Writing Tip #11: Remember You’ll Never Arrive

Deborah Raney, prolific fiction author and faculty member for Mount Hermon’s Christian Writers Conference, sent me the following tip to share.

“The most valuable lesson I’ve learned about the writer’s life is that it’s full of ups and downs.  In your own eyes, you will never, ever “arrive.” Some months you’ll be on top and feel wonderful about how things are going; other months you’ll be sure your career is over. The sooner you accept that as normal—and just show up at your desk anyway, day after day after day—the more likely you are to start having more ups than downs. Besides, it’s not about you anyway. Though the act of writing may be therapeutic for the writer, a book doesn’t really come to life until it’s read by someone else. If God uses your story to bring joy or comfort or reproof or wisdom to even one other life, you are a success in the eyes of the only One who matters.”

–Deborah Raney, author of The Hanover Falls Novels.  www.deborahraney.com