Latest / The Daily Writer / Writers Roundtable: Getting Started as a Writer (with Eric Elder, Ashley Rescot & Mary Felkins)

Transcript

Writers Roundtable: Getting Started as a Writer (with Eric Elder, Ashley Rescot & Mary Felkins) · The Daily Writer

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Writer.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: Each weekday, we bring you a short lesson that helps you live out the four practices of a great writer: creativity, consistency, courage, and connection.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: Here on the weekend edition, we take a deeper dive into those topics through conversations with notable writers, as well as teaching that helps us apply what we're learning and also prepare for the week ahead.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: For more, you can visit us at dailywriterlife.com.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: One of the most common themes I hear from people who want to write is, where do I start?
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: So many people have the desire, even the calling to write, yet they don't know where to begin.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: And rather than do a straight-up teaching episode on this topic or have a single guest, I thought it would be a lot of fun to do a roundtable discussion with a few of my writer friends to give some different perspectives on this topic of getting started.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: And honestly, this was so much fun that I've decided to do a monthly roundtable format on different topics.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I am thrilled that three good friends have been able to join me for this conversation.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: Eric Elder is an online pastor, author, pianist, and music producer.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: Mary Falkins is a novelist who released her first book last year, and Ashley Rescott is a violinist, music teacher, and short story author.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: Now, of course, each of these friends is more than those things, but that gives you a little bit of context for what each of them brings to the table.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: In this conversation, we tackled some topics such as what would you say to someone who believes they're not a good writer?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: How and where do you get started in writing?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: What was the failure you've experienced as a writer, and what did you learn from it?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: And how do you stay on track with your writing?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: Now we discussed several more things as well, but that's really the heartbeat of where we're going with this conversation.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: By the way, all four of us have been participants in an online Christian writers group that Eric Elder has so graciously been leading for the past year.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: And in this group, you'll learn things like how to get started writing, how to make a first draft, how to edit, how to format and upload to self-publish your book on Amazon, how to approach traditional publishers, and so forth.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: And you can find all of those episodes for the online Christian Writers Group at theRanch.org.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: Just click on the online Christian Writers Group to watch all those episodes.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: Well, no matter where you are on your writing journey, I think that you'll learn a lot of things from this conversation with these three friends.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: So let's hear from Eric Elder, Mary Felkins, and Ashley Rescott on getting started as a writer.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so thrilled that the three of you could make this session today.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: This is my first ever roundtable discussion.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: I guess we might call this a panel discussion.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: I don't care what we call it.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just thrilled that three awesome friends have been able to come together for this.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you all so much.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: And where we're going to start is I'd like each of you to take uh just a minute or two and introduce yourself so people can associate uh you with your voice and uh tell us a little bit about what kind of writing it is that you do.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: And let's uh let's start with Eric.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_03: My name is Eric Elder, and I've written about 30 books over about that many years.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_03: And uh my main topic is devotional books to encourage people in their faith.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I also write some historical fiction, and I've written uh several testimony books uh just to encourage people uh through my own testimony of how God's worked in my life.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: Love it, love it.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, let's go to Mary and then we'll go to Ashley.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_05: All right, my name is Mary Felkins.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_05: That's F.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_05: Like and Frank, which I've been saying for 30 years since we got married.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_05: And I am an inspirational romance author.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_05: That is my primary passion.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_05: I also do write devotions on my on my blog.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_05: So my subscribers can get weekly devotions.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but the the inspirational fiction debut released a year ago, almost a year ago today.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, so that's that's my main calling.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: And congrats, by the way.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's a huge achievement.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, happy book birthday.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: I love that book birthday concept.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: That's fun.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's fun.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: It is.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, let's go to Ashley.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm Ashley Rescott, and I'm a musician by trade.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And now I've uh moved into writing as well.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I write music fiction, both uh for people who enjoy playing music or people who just enjoy learning about the behind the scenes of music life.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I also write nonfiction about music as well.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: So awesome.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you all so much.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: I do want to get into some specifics about you know how people should start out and some details like that.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: But first of all, there are a section of people listening to this right now who they know they're a writer, they love writing, they're really excited about what they're working on.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: But there's also another segment of people who are really unsure about whether they can write or whether they should write, or when somebody says you're a writer, they're very skeptical about that.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: So do you have anything to share with those who are listening, first of all, who don't even think they can write or they don't believe that they're a writer?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I can start.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like I said, since my my primary career has been music, sometimes you feel like, oh, you're stuck, you know, you're stuck in that box, but you can actually write about any field.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: So even if you weren't a writer originally, you can use writing within your field.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a it's a skill just like any other skill that you can develop.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: So don't feel like if that wasn't your original college degree, that you can't be a writer.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Really, anyone can write about their their field and find a niche for their audience.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_05: Very well said, Ashley.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_05: This is this is Mary again.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_05: And and I my degree is in nutrition and I have a master's degree in drumroll nutrition.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_05: And God called me to write in 2012, kind of pretty much showed me places in the past where that seed of desire to write, just for me, just because it was fun, was something he wanted to use for a professional as a as a career.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_05: So, in in terms of whether or not someone believes they're a good writer, if you and I think about being a parent, even, you know, I didn't, I wasn't a great parent, but God I had a desire to parent, and God said, Well, I'm gonna show you how to do this.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, and you have to determine that writing may be for people to read publicly, it may be for you to to write on your own.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_05: So that's that's something to consider.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but it's it's very easy to think, I have to have all these skills and all this background.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_05: And if God's it called you to do it, he will equip you to do it.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_03: I totally agree.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_03: I think the uh you know, my my wake-up call came my first year in college.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_03: I took a uh business writing class and I got a D on my very first paper.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I just thought this is not this is not the direction I need to go.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_03: But uh by the end of the class, I'd gotten an A and kept working on my writing.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_03: And it's sort of like praying.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_03: Some people ask me, you know, how do you pray?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_03: And I say, well, the best way to learn how to pray is to pray.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_03: And the best way to learn how to write is to write.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_03: And so any opportunity you have to write, uh, just even on social media, uh, is amazing.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_03: My kids uh did not like our writing courses and writing assignments in our homeschool, and we would try to have them assign a topic and they would write, but then they would get on on a social media platform with their friends and start talking about a new book that they'd read, and they would write the biggest book description, the longest, uh insightful about all the characters and analysis and what they loved and didn't love about it.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_03: And when I looked at that, I thought, you know, it's just getting someone turned on to the topic that really makes a difference.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_03: And if they want to communicate, they will.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_03: And so it's the same for you too.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_03: If you if you have a topic you're passionate about uh and you want to communicate it, I encourage you to write about it.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_03: Write about it uh for a blog, write about it for uh a note and send it to a friend, write it in in an email and and let someone know, or post it on social media and get some of that feedback from people and whether they're uh responding and what needs to change.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_03: And uh it's it's a skill that can be developed, like Ashley and Mary said.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: Who was the first person who believed in you as a writer?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: For for me, it was uh my mom had always really believed in me, but I had a middle school teacher who literally said, uh, I I forget how old I was, 10, 11, 12, I don't remember.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: But she said, I want you to dedicate your first book to me.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_02: And that stuck with me for decades, and I thought about it all the time.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: Was there somebody in your life who was instrumental in giving you the confidence to believe that you could be a writer?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_05: My first thought was my sister Margaret.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_05: She's the oldest of the six.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_05: I'm the youngest, which has that doesn't matter, just other than the fact that she she's a she's an um when I when I said I'm writing, I'm gonna write a book and really basically jumped shipped from working um as a career and nutrition as a registered dietitian to writing an inspirational romance.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_05: And I was a little hesitant, and she said it's about time, which made me it was both hugely affirming and also frightened me to think, have I been not hearing God?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_05: You know, have I been uh not really tuning in to that call and not answering the call, so to speak.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_05: So uh so that was so that was helpful.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_05: And just even my father, who paid for my education and nutrition, who could have said, why did I waste all that money?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_05: He he would ask about it and he started sending uh cartoons from the Houston Chronicle, you know, that were author-related, funny little uh cartoons, just just and he would he would write Mary Falcon's comma author, kind of like how um the angel of the Lord came to Gideon who's hiding in a wine press and calls him mighty warrior.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_05: Well, you don't look anything like it, you're hiding, but I see the potential in you.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_05: So I I think if that had gone differently, I would have said, Okay, you're right, this is stupid.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_05: I need to just stick with what I'm what I'm doing.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: So there's a principle there of you were labeled, someone else labeled you as an author.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and that had a really, really powerful impact, it sounds like psychologically, emotionally.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_05: Even before having a contract.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_05: You know, you're technically, if we want to get real picky and it doesn't matter, writer versus author, where do you cross the line?
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_05: When do you when do you go over into one versus the other?
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_05: And it either way, you're a writer if that's what God's called you to write.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_05: And he's the author, capital A.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_05: So I don't think we need to get into all those specifics.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_05: Whether you're published or not, you could still say author, but I think that's helpful if you feel like God has called you to be a writer and um let him do what he's gonna do with it.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: Ashley or Eric, anything you want to share about the first person who really affirmed your writing?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, like you said, um definitely your mother.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: And in my case, uh for me, it was it was my mother.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, she is a violinist by trade, but she always liked my, I would write little poems when I was a kid or short stories.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, Ashley, I think this is really, you know, where one of your strengths lie.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um I still kind of spent a lot of my life trying to, you know, go more doing my own thing and and my direction.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And kind of like Mary said, eventually you kind of get that calling, like, okay, God, I'm getting the I'm getting the picture.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: I will, I will turn to my writing because I feel like that's what you're calling me to do, even though sometimes we're hiding in our other, you know, area.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, uh, my mom really encouraged me.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: And now that I'm doing it more regularly, she's she's like, this is what I always thought you you should be doing.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: And her mother is actually both the musician and author as well.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: So my grandmother is the one who taught me how to write originally.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: And she's still alive, 93-year-old children's author.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: That's great.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_03: I think writing for me is just one of a mix of communication skills because I I I love telling people about Jesus, love telling people about how he's changed my life and how he can help them through things in their life.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_03: And so uh I think as I just try to communicate to people, um an easy way to do it is writing it.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_03: At least easy to get it down and get it out to people in a format that's uh not so extemporaneous, like a talk like this we're talking.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, but when you can really think about your words and craft them and uh share them in a way that's powerful.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_03: And so there was a neighbor that uh I was I was wondering about my own gift, some of my gifts.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_03: And one of the highest gifts when I took a sort of a gift analysis was uh a spiritual gift, was a gift of faith that I believe God can do anything he says he can do.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, when I would tell people stories of how God's been faithful in my life, uh they would respond to that and it would give them faith.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I didn't realize that was actually a gift that you that as you share your stories, it encourages people in their faith, then they're able to step out in faith.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_03: And so a neighbor told me this uh uh that you know, Eric, Eric, how do you how why do you think that's not a gift?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_03: Do you think everyone has that?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_03: And but you're able to you're able to tell stories of how God works, and that uh really encourages me.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_03: And if you could just keep doing that, I'll help support you in that.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_03: And so she and several others uh have helped supported me over the years in my ministry, just saying, just keep sharing your stories, and so uh I'll speak them or I'll preach about them or uh I'll write them.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I I like the writing medium the most, probably because it's uh it seems the most permanent, it seems uh long-lasting.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_03: The word is really very uh uh it's gonna go on.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: I know John and Charles Wesley uh both wrote a lot back in the 1700s.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Charles wrote a lot of hymns, and John wrote a uh a lot of the stories of what happened um uh during their life and ministry, but we know more about John Wesley because he wrote it down.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_03: He wrote he wrote down everything that happened and he wrote how God was working in his life.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, we have that, and we can read all those great stories from the 1700s, and so whether it's Rhys Howells or uh George Mueller or Eric Elder or Mary Falcons or Kent Sanders or Ashley, you know, if you know, or you, you know, it's your stories will carry on and on and on.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_05: I also thought about something too that if other people are uh asked that question, would my name ever come up as somebody who encouraged them?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_05: Like, am I the big sister to somebody, so to speak, or the parents?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_05: So I thought of an author at one of my first conferences that I just met, and I think she had a few published books, and to me, I was it was she was like a famous person, you know, I was just kind of new to all this and just going in obedience and didn't even know what a point of view was or any of these terms.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_05: And um, but she said she offered to read my first scene and what I had worked on at that point, and she she didn't charge me anything and she gave me feedback and she affirmed that according to her, her opinion is you're a great writer, you just need to learn the mechanics of how to write a fiction novel.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_05: And I thought, well, okay, then here we go.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_05: We're on this journey that you'll never never be off.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_05: You'll never stop learning.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_05: Uh you're in a dangerous place if you think, okay, I've I've got this.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_05: No, you don't.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_05: So so she so have I done that for other people.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_05: So we need to be available and willing to help somebody that might be in this real green place of I don't know, and then just offer something positive and and direct them with different avenues to help them with their craft.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_03: And Mary, before I knew you as an author, I I read your Christmas letters for years and they always made me laugh.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: I always look forward to Mary Falcon's Christmas letters.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_03: It was a page or two of just great little short snippets of of life through the year with her family.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_03: Um uh just her writing really, really packed a punch.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: And when she said she wanted to be an inspirational fiction writer, I thought, wow, that's that's a great, great calling.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_03: And your book is very uh uh funny and winsome.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_03: And I would say Kent, too, you've been a huge encouragement to me in my writing uh as I as I explore some topics that are more deeply personal.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_03: I usually send them to Kent first, uh Kent and another friend.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_03: And you send them sort of chapter by chapter, very, very trepidatiously, if that's a word.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_03: And uh because I'm not sure if if it's even something I I would ever want to uh put out there for the public to see its deep inner thoughts.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_03: And uh and Kent will write back uh consistently.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, this is really good, this is really encouraging, this is really helpful.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_03: This is I think people need to read this, and just to hear that from another person uh makes a huge difference because otherwise it would just uh sit in my brain or it'd sit on my computer and I'd never get it out.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_03: So exactly.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_03: But encouragement is really big, big and helpful.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: Good.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: Let's get into the weeds a little bit on maybe weeds isn't the right metaphor.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know why I said weeds because everybody thinks weeds is like where you hear the you throw the trash or something.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: Let's get into details.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: How's that for metaphors?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: This is a writing podcast, and I'm already choosing the wrong words.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: So uh I'm glad that you all are here because you're you're definitely raising the bar on the quality of this of this program.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_05: Although I will say getting caught in the weeds is very common among fiction writers.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_05: I and and we all know what that means, and it's no fun, and we need people to help us find the where's the light or the clippers.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: So a common theme that I hear from from people who want to write is they don't know where to start.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_02: They see people with books out there, with podcasts, with blogs, YouTube channels, ebooks, audiobooks, whatever the case may be.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: And it's it feels very, very overwhelming to someone who hasn't yet taken any steps toward that.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: Where would you recommend that somebody start just to get their hooks in a little bit, to get a quick win, to have some success with their writing?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_02: What are some things that someone might be able to do to get some wins with their writing?
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like for a book, if if someone feels like they have a book on their heart, I try to just encourage them just to write down, take a yellow, yellow, I just use a yellow pad of paper and I just write down uh sort of a the topic that I want to write about.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_03: And it may be the title, it may not be.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_03: And and then I just start jotting down just uh three or four words at a time.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, I I would love to tell this story uh about uh when God showed up when I was traveling to Israel and something happened on the trip and uh some some little uh a little just three or four words of what that story is, then the next story, and then the next story, because usually I'll have five or six stories.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_03: And once I start writing down this phrase of, oh, I want to tell this story and I want to tell this story, and I want to tell this story, I'll get to 10 or 15 or uh 20 uh little stories that I want to tell.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_03: And then I will uh just write a sentence or two about those.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_03: After I just jot down those, I sort of write down what that is, and then I just expand that.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_03: I'll take you know I'll take the next 20 days or so and just to pick one topic a day and write maybe 500, 700 words.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's a very short few paragraphs of what that story involved.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of times just a picture in my mind of being in Israel uh at the airport with gunmen stationed all around the plains, and God just called me there after I had just quit my secular job and I didn't know what I was doing, and I was gonna stay with this Muslim family on the West Bank and that I'd never met before.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_03: And there was just a lot of uh a lot of chaos going on in my brain.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_03: So I have this picture of me being surrounded by all these armed guards that protect all the planes, uh, and just uh singing the song, uh, you know, God is bigger than the boogeyman.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_03: So just what I just shared with you.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_03: That's that one story, that's five or seven hundred words.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_03: And then the next day I'll move on to the next story and the next story.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_03: And by the end, I have a whole outline for a whole book.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_03: I've got the the main sum, the main topic, I've got uh five, ten, fifteen, twenty little stories, and then I've got uh a semi-fleshed out, uh fleshed out idea for a book.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_03: Then I can go back later and uh look through my journals, look through my travel logs, look through uh pictures, uh, and really fill in details and and you know, write it in a more compelling or winsome way.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_03: But just at the very beginning is just, you know, what do you want to tell?
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_03: What do you want to say?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_03: And just write that down.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_03: It could be just on your computer, it could be on a uh a sticky note, and just just write down what you want to talk about and then just list out some of those things.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_03: Just keep it really simple and just you just build it and build it and build it until it's done.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_03: And then you're you're you're shocked and you're like, wow, I actually have a book done.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_05: I like that.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_05: You might have to determine too.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_05: That's that's great, really.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_05: Like you said, the best way to start is to write is to write and not get caught up in the well, what's who's gonna see this and how do I get it done?
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_05: Because then that's very you then you have writer's paralysis.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_05: But I know for me, when I my desire was to write a story, so fiction.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_05: So part of it is well, fiction, nonfiction.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_05: It doesn't have to be one or the other, obviously.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_05: But I was getting these ideas in my head.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_05: To share stories with a biblical message, which, hello, that's called a devotion.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_05: So I thought, well, in my journey to find traditional publishing with this story, as I'm learning how to craft a novel and taking these characters that were buzzing in my head and getting louder and louder and developing, which happens when you spend time writing, I started a blog or started a website.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_05: So that can be done with uh no money, it can be done with a lot of money.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_05: But I it was my my way of providing material content to what I assumed would be future subscribers, so that I would have something to offer them.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_05: It's a little bit like here's my house, I want to invite you to my house.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_05: Plus, when you do, if you do get picked up, get the attention.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_05: If you have a story idea that it gets the attention of a publisher or editor, they're gonna say, not, do you have a website, but what is your website address?
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_05: And you need to have one.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_05: That's it's really, I would say, not an option.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_05: But then the flip side is if that's really not something that you feel comfortable doing or you can't commit to being active on it, then you might you just you might need to let that sit a little bit.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_05: But for me, that was a way for me to take these ideas, these devotions, and publish something.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_05: I needed to publish something on a pretty consistent basis.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_05: And and uh so that's really how my blog was born.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_05: And so now I'm revamping it so that it's more okay, I'm a fiction author and I write devotions, and this is content you can get when you subscribe.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_05: So it's it's it's developed and changed as God has has opened up different doors of opportunity through the years.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_05: So that's the thought, and um again, and it should be look professional.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_05: And if you have IT skills, that's great.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_05: If you don't call Eric and He'll make it look wonderful, but uh so that's just a thought to draw people, and that's part of what social media does is it's supposed to funnel people, direct them to your quote home or your your website that gives a little idea.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, and the god that's where the gospel is that people will eventually come to.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_05: Um it's not about you the author or you the writer, it's it's it's about about the Lord, in my case.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_05: So I assume that's true for all of you.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I second that what you guys already said, Mary and Eric.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I do think having your website is really helpful.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um in addition to that, I think getting your accountability group, some sort of critique group, at least for fiction, I guess I'm trying to think for nonfiction, a lot of fiction authors actually do both, as we've all kind of expressed, whether it's through devotions or blog posts.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but for your fiction, I would definitely recommend getting a critique group.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I joined ACFW when I was finally like, I'm ready to start writing my chapters.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I would have the goal for me of getting one chapter to my critique group each week when I was writing my novel.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that way it broke it into smaller chunks.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't just like, oh, I have to write this novel and I need, you know, I'm I need the carrot, you know, that give me the carrot to keep going as the as the writer.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I would get the feedback each week from from my fellow writers.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that kind of helped me get keep going in order to finish my first draft.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: So now I'm in the the developmental editing stage at this point.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think that breaking it into smaller chunks.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then the blog is great for, especially if you're doing some nonfiction or devotions uh content.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: The blog is really helpful.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I know Kent you've talked about this before, but eventually you can often use your blog posts as as a book.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I can't mention that.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I want to get into get into a topic for a moment.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: And thank you all, by the way.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: This is really, really super helpful.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: I'm learning a lot about this too.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: That's actually my covert purpose for doing this, is I'm just doing this so I can learn from people who are smarter than me.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's really why I do a podcast.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody else just gets to listen in.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: But let's talk about failure for a second.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, at the same time, I don't want to frame this as failure because I I don't believe in failure.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_02: I believe there's only learning experiences and things that can help us to be better.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_02: Even though sometimes we frame those and experience those as negative events or situations.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: That being said, though, let's just use the word failure or mistake because it's kind of a shorthand.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: So, what is something in your writing journey that uh was a mistake that you made or something that didn't go quite the way that you wanted that if you could go back in time, you would do differently?
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_05: I would think and being impatient is, you know, with all this enthusiasm and affirmation, stories in my head, 200,000 words draft that I thought was just the best ever, and everybody needed to buy it that was really poorly written and way too long.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, but when I did learn over the course of the years how to narrow that down, uh, I was really ready for a publisher to take it.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_05: And and I did have a contract.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_05: It's a little bit like just because you get a proposal doesn't mean that God is calling you to get married to this person.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_05: And I see his hand in the whole circumstance now, but I did have a professional author.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_05: She said, I think you're being in a rush, but basically, why are you?
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_05: You need to really give this some thought.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_05: Just hold on a little bit because it is easy to think, oh, affirmation, or I have a contract.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_05: So I just I think it's when I hear how many years it took for somebody to find maybe maybe the publishing house of their dreams or what God is really calling them to, it's easy to get impatient and overly enthusiastic and you know, certainly have learned through that, and it's been fine.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_05: But I think it could have been maybe a little bit better if I had waited longer and looked at all the options out there.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_05: There's a lot of options.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_05: There's not just one, you know, like like homeschool curriculum.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_05: It used to be a Becca and Bob Jones.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_05: You, those were your choices, and now it's it's endless.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_05: So, so similar too with with indie publishing, hybrid, traditional, large house, small house.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_05: So just a lot of options.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_05: So be patient.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think that works whether you go traditional or indie.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes um so far I've been going more the indie route.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I think either one is challenging, either one has pros and cons.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: So really research to see what fits your personality.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: One thing about indie, I would recommend starting with a smaller short story.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Don't start with the book of your dreams, because when you publish your first one on Amazon and you're all proud of it, and then nobody buys it, right?
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because nobody knows who you are.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so you don't want to necessarily start with the book that you've spent 10 years writing and then just throwing it up on, you know, in Amazon if you're if you're going indie, uh, because you'll probably be disappointed.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: So fortunately, I had people that had advised me of that.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I started by putting up a short story.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I thought it was cute and fun, but it wasn't like I just poured out my entire life story for it to be ignored by the internet.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I would definitely recommend, whether you're going traditional or indie, start with if you can, some short stories when you're actually trying to publish.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've already started your novel, but maybe start by trying to publish your short stories either in traditional magazines or on Amazon, or you can go draft to digital is another option for indie platforms that I highly recommend.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was so excited when I first published it on Amazon and then wide.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw it show up like on Barnes and Noble in an indie ebook, you know.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was a really cool feeling.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but again, that just because you've published it doesn't mean people are reading it yet.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: So start with something small and manageable to even learn the ropes of again.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm speaking from indie, learn what does it even feel like to put it up on Amazon KDP or to put it on draft to digital and going through those publishing steps, it really helps to do that first with something that you're not quite as emotionally attached to.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's good.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_04: Good.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_03: I'm thinking of two fails.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, one one is very personal and vulnerable, and I don't want to share it.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_03: And the other one I think is just good and helpful advice.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm trying to just make it curious.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_03: So just the helpful advice one that uh that someone gave to me when I was I was starting writing.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_03: I only had one book in mind.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_03: I I had this topic in mind that I just really wanted to write about.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of people were asking me a lot of questions.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes people wonder what you should write about.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_03: Well, what do people ask you about most?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe that's something you should write about because I was answering the same questions over and over.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_03: So I finally thought I should just write this down.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_03: So I'd worked on this book for seven years, and uh I'd been working on it off and on, and just you know, I had this one book in mind, and I talked to a man named Ray Pritchard.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_03: He's written a lot of books, and he uh I was telling him about this book, and he said, I said, you know, I'm not sure what to do with it, you know, how to get how to get moving on it.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_03: And and he said, Eric, let me stop you right there.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_03: Don't think a book, think books.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_03: Because when you only think one book, you're gonna spend the rest of your life working on that book to perfect it.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_03: But if what's the book you want to write after this one, Eric?
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_03: And I thought, oh, I actually do have a book.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, think about that book, and then you'll finish this book.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_03: And he was right.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I went back and I and I I said, Okay, I want to wrap up this book.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_03: I wrapped it up and I started another book, and then I started another book, and then I started another book, and here I am 30 books later.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_03: I can't stop because but here I was stuck for seven years because I just had this one book in mind, and it was going to be the book that I had to contribute to the world.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_03: And I and I I still like the book that that one turned into, but I've I found I've had several more in me.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_03: And so I would I would go with that.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_03: Probably on the on the more vulnerable side.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_03: Um I I have published uh a few books, and you know, I don't I don't know how to attribute whether it's spiritual warfare, whether it's uh Ashley, like you said, you know, writer writer disappointment, you put something out there and the feedback isn't always good.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_03: But um I I think I've been blasted, probably the last five books.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_03: I've been blasted at the at the launch of it, uh, in some un unpredictable ways that is that you know, that has really been hard personally.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_03: And it's it's like, oh my gosh, yeah, I just get to the culmination of this project and I go to launch it and uh some major things happen against me.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I think just trying to be prepared for that.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_03: And uh this last book I I just finished on a Christmas musical, his name was Nicholas.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and I, you know, I I I got a phone call from someone uh who just gave me some devastating, devastating news.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_03: And they they wanted to talk to me right then about it, and I knew it was just gonna consume me.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I had another work a week of work to do, and uh and it personally impacted me as well.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_03: And uh one of my sons said, Dad, you've got to finish that book uh first and tell them you can talk to them in a week.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I knew from experience that this would happen.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_03: You know, anything to try to distract you at the end, and so I said, I would love to talk to you about this.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_03: Let's talk in a week.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_03: So that was just even you know earlier this year, and uh it it happens on a consistent basis fairly to where I I I don't quite expect that kind of uh pushback.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes it's specifically about the book, sometimes it's about life.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_03: Um but I think when I when I think of fails, I would say I would I would used to get derailed by those major uh setbacks, but now I sort of expect them a little bit more.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_03: And so I would just encourage you in that too.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_03: If if you're writing something that's really gonna make an impact for the world, uh there are some forces that are gonna come against you for that.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_03: So uh don't be surprised by it.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_03: Press through it, don't be afraid of it, just keep moving.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_03: God God will work it out uh and and and don't let it derail you.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_05: You bring up a good point, Eric, too.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_05: Uh that I would I don't I don't like the word failure.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_05: It's like the F word, but I understand what you're saying, but I I do believe what part of what your son is very wise.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_05: We we have a responsibility to let our people and our world know how available we are.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_05: And it's very easy to say, oh well, I'll put this writing project aside because if I don't, the whole world's gonna unravel.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_05: This person's doesn't have God in their life, you know, and I'm I'm gonna save the day.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_05: But basically, it's a matter of being obedient, being disciplined, deciding no, I cannot.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_05: Just because I physically could meet you for breakfast doesn't mean I should be doing it because we have an obligation to our writing.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_05: For me, I joke about my imaginary characters, but it's true, they get really edgy if I'm not letting them talk.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_05: And so, but I just think that's wise to be, and it's hard to say, no, I cannot do this, but or can I call you in an hour?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_05: Can I call you?
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_05: And I have one very close friend that is very wise to text and say, as soon as you're free from your writing, which then I think, okay, Lord, you tell me when I when I'm free, then I can call.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, she she's not demanding, but I've had to teach her in a sense by how available I am.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_05: And uh so it's just a it's a discipline that we need to we need to show up for work, basically.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you just had this the last two weeks, Mary.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_03: You were you had a scheduled writing retreat.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_03: Uh you were gonna go away and write, and suddenly your house sold after a year or more on the market, and everything had to close and you had to move out.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_03: And but you still went on your writing retreat, didn't you?
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_05: I did.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_05: I did.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_03: You are very you are so structured, I can't believe it.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I will tell you though, the November 3rd and 4th, I was the Lord said, You need to turn off the election results.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_05: We are not here.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_05: You can do that anywhere because that was I was not being productive.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_05: I was not showing up for work in the sense because I kept tuning into Fox News.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_05: And so I'm just saying it really, we have to be very developed that that discipline.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_05: And and we do have we do have flexibility.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_05: We can get up and walk away from it, and that's the beauty of it.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_05: But we also need to we have people that are you have to remember the readers.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_05: I think I forget there are readers out there that are that I that I have something that might touch the life or the heart or the soul of somebody, and I need to get busy with it.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_02: That's a great segue into the next question that I want to throw out there, which is regarding habits, uh, discipline, routines.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_02: Because one of the most important parts of getting started as a writer is figuring out when do you write the best?
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_02: What are the routines or habits that work best for you?
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_02: And Ashley, let's start with you.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_02: You have a young family.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_02: And um I know all of them.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_02: I was gonna listen to the veterans here, but well, you know, all of us probably think, well, I could do a better job with my habits or establish this or that, but but the truth is that, you know, we all have accomplished things with writing and we've got them done.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_02: And there are ways that we've been able to get them done.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_02: So even if you you feel like you're, you know, you don't have this big fine-tuned system or whatever, what are some ways that you're gonna be on the panel?
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_02: What are some ways that you have been able to get your writing done?
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_02: Whether it is specific habits or routines or just sheer force of will, setting life aside and just getting it done no matter what.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_02: What what's what's been your way for doing that?
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, like I said, to try to get that first draft of my novel done, that usually meant planning sometime that week that I had to crank out that chapter.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so whether that meant I I actually people think it's funny.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: My husband laughed.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: I I typed it on my phone.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, because I would be sitting in my car waiting for, you know, with my kids, but waiting for my husband to pick up something at the hardware store.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: He loves hardware stores.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I would work on a scene when then, you know, you sneak it in in those moments when you can.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: Or some days, if you know, I was in the right mood after the kids went to bed, then I would crank it out.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: Or other times my husband was very, you know, helpful and he would watch the kids on a Saturday afternoon while I would go to my favorite um bakery where I like to write, and I would try to crank out my chapter there.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I think having that weekly goal for me, some people are more like every day I have to get X many words.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just I have a very, like you said, a very young family.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that's hard at this stage of my life.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: But if I had a weekly goal that gave me some flexibility, but I knew that I needed to get that chapter to my critique group at some point within that week.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that helped keep me accountable.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then I mean, I'm not gonna lie to pull off those last few chapters, it was staying up till 145 in the morning, several nights in a row, just because I think those of you who write fiction or maybe even nonfiction too, just you're literally like giving birth to this book and you're just trying to get it out of your head.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, at 145 in the morning during COVID, I think it was like May something, I was like with my husband and I said, I got it done, you know, and we're celebrating together as the kids are asleep.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you realize you finish the first draft doesn't mean you're permanently done, but at least just celebrating that moment.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because I would carve out time each week.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then I did kind of have to at the very end give a little bit more of a push.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I remember those nights I'd put the kids down and then I had to go get in my chair and crank out those last few chapters.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I didn't feel like it, but at that point I could tell it was it needed to happen.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: So kind of having those deadlines set for yourself.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: And right where you can't, you know, like I said, in the car or wherever you are.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_05: I think that's great.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_05: We we have those moments of inspiration or that spark, and you think you'll remember, but you won't.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_05: But also you have accountability.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_05: You bring up a good point that quote, failure is working in isolation.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_05: It's a big, big no-no when you when you if you don't have somebody that you're going to be talking to on a regular basis to say, okay, tell me how you progressed.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_05: It it makes it for anything.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_05: If I'm just it's just me, that's a lot harder than if, oh, Monday I talked to my craft partner for two hours.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I have something have I mean, there's grace, of course, but that makes a difference if it's answering to an individual.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_05: Because at some point, if you are writing fiction and you do have quote deadlines with real people that are saying, no, this isn't an option, you need to discipline, work on that discipline, but having your critique group and and having something you need to produce for them to look at.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_05: So that's that's very, very essential, I think, in helping you to stay disciplined.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_05: And maybe not everybody needs that.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_05: I feel like I do.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of us do.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: And they refine your craft too.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I saw when I joined the critique group, I watched to see like who was the toughest critique person in the group.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, this is the person I need.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I specifically reached out to him and I was like, you know, kind of do your worst, you know, scrawl with the red pen, and you know, metaphorically.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I did that on the first chapter.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: So that way I knew right away the flaws, so that I wouldn't, um, I'd already written a version of the novel like years before, and I pitched it because I didn't like it.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so this time I was like, do your worst first on my on my first chapter.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I know I don't want to write, you know, a hundred thousand words of you know, junk.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that helped me a lot.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I ended up helping him with his novel, and he helped me tremendously um with mine.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: So getting that feedback on your craft is so important.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, you're just kind of writing in the dark.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_05: Very brave.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_03: I do think deadlines and uh having people read your stuff really can help.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_03: So you know, just like you said, but my uh I I've heard someone say that they write only when they're inspired and they make sure they're inspired by 10 a.m.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_03: every morning.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_03: And and it's just carving out that time and saying, okay, I'm gonna do this.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_03: I have two things.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_03: One, one I would write uh on a periodic basis, and like uh I would write a weekly devotional and I'd send it out uh by Sunday every week.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_03: I had to send it out just from my own expectation.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_03: And I had asked some people, do you want to read these?
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_03: And I it started growing, the list started growing and growing.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_03: And so people started having that expectation that they would get a devotional every Sunday.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_03: And sometimes I'd be, you know, home late on Saturday night and I'd be tired.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, but I knew that I I had readers that it this would matter to them, and so I would stay up till two in the morning and just uh finish writing something, or you know, all week long I'd been thinking about it, but right, getting it on the page, but it's getting it done, yeah, by having by having a built-in audience and a built-in sort of schedule that kept me writing, and that's how I've written a lot of my books is just that weekly turning out a a chapter of a devotional, and then at the end of 20 or 30 weeks, I have a whole book's worth of material and I upload it to Amazon.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_03: But the second way is really carving out like a one once a year chunk of time.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_03: And uh for one of my first books, I just I scheduled a retreat center a week away, and I just said I I want to write this you know, 14 chapter devotional book uh about some music.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_03: I'd written some piano music, and so I decided to tell talk about.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_03: Each of the songs and what inspired me to write it and how that could inspire other people because they're just instrumental songs, but uh they they were moved by real life situations.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_03: And so I went away for a week and I just wrote about each of those songs and uh finished a finished a book and it was one of my first books, and it just really helped to have that block of time.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_03: And so now every year in November, I take a block of a block of like an hour per morning uh to write a a major book.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_03: And so I've been able to write uh a number of major books this way when I when it wasn't just devotional, it was more like the historical fiction about Saint Nicholas, Saint Nicholas the Believer that you guys mentioned earlier.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: Which everyone should read for Christmas and praise.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, excellent book.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_03: Great historical fiction uh about the a real person who who lived, and we wanted to tell this story, my wife and I, and uh, but we just never got around to it.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_03: We'd been several years we've been thinking about it.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_03: And so I'd read about this National Novel Writing Month uh contest, nanoRimo.org.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I looked it up and uh it just encouraged me to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days, and so every morning I'd get up, I'd write a chapter, just using the same outline I shared before.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_03: I had several stories from his life I wanted to tell.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I would I would write an hour, and then the next day I'd write another hour, and the next day another hour, and uh it took me about 45 days, but by the end, uh I had a good first draft of the whole book, and uh I I've written a number of books that way just by breaking off one big chunk a time when I can really do a big push.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that habitual writing is good, having deadlines and people read your stuff, and then also break away and get you know, get that writing retreat or whatever you need to do to get the chunk done.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_02: So a common theme that I hear with this is do whatever you need to do just to get it done, whatever whatever that entails for your life situation.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_02: And um that seems to be a really overarching theme with anybody who has any measure of success with writing or creative work, is uh you've got to take the bull by the horns, you've got to just find a way to get it done no matter what it takes.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_02: And uh and I appreciate all of you because you're doing that in your own way, it's within your own life situations and circumstances.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I have one final question and that is uh it's actually kind of a two-parter.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_02: One is I would love for you to share how listeners can connect with you and learn more about your work.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_02: So share your website, uh anything that you really want to point them to, and also a final word of advice that you would give any writers who are on the beginning path of their writing journey.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_03: And Kent, I'm sorry I have a guy at the door that I have to let in for my appliance repair, but okay.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_03: It's all good.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_03: It's all good.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_05: Easily distracted, right?
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's it's real life, it's real life doing a podcast.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's all good.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_05: Honestly.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_05: Um well, the way to connect with me is MaryFalkins.com.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_05: Um backslash books.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_05: And that's uh there's a place to subscribe for the the content there.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_05: And then I also produce a have a quarterly author newsletter that where I have some bookish giveaways random, um, randomly selected among subscribers.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_05: So um, so that's the best way.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_05: And also social media, again, that's uh I I I would recommend too that that you pick there three to no more than three social media sites that you believe you could be active on.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm on Facebook, um Mary Falkins, Mary A.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_05: Felkins, and then on Instagram, a little too much sometimes, but it's fun.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_00: I love seeing Mary on Instagram.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_05: Ashley, same with you.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_05: Ashley's fun.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_05: And um, and I also am active on Twitter, less so, but I do have an account on Twitter.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_05: So a lot of the fellow authors with this publishing house that I'm a part of, they are uh pretty aggressive and sharing a couple times a week.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_05: If you have any content, they'll both kind of share for each other.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_05: So, but more um Facebook and and Instagram.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_05: And uh, but that's uh just a way to kind of keep promoting the work.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_05: And again, those are the avenues that draw people to the website.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_05: What was the other question?
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_02: Oh the other question is just any final words of advice.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_02: Of course, you mentioned social media, but if there's anything else that you'd like to share, that's uh that's fantastic too.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_05: Well, one of the things you you opened up with um, you know, what do you tell somebody that believes they're not a good writer?
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_05: You know, there's just a teeny tiny seed of um maybe negative thinking that if somebody tends toward the oh, I'm no good, I mean, you really need to get rid of that.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_05: We're all a work in process and there's so many avenues to learn the craft from books and online websites and so forth.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_05: But this is not um always a very kind in a farming industry.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_05: You have to be willing to take a punch in the gut and continue on if this is what you're called to do.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_05: So just with caution against um the woe is me or the ee or mentality, and just you know, you answer to to God at the end of each day.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_05: And if he's smiling on your efforts, um that's good.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_05: If he's if he's not, there's grace.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_05: But just I would caution not to go into it with a this will never work out.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_05: Just move forward and and be writing something, whether it is on paper or I use Scrivener.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_05: Scrivener is a big, wonderful tool that's made by authors for authors, and that's a whole nother three hours of discussion.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_05: But just have some way to organize however you write and not get caught up with, well, where's this gonna go and who's gonna see it?
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_05: And is it that just stay um stay optimistic, keep your sunny disposition despite um obstacles?
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you, Mary.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'll read Mary's book too, because it is just phenomenal.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_00: I I I read it, listened to it just a month or so ago, and I almost cried, but then it's I love that it's a happy ending and it really speaks to to family and faith and just wonderful.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_05: I appreciate that.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you, Ashley.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, let's go to Ashley, then we'll wrap up with Eric.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, how can listeners connect with you and find out more about your work?
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_02: And also any final words of advice for writers.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_00: So again, I'm Ashley Rescott.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: My website is rescottcreative.com.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just one T on Rescott.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_00: And there you can find yeah, links to all my socials.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_00: And uh one of the best places is probably Instagram or Facebook if you're wanting kind of the you know, more regular just updates.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_00: But then YouTube is where I put a lot of my content, my actual media content, if you will.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and I've actually used it because it works great as both a musician and an author.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm heavily auditory, as the fellow panelists now know.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_00: Usually when I say I read a book, it probably means I listen to it on audiobook.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um again, as a busy mom with lots of laundry and dishes, that's my best way to consume content.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I consume a lot of it that way.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I listen to a lot of other people's podcasts.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_00: I love like Kenneth's podcast.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_00: I listen to the, you know, the hour-long QA's or the three-minute CMO.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they're so inspiring for me.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that's probably that's probably one of my advice to authors is figure out which way you learn best.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, it is auditory because I'm a musician.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so I binged on podcasts.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_00: So when I was trying to get the craft, um, I listened to a lot of KM Wyland's podcasts helping writers become authors.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then for marketing, I love, you know, like Joanna Penn and The Creative Pen or Thomas Enstatt's um novel marketing.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I met Ken, I was like, you're just like my favorite, you know, podcasters.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so now Ken's up on my regular favorite.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're celebrity now.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_00: So find what works for you.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you're auditory, like like me, that works really well.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_00: And my YouTube channel, I put audio books of my short stories up there.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that's actually the way I think people have most consumed my content is through the audio versions of my short stories.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_00: I also post uh my performances.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm hoping to do a live Christmas concert uh for some hymns and things and different Christmas songs on YouTube.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_00: So if you subscribe to my YouTube channel or subscribe on restgotcreative.com, you can come to my free Christmas concert.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I also will post uh in musician interviews, tips of the trade for fellow musicians.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_00: But hopefully the audiobooks and the concerts or songs can be fun for people, whether they're musicians or not.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that's probably my my biggest um emphasis on my social media.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then yeah, I'm on Amazon and I've published on Draft to Digital.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_00: So you can find me on uh the Barnes Noble Nook and Co-O and things like that.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_02: Any final words of advice for writers?
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, if you're starting out, like I said, find ways to learn about your craft in manageable, in manageable chunks.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_00: So whether that's reading writers' blogs or or yes, following Kenneth on his writer blog, because you're so inspiring.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I loved your your book about creatives.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_00: You just are really positive.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that we need that uh to kind of keep going to get past those negative thoughts, like Mary was talking about, to really keep positive about our work and then to put it out there.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_02: Love it, love it.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, Eric, we'll wrap up with you.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_02: No pressure, you're bringing us home.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_03: Veteran Well like Ashley, I've moved a lot of my content over to YouTube too now because I I play the piano, uh, I write piano music, and uh I also like to write and I love praying for people.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_03: So I do those three things on YouTube.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_03: I'll I'll read a chapter from a book uh that I've written, uh or a musical that I've been working on, and I'll play a piece on the piano and I'll uh pray with people.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_03: So it's been a great way to get my message out, uh whether it's writing or not.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and my YouTube channel is ericelder.com, e-ri-c, e-l-d-e-r.com.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I also echo uh Ashley's comments on Mary.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I I loved her book, Call to Love, and uh it was a great uh great uh story with great storytelling and also great characters that you could really enjoy and watch their journey and learn from.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_03: And it was very inspiring to me, even as a male uh romance reader.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I am a four on the Enneagram, and so I I also gravitate towards uh romantic stories like that.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_03: So I very much liked it.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_03: And I'll also echo that I loved uh Kent Sanders' podcast.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_03: There's only one podcast that I listen to on a regular basis, uh, and I've listened to Kent's uh the Daily Writer for years uh over its various incarnations, but uh I always learn things from him.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_03: I I'll take walks in the morning and uh I'll just listen to Kent.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_03: And he's he's walked with me many, many, many miles uh literally and uh as a friend.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_03: And so I really appreciate Kent's uh input uh into my life.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um I think for writers, uh I just I just want to encourage you just to just put your things out there, you know, so start putting it out there.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um and it doesn't have to be out there to the world.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_03: Uh there are some books, like I said, that I've written and I've I've only sent it to Kent or a few other people.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_03: And sometimes they'll say this is great, and sometimes they'll say, you know, I think maybe you're going through grief when my wife when my wife died, and I was like, I I wasn't even trusting myself whether I should publish what I was feeling or not.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_03: And several times people would say, Yeah, that's good, you should publish that.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_03: And other times people said, you know, you might want to sit on that for a while and and just you know, just let let God keep working in your heart.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_03: And but I think letting other people read it, uh even if it's a select few, uh, that can give you give you great feedback.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_03: And then if they say, go ahead and publish it to the world, uh, it's uh it's so much easier now.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_03: I would say it's so easy, but it's not always so easy for people technically to get things up on Amazon.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_03: But it's so much easier than it ever was before uh when I was first writing my books, and I only thought there was traditional publishing, or me going to Kinko's coffee shop and cranking out uh several copies, which is what I did in the in the beginning.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_03: And uh now I can just save a PDF file of my book, upload it to Amazon, and they print it out and sell it whenever anybody orders, and they put a royalty deposit in my bank account.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_03: So it's astounding that that's an option.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I encourage you to do that just because uh if it's in your head or it's on your computer, it's not doing anyone any good.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_03: But like the St.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_03: Nicholas story that I'd written, this was uh eight years ago now that I finished that.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_03: But a couple years ago, a ballet company in South Carolina found it on Amazon, and the director said, We love the story, we'd love to do a full-length ballet.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_03: Would we have your permission to do that?
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_03: And I was thrilled, and so they brought it to life in this uh uh full-length ballet with uh so many dancers, and it was just a beautiful, wonderful thing to see all my characters come to life and whirling and twirling in 3D and living color.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_03: It was so great.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_03: I asked if we could film it this last year, uh, on the second year they did it.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_03: And so we filmed it, and we're just releasing it this Christmas on YouTube on Eric Elder.com.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_03: It's called One Life, a Christmas story ballet.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, I'm just doing the final edits on the movie, and it it is just it's such a beautiful film, and it's something you could watch year after year after year with your family, like The Nutcracker or Like It's a Wonderful Life or A Christmas Carol.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_03: It's that kind of a story that would just give you inspiration and uh point you to Jesus, which is what I'm all about.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_03: So uh you can check it out.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_01: I can't wait.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_01: So excited for it to come out.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and I'll share it with you.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe I'll share a private screening link with you here and let so you guys can see it by December 18th of 2020 will be on and uh you'll be able to see it.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_05: Well, so so what if Eric had decided at some point?
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_05: You know, I don't think anybody's ever gonna read this book.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_05: Can you imagine?
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_05: And his head, and maybe in his heart, maybe he scribbled it down, and we wouldn't have that.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_05: So I mean it's true for all of us.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_05: It is whatever it is that is in our hearts.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_05: There's probably whether it's one or a million readers, recipients, that's not up to us, aside from making some effort to market it.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_05: But yeah, it that's just amazing what what God had intended with the the seed of the idea.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_03: So very true.
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_05: Great.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you, three, so much for joining me for this very first round table uh discussion.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_02: I think it this was a raging success because I learned a lot and you offered so much value to our listeners.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_02: I really appreciate all of you, and thanks again for doing this.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_05: Great, thank you.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you so much, Jan.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_05: It was fun.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_05: It was an honor, so thank you for asking.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I hope you enjoyed this round table discussion.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_02: As I mentioned in the introduction to this episode, I had a blast doing this, and I'm looking forward to doing a similar round table discussion every single month.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_02: The main takeaway that I want to emphasize from this episode is just to find a way to get your writing done.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_02: You've heard three different perspectives on getting started, and whether it's writing on your phone, getting up early, or staying up late, or whatever it is that you need to do, just take the bull by the horns, be assertive, take action, and figure out what works for you to simply get your writing done.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_02: I want to give a huge thanks to my special guest, Eric Elder, Mary Felkins and Ashley Ruscott.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_02: You can connect with Eric at theranch.org.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_02: You can connect with Mary at MaryFelkins.com and Ashley at Restcottcreative.com.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, there will be links to all those in the show notes.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Daily Writer Podcast.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_02: If you know anybody who might enjoy these episodes, please share it with them.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_02: Your one act of generosity might just change their life.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_02: As always, remember that your writing has the power to change lives.