When I was little, one of my favorite songs was about a wise man who built his house on a rock. When the winds and waves came, his house kept standing. But the foolish man built his house on the sand and the “house on the sand went SPLAT!” And it was all because he failed to build on strong foundation.
In his book, The Art of War for Writers, James Scott Bell shares that it’s vital for writers to know the difference between a hero and a fool. “A hero,” he writes, “knows it takes hard work and a long time to get published; a fool thinks it should happen immediately, because he thinks he’s a hero already.”
I’ve certainly played the part of the fool.
When I first started writing I was certain that, because of I held a degree writing and had studied briefly under a couple of well-respected authors, agents and editors would naturally love my first novel. So I started pitching the manuscript the minute I finished writing it.
Next thing I knew, I had an entire drawer filled with generic rejection letters and a unpublishable manuscript that started gathering dust.
Looking back, I now recognize what I couldn’t see then. While I understood the concept of good writing and I had the basic mechanics down, I lacked a foundation to build my writing career on. I also lacked experience.
I now know that foundations and experience take time to build. And time requires patience.
The world wasn’t created in a day. Neither is a writing career.
When God created the universe, He didn’t start with the capstone. He started with the foundation. Why? Because certain things had to be carefully and methodically put in place in order for life to exist.
It was only after He set the foundations of the earth, the seas, and the heavens in place that He began to craft the plants, the animals, and finally, humanity.
He’s still building on that same foundation to this day.
As a beginning writer I didn’t want to hear that I needed to start small. I didn’t want to write articles. I wanted to write books. I didn’t want to spend more time studying craft. I’d already spent four years doing that.
Ten years later, I still haven’t published a book. But I have had some success with short stories, articles, and individual devotionals. I’m discovering that the more these “small” pieces are accepted, the stronger my foundation as a writer becomes. One day, Lord willing, I’ll see my name on the spine of a book. Even then, I know, I’ll still have a lot to learn.
Are you playing the hero or the fool in your writing?
If you see more of the fool than the hero in your writing, you may need to take another look at your foundation. Where are the weak points? Where is it lacking all together? If you don’t already have a writing plan in place, 2019 is the perfect time to create one!
As you put it together, be sure to regularly run it by the Master Architect and the Designer of your creative soul. He never fails to shore us up when and where needed.
