and I take a message for my husband, on another scrap of paper, then remember that I have to call a friend but the phone goes dead so I return it to the cradle and go hunting for the other one.

I enter my office and notice there’s a ‘note to self’ to send an email to my publisher. I sit down to do that and open my email program.

But there’s a note from my daughter so I open it and then decide to send my other daughter a note but she’s on Facebook so I click on the internet icon and open up the world of fb friends.

One of them is excited because she is having her first book published so I send her a note to congratulate her.

Then I decide to click into her site to see what the book cover looks like and notice a link about marketing that looks interesting, so I click on it and decide that it’s a great article so go to my blog to link to it.

There’s a message from a reader there so I take just a wee moment to answer it, and while I’m doing that I remember I intended to post an article to my writing blog.

So I open the folder on my computer where that article should be but it’s not there so I open another one and find a short story that I intended to send to a magazine.

So I go back to my email program and open it up and see that the four lists I’m on have all sent their daily digests so I take just a few moments to look at them.

Then my stomach growls and I realize it’s lunch time. My husband comes home and we decided to go out for a bite and then decide we really need to look at that bed we’ve been thinking about buying.

Then we see the Tim’s on the corner so decide we need a coffee.

I remember that there wasn’t any milk for breakfast so we go to our favourite, huge, all-in-one store and take just a little while to look at the laptops and cameras while we're there. To buy milk. Right. Don't forget the milk.

Suddenly it’s supper time. We drive home and throw something together to eat before heading out to our regular Bible study.

Someone asks how my writing is going.

Writing? Who has time for writing?

Oh Lord, “Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Ps. 90:12

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