Every year in the closing session of the Colorado and Greater Philly Christian Writers Conference I encourage conferees (faculty and staff too) to make a commitment to complete in a year what they believe God is calling them to write.

It’s the challenge Lee Roddy gave his class at the St. David’s Christian Writers Conference over 40 years ago. Father had nudged me to join Lee’s continuing session on writing fiction after I heard him keynote Sunday evening. I didn’t understand why since I don’t write fiction, but I’m so glad I listened.

Not only did I learn how essential it was to use fiction skills in the personal experience story I was writing, I needed Lee’s challenge to get it finished. PTL I did. Not early, but not late. A year to the day I completed the book and mailed it to a publisher who had shown interest at the conference.

And then the waiting began! And the rejection slips. But my writing papa, Lee, who is now home with the Lord, encouraged me to persevere.

How Our Family Coped with Incest  was returned by 42 publishers during the next six years. The book that no one wanted to publish is my testimony to how God enabled us to care for my half-sister who came to live with us when she was not quite fourteen because her father, my step-father, had been sexually abusing her. Editors I met at conferences where I now served on faculty told me I was a good writer and the story needed to be told. BUT they admitted they did not want to deal with the topic.

Finally, at the end of those six long years I met a publisher at the St. David’s conference. He called me three months after the conference to offer me a contract.
I’m convinced that if I had not accepted Lee’s challenge and kept the commitment I made in his class the book would never have been finished much less published. After being out of print about 37 years, I reprinted it last January through my indie publishing house,  Ampelos Press . I also seriously doubt I’d still be writing today, much less directing two Christian writers conferences, if I had allowed discouragement and the accompanying self-doubts to cause me to quit.
Because Father enabled me to not give up (although I certainly came close many times), for 36 years at the  Greater Philly Christian Writers Conference , 23 years at the  Colorado conference , and at the 50 plus  seminars  I’ve taught around the nation I’ve always given the Lee Roddy challenge.
What I’ve not done as faithfully as I want to do, is provide the resources to help writers keep their commitment. Well, that’s not totally true. I blog, although it’s been, yikes, a month. And  Making It Happen ,”  a chapter from my book,  Write His Answer – A Bible Study for Christian Writers  (Lee wrote the foreword and said “this book can change your life), is on my website along with the Goal Planning Chart below. ( Click here  to download it as a PDF.)
But Father is convicting me that I need to follow my own advice. Today I have made a commitment to focus on the “practical preparation” of sharpening my writing skills by making time to listen to the workshops and continuing sessions from this year’s GPCWC. Even though I've published 11 books and sold over 1,000 manuscripts to more than 100 different Christian periodicals, I have more to learn.

I’ve spent the last two days uploading 75 MP3s (with 9 more to come) to the GPCWC website ( click here ).

I want to encourage you to join me in this exciting learning opportunity. Using the honor system you can purchase sessions at $4.00 each (for 7 or more, only $3.50 each) and download them or listen to them online. You’ll also find links to the handouts, if any.

Friends, let’s commit to grow our writing ability. Let’s listen and learn so we will be better equipped to “write His answer.”