Watch Your Step

Hiking can quickly change from breathtaking scenery to a breathtaking fall. We have to watch our steps in order to get where we want to go.

Writers must also take the right steps to achieve our goals.

Failure to Focus

Careful walkers focus on our destination and the best path there. Wrong steps can turn ankles, break bones, or end in death.

Likewise, careful writers maintain focus. We decide what we want to say, how to say it, and stick to it. If we stray off topic, we stumble. That misstep may turn away editors, break our spirits, and end in our manuscript’s death.

Choose a plan. Work the plan.

Faulty Fit

A successful walk requires shoes that fit well. If we ignore the fit, we live with pain.

If writers expect success, we meet publication length requirements. Failure to follow guidelines ends in rejection.

Read the guidelines. Write to fit them.

Flawed Form

Serious walkers never choose dress shoes for hikes. We match our footwear to the demands of our destination.

Serious writers study publications. We verify what audiences expect and what editors accept.

Determine a publisher’s slant. Conform to it.

Flights of Fancy

A little experience can result in overly-confident walkers. We try fancy footwork and tackle challenges beyond our abilities. As a result, we fall flat on our face.

We writers tend to grow fancy with words as well. We use 10 words when four will do. We wax poetic when simplicity suffices. We overemphasize. We repeat. We tell rather than show. We seek cleverness rather than clarity.

Write what needs to be said. Then stop.

Fast and Frenzied

If we rush or multi-task as we put on our shoes, expect problems. Loose laces, slick soles, and other mistakes slip in unnoticed. Readiness takes time.

Before we submit a manuscript, edit several times. Read it aloud and edit again. Wait a couple of days, print, read aloud, and edit once more. Recently, when I cut those steps short, I overlooked a grammatical error that sets my teeth on edge. I have no doubt it does the same for editors.

Take the time to do it right. Otherwise, you’ll do it over.

Final Fix

Before dashing out the door, a cautious walker completes one last check. Clean, comfortable socks? Check. Appropriate shoes? Check. Shoes securely tied? Check.

Writers who want to get published give manuscripts one last perusal before hitting the submit button or sealing the envelope. That simple precaution caught my previously-mentioned grammatical snafu. I was the only one who saw my misstep — that time.

Make one last check. Collect more checks.

Fear of Failure

How many people plan a walking program but never get out the door?

How many writers never write? We read about writing, discuss writing, attend writers conferences, and seek guidance from published writers. Eventually, however, we must take that first step.

Ignore the fear and trembling. Go forth boldly and write!

Diana Derringer is an award-winning writer and author of Beyond Bethlehem and Calvary: 12 Dramas for Christmas, Easter, and More! Hundreds of her articles, devotions, dramas, planning guides, Bible studies, and poems appear in 40-plus publications, including The Upper Room, The Christian Communicator, Clubhouse, Kentucky Monthly, Seek, and Missions Mosaic, plus several anthologies. She also writes radio drama for Christ to the World Ministries. Visit her at dianaderringer.com or on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.