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I recently attended a writer’s retreat, thinking the time would be used to reconnect with my writer friends after a long absence of in-person conferences. I so needed to physically connect with like-minded people. Virtual meetups just weren’t filling the void.
I didn’t know when I committed to go that I’d be reworking chapters in a book I’d thought I had worked out all the major kinks. A rejection proved otherwise. No matter how many you get, the pain is real. For me anyway. I know that’s not every writer’s plight, so please allow me to indulge my personal experience. You can imagine how inadequacy, doubt, regret, and a list of other limiting thoughts crowded my brain.
Knowing if I stayed in my own head, it would affect my ability to produce, I didn’t try to work through my feelings alone. My personality assessment shows where I work better in groups, so I made sure to announce my editing goals for the writing weekend. But I didn’t stop there. Another writer, Liz Johnson, far more advanced than I, announced how she was attending the retreat with edits on her latest book with a big 5 publisher. I saddled up to her and began asking questions about her process.
You see, I had received Liz Johnson’s book in the mail, and it was the selected read for the road trip. Halfway through the book, I knew this new-to-me author would be numbered among my favorite authors. It couldn’t be a coincidence we attended the same retreat. I made up in my mind that God had sent her to work with me. Laugh at me if you want to. I’ve trained my mind to look for the positive in every situation. Like most blame the devil for every bad thing, I assign God with everything that is good in my life. My rejection being one of them, for there must be a learning moment I hadn’t experienced, yet.
I can’t explain the paralyzing fear to start the edits, even with my writing coaches’ notes written in the margins to comfort me. A part of me hoped Liz wouldn’t return from her lunch to work with me as she promised earlier that morning. Maybe that’s why I blurted, “What mindset should I have approaching edits after a rejection? The ending is too long, and I fear where to start cutting.”
Pwww, it was out. I’d said it. I fear.I feared I’d never get it right. I feared I’d never be published with the big 5. I feared I’d never… Now I didn’t say any of that out loud, but I did admit to myself the fears assailing me. My negative self, fighting the victor inside of me every step of the way.
Liz asked story questions. All the stuff I’d read in craft books and learned from my writing coach. I realized how much I’d grown in the writing process when I answered her, proof I knew my story. Then, she added.
“Your mindset should be to remove anything that doesn’t move the story to healing…”
Healing. As indicated above, you can see there were other things in the list, but I had gotten so caught up in the technical side of the writing craft, I’d forgotten about the spiritual. That’s what was missing from my ending. I had loaded the pages with unnecessary scenes and events, while forgetting to share the POV character’s voice of truth experience—their emotional healing on the page for the reader to experience with them.
A light bulb went off in my head and I went to my room that night and worked on edits, reaching my chapter goal for the weekend. More than that, I gained a new mindset toward my writing as a Christian author. God can use every part of our writing journey. Embrace everything that leads to healing and remove every idle thought that doesn’t.
You see, that same weekend, authors attending the retreat with me, also participated in the ACFW virtual conference where I gave the motivational talk, “Be All You Can Be.” I shared my recent rejection, although I was embarrassed about the results after so much work. Healing isn’t self-serving. Most times, there is great pain before it’s reality materializes. Others in the room had experienced rejections of their own, and in that moment, I could truly empathize with my sisters, and they empathized with me because I’d dared to put my feelings, my voice of truth, on the page.
I’m not the best writer. I haven’t achieved all that I desire. But I truly believe God called me to write. I share my author journey with the world in hopes of inspiring struggling writers to stay the course in the best of times as well as the bad. If my personal disappointments bring healing to the discouraged, the weary, or disheartened, I can’t wait to see how my testimonies of victory will bless them.
My mind is set to face rejection and choose to grow from every experience so I might heal as well as being a healing agent to others.
I am Joy K Massenburge, your writing motivator, serving you a hot cup of inspiration so you can be productive and a joy to someone else. Connect with me at
www.joykmassenburge.com. In the comments, feel free to share your writing journey testimony of how you faced and overcame rejection.A Heart Surrendered
As the teenaged pastor’s daughter of New Hope Church, Sharonda Peterson knew finding comfort in Carl’s arms was a mistake. But how could the only night she ever felt beautiful be wrong?
When Carl leaves town to pursue an acting and singing career, Sharonda relegates herself to a life of church service–and solitude–rather than face the pain now associated with that one night.
Carl Ray Everhart has been caught up in the fast pace of fame … and female adoration. But a near-death experience has him questioning everything and vowing to set things straight … starting with the love that got away.
When Carl returns home to sere as the worship leader at New Hope, Sharonda finds that it takes every ounce of her resolve to resist his pursuits … not to mention memories that threaten to overturn the delicate balance she’s created. Can she finally surrender the one thing she’s tried all these years to protect: her heart?
Author and speaker, Joy K. Massenburge, crafts the love stories of pastors and their kids. She was born the sixth child of a pastor. She married a football player turned pastor…they raised pastor’s kids; a son and two daughters.
Her contemporary romance debut novel “A Heart Surrendered” is a top-seller. She is also the audio voice of Beatrice “Mama B” Jackson in author, Michelle Stimpson’s Mama B Book series. When she is not writing or recording, she is speaking at retreats and conferences. Believing it is better to give than receive, she serves as American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW East Texas Writers) chapter’s President.
If ever you visit Tyler, Texas, you can find her curled up on her back-porch swing reading a good book with her four grandchildren, caretaking for her donkey and a dog, or filling her five-acre country home with fifty-plus people for a Blue Bell ice cream party.