She Quit.

Yesterday my one solitary employee had the nerve to quit. With no resignation letter. No two weeks’ notice. No chance for me to even suggest a goodbye party.

We exchanged words in the Michael’s parking lot. Actually, I was the one speaking. (Or shouting… that’s up to your interpretation.) It sounded a little like this: “Noooooo… don’t leave me…” [#%*@]

I never knew until that moment of desperation how much I was able to imitate a good country song – despair, anger, and… fake profanity.

Eternal hope came in the form of my husband as he pulled up in the parking lot. Despite my inability to talk sense to my employee, my husband coaxed her (the Director of Transportation for the BJ Company) into sticking around for a few more moments.

But that’s all it lasted.

I shudder to even talk about it now, but I’m going to call my employee by her name – my Jeep.

I loved that Jeep. But she gave out on me. 20 feet from the gas station she died on a hill so steep we couldn’t even push her off the road.

As much as I wanted to blame my girl, kick her tires, and maybe yell a little… I couldn’t.

Because it was my fault.
I failed to refill her.

This may seem obvious, but the same rule applies to our writing. We can’t get mad at our mentors, at the publishing industry, at magazine editors – at anyone but ourselves when we fail to put in our best efforts.

There are a million writers with a million excuses out there. But guys, blaming our “employees” for our failures only makes us powerless to fix the problem.

So today I encourage you, along with myself, to put on our big girl panties and do something with our writing.

Rejection? Failure? Defeat? Just bumps in the road.

Let’s refuel... whether it's a writers' conference, an internship, a focused study on writing, or just actually WRITING...  let's give ourselves what we need to be our best.

It's either that or resort to fake profanity in the Michael's parking lot.

The entire season is resting on Rowengartner's shoulders!

An extra 50 bonus points to whoever can name that movie!

My husband and I have recently gotten into this kick where we've been Netflixing (if you can verb that word) a lot of the old sports movies we watched as little kids. The Mighty Ducks, Little Big League, The Big Green, Angels in the Outfield... I think we grew up right in the thick of when all of those movies were released.

Aside from the duplicate actors in a lot of them, have you ever noticed the similarities? Most of them include most, if not all, of the following:

* Single, attractive parent with single, attractive child
* A team of losers
* No hope in sight for a winning season
* A strange, strange, strange man who is usually the assistant coach
* Coach or other single, attractive man or woman who is of course attracted to the parental unit of the child
* Singularly gifted kid

Take a couple of those elements, change out the sport, add or subtract Emilio Estevez and bang! A brand-new, all original movie!

Or not. Basically, we've got a dozen or so movies with the same exact plot line. My question to you - is this any different in writing?

One of the speakers I heard at a writing conference one time suggested that it wasn't. According to him, there are no original plots anymore. There are original stories, but every plot can be traced back to one very similar to it.

His point? Our job as writers is to write amazing stories, not amazing plots.

So here's my question for you! Do you agree with that? Do you think there aren't original plots anymore? And if so, how do you take those unoriginal plots and create original stories?

Do you have to be called to write?

I recently asked my blog readers for interview question suggestions to include in the back of my next novel, Bound by Guilt. One person asked me this: "Do you view your writing as a calling from God? If so, how did you come to understand calling? Do you think you have to have a calling to write Christian based novels?"

What a great question! I want to try and answer it here.

Yes, I do view my writing as a calling from God, but for many years I didn't know for sure he was calling me to it. As I've thought about it, I realized God places dreams in our hearts as children for a reason. I always loved to read and write little stories as a kid. I didn't think it was anything more than playing around until later. But God knew. When we grow up, lots of times we let those childhood dreams fade for various reasons. I bet if all of us would think back to our growing up years and remember what it was we loved as children, and then tried to actually do some of those things as adults, we would find ourselves in a much happier place.

That's how I came to understand callings. By finally realizing my dreams were from Him. It doesn't mean everything's been easy, mind you. But now I have something to fall back on. I can know, yeah, he put those there. I need to pursue them.

But here's the thing. Do I think you have to have a specific calling to write Christian based novels? Let me put it this way: Do we have to have a specific calling to go out and share the Lord with our neighbor? No, because God has already commissioned every one of us to go into all the world and share the gospel. True, some are called to a more specific type of evangelistic ministry like standing behind a pulpit, but we're all called to share. The same could apply to writing. If you use your writing as a means to share Christian truths and principles, then you're fulfilling God's greatest calling right there.

I think if you have a desire to write, that's a good clue God wants you to pursue it. You don't have to have some lightning strike moment to know. I didn't.

Amen, Sistas!

I don't know about you, but I've totally been tracking with what my fellow Scribble Chicks have been saying this week about prioritizing, settling manageable goals, productivity and well, writer burnout.

It's always good to know that your fellow writers not only experience the same emotions you do, but are still figuring out the whole time management thing with writing, too.

This week has been a really challenging one for me in the ol' writing department. I've had no trouble meeting my deadlines because when it comes right down to it, I have to finish or I won't get paid (always a plus when you're a freelance writer), but I've had a little trouble actually getting excited about the task.

Now there's no question in my mind that I still love to write. It's just when you do it all the time (like everyday, and I'm not just talking novel writing), sometimes it's a little more difficult to get excited about sitting in front of the computer yet again. And because of that, not to mention a slew of freelancing deadlines, I haven't had much time to actually work on my baby, my WIP.

Then when I start thinking about that, I get really bummed because that's what I really want to be working on. Now before you think "Wow, she's just one giant whiner," let me be clear. I'm thankful for each and every freelance assignment—especially in this economy. But without some of those manageable goals that Erynn and Betsy was talking about, well, that probably wouldn't change anytime soon, and my WIP would always be on the backburner.

So all that to say, we're here to encourage you (and each other), so if there's ever anything we can help with, just let us know. Now, back to that regularly scheduled writing assignment...

Wait just a minute...

Erynn's post Monday about being overwhelmed really rang true for me! I hope it did for you too. I typically multi-task really well and stay productive, but every now and then I have my days of whining, complaining, and feeling tired and unmotivated, where I just want to sit down and STOP.

Is that bad?

Erynn's right...sometimes we need to prioritize and downsize and focus on small goals that will make us not only feel productive, but truly SEE the productivity we are already producing. It's not a manipulation - we ARE being productive even when we set smaller goals. We don't have to do everything and be everything at once. Thanks for the reminder, girl! :)

Someone posted an article on facebook the other day about writer's block that made me think along these lines. The article focused on how to refill your creative tank - through rest, prayer, reading, exercise, etc. My response to the article was that "yes!!" I often give the advice many published authors do - fight through writer's block, make yourself write something/anything until the block is lifted, etc. And sometimes that is necessary - but in today's rush rush world, I think we don't stop long enough to refill.

There is a delicate balance there. Productivity versus replenishment/rest. Maybe instead of pushing through the hard times, we need to stop first and pray. Read a Psalm of encouragement. Take a quick walk and ask God for direction and guidance.

And like Erynn suggested, re-prioritize. Focus on the good. Downsize your expectations if necessary...and keep in mind the Reason you are writing in the first place....

If it's not one thing, it's two...

My mom told me that the other day and it's really rang true for me considering the issues I've been having with the whole nursing thing. ;)

But, I started thinking about it beyond my two issues (not to be too TMI here...) and I realized that it's true in my writing as well. If I'm not having a hard time coming up with great, well-rounded characters, then I'm struggling with getting a plot started or finished. If I'm not dealing with a plot that doesn't connect, then I'm having a hard time getting my butt off Facebook (thanks for the pep talk this weekend, CJ!) and onto more productive activities...like finally sending in that proposal.

And then I spend my whole time bemoaning the two things rather than focusing on the one thing that is going well. Non-writing related example - C-section has healed really well, but I never think about that in the wake of my other problems. Are you guys like that? I can talk myself out of sitting down and writing faster than anything else if I'm only focusing on the part of the book/proposal/process that I hate.

Yesterday, I was talking to a lady at church about my two issues and she said something that also stuck with me. "Set extremely small goals," she said. And I realized that too could relate to my writing, especially considering the fact that I haven't touched anything in the last six weeks since Nathan was born. Instead of getting very overwhelmed by thinking I need to finish a proposal by Friday, maybe I'll start by setting a goal to finish one section - or even one paragraph! - of the proposal by Friday.

How about you guys? What is your one and two things? And how are you going to get over the complaining and start setting goals to overcome them?

When saying "No" is really right

I don't know about you, but it's really hard for me to say "no" to people. That's a good quality for us to have in life, I think, to a degree, but there comes a time when it can be detrimental to our writing.

If your schedule is too full to write, it might be time to look at all the things you're saying "Yes" to and maybe saying "No" to a few of them in the future.

See, there are lots of great things we can do in life. Some of them even feel like writing (think going to the library, surfing the internet, or even reading a writing how-to book). But if we're not producing the pages we'd like in our respective projects, it's time we did something.

I once asked Sibella Giorello, a fantastic author and good writing friend, her advice for aspiring novelists. She said, "Ask yourself: 'What do I love to do, besides write?' Then kill it."

Each of us will have different things to um . . . kill. Maybe it's your time on Facebook, going to the movies, or even reading a novel. I'm not saying you have to completely give up everything in your life besides writing. Not at all. Having outside interests keeps our wells primed. And they help to keep us sane sometimes too! But there's always something we can cut.

For me it's definitely internet time. What is it for you?