There’s Always a Way

Yesterday I had a 10:00am appointment to record an upcoming radio program. There was just one problem. We’d had a snow storm come through three days before. The whole area was covered in snow and, even worse, slick sheet ice.

I could not get a vehicle out of my community so I did what any dedicated radio talk show guest would do. I decided to walk the two miles to the station.

Big mistake.

I found myself slipping and sliding through slick ice, slushing though snow and walking on top of shrubbery that had been buried when the snow plows came through earlier.

Getting Past Stuck

Ever seen one of those mouse traps with the sticky stuff on it? Rather than a spring-loaded steel bar that whacks the rodent in the head, it glues them to the trap. They smell the cheese, walk onto the trap and are instantly attached to it.

Don’t you feel like that sometimes? I mean, you’re tempted by the luster of being a published author. You inch closer, perhaps a bit cautiously at first. Ahhhh, but the lure of the cheese propels you forward.

Finally, when your prize gets within an arm’s length, you suddenly become trapped. Try as you may, you can’t budge from where you are. And, wouldn’t you know, where you landed in the trap places you just out of reach of the cheese. It’s so close you can smell it but you just can’t partake of it.

The writing journey is like that sometimes. It doesn’t matter where you are on your journey, you’ll eventually end up in the trap. And, regardless of the degree of success you’ve already achieved, stuck is stuck.

The Greatest Storyteller Ever Sold

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.

How Do We Appreciate You? Let Me Count the Ways!

Thursday night at the Team Member webinar, I ended the broadcast by telling our team members how special they are to us and how we appreciate them. Afterwards, my email inbox filled up with members thanking me, many saying they were brought to tears.

As writers—and human beings—we need to know how much we are appreciated. And what’s more, you’re so important to us, we could tell you every minute of every day from now until eternity and it would still fall short of expressing how much you mean to us.

With that truth in mind, I thought I’d tell you just a snippet of how much we appreciate each of you. As we sit down at the Thanksgiving table and bow our heads, we’ll give thanks for you. Here are just some of the reasons:

Five Reasons Why You Quit

I’ve done it. I’m sure you have too. You get a great idea and dive right in. Somewhere along the way, you chip away at your enthusiasm until one day you suddenly realize you haven’t pursued that thing in quite a while. You quit.

That’s fine if you started watching season one of Castle or took belly dancing lessons. There comes a time when those things naturally come to an end. But when it comes to quitting your writing dream, it will leave you empty and utterly unhappy.

There are any number of reasons why individuals throw in the towel on their pursuits, but here are ones I have found to be the top five: