It's too hard. Just Keep Writing.

My son slammed the car door after swim practice. "It's too hard."

With tears in his eyes, he went on to tell me how many meters he had swam the past 90 minutes. It was a few thousand.
Yeah, that DOES sound hard.

But he did it. And he didn't lose his dinner, or sink to the bottom of the pool, or quit in the middle of practice. After three years of gaining skill and talent, I couldn't be a prouder parent.

"You did it! That's amazing!" I tried to encourage him, knowing that he's growing, and knowing that his practice needs to be tough to get better.

"But it's too hard." All he could do was pout and choke back tears and focus on the difficulty.

Poor guy was exhausted. Not to mention he was a little spoiled with his Christmas video game extravaganza the day before.

Yes, he was probably sore. Probably worn out both physically and emotionally. Having a coach bark, "Another 500!" when he could hardly breathe from the last 500 took a toll on his emotions, I would think.

But all I could do as his mother is encourage him to keep going. "You know, after you swim like that for a week or so, it can only get better. You'll get used to it."

Not the words he wanted to hear. Believe me. He whined and cried all the way home. I even asked if he wanted to quit just to test him...and to be sure I wasn't blowing off his angst (too much). He didn't want to quit.
He really does love it.
He just doesn't like the work it takes. The pain to gain, the constant laps to shave seconds.

Can you relate as a writer?

Have you ever cried, "It's too hard." After your tangled mess of a plot, your muddied critique, your contest loss...again?? Have your emotions been spent, your mental capacity drained, your heart muscle sore from caring too much?
I know that we as writers don't have the physical exhaustion like a swimmer--or maybe, we do--when we pull an all-nighter, when we get tennis elbow from our poor posture over the computer, when our joints ache at the 100,000 word pour out on the keyboard...hmmmm...

But, we really do love it. We need to remember that the practice, the stories, the writing, the re-writing, the editing, the scratching and starting over, is all worth it. Because we are getting better. We are learning more--about ourselves, about our craft, about our endurance.

If we are still writing after just one rejection, we are learning.

We are putting those thousands of meters...I mean pages...behind us, to crank out the next best thing. And it's going to get better...maybe easier in a way (I know that I can whip up a one page synopsis in a blink compared to a few years ago).

My son shaves seconds off his time on a regular basis at each meet he races in. He doesn't realize that those thousands of meters swam at practice help knock off the seconds that get him closer to a qualifying time for State.

I have written at least 300, 000 words in four years. And while I haven't qualified as a published author...yet...I know that I am closer. I see my endurance is paying off in the level to which my writing has grown. Not in a conceited way, just in a difference that must be had to inch (or mili-inch) to my goal of publication.

As a writer, if all this practice does not grow my skill...then what's the point?

And my son knows deep down that he's getting better. He wants to keep going. Because he's seen it pay off in the seconds. One day, he'll see it pay off in bigger ways. One day he'll swim what he pleases at State.

But only if he keeps going. Even when it's hard. Even when it's TOO hard. If he fights through it, he'll be a winner.

Will you keep writing? Even when it seems too hard...on your mind, on your time, on your heart?

If you are a writer, you'll keep going. It will get better. Just don't give up.

Just keep swimming...um...writing!

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Angie Dicken is a full-time mom and lives in the Midwest with her Texas Aggie sweetheart. An ACFW member since 2010, she has written six historical novels and is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of The Steve Laube Agency. Angie also spends her time designing one-sheets and drinking good coffee with great friends. Check her personal blog at angiedicken.blogspot.com and connect at:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/dicken.angie, 

Twitter: @angiedicken

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/agdicken/

Reframing Your Writing Perspective

I spent the day today picking out a variety of frames at TJ Maxx, then filling them with adorable pictures of my newborn son. It's a work in progress, as I can never get everything quite where I want it... do you have that problem too? I find myself shifting pictures around and putting the frames in all different places in the house. This got me thinking--sometimes we need to take a time out to reframe our writing lives as well.

Photo from freedigitalphotos.net by adamr

We've all read the blogs and heard the chatter about the CBA market changing. Maybe your publishing house has recently stopped printing fiction, or you're feeling the pressure of harder-than-ever competition for unpublished writers (can I get an amen?).

Let's get real. It seems that lately all the conversation about the publishing industry--unless you happen to write category romance-- is really quite negative. The number of hopeful writers targeting any given publishing house is on the rise, while the number of available slots for books seems to be ever decreasing. We all know about Family Christian Bookstores and have read the effect the closure of brick and mortar stores is having on the industry. Many of us have had our hopes raised by conferences, only to be later dashed by the realities of how hard it really is for a new writer to break in.

After a while, this process gets discouraging. And if we're not careful, we forget our joy. We forget why we create and imagine in the first place. We forget why we're hopeful, and we forget the magic of writing.

That, friends, is a dangerous place to inhabit.

I want to encourage you--as writers and writers of fiction-- to stop believing that your story doesn't matter. Stop listening to those discouraging voices in your mind that no editor would buy a story that starts in such a unique way, or that the success of your book is all about sales numbers of awards.

Our calling is so. much. more.

Reframe your perspective. 

As Hebrews 12:1 says, "Therefore, 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."

If you stop running your race, who else will run it? If you stop writing your story, who else will write it? If you don't fight for your readers, how will they ever hear the message God has given you to share?

I get it. I get how hard it is. But creativity makes a hard ministry. We all knew that going in. We as inspirational writers have got to shrug off the victim mentality and realize that if we are called, we are equipped. We do not have to buy into the lie that our stories don't matter.

Maybe it will take you three months to get your first book published. Maybe it will take five years. Maybe it will take fifteen. I am not immune to the struggle of this process. I really thought my favorite story would be published by now. I started writing novels five years ago, and have invested prayers, tears, laughter, hopes, and fears into this ministry. There are days when the dream feels very, very far away.

But the thing is, maybe our stories were never about ourselves to begin with. What if we're called to be stewards rather than owners? What if we reframe the way we look at writing so that we see a ministry that's a gift rather than a failure?

Today, I want to challenge us as writers of Christian fiction to stop bemoaning all the things that aren't going our way, and to stand up for the beauty of our art. If God called you, it matters. Let me say it again. If God called you, it matters. The pieces will come together, even if it's not in the way you expected--and when they do, you'll see an even more beautiful landscape than the one you'd envisioned and grieved. Let's let go of our expectations, friends, and our perceived "rights," and instead, let's learn to write freely.

Let's hear from you! Have you been feeling discouraged lately with all the negative talk about CBA? How do you respond to it and protect your heart for your stories?

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Ashley Clark writes romance with southern grace. She's dreamed of being a writer ever since the thumbprint-cookie-days of library story hour. Ashley has an M.A. in English and enjoys teaching literature courses at her local university. She's an active member of ACFW and runs their newcomer's loop. When she's not writing, Ashley's usually busy rescuing stray animals and finding charming new towns. You can find Ashley on her personal blog, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. She is represented by Karen Solem.