HI! Grace Fox here, newest member of the Monday blogging team.
As a writer, I believe God has given me the assignment of communicating truth through the written word. Some days I feel confident of my call. Ideas flow, and fingers fly across the keyboard. An editor accepts an article. A royalty check arrives. And a reader emails, “Your book changed my life. Please keep writing.”
Other days…well, other days the computer screen stares at me in silence. My fingers hover over the keyboard awaiting a divine download. I pour a cup of coffee. A rejection hits my inbox. More coffee. I check my Amazon stats, and I entertain thoughts about getting a real job.
Sometimes I feel as though accomplishing this assignment borders on the brink of impossibility, and I think of Moses. How did he feel when he stood on the shore of the Red Sea with more than three million people depending on him for their well-being? His was a God-given assignment, too, but as waves wet his feet perhaps he questioned his ability to fulfill it.
I stand on the shore of my own Red Sea wondering how to best tackle a task fraught with challenges including…
How can I present my idea in a unique way?
How can I turn my idea into a compelling sentence or two?
How can I develop that sentence into an irresistible query or proposal?
What’s the right market for that query or proposal?
How can I ensure my work passes the slush pile and lands on the editor’s desk?
How can I overcome the pain of rejection or disappointment?
How do I find an agent?
What’s the best publishing option for my book?
How do I negotiate a contract without an agent?
What marketing and publicity strategies are most effective for my book?
How do I best utilize social media marketing?
How can I build my platform?
Writing for publication, especially considering the industry’s constant, rapid changes, is not an easy task. It’s vital that we, as writers, focus not on the Red Sea before us but on the One who’s able to part the waters and show us the way through them. Several weeks ago I discovered these verses, and I’ve found them encouraging in this context:
“When the Red Sea saw you, O God, its waters looked and trembled! The sea quaked to its very depths. The clouds poured down rain; the thunder rumbled in the sky. Your arrows of lightning flashed. Your thunder roared from the whirlwind; the lightning lit up the world! The earth trembled and shook. Your road led through the sea, your pathways through the mighty waters—a pathway no one knew was there! You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep, with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds” (Psalm 77:16-20).
God gave Moses a seemingly impossible task and then made the way to accomplish it. He’ll do the same for us as we seek to communicate messages of hope and healing to a hurting world. Let’s be faithful to do what He’s called us to do with excellence and enthusiasm, and let’s trust Him to make a way through the publishing Red Sea for our messages to reach those who need them most.
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