The Undiscovered Country

Never lie to your readers. They can always tell.

The advice above penned by Stephen King in his book “On Writing” still sticks with me though I read the book over three years ago.

More importantly, and both David McClain and PlannerDan wrote about this in their entries, respectively, "Invalid Entry"  and "Invalid Entry" : We must be honest with ourselves.

I wrote to another writing friend over the past few days about my frustrations in not writing as much as I should or want to. The desire is there, but no motivation. Fear holds me back from completing my book proposal, as well attacking new projects.

What is my fear?

Lack of experience, and the rest of the world discovering I’m clueless.

Truth be told, I read too much. In seeking illumination, motivation and confidence, I read books and articles on publishing novels. Big mistake! I ended up with less of all three.

They all said the same thing: You must have experience and expertise before writing your novel. For instance, if you tackle science fiction, have a degree in one or more of the sciences. If you want to write a novel based on Christianity, make sure you can back it up with schooling in ministry. You also must have published hundreds of articles or stories in said genre before you’ll get your chance at publishing a novel.

I got a whole lotta nothin’ in both, yet that’s my chosen genre. My publishing credits end at three flash fiction stories, and one non-paid article in a CAD (computer-aided drafting) magazine.

Throwing modesty out the window, after six years and over a dozen major drafts, I have a solid and even salable novel on my hands. Yet I fear once a publisher, agent, or whatever, sees my bio and publishing credits showing a big fat “I know nothing,” my manuscript will end up in the garbage can.

It takes others to show me otherwise:

1. You. How many times have I complained about my writing not being good enough? I bet it’s bored and frustrated you stupid by now. Still you persist in telling me I do, in fact, measure up.

2. Winsun Literary Agency. Tell me, would an agent have worked with me for nearly a year helping me polish my manuscript if he didn’t think I had a novel worth publishing? Me thinks not.

3. Me. Every single time I want to quit this writing gig, or I’m frustrated with my lack of words, within a day or two, I write like crazy. If I truly didn’t believe deep down in my ability, I would have quit a long time ago.

4. God. Whenever I feel the need to be close to him, I write. It’s always been my form of praise and worship, and I can always feel him closest when I’m writing. Many times when he’s had something important to say, he uses my own words to get the message across. He also uses you to punch the message home when I’m particularly blind or stubborn.

God wants nothing to hold us back from achieving our heart’s desires, least of all fear. I’ve found more than once by revealing a fear or hurt, suddenly it’s not as big as it seemed when I kept it hidden. Looking at my fear of writing and publishing, it seems rather silly. Why did I ever let that little thing get the best of me?

One of my favorite scriptures I need constant reminding of is 1 Timothy 1:7: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a proposal to finish.