Today’s guest is Martha Rogers, a former English and Home Economics teacher who lives in Houston. Martha was named Writer of the Year at the Texas Christian Writers Conference in 2009. She has written two series and several novellas. She’ll give a copy of her latest book to one of those leaving a comment. See if you can answer this question.
What’s Your Excuse?
We make so many excuses for not submitting our writing. I don’t have enough time. I have too many other obligations. I’m too young. I’m too old. I’ve got too many rejections. I don’t have an agent. Any sound familiar?
Time is what we make it. Yes, family does take precedence over our writing, but when we are serious about writing, we can find even fifteen minutes in a day to write something. One way I handled it with our three boys in school was to set up a time for myself. When we arrived home after school, they picked up a snack then went to their desks to do homework or to read for at least half an hour. I also had that time to myself to write. Blood, barf, or brains became our standard for emergencies to interrupt Mom. It worked until the boys began middle school then high school and became involved in sports and other after-school activities.
Obligations can be handled and time still found for writing when the desire is strong enough. Of course, rejections come with the territory, and when one realizes that even the most famous of authors also received rejections, those letters become less frustrating. Rejections can be the stepping-stones or building blocks to better writing.
Agents are a little more difficult and take more diligence. Attending conferences with agents available is one of the best ways to make contact and find if you are a fit with him or her.
Age is
one that really bugged me. If I had used the excuse of age, I would never have been published. My agent believed in me and kept submitting my manuscripts. When I wanted to quit, friends encouraged me to keep on.
When God calls us to a task, He expects us to finish it. If we’re obedient to that call, He will give us what we need to complete it no matter what our excuse may be because He who began the work in us will carry through until it’s completed. Galatians 6:9 tells us not to grow weary when we’re doing God’s work because we’ll reap a harvest when God sets the time.
So many younger authors were getting contracts and having success that I wondered if He’d forgotten how old I was getting. Well, God doesn’t forget. He doesn’t sleep. He never quits work. He’s always there willing to help us reach our goals when we call on Him for help. The Lord does expect us to do our part. That part is to put ourselves in that chair and write.
Do whatever it takes to write. If you’re serious, God will help you find the time. At other times He may tell you to wait a season and take care of other things first. Listen to His voice and calling. Write as much as you can when you can. Be patient, and pray for His guidance in all that you do. Jeremiah tells you to call on Him, and He will answer and tell you great things you do not know. Jeremiah also tells you that God has great plans for you, plans to give you hope and a future. So press on to what God has called you to do whether it is to wait for a season to begin or to work hard now, for pressing on will lead you where you need to go.
So what excuses have you used to keep from submitting?
JIM: Okay, guys. What IS your excuse? Once you identify the excuse, then find a way to eliminate the excuse and get on with the writing. And write a brief (or long) comment and be entered in the drawing for a free book. Thanks for visiting.
Well Martha, I have no excuse. If I believe writing is my calling then I just have to do it. Life gets in the way, health gets in the way, and so forth…but, I really cannot excuse my laziness or preoccupation with other stuff. Thank you for asking the question it hit me where I needed to be hit. And, Yes God is Faithful all we need to do is allow Him to work through us and we do our part.
I have health problems that discourage me. Part of my problem is fatigue. I want to establish a short ritual that helps me get started writing each day. I often don’t feel like doing anything!
I’ll add a fourth “P” to the previous post. Paragraph. I tell myself to just squeeze in one paragraph of writing when the day is already full. Once I start that paragraph I often find time for more.
Great advice. I like that “one paragraph” challenge. Thanks, Betty.
Finding excuses is easy. But if you love writing, you’ll find a way. In my younger days I used to set a goal of so many pages in a day and get frustrated when I failed to meet the quota. Then I discovered a secret–The number of pages doesn’t matter. The important thing is to write. When you make that commitment, you’ll find the time and the pages you produce will be the right number for that particular day.
Good advice, John. Frustration is a problem for writers – and you’ve just eliminated one. Thanks.
In order to write I must have all my closets clean, the dishes washed, the floors vacuumned- you get the idea, so I use these hoursekeeping chores as a way of revving up my engine to get to the job of writing. It works, and I have quite a tidy and clean house and a few pages of the manuscript under my belt to boot!
I see small chores and I see the book. The small chores I can finish today. The book, not so. And since I like to complete things, I will find myself doing these small (often trivial) chores and taking away the writing time. Focus, James, focus.
My excuse is that I work full-time as a publisher, six days a week. But that excuse is flimsy, because I don’t ever put in a full day’s work, if I’m honest about it. But I find my remedy (and it works) is to save that seventh day for writing my own fiction. I commit to writing as many pages as I can (usually 8-10), so I’ll have something to take to my Wednesday afternoon writing group. My writing day is the most strenuous day in my week, and the most thrilling.
A writing group can give you an incentive to get something written. Nothing like a good deadline to make me sit down and get busy on the keyboard. Thanks for reminding us, John. YOu know what they say. If you want something done, ask a busy person.
Great post, Martha!
Since “Persistence” seems to be my middle name, I don’t make excuses not to write. I’m thankful when I can make the time to write. But, another part of your post hit home for me. I had worked on my first mystery novel, “Mixed Messages,” for several years and I’d tried my best to find a publisher (although I later realized that I was going about it the wrong way) but I wasn’t having any luck. One day, when I was feeling especially frustrated and kind of depressed, I saw the word “Faith” in bold, black print in my mind’s eye. I said a prayer, reminding myself to trust God’s plan for me and my writing. Two days later, a publisher accepted my manuscript and I now have three books in the series. Proof of what faith can do!
Patricia,
My three “P’s” for writing are Prayer, Patience, and Perseverance with the first P being the most important. They aren’t a magic formula, but they will keep you working toward a goal and as you did, the goal will be reached.
Hi Pat. Can I borrow your middle name? That’s what I really need. (And maybe a few prayers as well.) Thanks for stopping by.
Personally, I have trouble giving writing the proper priority. Thanks, Elaine, for the comments.
I started seriously writing at about age 65 and now have two published books and three other completed manuscripts in the cue and working on the next. I can find excuses for not writing but as a retiree, mostly, it’s lack of inspiration of where my character is going next, not a lack of time to write. People prioritize and make time for what they want to do, whether it’s housework, fiddling on face book or writing. I agree with you. If a writer is serious, there is always a way to find the time. Elaine Faber – Black Cat and the Lethal Lawyer
Good for you, Elaine. All my full length novels have been published since I turned 73. I have written more in my retirement than I ever did before and I’ve been writing since my college days. Those first manuscripts will never see the light of day with an editor, but they helped me hone my craft until the right time. My life verse is Galatians 6:9. Keep writing, you have some good years ahead of you.