Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.”
When my children were school age and were in the throes of writing and reading, we drove a couple of hours away so they could take part in a writing workshop, given by authors who had written children’s and youth literature—and who had been fairly successful. During one of the sessions about publishing (these were the days before self-publishing), the teacher commented that sometimes it takes awhile to get books published, but to never give up hope. He then mentioned a book we all knew very well; for ten years the author sent it to publisher after publisher, until one publishing house finally decided to take a chance.
If he had not persevered, we might have never had Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness. Mr. Peretti may not have known at the time that his book would be a best-selling novel, but he did believe in the words he’d written—enough to have the courage to keep trying.
Never give up. Greatness might be just around the corner.
I have a friend who once wrote a curriculum for a class she was teaching. She asked several friends to read it so she could get feedback, because she was considering putting it into book format, hoping to sell it to a wider audience. The content wasn’t something I would have ever considered reading for pleasure or even education. But one thing I had to remember: Other people would want to read it.
So I worked through the words on the paper; and when I finished reading it, I knew that once she reformatted it and reworked some of the content, the book just might be successful.
Little did I know just how successful.
That friend is now a well-known author; and that curriculum-turned-hardback-turned-paperback eventually became a series of books that sold into the millions. Because she believed in her work, she surrounded herself with people who would encourage her to persevere and seize the opportunities in front of her.
So here are some things to remember while writing that draft or handbook or curriculum or self-published book:
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See beyond the finished work. Know that one day it just may reach the audience that needs it.
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Surround yourself with people who will give honest and constructive feedback.
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Believe in your work! Know that what you say, what you write, is important and will benefit those who read it.
- Think about Frank Peretti and others who can inspire you to Never. Give. Up.
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season
we will reap, if we do not give up.”
Galations 6:9
