Tummy Butterflies and Book Proposals From The SDCWG

This past weekend was the San Diego Christian Writer’s Guild annual Conference—a great place to meet publishers, agents and other authors. We word-nerds tend to get stuck having coffee with our keyboards and characters every day so it’s a refreshing change to hang out with fellow writers who are pursuing the craft of writing and using their gifts for the Lord.

The conference was great this year. Attendees had the pleasure of hearing speakers and authors such as Miles McPherson (Former San Diego’s Charger and Pastor), Lynn Vincent ( New York Times Best selling author. Her collaborative projects include Going Rogue and Same Kind of Different As Me) and many more.

For writers, these conferences are a lot of time spent waiting and preparing for the big day to arrive, then a burst of everything happening at once. That can be very overwhelming. I, for one, was so nervous about my faculty consultation with an agent from one of the best agencies in the biz, I could hardly eat breakfast. And it was a cinnamon roll! But I did force myself to take a few bites and after talking to others around me, I knew I was not the only one who’s nerves were jippity (is that a word? It should be).

So how do we process these moments? How do we let go of our book proposals, while remembering the hours we’ve spent putting them together, and all the times we googled "how to write a book proposal." Not to mention, the months, sometimes years devoted to the shaping of our books, only to have a few minutes to impress an agent or editor with our brilliant pitch and top notch sample chapters. Uh…no pressure.

I was ready to get home, put my feet up, toss my writing portfolio on a VERY high shelf and hang out with my family. But I was in my car, on a highway, and home was a few hours away. Then, while flipping through the radio, I landed on a Christian station and my favorite song was on. It goes something like this: “Savior, He can move the mountains. My God is mighty to save.” So there I was, feeling my energy trickle back and I sat up a little straighter. That’s right, I thought. God can move mountains.

Sometimes we get blessed and the mountain just happens to be our dream come true. Those are special moments in life! Other times, I believe the mountain is our perspective. How many times in life does the situation change completely, not because the dishwasher stopped leaking or the baby magically changed her own diaper, but because our perspective…our attitude changed. Some of the greatest stories I’ve ever read did not end with the protagonist getting exactly what he or she wanted, it ended with the protagonist learning the valuable lesson they were meant to learn—to rely on God.