My Book – A Case Study | Age is not a limitation

I am 78 years old, and my love of writing began over 30 years ago, as I sat quietly each morning, asking God to teach me what He wanted me to learn from His Word – the Bible.

Day by day He began to highlight a certain verse, or a passage or a chapter from His word, and impressed on my mind a thought about it.

I began by writing down those thoughts, and as this continued I began to get the impression that others could learn from them as well.

I was challenged to write, and He promised to take the daily reading that He gave me and help me to put into words the theme He was illuminating. By writing down these Bible readings and reflections, God has created a wealth of information about Himself, which helps others get to know Him, but it was only after I retired from full time work, did I feel that I should put some of these into a book.

• What sort of book?
• How to start?
• What should the theme be?
• How to put it together?
• How long should it be?
• How would I decide what to put in and what to leave out?
• Why did I want to write a book?
• Who would I be able to reach with it?

All these questions, and I would need to find the answers and get going.

I decided to write a book of Daily Prayer and Devotions, called “I’ll walk with God”. Why? I desired that people be encouraged in their faith walk with the Lord, and to be able to pick up a reflection and accept the content for their own lives.

First of all I started to catalogue the Bible readings and Reflections that had been written over the past 30 years.

I selected different themes, and went through all of them, naming them and putting them in the Subject that I thought they fitted into. I had literally thousands of devotions to look through.

I set up an Excel Spreadsheet, with Subject, Name of devotion, date of writing and Bible verse/s.

I chose a Theme for each week – 52 weeks in all.

Each week begins with a time of prayer before the Lord through Prayers of Praise, Adoration, Waiting and Listening, Intercession, Supplication and Thanksgiving, before adding 7 days of Bible Readings and Reflections/ Meditations and closing with a prayer thought.

I completed 52 weeks and then began the editing, and editing, and editing, and then the search for a publisher.

That took a very long time, with lots of submissions and lots of rejections. It was 10 years after I started writing the book that a publisher was willing to take it on.

That was thrilling, but I was told that it was far too long for a first time author. Eventually the book was reduced to 24 weeks, and the name changed too.

I received the printed copy in my hands in 2008, when I was 71. I was thrilled. My writing did not stop there, and I have written another 5 that have been published over the next 7 years.

Age is not a limitation! Set your mind on what you want to do – go for it, and don’t give up till you have achieved it. I did!

Ann Goodfellow
anngood@iafrica.com

83 Thornhill Manor
Lakeside Village, Modderfontein, 1609, Gauteng, South Africa
+27116083208
+27722297255

Published Author
God is waiting to meet you     God wants you to know Him     God wants to bless you
God’s Promises                         Today is no Ordinary Day          Encountering God (Issue April 2015)