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You’re very accustomed to hearing voices in your head. In fact, you take pride in having those conversations with imaginary people who only exists in the gray matter between your years.
After all, you are a writer.
But there are other voices in your head. Oh, not the ones who are telling you to murder the protagonist or devise a happily ever after. It’s the little people who constantly tell you how you will fail.
No one wants to be a one hit wonder.
You know, write that first book, or first series, and then struggle to find more success.
I was in this boat after the Nashvegas books.
Not that they were a break out… in fact, they weren’t at all.
So I had to decide what to write next that caught my publisher’s eye.
I was blessed to be at a house that believed in giving an author more than a one-contract chance.
But if I didn’t find some success soon, there was no reason for my publisher to continue with me.
I was writing chick lit but it was dying a quick death as a sub romance genre.
At an ACFW conference, I braved a conversation with my publisher. “What can I do to turn things around?”
“Well,” he said, “we’re not quite sure how to brand you.”
This really confused me. I wrote chick lit. Romance. How was it hard to brand me?
The holidays are over and you’re four days into a brand new year. You want to make the best of it. But when you think of how to do that, it’s a bit overwhelming.
So since you’re starting all over again, how do you set yourself up for success in 2014? Here are a few things that can help:
Merry Christmas!
I don’t know if you’ve had time to work on your bestseller during this busy season, but I’m back with my two favorite editors with tips on navigating the sometime murky waters of critique/craft partners.
(AAT) What do you do when you receive a critique and it’s not what you want to see, read or hear?
(EM) Well, as far as you putting your feelings aside and your no longer sensitive? Twenty-three years into this and that has not happened yet. I’m still sensitive when it comes to my writing, no matter how hard I try. Anytime I receive suggestions, it has a sharp edge to it. Even though it’s not true, in my own mind, it feels like I’ve failed. One thing I‘ve learned for me, is I need to process. I’ve learned to tell my critique partners, I accept that, I think that’s a valuable comment. I’m going to have to go home and play with it and see how I feel about it. I can’t just immediately jump up and down and say “Oh goodie, you’ve made it better.” I have to say “thank you for the work you’ve done” and I have to go home and process. That’s the way it works for me personally because it always feels like I’ve failed.
(AAT) Beth, what about you?
Long, long ago in a land far away, a child was born. No ordinary baby, the Christ child had come to save the world from sin.
The prophecies had been fulfilled. What hadn’t been mentioned in those prophecies was what a great storyteller Jesus would be. The Bible is full of the amazing stories He told. And all were spoken in a natural, easy-to-understand format.
Jesus came that we might have life. No doubt about it, but for writers, He also came that we might have stories… lots of them and a marvelous template of how we should reach the masses with our prose.
