Surviving the Valley

You hear a lot on the writing journey that it’s filled with highs and lows—probably more so in publishing because it’s rapidly changing and I personally wouldn’t consider any part of the industry stable or predictable.

valley-of-fire-1390258_1920The problem is the valley is hard. What exactly do you do? Do you give up writing? How do you readjust to keep your writing career moving forward when seemingly no one wants the words you’re putting on the page?

My writing valley (really—the deep dark hole of despair) started after my first trilogy was published. I worked really hard marketing those books, had great reviews, and two out of three of the books were each nominated for multiple awards. I was even told by my publisher that I was (at one point) their second-bestselling fiction author.

I thought there was no way my next proposal wouldn’t be picked up—by somebody. Well, it wasn’t and to be honest it put me in a psychological funk. I was pretty convinced that my envisioned bestselling author status dreams were rapidly crumbling in front of my eyes.

I’ve come through my first major valley (I’m sure one of many to come) and I thought I’d share what I did to survive it without throwing my writing career in the trash and lighting it on fire.

  1. Grieve. It’s okay to be sad about it. The writing life is unpredictable—even that’s a pretty generous understatement. Your writing life didn’t go as planned and it’s hard to readjust dreams sometime—but do readjust.
  2. Help other authors. Help them promote their books. Read books for endorsement. Review novels. Keep your name in the reader’s mind by having your name on their books.
  3. Stay active on social media. Even if you’re not publishing, keep engaging with your readers and other authors.
  4. Keep writing and learning the writing craft. Above all else—don’t stop writing. Journal. Blog. Write a new book proposal. Use this time to brush up on the areas of your writing that aren’t strong. Read those numerous writing craft books that have been piling up beside your bed (come on, I know you have them!) Learn those pesky computer things you’ve been putting off. Scrivner. Newsletter distribution sites. Take an on-line writing course. Even James Patterson has one now that’s very reasonably priced.
  5. Write outside your genre. During my valley, an editor from Guideposts reached out to me and asked me to audition for a cozy mystery series they were putting together. Hmm. Cozy mystery? I write thrillers. Straight up thrillers. I honestly didn’t think I could write gentle enough for a cozy mystery, but what else was I really doing? So I tried it. My first submission, well, you could probably predict the feedback I received. Too dark. The heroine’s not cheery enough. By the way, this surprised no one that knew me. But I resubmitted—and they loved it! And then the series didn’t move forward. I auditioned for a different Guideposts series and washed out again. Maybe cozy mystery wasn’t for me, but it did prove I could write something other than thrillers and I built bridges to editors at Guideposts even if they didn’t take me on for those projects.
  6. Fractured MemoryListen to God’s nudgings. Looking back with perfect vision, I felt that God used the Guideposts experience to get me to write outside my comfort zone. During this process, I started thinking about a contest called Blurb to Book that Love Inspired was hosting. Never did I imagine I would write for them. I didn’t think I was a good fit, but I found myself obsessing about this contest to the point where I couldn’t sleep. So I entered, and I ended up winning a contract for Fractured Memory, my novel releasing this month from Love Inspired Suspense. Suddenly, I was clawing my way out of that dark writing well.
  7. Go indie. In this writing age, there is literally no reason to not have content out for readers. Don’t quit your day job and scrap and save every penny you can to hire a good editor, proofreader, and book cover designer. I do say this with some caution—be sure you put out a good book! Don’t sabotage yourself into another pit.

Overall, take the valley as a place that can provide rest, rejuvenation, and growth. Perhaps you will need to go back to a paying job or postpone the plans that you had of quitting or reducing your hours. Just know that the valley is survivable and it doesn’t have to mean the demise of your writing career.

Tell me, how have you survived low points in your writing career?



When is it Good to Indie Publish?



























3. Would you read this genre again?

























3. Would you read this genre again?
















Dangerous Curves Ahead












Again—it’s telling the difference.

To help, Godin discusses three curves.






And perhaps God is calling you to do something else.



Winning Writing Contests













Have you ever entered a writing contest?

How I Discover New Books– Hint, Not in a Bookstore







Here is a list of how I now discover books.








Five Possible Reasons Why I Didn’t Endorse Your Novel









Failure Analysis

frame-541745_1280Whenever the New Year rolls around everyone gets caught up in the newness of a potentially fresh start. Many are busy fashioning resolutions or, the new trend, picking a word to focus on for the rest of the year. Commit. Encourage! Lose weight. Oh wait, that’s two words.

It’s known that New Year’s resolutions don’t last very long at all. People who go to the gym know this in spades. Come January, you have to stand in line until someone gives up a piece of cardio equipment. However, in just a few weeks, it will be like crickets chirping again and those aerobic instructors would be happy if crickets did show up to their classes so they’d have someone to teach.

I think in current American society, examining failure is passe. First of all, no one is a failure! Every child gets a trophy. Every child is equally good at everything. Authors are happy to post negative reviews on their Facebook page, not to say, “This person had something valid to say about my novel and I’m going to learn from it,” but rather as proof of how idiotic the reviewer was. Other authors gripe and complain when their book covers get nominated for “Worst Cover” awards. I don’t know. I’ve seen some of those covers and those just might be valid nominations.

Is this really learning? What is the value in learning from our mistakes?

I think we need to get back to not dismissing failure out of hand. My own reasons for failure are, if I’m honest, rarely external. They’re internal. I am the reason I failed.

Let me give one example everyone can attest to: weight loss. I’m not at my goal weight. I haven’t been for years. Why is that? I actually go to the gym regularly. Typically, three days a week. I don’t eat out often. Why am I not a size 4? Or, even a single digit size?

How many times have you heard these excuses? I’m too busy. It’s hormones. Gym memberships are too expensive. I’m big boned! It’s my thyroid. It’s genetic. Everyone in my family is overweight.

What are the real reasons? I’m lazy. I don’t want to cut refined sugar out of my diet. Soda is my one  bad habit (and therefore I should keep it). It’s been a long day–I deserve (insert sugary, decadent treat here).

The reason we’re falling short on all our good intentions is largely because we haven’t accepted the reasons we’ve failed at them in the past.

Why isn’t your book published? These days, there is no reason why you can’t get your words out there with indie publishing. You literally cannot have an excuse.

So what’s holding you back?

What I encourage you to do at the beginning of this year is look at that big dream you’ve been holding onto with everything in you and do an honest analysis of why you haven’t achieved it yet. I challenge you to first list five things that pertain to yourself.

So, if you’re brave, in the comments section share your unachieved dream and give a short failure analysis. How will you change these items to get closer to your dream by the end of 2015?

I think that will be better than picking a new resolution.

Christmas Need List

I was out shopping and feeling a little overwhelmed by the financial pressure of the holiday season. Organizations begging for donation money. My shopping list for friends and family and my own Christmas want list.

Christ's Birth In A StableDo you ever get that way? I deserve this because: (list reason here.) It’s not at all financially responsible or Christ-like but I was in one of those moods as well.

Perhaps you’ve had a year like our family has where you’re hemorrhaging money around every corner. Two children in braces. Hubby needing dental work. Crowns (the dental ones) are expensive! The house needed painting. Before we knew other things were going to break, we built a roof over our deck which we’d put off for years. Then cars broke down. The garage door broke. The dog broke– well, got sick and that mysterious hum vibrating our house whenever someone took a shower meant the water heater was on its last leg.

It just seemed like everywhere we turned– we were signing big checks for things that weren’t vacations at Disney.

I’m in my car, thinking through all these things when my own children came to mind. This is probably the first year they’ve been anxious and uber-excited about buying gifts for other people. Their allowance couldn’t stay in their pockets long enough. It was fun to see them pick just the right things for people of our family. Though, they did soon figure out that those “good prices” generally meant “small quantity” but I digress.

This has been a year where I’ve seen my two children grow in their giving spirit. Over the summer, my girls and several neighborhood children were putting up lemonade stands almost every weekend. They collectively earned close to $90.00 and decided to donate it to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. It was definitely one of those proud mommy moments.

Look at these children I’ve raised. How generous they are with their money!

Then, a little bit of the Grinch seeped into my heart when analyzing the reason for their generosity.

Of course they can be that generous with their money because they know their father and I will take care of all their needs. 

And then one sentence spoke into my mind breaking the silence of my car.

Do I not do the same for you? 

I’m not one to hear God’s voice all the time. These moments are truly rare for me but I felt a conviction deep in my soul. Of course, God does provide for our every need but how often do we recklessly apply that principle, like my children, to our every day lives? How quick are we to completely drain our bank accounts to a worthwhile charity and be completely at peace with it because we know that God will provide for us?

I know I don’t but it got me thinking about ways that I could begin to stretch myself to do these things.

Christmas is really about getting every need fulfilled. There was an unrepairable distance between God and ourselves until Jesus came along.

What is it you need for Christmas? Is it unconditional love? Friendship? Grace? Mercy? Forgiveness?

That’s what was sleeping in the manger.

My hope for you this Christmas is that you, too, can have a moment where the Christmas spirit speaks to you in a way like this.

This year, the Water Cooler will be taking a blog break until January 2nd to give our authors and volunteers focused time with God and their families.

Speaking for all of here at the WordServe Water Cooler– we hope and pray you have a wonderful, blessed Christmas!