the one thing every writer needs

I needed my inner big-girl coach to get ready for this moment, and I listened well.
Just get in there and tell them about your book! You are publishing with a major house, and you are from Richmond, and they will love you.

Like pumping air into a tire, I pumped courage into my heart and walked in?a place that has always been a sanctuary for me, a place that will soon hold my 50,000 words, poured into this ocean of hard work and fulfilled dreams that is a bookstore.

I bought a bible, two for good measure. I went up to the cashier, a woman with a fresh pouf of hair that pronounced ?I go to my hairdresser once a week for a style.? She was an older lady and I tried to believe that she was young at heart. As she rang up my bibles and ridiculously overpriced bribe toys?Jesus material for my two sick kids, currently dancing the Maypole around my legs, I flashed my best cheerleader smile. Somehow I broached the topic.

I wrote a book

I said,

Will we carry it?

she said

It?s with Tyndale so I think you will

I said, with a shrug and a laugh as if I knew exactly how important this book would be to her and every woman who ever graces the steps of this bookstore.

What?s it about?

she said

then I thought, (insert expletive) I don?t know what it?s about! It?s about everything! It?s my heart opened up and poured out on paper, which I don?t know if you will like or not! But instead I said

it?s called She?s Got Issues, and it?s about the ordinary stuff that keeps women from experiencing freedom in life & love

and she said,

Sounds like a book I need,

with a half-smile, and a shrug, and then turned away.

My heart deflated, and she turned back.

So, how do you get published,

and I knew what she meant was ?I like to write and think I could do a children?s book? or ?I teach a bible study at my church? and I was slapped in the inner-face in that moment, with how much I care about the book I wrote and how little many others will care about that book. And about how I am so caught up in my own agenda and so was poufy-hair lady, because right then it was not about the sweat and tears that went into this first book, it was about the possiblity that she might someday be published.

But my inner big-girl coach kicked in and I swallowed back some words and then said,

Start small. Write articles. Get published. Try to speak. Publishers like that.

And I donated a $5 bible to the Crisis Pregnancy Center and grabbed my $64.27 receipt and my children?s hands and I walked out with my head held high and my heart spinning downward.

But this is what I wanted to say to poufy-hair lady:

So you want to write? You like writing your Christmas letter and you have this cute idea for a children?s book? Well, then, how much do you really like to write? Not sure, huh? Well, let me tell you a secret. There is only one thing you need to write. Passion.

You have to care so deeply about the topic you are writing for that you are willing to work for years, YEARS, with very little show for your toil. When I started writing it was because I wanted to reach as many women with God?s word and the freedom found within it. I thought hard about what would help me reach women and teach more frequently and I decided it was by the legitimacy and platform of a book.

So I started a blog because I wanted to write a book. Yep, not just for fun or because it was the cool thing to do. I wrote (and write) on that blog because I wanted to write a BOOK. Then I wrote 100-word articles because I wanted to write a book. Then I queried twenty different magazines and websites, getting mostly rejections, because I wanted to write a book. I wrote faithfully and often on my blog so my writing would get better. I read literary agent websites like the bible and followed everything they said (thank you Macgregor Literary and Rachelle Gardner and Mary DeMuth). I read magazines so that I could match their tone when I sent them hook letters one, two and eight times because I wanted to write a BOOK. I got paid $50 and $100 for weeks and months of writing because I wanted to write a book. I went to writing conferences and met other authors because I wanted to write a book. I followed blogs like mine and read books like what I wanted to write and crafted book proposals over and over again because I wanted to write a book. I wrote a bible study on my own and self-published it because I wanted to write a book. I invested in a website and promoted the bible study because I wanted to write a book. I befriended authors and talked up their books and hosted them on my blog (I did actually like them). I got up at 5:30AM and stayed up past midnight to write and to edit because I wanted to write a book. I exchanged hundreds of emails with agents and editors, most of which ended in rejection because I wanted to write a BOOK.

So I ask you, do you want it that bad?

Are you so passionate about writing or about a topic that you love that you are willing to work like that? I started my blog in April 2008 and landed a book contract in May 2011. Most would agree that is a SHORT journey to publication. If you want to write fiction, it may take even longer. Do you have it? Do you have the inner drive to work for that hard and that long, for no money and for little recognition? Can you set goals for yourself? By all means, if you want a ministry, you want to bless your mom and her five friends, write a blog sporadically and submit an article for the church newsletter.

But if you want to write a book, you better have a fire burning in your gut that makes you work hard. And if that?s a God calling, I believe he?ll give you enough to keep you going. You?ll get that needed word of encouragement or praise from someone who is neither friend nor family (and if that?s not happening, get a writing coach and work on your craft.) Or you?ll get an article published. Or you?ll have twenty more people read your blog today. Or you?ll begin to have an ?expertise? around your chosen topic.

There are a million more things to say about the writing journey, but I?ll say just five:

1. Set a goal: is it a book? a speaking career? An article published? A blog that generates income? Freelance work? Every goal will have a different set of steps to get there.

2. Write in your stream. If you want to write about parenting, then query and research parenting blogs and magazines. Don?t consider your article on gun control to be a rung in the ladder toward parenting, unless you can give it a unique twist from the parenting perspective.

3. Write often and get feedback. Write for website contests. Submit to blogs. Join a writer?s group. Make a plan. Stick to it.

4. Build a platform. There are a million posts to read about this. You are not a personality or an amazing writing voice to a publisher. You are a number. Unless you are the DaVinci of artists with the pen (which I think you?d know by now), you are going to be a hard-working writer. The more people who listen to you, the better your chances of getting noticed by an agent and ultimately a publisher.

5. Consider yourself an artist. There is nothing better you can do than stop thinking you are going to be the American Idol of publishing. It?s not gonna happen. So think of yourself as a struggling artist. An artist works a job that pays the bills and supports her passion. An artist often shows off her work for little or no money. An artist works in her medium because she is obsessed and needs her art as much as she needs others to enjoy it. An artist creates for the sake of creating, and lives in the tension of creating art as an expression of her soul (and as a hobby) or sacrificing some of her own ?way? and making art a career. You?ll have to struggle through that too.

But today, in the bookstore, I didn?t say all of that. I just smiled and walked away. My inner coach reminded me of the points above, and I realized that I set out to reach women. I thought a book was my best first step. And 328 steps later, I?m almost there.

Have any writing questions that I didn?t answer? Leave a comment and I?ll do my best to answer or direct you to the right place!

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Source: http://www.nicoleunice.com/writing/the-one-thing-every-writer-needs/

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