Writing Stubborn by Heidi Chiavaroli

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Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. ~Hebrews 12:1-3

I am a runner.

If you read that sentence and you are also a runner, we have just formed a unique bond through cyberspace. We have an understanding of one another and what it takes to run.

I am also a writer. Likewise, if you are a writer, you and I can relate to one another in a unique way. We understand this journey is not always an easy one, but it is so worth it.

Whether a runner or writer, the bond we share (besides the fact that we like to torture ourselves) is a certain character trait. Maybe trait is the wrong word, because it’s more of a decision. A decision to be stubborn. To persevere. Gina Holmes calls it Sticktoitivness. Name it what you will—grit, determination, or resolve. But I believe this is what makes success.

When I am finishing up a ten-mile run, when the muscles in my thighs are burning and my feet are on fire, when I can see that beautiful white mailbox where I will allow myself to walk (oh, how glorious is just walking!), when I push myself to finish strong because that’s who I am and who I want to be, trusting that my stubbornness will pay off, that I will be a better runner for pushing through the pain…that’s when I know victory.

And yes, when I’m writing. When I’m past that beautiful and inspiring beginning, when I’m sweating through the middle and agonizing over the climax, when my eyes glimpse that glorious moment when I can write The End, when I can just read a book without feeling guilty that I’m not pounding out the words on my own laptop…that’s when I know victory. I have chosen perseverance. Sticktoitivness. Stubborness.

And there, in the pain and suffering, is how I improve. How I find victory. How even, I can become more like my Savior as I fix my eyes on Him, the ultimate goal.

But wait, that’s just the beginning. Because now I must let go of my writing. Let my sweat and work—my baby—go. I must offer it up to God, trusting Him to do what He will with it.

I believe the same goes for everything in our lives—whether it be writing, mastering a sport, bringing up children, growing our careers, or our faith. We can only give our absolute stubborn best…and let God finish the work for us. (He’s good like that, you know.)

How do you help yourself push through those tough times in writing? How do you make yourself finish a project? How do you write stubborn?

Heidi Chiavaroli is a writer, runner, wife, mother, and grace-clinger—not necessarily in that order. Ever since taking her first trip to Plimoth Plantation with her sister, mother, and grandmother at the age of nine, she has been fascinated with history and its significance to today’s people and culture. Heidi is the winner of ACFW’s 2014 Genesis Contest, Historical Category. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, two sons, and Howie, her standard poodle.

The Bumpy Road to Publication by Margaret Daley

The names of the Genesis semi-finalists were announced this week. Congratulations to all who made it on the list! Unfortunately so many of my writer friends did not. If you are suffering discouragement and battling frustration and fatigue, wondering if you will ever sign a contract or final in a contest, wondering if it's worth the time and effort, I hope and pray Margaret's story encourages and refreshes you to continue on your journey. Love you all! Dora

Scorned Justice
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This last year was my thirtieth year since my first book came out from Silhouette Romance called Second Chance on Love. 

I thought once I sold my first book, things would become easy. I would continue to sell, and I wouldn't receive the rejections I did before I sold my first book. It didn't take me long to see the folly in that thinking. My second book was harder to sell than my first one. After finally selling it, I was fortunate to continue to sell eighteen more. 

Then came the eight-year dry spell. The publisher I was selling to the last few years before the dry spell stopped publishing their category series line--Dell Ecstasy. I was out of a job. I tried to sell books, but I had hit a wall. I'd come close, but I couldn't get the contract.

After eight years I went to RWA National Conference in Dallas and heard about a new line opening called Kensington's Precious Gems line. I had a book, and when I got home from the conference, I sent it to them. That was the start of my comeback. 

I sold five books to them and four more to a small press before I found my true home--Christian romances and romantic suspense. In 2000, I sold to Harlequin's Love Inspired and since then, I have been blessed to sell to date fifty-four more books to Love Inspired, Summerside Press and Abingdon Press. But even that journey had its ups and downs, and I'm still receiving rejections.

Rejections are the red badge of courage for a writer. It proves you have written a book and pursued a publisher. Many writers don't get that far. They never quite finish writing the complete book, or if they do, they rewrite their story over and over rather than send it to a publisher and possibly get a rejection. I'm not going to deny getting a rejection isn't hard. It is. I have a huge file of them, but I have survived it. I won't kid you. They often caused me to doubt myself as a writer, but I wouldn't let them stop me from writing. If I had, I would never have gone on after my dry spell to sell sixty-two books.

So the moral of this journey is not to give up. Perseverance and determination are half the battle to become a published writer. You've got to learn the craft, tell a good story and have a bit of good luck and timing, but it is possible with a lot of hard work to become a published writer. 

On that bumpy road to publication, I have sold eighty-four books over a thirty-year span. Check out my website at http://www.margaretdaley.com and read some of my excerpts from my books. 

Dora here. What about you? 

Where are you on your writing journey?

How do you perceive rejections?

Margaret Daley, an award-winning author of eighty-four books, has been married for over forty years and is a firm believer in romance and love. When she isn’t traveling, she’s writing love stories, often with a suspense thread and corralling her three cats that think they rule her household. To find out more about Margaret visit her website at http://www.margaretdaley.com.

2013: The Year of Pluckiness by Lisa J. Lickel

Lisa J, Lickel

I don’t have much adversity in my life, at least not compared to others, and my success is in the eye of the beholder. So what can I pass on to you, other writers, about this topic?

Pluckiness!

Plucky means being:

Brave

Courageous

and practicing

Determination in the face of Superior Odds

Adversity also comes in small packages. It’s not losing a loved one to a dreaded illness or accident, or being let go from your job, and being diagnosed with a horrible disease; sometimes it’s succumbing to a bout of depression, or getting into a situation that’s beyond your capability, or having the power go out when you’ve written the most beautiful chapter and the cloud sucks it away to la-la land forever where you hope God enjoys it because He’s the only one who will get to read it now. It’s spilling milk on your keyboard—at work—and forgetting how to spell American because you’ve been reading those British books again. It’s getting one more denial from an agent who can’t put her finger on why she doesn’t want you (your work, but really, we all know it’s us), or watching your sales figure plummet on Amazon.

Brave Writers get out of bed in the morning.

That’s a euphemism for facing the day, dividing the moments up into the chunks necessary to get the most work done, and jumping into it. Brave Writers Write. Sometimes it doesn’t matter what, if you’re lost or stuck or fed up with your current project; we just start writing something else. We blog, we toot someone else’s horn, we read, we write a note to someone we’re following…goodness, we might even pick up a pen and handwrite, using that lost art of cursive, a letter to put in the mailbox. We could do a character sketch of a plucky person.

Courageous Writers learn something new every week, if not every day.

One of my goals this year is to learn to market in at least two new ways. I’m told that if I practice something long enough it becomes a habit. If I work on these marketing ways, it’ll become a habit, and often that’s enough to get me out of a rut that’s failing and onto a path toward success. I will find new publishers, I will meet new people, I will write something that makes someone else drool or cry, I will learn not to mix modifiers, and I will discover the best place to start and end my story.

Determined Writers keep pitching, because they can only say no.

They can’t say yes unless you ask, right? Okay, I have an agent—at least at this moment I do—but that doesn’t mean I roll over and play dead. I go to conferences, I ask my agent for advice about the best person to pitch to and how to do that; I look at newer publishers and point them out to others; I take a chance with working with a friend to co-author a book and see where it gets us; I keep writing new samples of work—a theme, a plot, characters and synopsis—in hopes of successfully pitching the idea to my agent and then to a publisher. Writers are Determined to meet publisher’s and reader’s needs.

Plucky ain’t just a spaghetti western female character looking off in the distance, y’all! Plucky is you and me, and we can get the job done, even if it’s not the same one we started.

About the Author

Meow Mayhem by Lisa J. Lickel

Award-winning author Lisa Lickel started writing professionally in 2004 after finishing the Christian Writers Guild apprentice course. She welcomes several more traditionally published novels this year, starting with Meow Mayhem from Whimsical Publications in January, another cozy mystery set in Illinois and challenges Ivy and True to discover what’s rotten in Apple Grove; the much anticipated re-release of Healing Grace, a story about love and sacrifice and the gifts of the Spirit; and book three of the Buried Treasure cozy mysteries sometime in the fall, The Newspaper Code, where Judy Wingate and her not-BFF, newspaper reporter Olivia Hargrove, solve a murder. She is editor-in-chief of Wisconsin Writers Association’s Creative Wisconsin literary magazine, collects dragons, loves to travel and people watch. Find out more at http://www.LisaLickel.com.