“If we had no winter,
the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of
adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”― Anne Bradstreet
We writers
spend hours hidden away in coffee shops and bookstores, noses buried in a
laptop or journal, putting our story worlds to paper. And for every word we pen,
for the hours we spend toiling over each page, there’s probably the same dream
burning in the back of our hearts…
The promise of a harvest.
It’s the
hope that one day, all the sowing we did during the growing seasons will finally
be reaped. We’ll cross into that next phase and become a published author!
I’m tucked
away in a hidden corner of a coffee shop most days now because I’m under
deadline for my fourth published novel. (It’s
such a glorious thing to be able to type that!) But that’s not the way it’s
always been. In fact, the lion’s share of my professional writing career –
like, fifteen years of it – was spent writing training manuals and technical
material for my corporate healthcare job.
That’s a
long winter, friends.
A loooong winter to be dreaming of the
harvest.
Maybe some
of you are in a similar place. You’re writing every day, but you’re starting to
wonder what’s taking so long.
If it
sounds familiar, then this post is for you, dear writer. I promise– I’ve been
there too.
I’ve
received the rejections in the mail. I’ve crashed and burned in more contests
than I’d dare tell you. After years of working towards the dream, I was ready
to quit. But as I look back now, I see the valuable lessons I learned in the
years leading up to the harvest.
Each time
I felt overwhelmed with agony of the wait, I’d ask myself (4) simple questions
to keep going on the journey:
1)
Am I LEARNING?—
I entered a writing contest a few
years ago and had a dismal showing. In fact, the outcome was so poor, that I
stopped writing completely for a month after receiving the judges’ marks. I
checked my heart to see if it was still in the right place – if I felt called
to keep going. And though my confidence had taken a major hit, I decided to use
that break to learn about the craft of writing.
I jumped into some of the mechanics
the judges suggested I could improve upon. I focused that time on growth and
when I felt ready, I started back at square one with a brand new manuscript. You
know what happened? I felt more confident using those skills on a new story
than I would have in editing the old one. And the outcome? That manuscript (my
eighth, up until then) won the next contest I entered.
2)
Am I LEANING? —
Here’s where sowing into a
community of writers now will be worth its weight in gold later.
You’ll find encouragement and
support. You’ll share the rough patches and the blissful moments with your
writer friends. You’ll pray together and shed a few tears. And through the ups
and downs on your path to publication, something magical will happen: you’ll
find that the blessing isn’t just in signing a contract – it’s been in the
getting there all along!
I cherish the friendships I’ve made
with my author friends through the years, and now with my publishing family.
It’s a rich part of the harvest I hadn’t expected early on, but came to
appreciate down the road.
3)
Am I HAPPY? —
This is the big, bad, scary
question of them all, because it has the potential to derail everything.
No, we’re not happy when we receive
rejections. It’s painful to read judges’ feedback just like it’s difficult to
read negative reviews once you’re published. But I continually ask myself as
I’m writing: “Am I happy?” Is this time I’m spending creating stories with God
adding to or taking away from my joy in Him? Because if it’s not feeding my
heart, it’s time to step away. Not forever – just until He gives the go-ahead
to take another step and dive back into the dream.
And
finally, if those first questions are in check, I’d ask this… the last
question:
4)
Am I HOME? —
When I walked into my first art
history classroom in college, God whispered: “You’re home.”
I knew that while I hadn’t been
gifted with hands that could paint or draw, I did have a heart that would sing
when it got anywhere near a story like those I saw in the art we studied. And
so I began writing. Not because I was getting paid. Not because there was the
promise of a harvest years down the road… I wrote because it was (and still
is), home.
Where’s
your home? Do you remember? Because we can learn the craft of writing and lean
in to community for years on the road to publication. We can spend many happy
days dreaming of a contract. But unless we’re home when we’re writing – just because there’s no other place we’d
rather be–the promise of a harvest won’t fulfill us.
If you’re
tucked away in the corner of a coffee shop today, stay there.
Enjoy it.
And one
day, when it is your harvest time, remember that you’ve already reaped a sea of
blessings on the journey just to get there.
With
joy in the harvest,
Author
Bio:
Kristy is a Speaker and Design Manager at TheGROVEstory.com, and holds a degree in Art History from Indiana University. She lives in Indiana with her husband and three sons, where she can probably be bribed with a coconut mocha latte and a good read.
You can connect with
Kristy at:
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