Guest Post from Mary DeMuth

Throughout the year, we will be spotlighting nominated and winning authors through interviews and guest blog posts. These are interviews and posts that are original and created specifically for this challenge!

Today's guest post is from Christy Award nominated author Mary DeMuth, whose book Watching the Tree Limbs was nominated for the 2007 Christy Award for First Novel.

Hang with the Hairdo

In organization, there's a funny little thing that happens to me. I wonder if it happens to you. You pull out a bunch of stuff from a closet. Chaos reigns a very long time. You work, toil, donate, pare down, and still you're in a mess. But if you keep at it, it seems like suddenly everything is organized and beautiful. It's like a messy hairdo one minute, and a professional coiffure the next.

Writing can be a lot like that hairdo.

When you're putting together an article or a book or anything in between, you filter through far too much information. Scraps of paper are everywhere. Your mind is cluttered and crazy. You start writing, but you still feel overwhelmed. Piles of words are everywhere. What to do?

Keep going.

Keep going.

Keep going.

Eventually, in a happy flash, it will all come together. So many writers quit in the middle of a project because the chaos seems too high. Or overwhelming. If you keep quitting in the midst of your project, you'll never complete a project and you'll never become a writer. Stick with it. Keep at it. One glorious day, you'll be holding a finished copy of something that comes together quickly at the end.

I had a dream to write a novel. I harbored that dream ten years. I gathered information, thought about the plot. The timing wasn't yet right to start the book, as my kids were very young and needed a lot of my attention. But one wild day, I started the book. Four months later, I typed THE END. It took a lot of time and effort to get to that point, and I almost quit several times in the midst of the book, not knowing where to take it. But eventually I finished it. God even gave me the ending of the book in a dream!

That book led to an agent, which led to contracts, which led me to mentoring writers.

The question to ponder: Would I be where I am today had I not pressed through?

And a question for you: What hairdo are you threatening to abandon? What could you persevere through today? Mary E. DeMuth is an expert in Pioneer Parenting. She enables Christian parents to navigate our changing culture when their families left no good faith examples to follow. Mary has spoken at Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, the ACFW Conference, the Colorado Christian Writers Conference, and at various churches and church planting ministries. She's also taught in Germany, Austria, Monaco, Italy, France, and the United States. Mary and her husband, Patrick, reside in Texas with their three children. They recently returned from breaking new spiritual ground in Southern France, and planting a church.