The Undiscovered Country

We Mustn't be Lazy - Part I

The third year I attended the Writing for the Soul conference, I researched none of the editors or their magazines.

I figured God would lead me to the right ones, and if I depended upon him then I wouldn't fail.

After meeting with the first editor God informed me that I wasn't depending upon him, but being lazy. Sure, God will set a path before us, and give us strength and wisdom, but he still requires us to walk that path.

Remembering my total failure of the previous conference, I researched the magazines I wanted to pitch to. I read their guidelines, and checked out some of the articles on their website.

I then polished up the pieces I thought would work.

Mere days before the conference, I was ready.

The first magazine editor I met with was Cynthia Schnereger of Light and Life.

After the introductions I said, "I have a few articles, but after attending Lin Johnson's class, I know I need to restructure them."

I described one to her and she said, "It's a good idea, but it's more of a basic that would work better as a devotional for people who are just learning about the Bible. Our readers are more advanced in their journey."

Fine and dandy.

I then presented one of my favorites. Again she said, "It's a good idea, but it needs to be fleshed out more."

Her magazine needs articles with five points that describes a specific problem and offers a solution using my own journey of discovery. The article I showed her contained neither.

Cynthia then asked me what my current focus was, and I described my book to her.

Her eyes lit up and she said, "You could write an article about how science fiction fits in the Christian market."

Good idea, but Christianity Today recently wrote a similar article. Although a good article, it still seemed leery of mixing Christianity and science fiction.

I said as much and Cynthia said, "Which is why you should write it after you succeed in the market. You have a different and more positive perspective on it."

Our fifteen minutes ended, and I thanked her profusely for her advice and giving me the idea for the article. No thievery now. The idea is mine, mine, mine! (Kidding. Ideas can't be copyrighted). I like how she stressed not to write the article now. I need to succeed in the marketplace first with my science fiction novel. Otherwise it might sound like a complaint with no positive outcome.

Wow. This entry ended up longer than I intended. Tomorrow I will describe my other editor appointment. It turned out equally positive, but more on a spiritual level.