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Archive for the ‘Publishing journey’ Category

Overcoming Doubts

Posted in Called to write, Overcoming self-doubts, Publishing journey on November 9, 2010| 17 Comments »

Do you feel called to “write His answer” and yet struggle with self-doubts? Truthfully, through working with hundreds of writers through the years, I find that the those who really have a gift with words and a message that needs to be published are the ones most likely to be crippled by self-doubts.

I shudder when I think of how many times I almost gave up because my self-doubts were so loud and insistent. Why would anyone want to read what I wrote? I What made me think that I could write for the Lord? I wasn’t qualified! How could He possibly use someone who was only a high school graduate? I felt ashamed and woefully inadequate.

How it must have grieved the Lord when I failed to see that the Cross turns my minus into a plus – when I believed the lies of the evil one instead of His promises. And how much time I wasted in my self-centered and selfish focus on my doubts instead of on the needs Father was calling me to address through the words He would give me if I would just trust Him.

I’m presently reading Joel Rosenberg’s new novel, The Twelfth Imam. When I saw the following subject line in an article from ASSIST News yesterday, I immediately knew it was about him: Author of End Times Political Thriller Hits New York Times Best Seller List with His Latest Middle Eastern Novel. What I didn’t know was that when Joel got the idea to write “a political thriller – a Middle East-based terrorism story that would have the Gospel woven into it,” he “didn’t know how to write a novel.” He says,  “I’d never written one before. I’d never even taken a class on writing a novel and I didn’t even like to read novels. So that was a problem.” I hope you’ll go to ASSIST News at http://www.assistNews.net/stories/2010/s10110053.htm  // to read the rest of the story of how God used someone who was not qualified and who, as he admits, “didn’t know how to write a novel and . . . didn’t have a story.”

Father, thank You for calling us to do what seems impossible and for Your faithfulness to do exceedingly, abundantly beyond as we choose to listen to You and not to our doubts.

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There is still time . . .

Posted in Publishing journey on July 31, 2010| 4 Comments »

Twenty-five years ago I sat in a workshop with Lee Roddy at the St. David’s Christian Writers Conference. I remember how my heart pounded the last morning of his workshop when he challenged us to put a commitment in writing to complete our book in a year. And then he prayed that heaven would be different because of the words we would write and publish.

I knew God had called me to write this book. I never questioned that, but I did question my ability to write it during the next year as I struggled to finish it. One friend reminded me that a year in the Lord’s sight was like a thousand years, but I knew the Lord knew that I had promised to complete it in 365 days. And I did. I wasn’t a day late or a day early! I took “my baby” to the post office and mailed it to a publisher that had requested the entire manuscript. And then the waiting began. That editor kept it one year before finally returning it. Over the next five years I queried 40 other publishers. Some asked to see the entire manuscript. All of them returned it too. Frustrated, discouraged, and consumed by self-doubts I came so close so many times to giving up.

Only the promises in God’s Word kept me keeping on. Do not “get tired of doing what is right, for after a while [you] will reap a harvest of blessing if [you] don’t get discouraged and give up” (Gal. 6:9 tlb) He told me.

Friends babysat my kids so that I could go to the conference each year on a working scholarship. I commuted to save money, and after five years even ended up on faculty teaching a continuing session on writing for Christian periodicals.  Even more amazing, several months after that fifth conference an editor I’d met with called and offered me a contract.

Of course I can’t promise that you’ll land a contract if you come to the August 11-14 Greater Philly Christian Writers Conference, but I can promise that you’ll learn much and be encouraged by the fellowship you’ll share with other writers.

There is still time to register.

There is still time to request your free 15-minute one-on-one appointments with faculty.

There is still time to “write His answer” to men and women, boys and girls,
who desperately need to know that God loves them.

The urgent question is, “How much longer will we have the freedom to print and distribute Christian literature in a nation that is becoming increasingly antagonistic to the Gospel?”

I urge you not to allow discouragement to keep you from this once-a-year opportunity to be equipped to write about a God who is real, who is reachable, and who changes lives. Trust Him to work out the logistics and provide the finances. (Scholarship help is still available and time payments can be arranged.) And know that He will enable you to “write His answer” so that heaven will be different.

Serving Christ – Marlene

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