Highs and Lows

Folly Beach

So many voices. How do you know which ones to listen to? I'm beginning to understand better what Ted Dekker meant when he said to shut them all out. Don't listen to them. There are so many rules and so many variations of rules when it comes to writing Christian fiction that it becomes suffocating.

Being a "newbie" writer, of course I want to learn from fellow writers. Of course, I want to do things right. But what's right? What's right for one is wrong to another. Then, when you try to put it all together to make sense out of it, it gets so jumbled in your head that you don't know where you've been or which way to go. You run in circles until you're so dizzy you can't see straight.

I think its time to shut out the voices. It's time to be true to my voice and to my characters. After all, isn't that what makes the story mine? I'm not saying I don't need an editor to help me with the finer points of grammar and what-not. I do! I also need to stay true to who I am and let God worry about finding the right agent or publisher or publishing route.

This has been a such a strange year. Aside from normal mom stuff, I've battled with a new level of chronic illness and a variety of personal struggles - good and bad. I've discovered a do-able way to write a one-page synopsis. I've waded through the bog of what to do with my manuscript and become stuck on the delivery of chapter one. I've found an editor willing to help me edit my book. I've wearied of all the outside voices telling me how to write my story. And I'm seriously considering Indie publishing. What do you think of Rose Publications? I like it.

There have been so many triumphs and trials and it's only May. What will the rest of the year hold? I don't know. I can trust it all to God, right? He will work it all out for my good and His glory. My prayer is that my stories will be what God wants them to be and that they will hit the shelves in His perfect timing.

"Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief."

~Linnette