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| Melissa Jaegars |
Have you ever thought about giving up writing? Why haven’t you? What has inspired you to continue? Author Melissa Jaegars shares her thoughts, experiences, and important things to consider. ~ Dawn
Two Reasons for Not
Giving Up Writing and
Two Reasons to Quit
I often want to quit. Whether I’ve stumbled upon a bad review of one of my books, taken an editor’s criticism too personally, read an article about the decline of book sales, or read a problematic draft of my WIP—time and again, I’m a breath away from chucking the keyboard.
But each time, I talk myself out of quitting—why?
Reason to Write 1: If I quit, what will I honestly do with my free time?
Before I wrote novels, I frittered away pockets of time playing addictive computer games, rearranging furniture, and cleaning house.
Though I could probably stand to clean my house more often, there’s no reason to let Minesweeper steal any more hours of my life.
As my husband likes to remind me when I’m ready to toss the keyboard, “If you quit writing, you’ll just fill up your time with something else.”
And then I think of the things I’m pondering doing instead. Will it truly be something more fulfilling than writing?
Be honest with yourself, what would you fill up your free time with if you gave up writing? At the end of your life, will you be able to say, “I’m happy I spent my time on that instead of writing”?
Reason to Write 2: Nothing thrills like holding something you’ve truly labored to obtain.
Most mothers who’ve gone through childbirth can likely attest to the sheer craziness of one second believing “I can’t do this anymore” to the sheer wonder of seeing a new person show up in the room and thinking “I just did that” while the agony floats away like a distant memory.
I can’t tell you how awesome it feels to produce 400 pages of words deemed worthy enough to share with strangers. All the agony of writing and every sacrifice of time fades when you hold a book you’re proud of in one hand.
The anguish was worth it.
If I had quit when I was a new writer facing the monumental task of filling up more pages that I’d ever filled before, I’d never have finished a book.
If I had quit after receiving an awful contest score from a favorite author, I’d never have spent eight months trying to rework the book to impress her which landed me my first contract.
If I had quit after a reviewer claimed my book was so bad I’d ruined her desire to read my genre ever again, I’d not have written the next one which made someone say, “Romancing the Bride is probably the best book I've read this year!”
Things worth having rarely come easily. Are there stories still in your head or heart that are worth laboring over? Will it bother you if that book never exists?
Reason to Quit 1: I have no more stories worth telling.
When I can say I’ve done my best and there are no more stories in my head worth my time or hard work, what would be the point of continuing?
Have you done your absolute best and have no more stories worth laboring to tell?
Reason to Quit 2: Writing pales in comparison to something else.
One day, something may come along that will be more important to spend my time on than continuing writing. If that happens, I’ll give myself permission to put my whole heart into that.
Putting away your writing to focus on something better worth your time should cause no guilt. Is there something you should be doing that writing is keeping you from?
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| Romancing the Bride |
Marrying a stranger to save a ranch is one thing; losing the land on their wedding day is another.
Desperate to keep the ranch where three of her children and a husband lie buried, Annie Gephart must marry or sell. Which of the few bachelors in town would consider a surprise proposal to wed a plain widow with a rebellious daughter, a spirited boy, and unpaid taxes—without laughing in her face?
Jacob Hendrix has never fully let go of his ranching dreams despite ending up as a small Wyoming town’s marshal. The job wouldn’t be so bad, except he’s more errand boy than lawman. When Annie proposes marriage without a single coquettish bat of an eyelash, can he commit himself to a woman he hardly knows for a choice piece of property he’d be an idiot to pass up?
But taxes aren’t all that threaten Annie and Jacob’s plans. Cattle rustlers, crumbling friendships, and wayward children make this marriage of convenience anything but. When they lose what they’ve sacrificed everything to save, will the love of a stranger be enough?
Award-winning author, Melissa Jagears, is a homeschooling mom who writes Christian Historical Romance into the wee hours of the night. She lives in Kansas with her husband and three children. Her ebook novella, Love by the Letter, is her Carol Award-winning novella and free to try. You can learn more about her, her books, and where she hangs out online at www.melissajagears.com
Along with writing, Melissa runs the Inspirational Historical Fiction Index which she started when she was scrambling to find comparables to add to her book proposals. Do you need to find books set in Kansas with a Mail-Order Bride in the 1860s? A time-slip that features WWII and a medical professional? A Regency Love Triangle set during a holiday? You can search to see if anyone else has written a book like yours on the Index.
