Mental Reset for Writers After Receiving Contest Results
May 12, 2022 by Denise M. Colby in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby tagged as encouragement, writerslife, Writing contestsI always have to pause and reset after receiving contest results. Am I the only one who experiences this?
Contests are wonderful ways to get feedback, get in front of agents or publishers, and stretch yourself as a writer. I have entered many and have grown as a writer because of the them.
But every time when the contest results are out, I’m so afraid of opening up the email and reading the comments. And this year was no different.
Last week I received my contest results email from the 2022 ACFW Genesis Contest. I did not semi-final like I did back in 2019. For a brief moment, that right there makes it hard. Did I go backwards? Shouldn’t I have not made the changes that were in the suggestions?
But alas, I can’t do that to myself.
Contest Results Do Not Tell The Entire Story
I’ve had many pairs of eyes look over my entry and the overall feedback has been positive. And as I look at the scores from the three judges, two loved it and had very little comments (one even scored it a 99 out of 100, which is something to celebrate). But the third judge. It was obvious, my style of book is not their cup of tea. And even though two out of the three were positive, it’s still such a hard pill to swallow.
Is this what it feels like to read reviews of your work?
It probably is, and maybe you have to have a mental reset after reading those too.
But keep in mind some things. What’s being judged is such a small snippet (for me it was 15 pages). Not everyone will have the same opinion (which is why there are so many different authors and books available).
So What Do You Do To Move Forward?
I’m still figuring that out. For me, I needed to give myself a few days. Then dive right back into my manuscript. Keep editing, keep writing, and work toward the next opportunity when it presents itself. Pay attention to the things where multiple people gave similar feedback. And remember the positive comments (and the fact I earned a 99 from someone!).
I even wore this shirt to help me get back into a good frame of mind.
I think it’s also important to relook at the comments and feedback a few times over a period of time. Each time they sink in more. They are not as personal. And there’s something in there that you can use. After a little while, you are ready to figure out how to adapt the feedback you want to include into your manuscript.
If any of you are struggling, I encourage you. You are not the only one. And as a seasoned contest results receiver, it is never easy. But putting our work out there is never easy. Yet we trail on, because our stories are more than our feelings. They are our work (my word for the year!). And it takes work (lots and lots of work) to get them into the best shape possible before we release them.
Hang in there. Keep writing. Write On!
Denise
Denise M. Colby loves to write words that encourage, enrich, & engage. Every year, she chooses a word to focus on. Her 2021 word was Wisdom and her 2022 word is Work. She talks about how one turned into the other in her blog at denisemcolby.com. If you’d like to see more of Denise’s posts on this blog, you can check out her archives.
4 0 Read moreWhen Our Confidence In Our Writing Wavers
April 12, 2022 by Denise M. Colby in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby, Writing tagged as confidence, Denise M. Colby, encouragement, writerslifeHave you ever had your confidence in your writing waver? Years ago I wrote something that really helped me in a very heavy doubt period. As I was discussing confidence in his artwork with my college-age son recently, I went and found this to encourage him to believe in himself. I needed the reminder as well. And I decided to share it with all of you too.
Originally published on denisemcolby.com on June 6, 2017
This morning I was reading in 2 Corinthians and the following verse made me stop and pause, so I wrote it down on my handy 3×5 index card for future reference:
Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 2 Corinthians 3:5
I want to be a writer. Notice I said I want to, not I am.
I’ve only been writing things for over twenty years – either marketing copy or fiction stories. No matter which, the reality is I struggle with believing in myself. Having confidence in my writing. My takeaway from this verse is God’s telling me if I believe in him, I need to believe in myself.
After getting the kids off to school, I took a walk and the verse rattled around in my head. But for some reason the key word competence turned into the word confidence (I wonder who put that there?). As I mulled around thoughts about confidence, I knew I needed to come home and look up the word in the dictionary.
I love words. Definitions, synonyms – all of it. I also love seeing connections words have with other words. So here’s what the website http://www.dictionary.com says about
CONFIDENCE: full trust; belief in oneself and one’s powers or abilities; self-confidence; self-reliance; assurance:
And I love the example they gave in a sentence: His lack of confidence defeated him.
Is my lack of confidence in my abilities as a writer defeating me?
I think about my writing and the nudges I have had over the past five years and I know without a doubt God wants me to do this, otherwise doors would’ve closed on me long ago. However I’m not fully doing what he wants me to do because I have not had the confidence to just do it.
I’ve been saying for a while now, I would like to write devotionals. I have this strong innate desire to share hope, encouragement and God’s Word with others. What I haven’t been sure about is the how and what. So I haven’t done it, period.
When I took my walk this am something clicked and I couldn’t wait to get back home because I needed to do this right now. God has confidence in me. He has given me the desire. He’s nudging me to do this. Why have I not done this? Why?
I’m afraid – that’s why. What am I so afraid of? Putting myself out there? Looking like an idiot? Is that confidence then? I know I’m not looking for accolades, not looking for stardom. I just want to write and share my heart. But I’ve been too scared to do that. I have lacked confidence to go for it.
Then I saw the Synonyms for confidence – 1. faith, reliance, dependence.
And the Antonym – 1. mistrust.
Wow!
My lack of confidence is holding me back in my writing
I’m not really trusting God then, am I? If I have faith, I should have confidence in what he’s asking me to do. And I need to depend on Him when I do it.
So here I am today. Writing a devotional and setting up a specific devotional page on my website. Only God knows what will happen. I just need to have the confidence to do it (already the nagging doubts are creeping in). I must rely on God with the rest.
But wait, there’s more. When I grabbed my Bible to write in the verse, I realized I made a mistake (was it really?) and the word was competence not confidence. Oh no! Do I scrap what I just wrote? Does it even relate? See maybe I shouldn’t be doing this after all. I paused for a moment then decided to look it up:
COMPETENCE: having suitable or sufficient skill, knowledge, experience, etc., for some purpose; properly qualified:
And the Synonym: 1. fit, capable, proficient.
No antonym. Interesting. There is no negative/opposite of being competent. You either are or you are not. I may not be the best writer, but I know I am proficient. So what am I waiting for?
Then I looked at 2 Corinthians 3:4 Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God.
If God has given you skills – you are capable to use them for his glory. You just need to have the confidence through Him to do it.
What abilities (competence) has God given you? Where do you put your confidence? In your own efforts, schedule, skills, voices in your head? Or do you trust God? Do you have the confidence to put yourself out there with whatever it is?
God has given us all skills. We are all competent in something. Being competent does not need to mean you are the best at something.
Being competent means you are proficient. You can get the job done.
We should have confidence in our writing if we are proficient enough
We let our own voices tell us we are not competent because we think we need to be the best or someone does it better than us and we let it affect our confidence which in turn affects what we do.
Everyone’s path is different and God has one he wants you to follow. He has given you these skills for a reason. You just have to have confidence in Him that He is with you every step of the way.
God believes in you and I believe in you too!
Denise M. Colby loves to write encouraging words. You can read other posts by Denise in her archives here on A Slice of Orange
0 0 Read moreMy Story Themes Trend Toward Having A Plan
March 12, 2022 by Denise M. Colby in category The Writing Journey by Denise ColbyDo you find you have a theme trend in your stories that you keep coming back to?
I have heard that we tend to write where we are in life.
If that’s true. Then I’m all about plans and realizing that God’s plan is definitely better than our own. And that no matter how tight we might hold on to our plan, we need to be open to the idea that it just might need to change.
Spiderman had a plan too
I saw this so clearly in the movie Spiderman Far From home. In the very beginning of the movie Peter Parker slides into his seat next to his best friend and says, “I have a plan!”
And then something happened and he has a choice to make about continuing on, or straying from the plan. And he, like many of us, are not quite ready to give up the plan. So he continues on.
He is so laser focused on his plan, he misses all the cues that something isn’t right. Until it’s almost too late.
How many times have you missed the cues that you need to change your plan?
Should you change it or keep going?
We hang on until we hit a breaking point and can’t control it all. And we feel everything is against us. Of course it happens because what we are doing is not fully working.
Once we let go we see new options.
New doors.
New opportunities.
My own plans have turned out differently.
It’s interesting being a parent of adult children. Things change daily. Doors open and close. And it reminds me of my own plans at their age.
I planned out my major in college and decided that work in non-profit PR, doing special events, would be my thing. But taking a paid internship at a corporate job took me on an entirely different career path.
I also thought I’d be married and have my kids by age 25. But I didn’t get married until I was that age and I was in no way ready to have children right away. In fact I had my first kid at twenty-nine.
And I don’t regret a single change in any of those plans.
Because they turned out better than my original.
Sometimes we need to have a plan just to move forward.
I have done it with my writing. The plan was to be published by now. But for many different reasons, the plan has changed, multiple times. And I think my stories, my writing, and my mindset is in a better place because of the extra time.
Is it what I’ve planned? No.
Is it something I’m accepting? Yes
In my novel, “When Plans Go Awry”, Olivia did not want to depend on anyone else. She had a plan. It would be how she would survive. Except everything she thought she needed, she didn’t. And what she thought she didn’t need, she did. But she’s got to go through a lot of strife before she finally realizes it. The little town of Washton has to teach her a thing or two about friendship, depending on God (and not herself), and of course, love.
Not at all what she was looking for but everything she needed.
I think having a plan is important.
Being flexible with your plan is necessary.
Knowing when to fight for the plan and when to change it is smart.
Here’s to us writers making plans and knowing when to adapt them.
If you enjoyed this topic, Denise talks about Real Life Turning Points in this past blog post.
0 0 Read moreBeing Out of Balance Stifles Creativity
January 12, 2022 by Denise M. Colby in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby tagged as Denise M. Colby, Word of the year, writers goals, writerslifeDo you ever feel out of balance in your life? Where you find your days lopsided in your to-do’s, and you aren’t able to dig into your well to do what you really want to do? Have you found yourself with the desire to create stuffed inside but no way to come out? Am I the only one who needed a mental and creative break at the end of last year?
When I say creative break, what I really mean is giving my brain a chance to catch up with itself. Taking the time to organize thoughts, goals, wins, and losses, and get out of the funk I found myself in.
Time to conduct a Sacred Rest Assessment
Susan May Warren added the Sacred Rest assessment in her 2022 Brilliant Writer Planner (that I love!). It’s a way to determine the rest you are lacking (and what you are not). It’s all about balance. And she organizes our needs into these buckets:
- Physical
- Emotional
- Creative
- Spirutal
- Social
- Sensory
- Mental.
When you find your life is out of harmony
For me, my mental and creative areas are sorely lacking. And taking time over the last two weeks to purge through some to-do piles, evaulate my year, and write out thoughts, made me realize I don’t schedule this type of downtime for my brain enough.
And that’s exactly what the assesment is supposed to do.
Help you figure out areas you should focus on this year.
For me, I like time to let my mind catch up with my inputs. Let my mind wander. With my scheduled life, I don’t get a lot of time to do that. Yet when I did recently, I found the creative juice I’ve been missing.
Ideas began to pop into my thoughts. Energy to dive in and get to work.
Finding Symmetry
And that what was so exciting, because WORK is my word for 2022. Something I chose because God isn’t finished with me yet. And I am not finished with this writing journey.
He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. Philippians 1:6.
Noun: exertion or effort directed to produce or accomplish something
Dreams don’t work, unless you do.
My manuscript is a work in progress
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart….Colossions 3:24-25
Which is exactly what I plan to do for 2022.
I process my thoughts by writing. I explore what’s in my brain by writing. And what I found myself not doing at the end of 2021 was writing.
It takes work to write. And I’m now ready to get to work.
Figuring Out Balance
In her Sacred Rest Assessment, Susie May asks three questions at the end
1. What areas do you need to focus more on this year?
2. Why do you feel you are depleted in those particular areas?
3. What activities can you pursue to refresh your life with Sacred Rest?
And just like that I figured out how and what to schedule (what I need to bring balance back to my life) into my week.
How about you? Are you in balance with your Sacred Rest?
You may want to schedule some time to assess to help you bring yourself back into balance this year and together, maybe we can help each other do just that!
Denise M. Colby loves to write words that encourage, enrich, & engage. Every year, she chooses a word to focus on. Her word in 2021 was Wisdom. If you’d like to see more of Denise’s posts on this blog, you can check out her archives.
0 0 Read moreChoosing Words For Your Manuscript is Similar to Eating A Healthy Diet
November 12, 2021 by Denise M. Colby in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby tagged as writing craft, writing lifeI recently came up with the analogy that choosing the right words for your manuscript is similar to choosing to eat a healthy diet. As I’ve run into a plethora of health issues where I have needed to again cut out foods that might be giving me issues, the correlation with editing my manuscript to take out issues popped into my head.
I’ve actually found flushing out these examples has helped me see both my food diet and my manuscript in a different light. So I thought I would share.
Choosing The Right Foods and Words
We trim out foods that give us issues; We trim off words that give us issues
Choosing the right foods takes practice, and sometimes we tend to slip a favorite in; choosing the right words take practice, but sometimes favorite words slip in.
Even though a particular food is a favorite, eating it doesn’t always have a good after effect; even though we like a particular word, it may not be the best word for the story.
Cheating on our Diet and with Our Writing
When we feel better, we want to cheat and eat a food that can cause issues; After spending time a ton of time flushing out our opening, our middle doesn’t get as much attention.
Sometimes having just one taste because it sounded like a great idea, really isn’t a great idea; the ideas for our MS sometimes don’t work on paper as well as in our heads.
We may take supplements or medicine to offset the affect of foods, but we have to put in the effort to eat the right foods to truly make change. We take classes and workshops or ask for feedback from others, but we have to apply what we learn to our writing to truly make change.
Be consistent, meal after meal, it gets easier to eat healthy; continuously work on our MS, day after day, it gets easier to choose the right words
Say no when we reach for foods that can hurt us; we have to say no to those distractions that can take us away from our writing
Accountability
We have to track our progress to hold us accountable with what we eat and identify when something affects us; we have to track our progress to hold us accountable in our writing, and keep track of the words that give us issues.
By tracking foods that affect us, we learn what to avoid; by tracking the unnecessary words we constantly use, we learn how to spot them better, and choose more wisely.
Pay attention when a food causes inflammation and later, decide against eating it; Track word count in our manuscript and choose the least amount of words to express what we want to say without it being too wordy.
Read labels to find the hidden ingredients that are a part of our list of no-no’s; Pay attention to the weasel words that sneak in to our manuscript and work on removing them overall.
Simplify our menu’s to keep from adding in foods that can cause issues; Cut back the plot points that take us on a side journey and don’t keep the story on track.
Choosing the right words make a great story
We eliminate foods from our diet because it will help us have better overall health; We eliminate words from our MS so that it can be a better story.
Denise M. Colby loves to write words that encourage, enrich, & engage. Every year, she chooses a word to focus on. This year her word is Wisdom. If you’d like to see more of Denise’s posts on this blog, you can check out her archives.
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