Many of our Premium Team Members and Voices are packing their bags and putting the final touches on their manuscripts and checking their boarding passes to Indianapolis for the ACFW annual conference. Going to a conference is a necessary part of a writer’s career for sure but it can really take an emotional toll right in the middle of all your best laid plans. Here are a few things you can expect and how to combat them so you’ll be relaxed and successful when you get to Indy: Feelings of fear will come. They always do. Whether they manifest as butterflies in your stomach, sweaty palms or downright terror, the fear show up. Expect it. Embrace it. It’s only preparing you for the rigors of the conference. It will pass. […]
Read the RestTag Archives | life coaching
I Can Only Imagine
As a writer, there are many times when things just don’t go right. The plot takes a wrong turn. The agent doesn’t think your story is publish-worthy. Your dog eats your only hard copy of your manuscript. The writing life is full of disappointments. But it is also filled with glorious wins and blessings. As a writer, your words will reach untold numbers of people and will impact their lives in ways you can only imagine. Haven’t you read a book and thought, “I can only imagine what that character felt like”, or “I wonder if the author experienced that? How else could they write about that so deeply?” You can only write what you can imagine. And you can only imagine if you’ve felt that or something similar. Those […]
Read the RestLessons on the Writer’s Road
As I pedal through middle-America, I think of you. When I learn new truths, I know they apply to you and what you face. The lessons I’ve learned on the bicycle road are the same lessons on the writer’s road so I want to share some of them with you: Things will NEVER go according to plan. Even your best plans are altered by reality of what is found on the writer’s road. You don’t have the knowledge of what’s down each road, around each curve and over every hill. There is ALWAYS a reason when things don’t go according to plan. You just need to make sure we are open to that reason or we’ll miss an incredible blessing. Plans should only be guidelines. If you marry a specific […]
Read the RestPlan Your Career, Then Roll With the Punches!
I know so many writers who set their sights on a particular genre, publisher, agent, editor. Their entire life surrounds that. While it’s good to plan—and you should definitely do it—if you aren’t flexible, you’re going to set yourself up for horrible disappointment. For example, I know someone very well who dreamed of publishing for one House. They worked feverously to prepare their manuscript for just that pub house. That’s great but they weren’t even considering any other avenue. They were so caught up with the desire to publish for one particular house, others never even hit their radar. Then the unthinkable happened. That pub house decided to not publish fiction any more. For me, it was just a piece of publishing news. For this individual, it was the end […]
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