From A Professional Writer to Another.

He was sitting quietly in the still of the night. He stared ahead into nothing. His insides was a direct opposite of the stillness.

Yemi watched the credits of The Train rolling. He was not smiling instead his heart beat had refused to calm. He was feeling like someone was sucking all the air from his room.

The movie he had just seen was a documentary film about the years of an Evangelist Christian film maker. Needless to say, life had not been easy for him.
Could a singlet choke a human? He idly wondered as he felt hot allover.

He tried to breath through his mouth. Was life going to be this hard? Would he have to such defining decisions at every turn of his life? He looked around. His three hostel roomates were sleeping soundly so nothing must be wrong with the oxygen level in the room.

Yemi sat in awe. He still could not bring himself to stand or shut down his laptop. Ten minutes later, he watched his laptop betray him to join his roomates in their sleep world, leaving him alone with his thoughts. He wished he could meet him, the real evangelist the film had being about and ask how he’d done it. How he had kept going. ”Yea, right, Moron. Go and meet him na.”

He shook his head. God had told him to stop calling himself names. ”Adeyemi Shokunbi, you’re not a Moron in Jesus name!”, he amended.

He whispered into the darkness as if that evangelist was there with him. ”How did you not crumble in sight of those challenges?”
The evangelist was silent.

Then the Lord of the evangelist answered. ”He waited on me. He followed me”
Yemi paused at the silent, quick answer in his heart. ”Uhm, Lord?

“Yes, Yemi?”

“The story I just watched is so beautiful and I’m just wondering the kind of script you’ve written for me. I want a beautiful story like this one. Something people can learn from. Don’t get me wrong,” he hurried to explain. “I don’t have to be famous but something nice like Boaz’s and Ruth’s story, or Mordecai’s. Even Joshua’s” he added.

”Yemi?”

”Yes Lord?”

”You’re a writer”

”Yes I am”

”From a professional to another professional, you tell me. What makes a beautiful story?”
He chewed on that question for a while and when he found the answer, he was not too happy about it. He really should not have started this conversation. ”The conflict” he muttered.

”True. You could enlighten me further?” The Lord asked.

Yemi saw a huge lesson coming so he brought out his journal and as he spoke, he wrote.”Every plot usually has the introduction, conflict, climax and resolution.” He thought back to the books and movies he loved. ”The best are usually plot lines with twists. Stuffs we did not see coming. Technically, an obstacle that has to be overcome. When this is done, the book can end without trouble.

”True. Now, imagine a book without conflicts. Like say, Lord of the rings without the mission to destroy the ring?”.

Yemi snorted, ”Ah, that one is not a plot na. No producer would even agree to pick it for a film in the first place. That’s if it got published in the beginning”

“Son, beauty and masterpiece, is intwined with the conflict”
Then there was silence.

Yemi remembered the story of David spending years running from Saul and Soon his whining was the first to break the silence. ”Oh, but why can’t mine be different na. I don’t think I can go through half of what those people experienced and still be standing”

“You won’t have to. I’ll go every step of the way with you. I’ll carry you through.” His Lord replied.

“But what’s even the use? Why come to the earth to just suffer?” His heart began to beat at his audacity but his Lord was not angry.

Instead, his Lord taught him, “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience”

He continued, “If you want to be a best seller, right there on the shelf with me you have to be a carefully woven story, with conflicts, resolutions and lots more. For everyone who put their life in my hands, I have never let down.”

Yemi’s heart finally stilled, choosing faith in place of fear. “I trust you Lord. I’ll be careful. I won’t do anything without asking you. I’ll follow your script…but you’ll have to help me…”

”Don’t worry son, you’re in safe hands. I am after all, the best writer in the world.”

THE END

The conflicts, disappointments, challenges and obstacles we have faced, currently facing or will face in the future were/is not designed to make us desolate. Even if they break us, it’s so God can make us (Eccl 3:3). In God’s own words (James 1:2-4) he said:

[2]My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
[3] Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
[4] But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, d wanting e nothing.

Thank you for reading. You can check out the movie referred to in the post with this link: The Train