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The School of Hard Knocks by Janet Dean

A non-writing friend once asked me how long I’d been writing and I told her. She said, “You’ve been in school for eight years.” The comment startled me, but then I thought how right on she was.

I’m calling the experiences during those years, and the two years since, the school of hard knocks. Not original, but apt. Ten years of practicing and polishing craft through contests and critiques, how-to books, and online classes. It’s not always good to skip a grade in school and it’s not always best to sell before we’re prepared to handle that career. Not that I saw it at the time, but I submitted to publishers long before my work was ready. I should have studied longer and submitted later.

Last year I sold my first book to Steeple Hill. And I discovered I still have lots to learn about writing, about promotion, about every facet of this business. The published writers I know continue to learn and grow their talent under the tutelage of editors, and if necessary, reinvent themselves. Is it possible no writer ever swings that tassel and graduates? I suspect that isn't the goal.

The one goal most of us possess is seeing our words in print. Rejection hurts the worst when the work is first-rate, truly ready for publication, but the market isn't. It's when we're teetering on the verge of publication that perseverance takes guts as wonderful manuscripts gather dust waiting for a genre to come back into vogue, for an editor/agent to “get” the work, for a connection and request at a writers’ conference.

Our youth pastor called it having patience in the waiting room. Some waiting rooms are tough places to be—waiting to conceive a baby, for the return of health, for a wayward child to get his life together…for the call.

In my waiting room, I wore one of those pointed dunce caps, traipsing across reams of rejections to write on the chalkboard for the hundredth time, “I won’t take these personally.” Most likely you've felt the same.

Why do we keep writing when we keep getting slapped down? Perhaps we have some God-given drive that keeps us at it. Or that last contest win helps us hang in. Or maybe we’re just too stubborn to quit. Whatever enables us to persist, I believe if we don’t give up, good things will happen. And when they do, the fulfillment of our dreams is worth every scrape and bruise.

As a friend said in an email, “…and sometimes, in between the darkest clouds, sunshine will pour down unexpectedly upon your upturned face and the world will turn shiny and bright, a joy to be behold.” That’s hope.

May the sun shine on you.

This post first appeared in Seekerville November 11, 2007.

Janet Dean grew up in a family who cherished the past and had a strong creative streak. Her father recounted fascinating stories, like his father before him. The tales they told instilled in Janet a love of history and the desire to write. She married her college sweetheart and taught first grade before leaving to rear two daughters, but Janet never lost interest in American history and the accounts of strong men and women of faith who built this country. With her daughters grown, she eagerly turned to Inspirational historical romance. Today Janet enjoys spinning stories for Steeple Hill Love Inspired Historical. Janet Dean believes in love stories that grab people from the first page and carry them along the sometimes rocky journey of maintaining faith in trying circumstances.


When she isn’t writing, Janet stamps greeting cards, plays golf and is never without a book to read. The Deans love to travel and spend time with family.


Wanted: A Family, is a March release from Love Inspired Historical.

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