In the Face of Adversity, Start Writing a Book

What do you do in the face of adversity? How do you respond when your worst fear becomes reality, or when the world seems like it’s ending? 

You can see in the title I prompt you to start writing your book, but to be honest there is a lot of stages to face before that outcome. 

When we experience a massive shift in our lives, we are thrown for a loop, and rightly so. If anyone expects you to deal with a drastic change to your normal life without any trouble ignore their comments. 

A change such as being quarantined at home overnight, or running one day and unable to put pressure on your leg the next is a major adversity to face. 

You are allowed time to process. Allowed to feel the anger and fear. We are allowed to grieve for what we have lost, and hopefully come through the other side a better person with a better life. 

But how does the switch from despair to hope happen? How can we find good in our worst nightmare? 

Sometimes it happens naturally, other times it takes intention, and most of the time it’s a combination of both. 

Sometimes the worst moments of our lives will lead to the best. 

I believe in the above statement with everything I’ve got. In part because I’ve gotta have some sort of hope to live, and the other part because I know it’s true—I’ve seen it play out in my life and the lives of others. 

And I believe it’s true for you, too. 

So here it goes…an open look into why I believe we have amazing things ahead for us. 

When the World Ends

On April 13, 2015, I received some of the worst news a sixteen-year-old athlete could get: if you want to train at the level you’ve dreamed about since you were ten, you need hip surgeries. 

Wow…I knew I needed some medical help, but never did I expect at any point in my teenage life to have hip surgeries. Wasn’t that supposed to be an adversity to face later in my life? Apparently not. 

Not only did I receive the lovely news above, the surgeries came with a caveat: sometimes they work, other times they don’t. The result wouldn’t even depend on how well I kept up with physical therapy; it would only depend on how your unique body reacted. 

That was an encouraging bit of news to receive as I fought back tears in the doctors office. 

A week or so later I decided to try the surgeries and see what happened, fully intending on making a superb recovery and get back to higher level athletic training in a year. 

Nine scars later I did the physical therapy, I obeyed doctors orders, and I tried the best I could to get back to a life without pain. 

But God had other plans for me, and I was less than pleased. 

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Give Up, Stay Safe, or Take a Risk? 

After the first surgery it became apparent that recovering from this thing would be harder than I thought, and I admitted I may not get to do what I had dreamt of for years. 

It felt like everything ended. What was I supposed to do now? I was stuck at home 24/7 with my hope in my athletic career waning.

Do I keep hoping my hips will completely heal and stay on the same path? Or should I take a risk and try something new? 

Scrolling through Pinterest one day, I came across a blogpost about novel writing. It was an inspiring post on writing your novel like a boss, and I remembered the 30,000 word half-finished rough draft of a novel I had been intending on finishing for the last couple years. 

After reading the blogpost I knew what I was going to do while awaiting the verdict on my hips. 

I would face my adversity by writing my book, again. 

Soon I had scrounged enough basic knowledge from blogposts to get me inspired to write, and I set my writing schedule. 

Instead of obsessing on whether I could be an excellent athlete by the end of this journey, I obsessed on writing. I imagined, learned, and immersed myself in the craft. 

I gave it my all, and slowly I realized writing was what I was supposed to do. 

Related Reading: 

• “Give Yourself Permission to Obsess”

And Then the Hero Stood Face to Face Against Her Adversity…

Everyone has moments of their life that changed them. In a book we’d call them plot points or turning points. 

What are some of your turning points? 

Are you at a plot point in your story right now? 

As the self-respecting nerd I am, I’m going to rely on stories to prove my point. At every plot point a fictional character confronts, they face a decision against adversity. 

Pick you favorite book, and now pick your favorite turning point. What adversity did the character face? What decision did they choose? 

By the climax of the story we hope the character has chosen not to give up, but to keep fighting, sometimes in the most unexpected way. 

And if it’s a good book, the end isn’t quite what you expected, but it’s exactly what you wanted—you just didn’t know you wanted it. 

That’s life. It’s never going to be what we expect. Usually it’s because there is something greater for us. 

I’m glad I didn’t pursue my sport for longer. Years ago I received the worst news I could have heard, but today I know it lead me to the best times in my life. 

I finished writing a book. My author platform is up and I have met some incredible authors and aspiring writers. None of that would have happened if I didn’t have hip surgeries as a teenager. Maybe it would have, but later in life. 

Five years later I’ve temporarily lost my sports coaching job due to the coronavirus quarantine, and while the world is in chaos I’ve learned even more about myself, and am loving what is ahead of me when the world recovers. 

I can tell you now it won’t be what I expected—it will be better.

Our lives—somehow and someway—will be better, if we look for the opportunity instead of the limitation. 

It’s Okay to Grieve

As you know, life isn’t as simple as bad vs. good. You don’t walk away from losing a pain free life, your job security, or the liberty to leave your house when you like without disappointment and grief. 

Yes, grief. 

I didn’t know I was grieving until my therapist pointed it out. She told me it was okay to grieve for what we have lost. 

Grief isn’t an emotion we only feel with the loss of a loved one or another serious situation. Grief comes upon us when we have lost something important to us. For me, it was letting go of a sport I had shaped my life around. 

For you, it will do different. 

Grief can be finding a new way to live in a worldwide pandemic.

It’s okay to grieve. It’s okay to be hit hard. Acknowledge it, and honor it. Then we must pick ourselves up and step into the glorious future ahead. 

We have to go through the mess to get to the other side. Sometimes we have to go through something traumatic or life-changing before we have the clarity to sit down and write our stories. 

We need to accept change in our lives so we can make a difference in someone else’s life. Then we can all help each other face our diverse adversities. 

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How to Move Forward—Faith, Structure, and Support. 

Getting to the start writing a book phase is what we face on the other side of adversity. So when you’re ready to proceed with your future, here’s some cornerstones to put into place. 

1. Faith — Here’s a quote from one of my favorite fictional characters, Michael Scofield, from the television show Prison Break:

“Just have a little faith.” 

Yep, that’s it, because a little faith can go a long way. Take a chance on writing. You may find you love it, you may find you hate it. Either outcome is okay, but wouldn’t you rather know? 

Here’s an article about conducting an experiment with writing you can try: 

2. Structure — Create a new schedule which highlights the new priority in your life. Without change, we stay in the same place for all of our lives. 

To do something as amazing as writing a good book, you have to make time for it. 

Here’s how you can do that: 

3. Support — I can’t stress how important support is, especially when we face adversity. 

Whether you contact a friend, family member, therapist, or meet some new writing friends, find someone you can trust to support you through the change. 

A supportive community makes your journey a whole lot easier, and it will bring a smile to your face. 

Related Reading:

• “How I Finished a 70,000+ Novel Rough Draft in a Month and a Half (how you can finish, too)”

The Adversity We Face Isn’t the End

Writing is about healing. Penning our stories makes us stronger. Sharing a part of ourselves with the world will bring us joy. 

What better way to live our lives than by spreading joy and hope through an imaginative story we cooked up in our wonderful, crazy brains?

The adversity we face isn’t the end. Our lives don’t end with the trauma, grief, or pain. We continue to live, and as we heal our stories will spill from us like Niagara Falls if we let them. 

It’s not going to be easy, but it’s going to be amazing. 

The best parts of our lives are still ahead of us, and they would never have happened without the trauma. 

❤️

Tell your story, 

Sarah