by Dan Langerock

Created on: January 03, 2009

The first rule of writing is patience. You cannot afford a bad mentor so be patient and take your time selecting one. Here are a few suggestions to help you find a mentor:

Join a writing group on the Internet

Look among the editors you work for

Join an in-person critique group to get ideas how to improve your writing

Take a wrting course both to improve your writing and to look for a mentor

Work on the college or high school newspaper

Ask for God's wisdom to find the right person

Look among your friends for someone to help you

Do a lot of reading on different topics. Be interested in many kinds of things and you will find the ideas you need. When I first became a chaplain I used books of sermon outlines to help me get ideas for sermons because I had to have three each Sunday for the work I did at the hospital. Later on though, I was able to think of things on my own with God's help because I was more experienced. The same thing will happen with your journalism topics as you gain more experience.

The important thing is not to give up. It is easy to feel like you have wasted your life and need to put everything in high gear now. But just keep developing your writing skills and watch what happens. I began with poetry, then went to articles, and now have 6 bppls coming out in 2009. This happened over 45 years. But I have a wealth of experience to fall back on now. You will have that too if you just don't give up and throw it all away.

Give God the glroy for your writing and He will work out your desires of your heart. Psalm 37:3-5 promises this. God has certainly done this in my life, and there is no reason he won't do it for you. But the first prerequisite is to be close to God. That is His first priority for you so therefore it must be yours as well.

God has a lot of wonderful things ahead for you and i. Our job is to be close to God and God's job is to take care of us. Commit your life to Him then work on your writing with His wisdom. He will bless you as you have never been blessed before. The proof of this is in my life.

Don't let discouragement rob you of what lies ahead right around the corner. Yes, there is a lot of competition for writing out there but God can give you favor that is so great. He gave me wisdom to create some sub-genres of writing that others don't do. And the publisher loved them. After my wife's death the Lord sold four books to the publisher in four days. That is what I mean by favor from the Lord.

Keep working at your craft and looking for people who can help you in different ways. Take clasees that will help you enhance your ability, then let God help you because He loves you and wants to do that for you.

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