Believing Anything is Possible
I enjoyed sharing about the resurrection and how the way to God is very exclusive, but so openly inclusive. All we have to do is believe it to start our walk with Jesus. I think the part that stops us is how it will change life because there are so many misconceptions about it. The way this week has gone, I can show how we can falter in our faith and have to pause and take a deep breath. Or we feel overwhelm that stops us in our tracks. It can come on the heels of something great, like the time spent making the mixed media art in the picture.
Creeping Doubt
It’s obvious I can’t write anything without some flavor of Christianity and Jesus coming into it. My belief is in God, who can make anything possible. I’ve seen it enough to believe. However, it makes me wonder about my fiction side and how it presents to the world. I definitely know I do not write to everybody. I can not write that broad. I definitely write in a niche with a rather specific reader in mind.
I’m having feelings of boxing myself in this weekend because even as part of a large sale promotion by word of mouth with other indie authors in my genre, my sales are like a little minnow facing off a school of hungry trout. That is doubt talking and viewing it from the financial side. I did not start writing my Christian fantasy series to be some best-selling author. Considering my target audience and the fact that 90% of self-published books don’t even sell 100 copies, I’m on track as I keep building my fan base one person at a time. In 9 months I have sold 60+ of Champions of Light. It takes time for people to find you in the ocean of books out there when you stick to organic growth and word of mouth.
When I wrote book one of the series, I had the goal of helping readers understand how they can overcome by faith. Book two delves into being true to yourself and your faith no matter what the world says. I have wins here. A reader learned how to relate to Jesus more deeply from several sections of Champions of Light. I had worked hard and with a lot of help to make the religion feel right for the world, but relate to Christianity without feeling all Christianese. My readers love that my stories are clean and fun. I have the kernel of my fan base and I’m learning how to feed them more and get more to join the club.
This is proof we should never put down our small beginnings. I keep God first in what I do because if I don’t, I usually fall on my face and a seed for God is not planted. The fact I even got two books published that people have loved to read and they want book three amazes me. Good thing for them, I’m 70% done with the draft and on track for a fall release. I’ve found my rhythm and their enthusiasm helps mine.
Pecking Out the Words
It’s one thing to write a short post or story, but a whole novel that is around a hundred thousand words is a different beast. Writing this post and getting the first 500 words out took more effort to get to this point. For novel number three, this week started like a willing race horse shooting out of the gate with the Monday flourish of 1777 words to finish a chapter. Things still flowed well on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I had some world building to do. I have a good overview of my world, but I never drill down until I need to. Now I am up to a chapter with a fight scene. Those take forever for me to write, so I get the choreography correct.
Then life has weird ways of throwing you for loops, so you need a mental and emotional health day. That was Saturday. I had a lot of talking with God about what way I should go and feeling all discombobulated. Thankfully, in church on Sunday, I got confirmation once more that He makes a way where there is no way. I have to let go and let God. If I don’t, I can stay stuck more than a day on something that derails life. Thank you God, that every morning is a new day to get up and try again with you.
It’s crazier that I made the mixed media picture at the top of this post about joy just before things blew up. I had to wonder through Saturday how things would really go. I couldn’t even write. I had to digest, recuperate and by the time I got out of church on Sunday, I had confirmation God would make a way for the issue.
Will it happen again? Something will. The enemy doesn’t want me enjoying my walk with Jesus and all this fun writing with a Christian vibe. I’m also not perfect. I will fall on my face again, but that just gives me another opportunity to get up and learn how not to fall that way again. It may wind up in a story someday.
So, here I am, letting go and letting God yet again. Where will I be going next? I am not sure, but God will show me the way. One thing I know, I will keep working on book three for all those waiting fans. I’m having too much fun writing it, even those tougher fight scenes or those interruptions for fleshing out something in the world. Storytelling is fun. Writing is hard.