by Beth K. Vogt, @bethvogt
I want to write with the tenacity of a child learning to walk.
I’ve spent quite a bit of time watching an 8-month old – my youngest granddaughter, to be specific. She wants to skip right past crawling, stand up, and walk.
Her mom says this a lot: “Do it again. Keep trying.”
With the untiring determination of a wannabe toddler, my granddaughter pulls herself up. Sits down. Stands up. And repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
I know what you’re thinking. “I’ve got a word count to max out, Beth! I’m not certain I want to regress to being an 8-month-old.”
Consider these two points as you pursue your writing goals:
- Focus on one thing you can do to improve your writing. Right now, my granddaughter is determined to accomplish one thing: to stand up and walk. She’s working on just that. All. Day. Long. She has loads of toys to entertain her. A bouncy chair and books and blocks. But she is all about walking on her own. What about you? What one area of the writing craft can you focus on to improve as a writer? Dialogue? Pacing? Tension? Ignore the distractions – Such a challenge, right? – and sign up for a class or read a recommended book or register to attend a virtual or in-person conference.
- Find someone to encourage you to stay with it. Yes, my granddaughter wants to stand up and walk with no assistance from anyone else. Reality is, wanting to and doing it are two very different things. In between taking online college classes, her mom is sitting on the floor acting as a personal jungle gym, encouraging and helping her. Who encourages you to “Do it again” and to “Keep trying” when you are frustrated with your less than perfect efforts? A trusted mentor? Your craft partners? What about a close friend who prays for you?
Here’s to being tenacious writers – like children learning to walk!
How can you choose what is right for you when your decision will break the heart of someone you love? Having abandoned her childhood dream years ago, Johanna Thatcher knows what she wants from life. Discovering that her fiancé was cheating on her only convinces Johanna it’s best to maintain control and protect her heart.
Despite years of distance and friction, Johanna and her sisters, Jillian and Payton, have moved from a truce toward a fragile friendship. But then Johanna reveals she has the one thing Jillian wants most and may never have—and Johanna doesn’t want it. As Johanna wrestles with a choice that will change her life and her relationships with her sisters forever, the cracks in Jillian’s marriage and faith deepen. Through it all, the Thatcher sisters must decide once and for all what it means to be family.
Beth K. Vogt is a non-fiction author and editor who said she’d never write fiction. She’s the wife of an Air Force family physician (now in solo practice) who said she’d never marry a doctor—or anyone in the military. She’s a mom of four who said she’d never have kids. Now Beth believes God’s best often waits behind the doors marked “Never.” The Best We’ve Been, the final book in Beth’s Thatcher Sisters Series with Tyndale House Publishers, releases May 2020. Other books in the series include Things I Never Told You, which one the 2019 AWSA Award for Contemporary Novel of the Year, and Moments We Forget.
Beth is a 2016 Christy Award winner, a 2016 ACFW Carol Award winner, and a 2015 RITA® finalist. Her 2014 novel, Somebody Like You, was one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Best Books of 2014. A November Bride was part of the Year of Wedding Series by Zondervan. Having authored nine contemporary romance novels or novellas, Beth believes there’s more to happily-ever-after than the fairy tales tell us.
An established magazine writer and former editor of the leadership magazine for MOPS International, Beth blogs for Learn How to Write a Novel and The Write Conversation and also enjoys speaking to writers group and mentoring other writers. She lives in Colorado with her husband Rob, who has adjusted to discussing the lives of imaginary people. Connect with Beth at bethvogt.com.