Have you – really? Have you suffered enough to be a really good writer?

Surprise – I’m not talking about rejection slips!

Someone has said it takes 1,000 (yes, ONE THOUSAND) rejection slips to become a writer. Been there. Done that! I’ve received over 3,000 rejection slips,  but I’ve also experienced the joy of over 1,000 acceptances.

Taylor Caldwell, the author of over 50 novels, including Tender Victory that I read as a teenager and that changed my life, said:

Rejection slips are what separate the men from the boys.  If they spur him on, and make him more determined to write acceptably and force him to learn more, then he can be sure he is a writer.  It is only a matter of time and increasing wisdom and patience.  I myself wrote for 30 years before I had a single thing published.

Yes, becoming a writer takes time, increasing wisdom, and patience. But if we want to write words that will impact lives for eternity, it takes more than just persevering through rejection slips – even 1,000 rejection slips. Far more important it takes a commitment to go and grow through the trials that are part of life.

These trials are only to test your faith, to see whether or not it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests gold and purifies it—and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. 1 Peter 1:7 TLB

March 25 I am teaching a day-long Christian Writers Workshop in Philippsburg, NJ.

The opening session is “Go & Grow, Write & Speak through the Hurts” because I truly believe our most powerful writing will result from our greatest struggles and deepest heartaches. The fact is Jesus never promised it would be easy to follow Him, but He has promised always to be with us. I’ll share biblical principles (click here for the free handout) for those times that test and stretch our faith and later become the focus of our writing and speaking ministry.

Other workshops include:

Discover God’s Plan for Your Ministry
Is God calling you to write an article, story, or book? Who is your audience? What are their needs? How will you reach them? Should you look for a publisher or go indie? What are the advantages and disadvantages of traditional and indie publishing? Q & A

Public Speaking – Presenter Jewell Utt
Public speaking is a common fear for many writers. Learn how to prepare yourself, your talk, and the room to deliver a presentation with confidence and relevance. Techniques will include appearance, oration, content, and style.

You Can Do It!
How to indie publish affordably yet professionally. Q & A.

Think Big Because You Serve a Big God
How to cut the old tapes, stop listening to the wrong voices, and accomplish what God is calling you to do.

Although the workshops will be recorded and available for purchase through the Write His Answer bookstore, if you live in NJ or eastern PA, I want to encourage you to come March 25 for the fellowship you’ll share with other Christians who are called to write. (Yes, we have a snow date just in case. It’s April 1.) For more info and to register go to http://www.jewellutt.com/events/writersworkshop/. If you’re interested in the possibility of me teaching this day-long workshop in your area, please email me at mbagnull@aol.com.

And I am sure that God who began the good work within you will keep right on helping you grow in his grace until his task within you is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ returns.
Philippians 1:6 TLB

I met Lee Roddy in 1980 at the St. David’s Christian Writers Conference. I don’t remember if it was my first or second writers’ conference. What I do remember is how overwhelmed (okay, scared) I felt. What made me think I had what it would take to write a book, much less to get it published? I felt ashamed that I was only a high school graduate. Yet there was that sense of call I couldn’t shake.

Lee’s Sunday night keynote felt like it was aimed directly at me. I had not signed up to take his continuing class because I wasn’t writing fiction and didn’t even read fiction. But without a doubt I know God sat me down in Lee’s class. What I learned coupled with Lee’s encouragement to put a commitment in writing to finish my book in a year so that “eternity would be different” changed my life.

Lee kept in touch with me the next year (I did finish my book in a year to the day) and in the five years that followed as I struggled to find a publisher. He always knew how to mix encouragement with the admonishment not to give up. Largely because of Lee I didn’t give up and the rest, as they say, is history.

Father, thank You for the gift of Lee’s friendship through the years. I’m so grateful to be one of his “kids.” You gave me an incredible writing papa.

Rather than telling you about Lee, let me share some of what he wrote in his foreword to Write His Answer: 

I met Marlene at a 1980 writers’ conference where I was speaking and teaching. Marlene, like many, felt God’s call on her life to write for him.

At that time, I wrote a notation in Marlene’s Bible about one of my own motivational passages, Habakkuk 2:2 and 3. There God says to “write the vision.” In the margin of Marlene’s Bible, alongside those verses, I wrote, “This was God’s promise to me as an
author. Maybe yours, too?”

Marlene was sure God had called her to write a book, so she set down her vision. That’s not uncommon. Many writers, filled with inspiration, start off strong. Then they get discouraged and quit. When they do, God’s vision for them is lost. How sad!

If it’s God’s will to write, then it’s logical that publication should eventually follow. After all, an unfinished manuscript cannot change lives. Even a finished one cannot minister in a drawer or  filing cabinet. Only in published form can a book go where you and I will never go, to people we will never meet. Only in published form can a book make a difference in eternity.

So why do many writers, feeling called to write, fall short? I believe it’s because they neglect to note the way God says he will bring the vision to pass. That involves his time element, not the writer’s. Read the Lord’s clear words: “But these things I [God] plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day!” (Hab. 2:3).

I don’t know of a single successful author in the inspirational field who hasn’t experienced doubts and discouragement. The unsuccessful are the ones who quit.

I’m praying you will not quit! Trust Father’s timing, and allow Him to use your disappointments, doubts, and discouragement to draw you closer to Him.

And let us not get tired of doing what is right, for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t get discouraged and give up. – Galatians 6:9 TLB

Lissa Halls Johnson said in her February 7, 2017 Facebook post: “There are many writers who owe part of their successful writing career to a man named Lee Roddy, author of 60+ books. For many years he traveled to schools and the writers conference circuit teaching the art of writing fiction to eager students of all ages. He encouraged writers in his adult classes to consider signing a document of commitment to complete their book. He took that commitment very seriously and did not want anyone signing if they were not willing to put everything they had to fulfill that commitment.” Click here to read the rest of her tribute to Lee.

Lee lived the commitment he challenged others to make. From his August 28, 2016 Facebook post: “I celebrated my 95th birthday two days after being released from the hospital where I had been for two more weeks before that. . . . Out of the recent hours of long lonliness I felt led to finish two novels now in progress, plus other projects. Retirement is not in sight.”