April 25, 2012 in
MISCELLANY with
What do you do when you are losing your way?
Writing had been going great up until last Wednesday. Suddenly I found myself losing my way. I completed chapter six and was excited, but I got distracted. I started thinking about getting my proposal finished.
“If I could just get this stupid proposal done and get an agent, he/she could be shopping this book around to publishers while I’m finishing the content.”
“It often takes a long time to get an agent. I’d better try to nail that down while I’m on sabbatical.”
“How are you going to get your proposal finished? You don’t have enough writing experience.” So I spent an afternoon writing an article for a magazine and sending it out.
“You read the other day that non-fiction writers often don’t need agents but can go straight to the publisher. Should you try that? How does that work?”
“Your opening chapter isn’t strong enough. It doesn’t grab the reader’s attention. You need to revise that chapter.” Re-wrote chapter one yesterday.
“Your proposal is too weak. You need to prove that you know the market better.” Spent the rest of yesterday beefing up the proposal.
“You’re lost, dude. You need advice.” Spent time last night scouring the Internet looking for written advice, or for organizations that help writers learn the process.
Woke up this morning feeling overwhelmed and paralyzed. Had five minutes to talk to my wife so I shared this with her and she said, “Write your book. Just finish the chapters. You can do all that other stuff later, but the one thing you can do right now is keep getting stuff on paper.”
She was right. And so the solution, again, is to keep writing.
In the meantime I have made some exciting progress this past week. I wrote to a popular spiritual writer and asked if she would consider reading my book (once I find a publisher) and writing an endorsement for me. Endorsements are a big deal for a book. Every endorsement carries with it a group of people who recognize and trust the writer of that endorsement and will buy it on that person’s recommendation. Anyway, a few days later she got back to me and said she is willing to do that. Doesn’t mean she’ll endorse it, but she is willing to read it and if she thinks the book is good she will write the endorsement. That’s exciting.
Also, this past week I secured a name and email address of someone at an agency. I am not ready to send in a proposal yet, but it’s great to have this information on recommendation of someone I trust who knows the business a bit better than I do.
What do you do when you are losing your way? Keep doing what you know. Refuse to remain paralyzed.
”Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” ~Martin Luther King Jr.
Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? ~ Ezekiel 18:23 (NIV)
April 20, 2012 in
MISCELLANY with
Hello readers. I am writing this evening to talk to you about getting the word out about this blog. Right now, if you go to Google and enter the phrase struggling with faith, one of my posts comes up eighth on the page. You can only understand how exciting this is when you look up at the top and realize it is eighth out of 16,900,000 web pages! It takes a lot of very detailed and not-worthy-of-explanation geek-work to make this happen. I mention it to you simply because you, my current readers, are my “base.” It will be through word of mouth that this blog continues to grow and reach more and more people. “Word of mouth” on the Internet, of course, is sharing links with others. Every time you click the Facebook LIKE link at the bottom of a post, every time you Tweet an article, every time you write a comment on one of my posts, you are helping the blog move higher in the rankings, and getting out to more and more people that it exists and can maybe help them with something they are struggling with.
So I am writing to simply ask you — when you read a post of mine, can you just quickly hit the Facebook like button, or leave a quick comment, or share a post with a friend who needs it? It’s all about spreading the word, my friends. I realize that people who aren’t pretty deep into blogging don’t usually know or care how rankings work, but that one second it takes to press the LIKE button makes a big difference. Thank you for reading and remember — I want to serve you in this limited but significant way that I can, and I know there are other people out there who I can serve too. It is through you that I will find them and reach them. It’s all about getting the word out.
April 16, 2012 in
GODSTUFF, MISCELLANY, REFLECTIONS with
Okay, I’m cheating on this post, as it comes off my Facebook account. But hey, I still wrote it. I imagine some of these items will become topics for future posts. Continue Reading…
April 15, 2012 in
MISCELLANY with
Update: No updates in a while because I have been off by myself writing my book. As it stands now, I have five chapters completed, 59 pages, 19,914 words. Feeling like I have found my voice, but not always able to keep it as clear as I’d like. Still, great progress on writing my sucky first draft. This weekend I’ll go to the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing and hopefully get a chance to run some of my work by a few publishers, editors, or agents. I will get critical feedback that will help me come back home and spiff it up as much as possible.
There is even a small chance that somebody might like what they see enough to make me some kind of offer right there on the spot. Hoping and praying this books finds a publisher and an audience, because I have seen the power of these ideas to help people.
