by Ruby Cline Lee
Several years ago, I crawled out of a cave to attend a writer’s retreat. Did I know I was
crawling out of a cave? Nope. Upon arrival, I stepped out of my pearly-white car with my
pink suitcase and high hopes of gaining affirmation that my novel was, in a word:
awesome.
Cut to me attending the first class. Zoom in and watch me shrink in my chair with the
realization that I was officially a troglodyte: ignorant and old-fashioned, practically a primitive social-media savage (thankfully, there’s at least some decent alliteration going on here). Sadly, my social media was so anemic it needed to be admitted to the ER.
Moving on. I met a faculty member who graciously accepted a plea to read a few chapters of my novel. She was as sweet as anyone could be as she let me know the POV needed a major overhaul. Oof. But she did say my writing was beautiful . . . except there’s such a thing as too much description. Ouch. After that conversation I had to slink back to my room to swallow that chalky pill of constructive criticism with a large glass of humility. Things were bound to get better, right?
Wrong.
In the fiction writing classes I learned:
1. You shouldn’t do this.
2. Don’t do that.
3. Under any circumstances you SHALL NOT do the other thing.
Passages of my novel flashed like an animation flipbook in my mind. I had already
accomplished most of the “shouldn’ts,” some of the “don’ts” and every single one of the
cardinal “shall nots.” Just got knocked down another notch. Surely from here, things
would look up.
Yes! Actually, no. At the end of the retreat, I volunteered a section of dialogue to be
sacrificed upon the altar of critique and, yep, it was bad. Punch number four landed
squarely on my jaw. I staggered from that conference in a daze, tripping over my bruised
pride in a hurry to darken the door of my cave. Even though I had met amazing people
and made new friends, I focused on my failures, not God’s obvious blessings.
To give you some perspective on my perspective: I’m a former professor who droned on
about elements of academic writing to students who didn’t have a clue. As a new student
of fiction, I had just written an entire manuscript without knowing how. After the
conference, I told my best friend I was either very ignorant or very brave for doing such a
thing. My manuscript was a hot mess. I was a hot mess. If I teach students how to write
an argument one step at a time, why did I think novel writing was any different?
When God first called me to stop teaching and start writing, my response was: “Hello
God! I’m here for you!” But after attending my first fiction conference, my tune changed
to: “Hello? God? Why am I here?” My shiny, glittery balloon of excitement had deflated.
Seeing my despair, my husband said these words of wisdom: “Don’t give up. You’ve
learned so much. Now you’ve got to be brave enough to put it into practice.”
After attending a conference, you may feel overwhelmed and trampled on. Or perhaps
liberated from a few bad habits. Maybe you even feel exonerated by your excellent
writing skills (awesome!). No matter how you feel, remember: God is there to help you
stay the course.
You were obedient in attending the conference He wanted you to attend. Can you feel
that? He’s patting you on the back. If you are overwhelmed when you return to the real
world, “be brave.” It’s time to trust God. It’s time for us to put what we’ve learned into
practice—to be like Frosty the Snowman and put one foot in front of the other, whatever
that looks like.
For example, after a few days of being dazed and confused by everything and anything to
do with writing, I wrote this blog post—without even having a blog to put it on. If you
are reading this, then you know God helped me take one small step out of the reclusive
troglodyte cave. Praise Him for that! I can now look back at this particular conference
with thanksgiving for all I learned about writing fiction, as well as the joy of meeting new
friends. Since then, I’ve attended other conferences, including the ACFW conference last
year in New Orleans, which I loved.
And now I’m wondering: what surprising thing did God do for you at the last conference
you attended, and how was it different from what you were expecting? I’d love to hear all
about it.
Since Ruby Cline Lee was a little girl, she has been obsessed with books, which led to her love of reading and writing. She has a M.Ed. In Teaching English from Liberty University and has taught composition and literature classes at LU as well as Central Virginia Community College. Visit Ruby on her website, X (Twitter) or Instagram @RubyClineLee or Facebook.
Comments 1
Thank you for sharing! I recently retired from education—a reading specialist and English teacher—and started writing a story that had been brewing in my mind for years. Nearing the end, I started looking into publication—shocking and depressing. When I saw why certain manuscripts were being rejected, I realized I’d done the same. I relate totally to your experience, though mine did not come in a three day blast. Thanks again for sharing.