The 5 P's of Writing: When Your Dream Bucks the Odds

I’d heard it all. Good luck breaking into the CBA with fantasy, no agent will represent you, and speculative fiction is a hard sell. Good advice, all. 

Except when it isn’t.

If I’d listened to the voices telling me what I couldn’t do, DawnSinger would not now be published, I wouldn’t be part of the wonderful Wordserve Literary Agency with Barbara Scott as my agent, and (worst of all) I wouldn’t have touched the readers who loved DawnSinger and are awaiting WayFarer, book two of Tales of Faeraven, my epic fantasy trilogy.

How did I buck the odds and should you try? The answer lies at the heart of what I like to call the five P’s of writing.

1. Prayer

I had already established a morning study and prayer time when Nick Harrison, editor-in-chief of Harvest House, challenged me through his blog to pray daily for my writing. I’m not sure why it didn’t occur to me to do this before, but since taking his advice, I’ve seen amazing results. Besides bringing my writing to the Lord each morning, I also pray whenever I get stuck while writing. It always helps.

2. Purpose

Through prayer I understood what I was supposed to write, and no one could shake my conviction. If you have a deep sense of purpose about a story that simply must be told through you, keep reading. If not, remain at point one until you do. It’s hard enough to fulfill the purpose you’re called to, let alone one you’re not. Get this right and sooner or later the rest will fall into place.

3. Patience

Writing is all about waiting for the things you’d like to have now. Even after you’re published and have an agent, you still have to wait for each new career advance. If you want to succeed, get used to waiting. Impatience only frustrates you and others. It also marks you as unprofessional. What is impatience anyway but lack of faith? If we wait upon the Lord, we get to fly on eagle’s wings. Sign me up for that.

4. Persistance

It’s one thing to be patient, it’s another to let yourself disappear. There’s a time and a place for following up on a project under consideration. Know the agency’s or publisher’s parameters for checking on your submission and adhere to them. But then do follow up in a polite manner. A side note: persisting is different from pestering. Allowing grace never goes amiss.

5. Perseverance

Many writers faint before the finish line. Granted, it’s hard to believe in yourself when others don’t (yet). This is where that sense of purpose you found in prayer comes into play to pull you through. Even so, you may come across times where it’s hard to believe. When it comes to accomplishing goals, there’s no substitute for faith. It takes courage to be an author. Courage is not the absence of fear but acting despite it.

Bucking the odds with your writing may feel like a curse sometimes, but it’s really a blessing because it humbles you and requires you live in a place of trust in God.

Janalyn Voigt's unique blend of adventure, romance, suspense, and fantasy creates worlds of beauty and danger for readers. Beginning with DawnSinger, her epic fantasy series, Tales of Faeraven, carries the reader into a land only imagined in dreams.

Janalyn also writes western romance novels, and will publish in that genre under Janalyn Irene Voigt. She is represented by Barbara Scott of Wordserve Literary. She serves as a literary judge for several national contests and is an active book reviewer. Her memberships include ACFW and NCWA.

When she's not writing, Janalyn loves to find adventures in the great outdoors.