By Angela Hunt
When I set out to be a writer, I wrote catalog copy, articles, and whatever-anyone-would-pay-me-to-write before I even dreamed of writing a book. Writing a book wasn’t even on my radar—I just wanted a job that would allow me to help my youth-pastor husband put food on the table.
I wrote and wrote and wrote, and learned (and even earned) as I was writing. I wrote these small pieces for five YEARS, working mostly while my children napped in the afternoon. And then I read about a picture book contest for unpublished children’s book writers. Since I was an unpublished any kind of book writer, I got a book on how to write picture books, studied it, and sent in a manuscript. It won the contest, and suddenly I was an author.
Overnight success? Not hardly. I’d been learning and working hard—and being rejected—for five years.
The other day I read about the results of a fascinating project. Researchers took two groups of students and gave them books to study. Then they took the books away from the first group and tested them on the material. As you might expect, those students missed many of the answers.
The second group, however, was allowed to use the books when they took the exam–it was an open book test. Failure was not an option because they could look up the answers they needed.
Then the researchers took the books away from BOTH groups and retested them. Which group did better?
You probably know the answer already: the better performing group was the group that had been allowed to fail. They learned from their mistakes, but the second group didn’t.
This is how we learn, and I’m convinced it’s why God allows us to fail (sometimes spectacularly) and to experience the pain of disappointment and loss. Would David have valued mercy and forgiveness quite as much if he hadn’t committed the sins of murder and adultery? Would Peter have been as brave and faithful if he hadn’t denied the Lord three times?
Would you truly appreciate a book contract if you hadn’t been rejected a hundred times? We’ve all been rejected. But we learn from the experience and carry on!
Think about this the next time you fall short of your goal . . . and learn something from the experience. That’s the best way to keep moving forward.
~Angie
Angela Hunt lives and writes in Florida, with her hubby and dogs and chickens. She recently rescued her chickens from a flash flood from Hurricane Debby, and is glad she doesn’t always have such drama in her life.
Comments 4
Thank you for your important and encouraging words. I started writing after college, when a much more senior person at work told me that I was a bad writer, and that I should fix that or fail. No kidding. I signed up for a Writers Digest short story writing correspondence course that week, completed the course and was hooked. I published my first non-paid nonfiction piece and a Christmas story that did pay a bit, several months later. I was psyched and dug in and then… ten years of rejection form letters. About ten years after that, magic happened and I published most of the creative nonfiction I produced for the next decade, before trying my hand at writing novels. I like to say that editors and publishers got tired of spending postage on rejections and found easier to just print my work. But the truth was, as you said, all about continuing to write and learn. That all happened a very long time ago. Now, I write Christian action/suspense novels. L I’m blessed with an amazing publisher, editor and cast of pre-submittal manuscript readers. I continue to learn from all of them. If God has taught me anything about writing, it’s that what you said is true: the key is to keep trying and learning, so we can serve him through our writing. Thanks, again. Great article!
Thanks so much for sharing your experience, Dave. I know it will prove encouraging to others!
Lovely encouragement! I just took your Atten-Hut class at the conference, Angela. It was very helpful, thank you!
I’m so glad it was helpful! Here’s to writing AND rewriting!
Angie