I dreamed of being published by the time I graduated high school.

I wasn’t ready then.

I dreamed of being published by the time I turned twenty.

I wasn’t ready then.

Would my younger self have been thrilled to have landed a contract at those semi-arbitrary goals I set for myself? Absolutely! But my writing was not at a publishable level. And possibly more importantly, I wasn’t equipped for publishing.

Everyone’s writing journey is unique and filled with its own successes, failures, and lessons. What works for one person isn’t what works for another. And every step in that journey grows and equips you as a writer.

Four years ago, I was enrolled in a writing program and in the middle of the worst writing burnout I’ve experienced. I was quite literally this close to stopping writing for good. There were a number of factors at play, but one of them was that the writing coach I was working with and I had two entirely different visions for the story I wanted to write. Neither idea was inherently better than the other–they were simply very different.

And while that experience was so hard to go through, it grew me. It taught me how to deal with burnout and story frustration. It also taught me to be willing to fight for the story I want to tell.

On the flip side, I’ve had the opportunity to work with numerous editors on short stories over the past years, and also with a freelance editor on a complete manuscript. Going through their edits taught me how to humbly submit to critique and feedback.

You need both skills–the knowledge of when to gently push back, because you best know the story you need to tell, and the knowledge of when to take helpful, informative critique, even when it stings. I’ve needed both skills in my publishing journey with my debut novel. If I’d been contracted before I’d gone through those experiences and gained that knowledge, I wouldn’t have been ready.

There have been other skills that I’ve grown in and gained that I wouldn’t have been equipped with years ago–networking, marketing, self-editing, and simply being a better writer.

I know that there are things in publishing that I’m not ready for. But those experiences will grow and shape me with this book, and I will be all the more prepared for the next book.

Waiting is hard. I don’t deny that. But know that God’s timing in everything is perfect, even in publishing. And the adventures you are on now in your writing journey are growing you as a writer.