Sarah Sundin, @sarahsundin
It’s February. The NaNoWriMo spark has fizzled. The New Year’s resolutions have faded. How can we find the drive to keep writing when the task is daunting, opposition peaks, and distractions…distract?
Nehemiah (In the front row of the classroom, hand raised high): I know! I know!
Indeed, Nehemiah knows. He had to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem under extraordinary circumstances, and he accomplished the task in only fifty-two days. NaBuildWall2Mo.
Nehemiah offers nine nifty nuggets for discouraged writers.
1—Pray
Cue eye-rolling. We know this. Yet how often do we forget it when fear and lethargy and rejection dig in deep?
Nehemiah prayed. We should do likewise.
2—Count the Costs
Before Nehemiah began building, he surveyed the walls. He wanted to know how bad the situation was, how much work needed to be done, and what supplies he’d need.
As writers, we should plan too. Before committing to projects, we should survey our current commitments and the requirements of the new project. If you’re an outliner, get to know your characters, craft your plot, and figure out what you need to research. If you’re a pantser, plan time for editing and revision.
3—Recruit Help
Nehemiah recruited the help he needed and got the job done.
What help do you need as a writer? Critique partners, prayer buddies, professional editors, a housekeeping service? Although world-building is more solitary than wall-building, we still need a posse.
4—Squirrel! Yes, Distractions
Nehemiah faced distractions, like quarrels between the people. But he refused to be turned from the task.
We face Insta-Twit-Pin-Face. We face quarreling children and well-meaning friends (“You’re at home all day, so you won’t mind doing this…”).
Like Nehemiah, we need to be disciplined and focused. We need to keep social media corralled. We need to have appropriate boundaries for socializing and hobbies. And we need to learn the polite use of the word “no.”
5—Sword in One Hand
Poor Nehemiah also faced danger from enemies. He instructed the people to keep a sword in one hand—and keep working.
Life throws curveballs. Illness, deaths of loved ones, family crises, natural disasters—all threaten to knock us to our backsides. In some circumstances, we simply can’t work. That’s okay. Be kind to yourself. But consider working with sword in hand. Progress will be slower, but steady.
6—Strengthen Your Hands
When Nehemiah’s enemies failed to defeat him physically, they tried to defeat him emotionally. In Nehemiah 6:9, he says, “They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, ‘Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.’ But I prayed, ‘Now strengthen my hands.’”
Rejection letters, painful critiques, scathing reviews, and nasty reader emails are part of our writing world. All can weaken our hands. So grasp on to what encourages you—prayer, sweet friends, cat videos, a brisk walk, more prayer—and get back to work.
7—Generosity
Nehemiah was a leader, but instead of lording it over the people, he invited 150 people to his table daily.
As Christian writers, we are also called to be servant leaders. We should be generous with our time and resources and knowledge.
8—Celebrate!
When the people finished the wall, Nehemiah threw a party!
When you meet your goals, celebrate! The act of celebrating feeds your motivation for your next project.
9—Keep Moving Forward
Nehemiah left Jerusalem for twelve years and returned to chaos! The people had forgotten the lessons they’d learned, and their spiritual walls were crumbling.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that everything tends to disorder without the input of energy. Unless you want to be a one-book wonder (nothing wrong with that!), keep moving forward. Put energy into your craft. Challenge yourself. Push yourself.
Thank you, Nehemiah. You get an A+.
In 1943, Private Clay Paxton trains hard with the US Army Rangers at Camp Forrest, Tennessee, determined to do his best in the upcoming Allied invasion of France. With his future stolen by his brothers’ betrayal, Clay has only one thing to live for—fulfilling the recurring dream of his death.
Leah Jones works as a librarian at Camp Forrest, longing to rise above her orphanage upbringing and belong to the community, even as she uses her spare time to search for her real family—the baby sisters she was separated from so long ago.
After Clay saves Leah’s life from a brutal attack, he saves her virtue with a marriage of convenience. When he ships out to train in England for D-day, their letters bind them together over the distance. But can a love strong enough to overcome death grow between them before Clay’s recurring dream comes true?
Sarah Sundin is a CBA-bestselling author of World War II novels, including The Land Beneath Us, The Sky Above Us, and The Sea Before Us. Her novel The Sea Before Us received the 2019 Readers Choice Award from Faith, Hope, and Love, When Tides Turn and Through Waters Deep were named to Booklist’s “101 Best Romance Novels of the Last 10 Years,” and Through Waters Deep won the INSPY Award and was a finalist for the 2016 Carol Award.
A mother of three adult children, Sarah lives in northern California and teaches Sunday school and women’s Bible studies. She also enjoys speaking for church, community, and writers’ groups. She serves as Program Director for the West Coast Christian Writers Conference. You can find her at http://www.sarahsundin.com