By Joy K. Massenburge, @JoyMassenburge
“This is my season. I will not be denied! I will land a contract with a big publisher.” I said this to myself while walking up the driveway, then stopped dead in my tracks. I realized I have not had the right mindset toward my writing career these past months.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m writing. I’m submitting. I’m doing all the things a writer should do on the outside. But lately, I haven’t had the conversations with myself about what I’m going to do when I sign on the dotted line. I haven’t been visualizing the outcome. I haven’t written a tentative date in my calendar to celebrate with my family, agent, writing buddies, and faithful followers who have stood by me year after year without a new release. I haven’t been speaking my beliefs out loud as if it has already happened.
I recall early on searching the scriptures about my writing career. I was pouring over the Book of Ezra when SEEK, DO, and TEACH became my roadmap to publication goals. Not only would I become a published author, but I’d strive to be the best I could be so I could help other writers to start their books and finish strong. No more books in the grave, for anyone, if I could help it.
I needed to regroup.
“This is my season. I will not be denied! I will land a contract with a big publisher.”
How do I know? Because I’ve reconnected with my WHY. Because I want to experience and teach every level of the publishing process. Because I wrote out the action steps in my quarterly two focus goals. Because I have tested this Flourish Framework that continuously produces the fruit of my lips.
- Set the course
- Chart the course
- Execute
For instance, I recently set and charted my course to better health: daily journaling my food consumption and walking my driveway for an hour. That hour walk has been a part of my morning routine for a while, but I’ve usually allowed my dog’s barking at the neighbor’s dog to distract me. I’d walk Lola to her pen, and get preoccupied with something else, then go into the house after only thirty minutes. I’d make a bed or do some other chore to rationalize why the thirty, sometimes forty minutes, was good enough. Or I’d keep stopping to answer a post, take a call, or go to the bathroom.
Not today! Or any of the last four days. This girl is executing.
Having the concrete assignment, charting the course, to record how I feel made me aware and gave me motivation to endure the full experience. I noted when the usual hip, back, and neck discomfort occurred and for how long. Today, there was very little pain.
When Lola ran the fence line barking at the neighbor’s dog, I didn’t want to have to document that I quit walking. I escorted her to her pen, never breaking stride, and walked right back to the hill. I consumed the two bottles of water I took with me and realized then and there that my mind is made up. I’m not going to stop. This has been my mindset with every goal I’ve set and won in the past. I’m working on a plan for my health now.
Moving forward, I will be charting my course to further publication and executing such things as, communicating with my agent to set a goal that answers a publisher’s story needs. Then, chart weekly writing goals that will yield their expected word count. Finally, I’d get those chapters to crit buddies to make sure I’m submitting the cleanest version possible when I execute and hit send.
“This is my season. I will not be denied! I will land a contract with a big publisher.” It’s not enough to say it. To flourish, we must set the course, chart the course, and execute. For more information on this framework, connect with me at www.joykmassenburge.com and schedule your fifteen-minute mindset chat.
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.