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I always hated English class in high school.\u00a0 I despised learning rules about grammar and endlessly practicing those rules.\u00a0 I was a terrible student and did the little I had to get by.\u00a0 In my senior year, I had the option to take creative writing and I decided to give it a try.\u00a0 The good news about the class was that it let me be creative without having to worry about the rules.\u00a0 I loved the class but didn\u2019t think about it much when I went to computer school.<\/p>\n
I tested out of English at Tech School and was surprised when a portion of the computer curriculum still required us to write a paper.\u00a0 I remember openly arguing with the professor because he kept making me rewrite a paper repeatedly.\u00a0 Years later, when I completed my bachelor\u2019s degree at a Bible college, I had to write papers for every class, and at some point, I started to enjoy it.<\/p>\n
To make a long story short, now I see writing as something that helps me understand what I think.<\/p>\n
I wrote a couple of books based on sermons when I was just starting as a pastor.\u00a0 But I put it aside again amongst the business of being a pastor and a professional at the same time.\u00a0 I developed different hobbies and didn\u2019t feel the the need to write much even though occasionally I would feel an urge that I couldn\u2019t explain.<\/p>\n
When I started to deconstruct my faith and challenge some of my beliefs, I once again found myself needing to write to help me sort out what I thought.\u00a0 I started the Desert Sanctuary (originally called something else) and started to formulate a few ideas for a book.\u00a0 I first started writing blogs about How God is like Being a Father<\/em>, which originally became my first book with Quoir, called Apparent Faith: What Fatherhood Taught Me About the Father\u2019s Heart<\/a>.\u00a0 Later, after my trip to Taiwan, I wrote the The Tea Shop<\/a> and published it during the pandemic.<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s time for my new book to come out called\u00a0Being: A Journey Toward Presence and Authenticity<\/a> (May 11th).<\/em><\/p>\n So, what is it like to write a book?<\/p>\n It starts in the beginning<\/strong><\/p>\n Most of my writing starts with an assumption, a big idea.\u00a0 The big idea may be a theory, but it\u2019s more likely something I already have researched and thought about so much that I can\u2019t keep it in any more.\u00a0 Starting the book is the hardest part and seems like you\u2019re pushing an automobile uphill.\u00a0 It takes everything to get started and it takes a while before I fell like I\u2019m not just groaning and spinning my wheels.<\/p>\n Even though I have a good idea of where it\u2019s going, I usually don\u2019t know exactly how I\u2019m going to get there (even if I have an outline).\u00a0 Recently, while writing a novel, I resolved to write 1000 words a day.\u00a0 In this case, I didn\u2019t know where it was going, but I was determined to make progress every day.\u00a0 At first, I just sat and wrote, pushed the backspace key and wrung my hands for long periods of time.\u00a0 But, after a few days, I would come home from work with 2 or 3 chapters in my head waiting to be written down.<\/p>\n The waiting is the hardest part<\/strong><\/p>\n Even if a writer already has a plan for self-publishing or an actual publisher, waiting is the name of the game.\u00a0 The book has to be edited, published, printed and bought on other people\u2019s timeline.\u00a0 Even when there is a plan, the plans sometimes change and it can seem like forever between the times things happen.\u00a0 My latest book, Being, was written over a year ago and that would be considered quickly published because the average timespan is 18 months.<\/p>\n I use the time to work on future projects, but in a way that only produces more things that can\u2019t be finalized.\u00a0\u00a0If a person is unable to wait, it may be a good idea to just write a blog for their own pleasure because publishing is painful at times.\u00a0 Other people may not be as excited about our work as we are, and it won\u2019t be as urgent for them to finish.<\/p>\n It is like giving birth<\/strong><\/p>\n Just like giving birth involves a wait and then a big day, eventually a book will be released to the world.\u00a0 There will be months of hard work and scrutiny and revising and struggling.\u00a0 But, when the pre-release books arrive and then the books become available online, it always makes me breathe deep and I feel like when my children were born.<\/p>\n When my first child was born, I was so nervous that I upset some medical equipment in the birthing room.\u00a0 On the release date for Apparent Faith, I stayed outside like a nervous father for the first half of the day.\u00a0 \u00a0I find myself again at release date for Being (May 11th) and realizing just like the birth of our children, there is not a lot I can do to change what is going to happen.<\/p>\n My best option is just to breathe deep and take it all in.<\/p>\n So, for this book, I\u2019m going to throw an online release party<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019ve invited some of my friends to speak about the book and even another friend to sing a song.\u00a0 I hope this will help me sleep better before the release, but I\u2019m looking forward to doing it and taking it all in.\u00a0 Also, I am going to work on release day and I\u2019ll try to look at my phone very much at all.<\/p>\n All-in-all, writing is what I love to do most in my free time.\u00a0 Potential authors should know that most people don\u2019t make any money at their hobbies.\u00a0 There are very few famous, professional authors that even make a living at it.\u00a0 But, if it\u2019s something you can love and can do it for free, I highly recommend it.<\/p>\n Be where you are, be who you are, be at peace,<\/p>\n Karl Forehand<\/p>\n upport us on Patreon<\/a>\u00a0 *\u00a0 \u00a0The Desert Sanctuary Website<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I always hated English class in high school.\u00a0 I despised learning rules about grammar and endlessly practicing those rules.\u00a0 I was a terrible student and did the little I had to get by.\u00a0 In my senior year, I had the option to take creative writing and I decided to give it a try.\u00a0 The good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4370,"featured_media":1633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[416,787],"tags":[934,419,937,791],"class_list":["post-1667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-writing","tag-author","tag-books","tag-publishing","tag-writing"],"yoast_head":"\nKarl Forehand is a former pastor, podcaster, and award-winning author. His books include Apparent Faith: What Fatherhood Taught Me About the Father\u2019s Heart and The Tea Shop. He is the creator of\u00a0The Desert Sanctuary<\/a>\u00a0podcast. He is married to his wife Laura of 32 years and has one dog named Winston. His three children are grown and are beginning to multiply!<\/h5>\n
Pre-order Being: A Journey Toward Presence and Authenticity<\/a><\/h4>\n