Life Altering Reads: Deidre D Havrelock – Writing to me is … @deidrehavrelock

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Deidre D Havrelock – Writing to me is … @deidrehavrelock

Writing to me is … what I was created to do.

When I look back on my life, to the first book I scribbled out in grade three: The Bloody Dagger, the story of a man who hides in the shadows, intermittently chopping people up with a long, sharp dagger, I see how I was made to be a writer. Later, in tenth grade, my English teacher pulled me aside and told me I should be a writer because I had a strong imagination—but unfortunately, I didn’t take anything she said seriously. So when she sent me to a writing retreat, I skipped it in order to go shopping for neon t-shirts and those 80s hair scrunchies. After my exorcism (which was in 1992), I immediately wanted to be a writer. As a new Christian, I wanted to follow Jesus and I was being directed (in numerous ways) toward writing. I eventually became consumed with the idea. We lived in the country at the time, and I had recently gone back to college so I could learn how to write a sentence. I remember driving down the twisting, gravel backroads heading off to class thinking, This is it…this is what I’m meant to do! I am meant to write! It was like one of those grand epiphanies. Of course, at the time, I had no idea how much work would be involved in the process.

When I wrote my first chapter for what’s now called Saving Mary: The Possession (the story of how I went and got myself possessed while contacting spirits) and showed the pages to my husband, he was concerned because it was rather dark. I’m a Christian and so sometimes people automatically think I’m going to write lovely, happy thoughts—all the time. But really, life isn’t always lovely or happy. Sometimes it’s dreadfully dark…and for a lot of people it’s overwhelmingly dark. Writing about the darkness isn’t always about glorifying it; it’s about taking it seriously, giving it the attention and the awareness that’s required to deal with it.

Why do I like writing? I like being alone with my thoughts. I like the creativity of finding a new metaphor or description. I like how it’s difficult…so very difficult to get the words right! I like how it takes mounds of figuring in order to get a book organized. Most of all, I like to encourage people to think about things that they may not want to think about, such as: “Hey, do you know who Jesus is? Can I tell you a story about him?—I promise to blow your mind!”

When you read my spiritual memoir Saving Mary: The Possession or my non-fiction Christian book Living…The Testimony, I don’t just want to entertain you or teach you something from the Bible; I want to help you learn about life—especially the spiritual life.