Lasso Those Negative Thoughts

Friday on the ranch, my friends, and it’s a glorious day as the sun rises over the mountains and calves moo for their mamas. Something about breathing in fresh mountain air and warm horse flesh (among other horse smells) clears the senses and gets my creative juices flowing, so I rose early and moseyed out to the barn. Shane was there, saddling up for the day ahead, so we jawed a bit. He’s not a writer, but he’s about as wise a fella as ever stuck his boot in the stirrup.

What did we discuss? You, and this week of watching writers push out of their chrysalises like pretty butterflies stretching, stretching toward the sky. Shane said that. And I told him he should have been a writer. He laughed. He also helped me focus on a common thread that seemed to run through this week’s posts. So here we go. Hitch up your garters, tighten up the cinch and listen in.

Confidence, or lack thereof, is a theme I see in many of your comments. Trust me, it’s a plague. Most writers I know deal with self-doubts, some more than others. But note the operative words: Writers deal with it. How? Here’s a few tips:

·       Stop the negative thoughts. Just stop. Remember in 2 Corinthians 10 where we're advised to cast down imaginations and to bring into captive every thought--- the negative thoughts, not your story imaginings. Replace those negative voices with positive ones. Remind yourself of your successes, however small. Finished a page? A chapter? That’s success. If someone once said you could write, replay it like your favorite YouTube video. For years, I lived on my high school English teacher’s words. She said I could write, and oh, how desperately I wanted to believe her. I repeated those words in my head through all the dark rejections, contest agonies, and wicked voices telling me I would never make it. Guess what? Those voices lie.

·       Listen to the voices. What? Didn’t I just say to ignore them? These are different voices, the good ones. The voices of your characters, of the story that plays in your subconscious. You have them, don’t you? Most writers do. Other "normal" people don’t. Once, while speaking to a group of non-writers, someone asked where I got my ideas. I mentioned the people and stories I'd always had inside my head. When they looked at me a bit funny, the truth hit me, so I asked. To a person, none of these non-writers had ever had a story scene or a voice or a insistent character push into their minds. I’ll admit I was shocked. It was at that moment I realized writers are wired differently. It’s our gift. And if you have it, wouldn’t it be an insult to the gift-giver not to use it? So go ahead. Listen to those voices.

·       Realize you have something valuable to share  through your words that no one else has. No one.  You never know when you'll write something that is exactly what a reader needed to hear. They'll write to you and tell you, and you'll be both gratified and humbled.

·       Remember Deb Kastner’s personal GMC. Write your answers down and revisit them now and then. The hard, cold truth about writing is this: No one will force you to write except you. Writing is one of those rare jobs that is both freeing and daunting because it is 100% self-motivated, especially in the beginning. If you really want it, and I think all of you do,  you will write, whether you ever publish or not.

·       Do it afraid. Do it insecure. Do it with those nasty voices whispering you’re not good enough. Maybe you aren’t yet. But you can be.

·       Study the craft. And never stop learning. The more you know, the more confident you become of getting it right.  But, as this old dog was reminded recently at RWA, “Don’t let technique get in the way of the story.” Wham! That hit me right in the keyboard. Even now I’m guilty of thinking too much about sentence structure and such when story must be king. Technique is important, don’t get me wrong, but don’t get so hung up that you lose your voice, your style, your story. Remember, you have something valuable to share. 

·       Now, go write your beautiful book. 

Winner of the RITA Award for excellence in inspirational fiction, Linda Goodnight has also won the Booksellers’ Best, ACFW Book of the Year (twice), and a Reviewers’ Choice Award from Romantic Times Magazine.

Linda has appeared on the New York Times, USA Today, Publisher's Weekly, and Christian bestseller lists, and her romance novels have been translated into more than a dozen languages. A  former nurse and teacher, Linda loves writing fiction that carries a message of hope and light in a sometimes dark world.

Linda enjoys cooking, reading, and travel. Next on her bucket list is Israel and Scotland. She lives in Oklahoma with husband, Gene, who, ironically, doesn't travel at all, and two of their daughters, Masha & Victoria.