I’d also add to the list at the end, “Read A LOT of well-written books in your genre”. How can you improve if you don’t know where the bar is set?

This is an interesting question and interesting answer.

It sounds like a question I would ask. It does get discouraging to be in this position. I keep telling myself that I’m better off knowing I’m mediocre than
the writers I see who think their writing is fabulous and it’s not. I would like
to think I was fabulous, for a least a few hours, though. So far, I can’t talk
myself into it.

It seems like a never ending cycle. If we keep learning more about fiction, we will continually think the fiction we write is sub=par. We have to look back at where we started from, I guess?

Randy sez: I don’t know. I’ve read a lot of Camille’s work (every month at our critique meeting), but I haven’t read any of yours, so I can’t evaluate where you’re at.

I’ve been where Camille is, with nearly ten years of writing fiction and submitting under my belt, some very near misses with major CBA publishers… then a five year break for cancer and chemo fog (in which I wrote a middle grade novel that also got rejected much).

Now I’m really where you are, Camille, agented for a year and a bit, with two novels out there and no contract offers yet. I’m halfway through the first draft of a new novel. In December of this year, it will be twenty years since I first set out to write a novel and see if I could get it published. I haven’t sold one word to anyone.

You can imagine the seasons of frustration and discouragement sprinkled throughout that journey. But at some point I ran smack up against this question: If I knew beyond all doubt that I would never be published in any way, shape, or form, would I keep writing? Did I still love it for itself? When I was able to say YES, I found it easier to shrug off the baggage that comes with this profession. Impatience, the pressure of outside expectations (perceived or real), frustration, doubt in myself as a storyteller, discouragement. It’s all still there waiting to be embraced, but I daily make a choice not to embrace it. I choose, consciously, to sit down and simply write the best I can today.

I have the time. God isn’t convicting me that I’m on a wrong path (I do check in about this now and then). And while I’m writing and finishing books, why not knock on some doors to see if indeed God plans to open one? If he doesn’t, then I can trust that that’s his best plan for me (because he has good plans for me, whether they line up with mine or not).

I can also trust that none of these twenty years devoted to writing have been a waste of time. I’ve walked through them prayerfully, giving this whole writing thing into his hands so many times. I’m sure you’ve done the same. Obviously this is the path I needed to walk in order to learn to trust those hands. No matter what.

Unless God is telling you otherwise, if you can peel back the layers of angst (common to most writers) and still find in yourself a love of putting words on the page, a joy in creating characters and telling their stories, then why not keep at it?

I hope it encourages you to know others are walking this road with you, dealing with the same roadblocks and detours. Don’t lose heart!

You spoke so highly of Camille, that I’m anxious to see her published just soni can read it!

I recognize there are wordsmiths and there are storytellers, and if you blessed to be both, there’s a good chance your life will be sunshine, puppies and good chocolate from now on. I also recognize where I fall in those 2 categories. I think natural storytellers have the advantage; wordcraft can be taught but Story is always King. Storytelling can also be taught to us wordsmiths, but it’s probably like teaching parrot to bark. I sometimes feel like Polly who hopes I can convince burglers there’s a Rottweiller in the house.

I sometimes question why I’m on this fiction path when it feels tiring and unnatural. Usually after I mope around about that, the good Lord comes along and answers my “Should I really be writing fiction??” question by flinging open yet another door of opportunity in the fiction pub world for me. I’m glad He knows some of us are dumber than others and need big fat neon signs pointing the way. He’s cool like that.

Thanks again, Randy. I don’t suppose I’m going to quit. In the words of the great storyteller Lone Waddy, “Endeavor to persevere.”

But my two biggest cheerleader didn’t let me. Those were God and my husband.

I came to realize that I may not ever publish, but God is already using my words. And I came to the place that if my children are the only ones that ever read this story, then I wanted to make it the best story I could leave them

And taking a vacation isn’t a bad idea. Sometimes we need to walk away from our work for a week, a month, maybe even longer to refresh our brains. Now of course, if you have a deadline, that’s a different. story. I have found myself wanting to jump right back into writing after taking a break from it.

By the way, I would recommend Cannon Beach OR over Boring OR. Absolutely beautiful place on the coast with squeaky white sand. I just don’t recommend swimming, the water is cold!

Randy and I share this passion for knowledge driving craft, and thencraft driving art (in that order), and both of them, over time and with passion, perhaps leading to luck (usually well deserved).

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