Failure isn’t final—unless you quit.
You must write something that people want to read, or your story will have value only to you and a few family and friends. That isn’t bad. It’s a great place to start, but wouldn’t it be nice to help thousands? For many, that’s an unreachable goal because they will let failure bring them down.
People can spend several years writing a book, only to find out that their treasure isn’t appreciated by the masses. That’s a high cost for failure, and it has led many writers to quit after taking a monumental step toward their success. That’s tragic. We need to understand that quitting is not an option. We must keep writing.
Retired Christian literary agent Terry Burns offers this encouragement that we should all should keep in mind: A secular writer has to sell thousands of books to be a success. If a Christian writer sold only one copy, but it changed someone’s life, he would be a success.
We must fail our way to success. Everyone must follow that path, but that’s not what we hear in seminars that stress the high points and leave out struggles. We can easily be misled into thinking something worthwhile is easy. No, it’s never easy, not even for the most talented. But the more we do it, the easier it can be.
If you find failure devastating, then take it in smaller doses. Spend a few days writing a short story in which you faced a problem and didn’t know what to expect. Then walk readers through what happened, following the emotional journey of fear, hope, and questioning until the point in which you learned an important lesson about life, yourself, or God. That 3,000-word story could be sold or become a self-published ebook. It could be condensed for a Facebook page or blog.
Instead of facing failure for several years of work, sacrifice a few hours or days of disappointment and keep moving forward. One day, if you don’t give up, you’ll change at least one life. You might help a multitude, even if you don’t know who they are.
