Dipping the Quill Deeper: Moving On as a Writer

by Eva Marie Everson @EversonAuthor

“How did you break into publishing?”

I hear this question mostly at conferences but sometimes during interviews. 

My answer is simple: God opened doors and I walked through them. 

I admit to having never attended writers conferences, one after the other, hoping for a break. I admit that I stumbled into a world I previously knew little about. I admit to the Cinderella story—I attended a fancy ball (a convention), left a glass slipper behind (a book proposal), and nine days later “the prince” called to see if the shoe fit.

It did. That one door opened, and I walked from outside the palace to its marble-floored foyer. 

In Ancient Days

Approximately 1440 years before the birth of Christ, Moses led the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt toward the Promised Land. They’d prayed angst-driven prayers toward the desire to live elsewhere, under their “own authority” rather than Pharoah’s. But getting from Point A to Point B didn’t come easily. In fact, along the way, those who previously begged God for deliverance now begged Moses to “send us back.” They wanted freedom, but the price to get it was not something they’d counted on.

In the 14th chapter of Exodus, we read the following:

They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.”

Is There a Conflict Here?

Does this seem like a contradiction to you? Moses tells the people to “be still” and the Lord tells them to “move on.” 

And what, pray tell, does this have to do with writing . . . or publishing?

Be still and I’ll tell you.

There are times within our work as writers and as published authors—if that is the way you wish to go—when we need to be still (the Hebrew word denotes a sense of peace). We are ready to plow the row, but God sees gnarled roots ahead. His desire for you is to move along in the field a ways because there is a row where the soil has already been made ready, This is the place where your labor will yield an abundant crop. 

When Moses cried out to God, God asked, “Why are you crying out to me? Get moving! Raise that staff I told you to hold on to back there on Mount Horeb and then watch what I do” (Exodus 14:15,16 paraphrased).

There are times when we need to raise the tool of our trade (for Moses, a staff . . . for us, a pen) and walk between the waters of the sea. Or, sticking with the Cinderella story, the next door. The glass-slippered princess didn’t stay in the foyer of the palace, I’m sure. She saw a staircase and climbed it, another opened door and she walked through it and on and on. 

But It May Not Always Be Easy

Getting from the attic to the palace wasn’t always easy for Cinderella. Getting from Egypt to the Promised Land wasn’t easy for the Hebrew ex-slaves. But they walked on. They kept going. Their best bet was always, however, to only walk through those doors (and seas) opened (or parted) by God. 

Look at some of the bestselling books within our industry and you’ll note that they, so many of them, were born out of tragedy, hardship, or a reckoning with God. Even works of fiction have the same beginning—something intense happened which led to a need to “tell a story.” 

Our God is Bigger Than That!, a children’s book I co-wrote with Michelle Medlock Adams had its beginnings in a hospital corridor where fear reared its ugly head. Dust, my latest published novel, was birthed as I sat at my desk considering my life and the decision I’d made. I penned The Third Path, a work on nonfiction, as I struggled with questions I had for God, but moreso on the questions He had for me.

Trust God on These

Whatever you’re working on, I encourage you to trust God for those times of being still (quieted by His peace) and those times of walking on. My prayer for you is the same as the prayer I’ve prayed for myself over the years: Dear Lord, may the works of my hands be a blessing to you. Open the doors you want opened. Close the doors you want shut. And keep my hands off the doorknobs.

Walk on.

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Dipping the Quill Deeper: Moving On as a Writer from author @EversonAuthor on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Eva Marie Everson is the CEO of Word Weavers International, the director of Florida Christian Writers Conference, and the contest director for Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. She is the multiple award-winning author of more than 40 books and countless articles and blogposts. She is also an award-winning speaker and a Bible teacher and the most recent recipient of the AWSA Lifetime Achievement Award (2022). 

Eva Marie is often seen at writers conferences across the States. She served as a mentor for the Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild and taught as a guest professor at Taylor University in 2011. She and her husband make their home in Central Florida where they enjoy their grandchildren. They are owned by one persnickety cat named Vanessa.

Eva Marie's latest book, THE THIRD PATH, takes a look at 26 of the questions God asked in the Bible, then makes them personal to the reader. The premise of the book is currently her most asked for continuing workshop at writers conferences.

Featured Image: Photo by Filip Kominik on Unsplash