Gilbert Morris lives in the world of stories as a fish lives in water. He has always read. He became a high school teacher of English and literature and later taught at the university level in the same field. He read constantly, both for his own pleasure and because it was part of what he did for a living. He didn’t have to study what made stories work; he instinctively knew because of his constant exposure to stories good, bad, and mediocre.
It didn’t occur to Gilbert until he was fifty-six years old, however, that maybe he himself could write a novel. In his mind, writers were an exalted breed. But because he read so many books he began to ask himself if perhaps he could write a book that was at least a little better than some of the bad ones that somehow got published. A committed Christian since the age of thirteen, he was bothered by the lack of Christian perspective in the so-called “good” novels he read. So after a day of teaching, Gilbert would retire to the typewriter and hammer out his first novel.
Once it was finished, he didn’t know what to do with it. He sent it to a Christian publisher. It was rejected. He sent it out again to another publisher. Rejected again. Gilbert continued to send out his book. “I figured I would keep trying until I either succeeded or got a red light from God,” Gilbert says. Twenty-six rejections followed, but Gilbert did not sense God giving him a red light yet.
At that time, in 1985, Christian publishers were publishing very little fiction. Janette Oke was beginning to prove that there was a market for fiction, but publishers still dragged their feet. Yet Gilbert Morris tenaciously hung on to his conviction that there was a place for his kind of fiction, that the world needed books in which the gospel played a prominent role. “If you feel what you’re doing is of God, then you don’t quit,” he says.
Finally, after twenty-some rejections, Gilbert signed his first contract with Perfection Form Company, which published The Seven Sleepers. The book mounted to the bestseller list and stayed on it for two years.
By now Gilbert had learned more about how to present his manuscript and approach publishers. He presented an idea for a detective series to various publishers, and Tyndale House bought it. He’s been publishing ever since. The contracts that keep coming are a definite green light. In 1992, he was finally able to retire from teaching and support himself with his writing alone.
Though Gilbert does see his writing as a calling, there is very little that was or is mystical about it. He did not wake up at age fifty-six and hear a voice saying “Try writing a book.” He simply began to wonder if he could do it and felt he wanted to try. He carved out the time to do it, kept at it, and then went about finding out how to find a publisher. He made mistakes. He was rejected over and over again. (“I still get rejections,” he says. “It’s part of a writer’s life.”) He kept at it, learning from his mistakes. He didn’t make writing his life, though he was committed to it. And when he finally succeeded, he continued to do the hard work of sitting down and producing books.
“It’s all a rather natural process,” Gilbert says. “I believe this is the way it is for most of us. You have an idea, and you don’t know if it’s just something you want to do or if this is of God. You take a step in faith. If that works, you take another step. You keep going until God gives you a red light or slams a door in your face.”
How do you know, though, if all those rejections are God’s red light or if they are the normal sort of obstacles anyone faces when trying something new? Gilbert Morris says that’s where prayer comes in. He didn’t sense God telling him to stop, so he persevered. Rejection slips are expected obstacles for a writer, especially someone new who has never been published. If you are starting a new venture, there will be obstacles. They need to be faced with prayer and perseverance, in Gilbert’s opinion.
In fact, prayerful dependence on God and perseverance are Gilbert Morris’s formula for success in whatever calling one may have. He draws on these two resources daily. “People often ask writers what they do about writer’s block,” Gilbert says. “I always say there’s no such thing as writer’s block. Does a plumber ever say, ‘I can’t work today, I have plumber’s block’? Of course not. Does a homemaker say, ‘I won’t do the dishes now, I have dishwasher’s block’? No, you just do what you need to do. I go to my study, I have my work lined up, and I do it. Some days I have less inspiration than the tree outside my window. I keep going anyway. I’m sure there are pastors who don’t feel inspired to preach on a given Sunday morning. But they do it anyway, because there are people who need that message.”
Gilbert admits one of the biggest struggles he faces, with the number of stories he writes, is staying fresh. “That needed freshness has to come from God, and that’s where prayer and depending on God come in. If there’s any kind of secret to my being able to make a living at writing, it’s that I keep on working and I keep on depending on God.”
That’s not a bad formula for any of us, no matter what it is God calls us to do. Take it step by step, depend on God, and keep going. Someday, you’ll look back and be amazed at how far God has led you.
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