Overcome Uncertainty and Write the Best Book You Can

by Beth K. Vogt @BethVogt

As I mulled over the topic for this blog post, I found myself wondering about you. 

Yes, you.

The writer reading these words on Saturday July 11, 2020.

How’s your “real” life at this moment? Are relationships with family and friends going well? Are you still doing the social distancing dance that disrupts the normal rhythm of life? Did your state start opening up only to decide to lock back down? Are you wondering what school will look like for your kids? Is there someone you just want to hug … but you can’t?

How’s your writing life at this moment? Has the “free time” provided by the pandemic fueled a writing spree? Or has COVID-19 bullied your creativity? Are you wondering how the upheaval in publishing will affect you in the future? Or are you already facing decreased sales? A delayed release? A canceled contract?

We’re all facing uncertainties right now, personally and professionally. I’m almost certain we’ve all asked the same question at least once, possibly multiple times: What can I do?

I’ve heard all sorts of answers to that single question. 

You can keep sifting through the headlines for answers – both the national ones and the industry ones. 

You can participate in some virtual writers conferences. Stay connected with writer friends and mentors via Zoom and Google groups.

You can read. A lot. Both good fiction and good nonfiction. And isn’t true that we struggled to find time to read B.C.? (Before Coronavirus)

But the one answer I hear over and over again is this: Write the best book you can. 

No matter what the circumstances are in your real life – perfect or less than – no matter the path you’re walking in your writing journey right now – high road or low – no matter where you are in your career – dreaming the dreaming or living the dream – you can choose to write your best book starting now. 

Writing your best book may mean giving yourself a guilt-free breather because you don’t create well under duress. But go ahead and journal. Your thoughts. Your prayers. Your story ideas. Your dreams. Just because you can … not because you have to. 

On deadline? Accept that writing your best book right now is going to be hard. Offer yourself grace during the process. Your best book right now may not be the same as your best book a year ago – but it will still be a good book – the best you can produce in these circumstances.

Writing your best book right now might mean praying about possibilities. Daring to try something new. Being willing to wait until God opens a door … or until he makes it clear that, yes, a door is closed – not because he doesn’t love you, but because he does.

And the truth of God’s love for us never changes. (Psalm 136:26)

TWEETABLE
Overcome Uncertainty and Write the Best Book You Can - @BethVogt on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Beth K. Vogt believes God’s best often waits behind the doors marked “Never.” Having authored nine contemporary romance novels and novellas, The Best We’ve Been, the final book in Beth’s Thatcher Sisters Series with Tyndale House Publishers, releasers May 2020. Other books in the women’s fiction series include Things I Never Told You, which won the 2019 AWSA Award for Contemporary Novel of the Year, and Moments We Forget. Beth is a 2016 Christy Award winner, a 2016 ACFW Carol Award winner, and a 2015 RITA® finalist. An established magazine writer and former editor of the leadership magazine for MOPS International, Beth blogs for Learn How to Write a Novel and The Write Conversation and also enjoys speaking to writers group and mentoring other writers. Visit Beth at bethvogt.com.