What I've Learned on My Writing Journey by Cathy Marie Hake

Welcome to another Writer’s Journey Wednesday. (Dawn here.) You’re in for a treat and words of wisdom as author Cathy Marie Hake shares what she’s learned on her own journey. I loved this - and I think you will, too. Enjoy!

What I've Learned

on My Writing Journey

REAL STORY: A writer wrote only two pages. He gave them to his best friend and said how much those pages meant to him. His friend told him they were great—he was even willing to represent the writer. People were too busy partying to pay attention when it went to print. In fact, the work was rejected. Critics hated it. The marketing department destroyed it. Oh. And it was a really small print run, too. Work: The Ten Commandments. Author: God. Friend/agent/marketing director: Moses. Print run: 1 - but God did a reprint. And those Ten Commandments became a portion of the Bible: the best-selling book ever!

I have 10 commandments for writing. They’re not nearly as important or wise. I can’t even claim they are original, but they work for me. I apply truths Mom taught me:


10 Writing Commandments

1. People are important.
Especially your family. Keep them your priority.

2. Bring a friend.
No one understands the joys, despairs, effort, and time writing takes than another writer. Be part of organizations, networks, and/or critique groups. Celebrate each accomplishment. Take delight in everyone else’s good news and success. A high tide floats all ships.

3. If you can’t say something nice, don’t say it at all.
Just write it in a book. (Mom didn’t mention that part.)

4. Education is important.
Attend workshops, do online courses, read books on craft. There’s always something more to learn. Study books in your genre that you love and analyze why they’re so good. What tools did that author use that you could add to your toolbox?

5. Look it up!
Research everything. Have at least three sources on it. A reader suspends disbelief because everything in that fictional world is true and things make sense.

6. Anything worth doing is worth doing well.
Give your best effort. That means sit in the chair and write. A first draft is okay. A critiqued and improved draft is better. Revision means the writer honors the readers and God so much, only the best will do.

7. If at first you don’t succeed . . . try, try again.
Rejection is part of the game. Give yourself 24 hrs of being crushed, crying, eating chocolate and going out for dinner. Then improve it. And send it off again.

8. Ice cream is good for you.
Yes—the Promised Land was flowing with milk and honey—that’s the recipe for ice cream. Have a scoop.

9. Actions speak louder than words.
Live authentically. A book doesn’t ring true if you’re not walking in the light.

10. Ask your Dad.
This was the best commandment of all. Ask God. Before putting your hands on the keyboard, ask Him to give you the message, a loving attitude, and fortitude. Because seeking His will and pleasing Him is what life - and writing - is all about.

Writing is a unique profession. It’s putting your heart and soul on a page, then setting it before others to be critiqued, edited, and reviewed. Be brave. Be obedient. Be true to the One you serve. He’ll equip you for the message he desires. Who knew He’d started the lessons even before we put crayons to paper?



Cathy Marie Hake is a Southern California native who escapes the concrete jungle for the wide-open spaces and tree-filled world in her best-selling humorous historical novels. In her writing, Cathy attempts to capture a unique glimpse of life and how a man and woman can overcome obstacles when motivated by love. In her inspirational pieces she enjoys the freedom of showing how Christ can enrich a loving couple's relationship. She met her sweetheart in the High School department at church and married him after finishing nursing school. They have two children and two dogs (one of them even moos - one of the dogs that is, not the kids). Faith in God, a loving family, and a wacky sense of the ridiculous keep her going.

You can find out more about Cathy and her work by visiting:
Cathy’s Web site: http://www.cathymariehake.com/
Saturday blogger at: http://www.writespassage.blogspot.com/

My Journey to Publication by Cathy Marie Hake

This Fortifying Friday, grab a cup of coffee or tea, settle in, and enjoy the story of Cathy Marie Hake’s journey to publication.

My Journey

Birds fly, fish swim, and authors play with words. We can’t help ourselves. Words are the threads, beautifully arranged, woven, and knotted into a magic carpet that carries us to places and times of our imagination. Faith is working on that carpet when we don’t know if it will ever get off the ground.

I could barely get off the couch, let alone think of flying when I began to write. Pain laid me low for a long time, and I read to escape. Isn’t that what magic carpets do? Take us away from problems and disappointments? Tossing a book onto the coffee table, I spoke the fateful phrase every author says: “I could write better than that.”

Wouldn’t you know, for all the times my husband hasn’t listened to me, that time he did? He lifted me off the couch, dragged me to the computer, and challenged me to do just that: to write a book.

This is where I make the shameful confession that I am Queen of the Technopeasants. When directions involve more than one step, my eyes glaze over and my knees knock. My husband, on the other hand, can’t stand needles. It doesn’t matter if it’s a sewing needle or a syringe, he disappears faster than steam evaporates. Early on in out marriage, we agreed to The Button Rule: If it has a clothing button or a belly button, I handle the matter; if it has any other button, toggle, switch, plug or battery, he handles it. For Chris to stick me in front of a computer broke that steadfast rule. But my husband had faith in me and that this was God’s new direction for my life, so I set to work.

"FAITH is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things unseen." (Hebrews 11:1)

Writing is an act of hope—that we can connect words to tell a story that is meaningful and well-told. So we set out gathering slender threads and painstakingly arrange them to construct a carpet. We hope someone will buy our carpet once it’s done. Once I devoted myself to the endeavor, it wasn’t as easy as I’d thought. Threads knotted, or I’d weave the words too loosely and have to clip or unravel.

Dozens of books—some finished and others incomplete--filled my computer. I had a veritable carpet bazaar. But would one ever fly? I’d heard about authors getting “the call” where an editor or agent called with the news of their first sale. I dreamed, hoped, and wrote. The call didn’t come. So one day I opened an email. It said, “We’d like to contract this book.” Nothing had gone as I planned, but it went as God wanted. Suddenly my carpets were flying. My first published novel and a novella released the same month—eight years after I’d started. But editors ask, “What else do you have?” I had plenty. Some of them flew. Others have remained drawer babies—but those babies taught me the basics.

Faith and hope—they saw me through. Weave your stories and trust the Holy Spirit to let them take flight. Between writing and finally getting published, I didn’t just learn the mechanics. Friendships formed. God and I grew closer. Had I never been published, the carpets my words wove let me fly. Angels have wings; authors have carpets. We both carry God’s message, and it’s an honor.

Oh—and the Button Rule? To this day, I destroy at least one computer a year. Don’t ask me how. I couldn’t tell you. My husband works in the computer industry and my ability to break computers astounds him. He brought one computer back to life so many times, we nicknamed it Lazarus. We also had a graveyard of computers in the garage. He taught my son about computers by salvaging parts from them and building a system. I named it Frankenstein.

Love,
Cathy Marie Hake

Cathy Marie Hake is a Southern California native who escapes the concrete jungle for the wide-open spaces and tree-filled world in her best-selling humorous historical novels. In her writing, Cathy attempts to capture a unique glimpse of life and how a man and woman can overcome obstacles when motivated by love. In her inspirational pieces she enjoys the freedom of showing how Christ can enrich a loving couple's relationship. She met her sweetheart in the High School department at church and married him after finishing nursing school. They have two children and two dogs (one of them even moos - one of the dogs that is, not the kids). Faith in God, a loving family, and a wacky sense of the ridiculous keep her going.

You can find out more about Cathy and her work by visiting:
Cathy’s Web site: http://www.cathymariehake.com/
Saturday blogger at: http://www.writespassage.blogspot.com/